Bluffer’s guide

SPAIN, 17 JULY 1936 – 1 APRIL 1939

Everything you need to know about the Spanish Civil War

What was it?

On 17 July 1936, Spanish army troops led by General Francisco Franco revolted against Spain’s popular left-wing Republican government just five months after it had been democratically elected. Their surprise attack was hugely effective, seizing a third of the country within a week. But after the right-wing Nationalist troops failed to gain total control, Spanish civilians joined militias in an attempt to put down the insurgency. Spain was split.

The Republicans were battling for freedom, backed by the Soviet Union. The Nationalists claimed a war against “godless” communists and they gained the support of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. As many as 40,000 socialists, communists and idealists from around the world also joined the Republicans. The resulting civil war was bloody.

Madrid and Barcelona were key battlegrounds. Under siege against the Nationalists for most of the conflict, the latter fell in January 1939 and Madrid soon followed. By April, Franco had declared victory, executing 50,000 Republicans on top of the 200,000 people who had been killed in combat or other violent outbreaks during the war. Franco ruled Spain as a dictatorship until his death in 1975.

Why did it happen?

By the 1930s, Spain was deeply divided country with workers, farm labourers and socialists favouring leftwing Republicans, while monarchists, landowners, businessmen, the army and the Roman Catholic Church supported right-wing Nationalists. Partly due to the economic fallout of the Wall Street Crash, the military dictatorship that had ruled Spain since 1923 collapsed in 1929. In 1931, the king abdicated after the Republicans came to power.

A period followed where the two political rivals had served as elected governments but events worsened after General Franco crushed a miners’ strike in Asturias in 1934, killing 1,000. Political groups formed militias and violence broke out on Spain’s street. On 16 February 1936, the leftwing Popular Front coalition was elected. They banned the fascist Falange Party and began installing pro-republican generals while demoting commanders with questionable loyalty. Matters came to a head and Franco made his move.

Who was involved?

Francisco Franco

4 December 1892 — 19 November 1975

As part of a group of generals who plotted the military coup, Franco led the Nationalist Army and removed anyone stood in his way.

Manuel Azaña

10 January 1880 — 3 November 1940

Azaña helped form the Popular Front and was president when civil war broke out. He stayed in office until the Nationalists’ victory.

Adolf Hitler

20 April 1889 — 30 April 1945

Hitler declared his support for Franco on 26 July 1936. Seeking to cement relations with Italy and Spain, he sent aircraft and troops.

The insurgent Nationalists take Seville within a day of the military coup being declared in Spanish Morocco, with 3,000 opponents reportedly executed within weeks.

Civilians in the Basque town of Guernica are bombed by German and Italian aircraft. Franco’s propaganda unit attempts to deny Nationalist involvement.

Trouble at a telephone exchange in Barcelona sees the various leftist factions split, leading them to fight each other. About 500 people are killed.

France closes its Spanish border. Both it and the UK decide not to intervene – unlike Germany, Italy and Russia, who supply weapons and aid to either side.

The lengthy and bloody Battle of the Ebro is the last major Republican offensive of the civil war. Tens of thousands die and the Nationalists emerge victorious.

The Nationalists had failed to take Madrid during intense fighting in November 1936 but finally succeed. The Republicans surrender unconditionally.