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There were a number of issues that directly led to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The
greatest of these was the long period of decline that Spain had suffered since the days of the
Spanish Empire. By 1930 Spain had lost all of its empire and was lagging behind the rest of
Europe industrially. The monarchy was overthrown and the Second Empire formed in 1930.
This government proved to be completely incapable of carrying out reforms and maintaining
law and order.
Divisions continued to widen between the towns and the countryside and the wealthy
landowners and peasants. Many areas of the country wanted to have their own government
and wanted independence from the rest of Spain. The Church was one of the most powerful
forces in the country and it was strongly against social reform, so it was vehemently opposed
to the Republican government. The army had always had a history of meddling in the
country’s politics. The senior commanders were constantly worried about the amount of
influence that Communists had in the government and were concerned that there might
eventually be a Communist takeover. Violence had always been an inherent part of all
attempts at democratic elections. Quite often the genuine results were altered due to
intimidation and other tactics. Spain was quite literally ready to explode and the final spark
that lit the fuse of war was the assassination of the right wing leader, Calvo Sotelo, in July
1936.
The war itself was extremely horrific. There was a considerable amount of interference from
other countries mainly because the war was a fight between the left and right factions. The
fascist governments of Germany and Italy gave their support to the Nationalists under
General Franco. Up until the outbreak of the war Franco had amassed his troops in Morocco.
They were unable to cross back into Spain until Hitler and Mussolini provided airlifts. This
began the forward push of Franco and ultimately led to his success. Although the USSR gave
its support to the Republican government there was no other official aid from other countries.
However, a number of International Brigades and foreign volunteers did join forces with the
Republicans.
One of the main reasons General Franco and the Nationalists were victorious after three years
of war was that the army was on their side. The Republicans did manage to train their own
troops and they had become a good fighting force by the end of the conflict but it was not
enough against the professional soldiers. There were some soldiers who defected from the
army and went to fight for the Republicans but they were often suspected of being spies for
the Nationalists and their expertise was not made use of. General Franco had taken all of the
various Nationalist groups and unified them into a far stronger force than the Republicans. He
also had far more support from other countries than the Nationalists did. Germany and Italy
provided troops and equipment throughout the war.
After the war ended Spain suffered under the 40 years of Franco’s rule. They were
diplomatically isolated from other countries and the country itself was in chaos. There had
been a huge loss of life and damage to the infrastructure. Franco was in complete control and
the government revolved around him. Censorship was introduced and the regionalism that
had been brewing before the war was completely outlawed. Industrially Spain suffered
extensively too. It had been struggling before the war and now it fell even further behind its
European neighbours. The majority of the damage that the war had caused could not be
repaired as there simply wasn’t enough money. The country had very little money because
the Republicans had sent all of the gold reserves to the USSR for safe-keeping and now
Germany wanted reparations for the help that it gave Franco that enabled him to seize power.
Democracy would not return to Spain for more than four decades.
España en la Guerra Civil
Stephie Lehner 13a
Hubo muchos problemas que llevaron al comienzo (Anfang) de la Guerra Civil Española. El
mayor fue el largo período de declive (ablehnen) que España sufrió desde los días del
Imperio español. En 1930 (mil novecientos treinta), España había perdido su imperio y estaba
atrás del resto de Europa industrialmente. La monarquía fue vencida y el Segundo Imperio se
formó en 1930 (mil novecientos treinta). Este gobierno fue incapaz de hacer reformas y
mantener la ley y el orden.
La guerra fue horrible. Hubo gran interferencia (Einmischung) de otros países principalmente
porque era una lucha entre las facciones de izquierda y derecha. Los gobiernos fascistas de
Alemania e Italia dieron su apoyo a los nacionalistas bajo el mando del general Franco. Hasta
el inicio de la guerra, Franco había preparado sus tropas en Marruecos (Marroko). No podían
volver a entrar en España hasta que Hitler y Mussolini proporcionaron puentes aéreos. Esto
fue un gran apoyo para Franco y condujo a su éxito. Aunque la Union Sowjetico dio su apoyo
al gobierno republicano, no hubo otra ayuda oficial de otros países. Sin embargo, varias
Brigadas Internacionales y voluntarios extranjeros (ausländische Freiwillige) se unieron a los
Republicanos.
Una de las razones principales por las que el general Franco y los nacionalistas ganaron
(gewannen) después de tres años de guerra fue que el ejército estaba de su lado. Los
republicanos entrenaron sus propias tropas y se habían convertido en una buena fuerza de
combate al final del conflicto, pero no era suficiente contra los soldados profesionales. Hubo
algunos soldados que desertaron del ejército y fueron a luchar por los republicanos, pero a
menudo se sospechaba (verdächtigt) que eran espías (Spione) de los nacionalistas y
rechazaron (zurückweisen) su ayuda. El general Franco tomó a todos los grupos nacionalistas
y los unificó en una fuerza más fuerte que los republicanos. También tenía más apoyo de
otros países que los nacionalistas. Alemania e Italia proporcionaron tropas y equipo durante
la guerra.
Fuentes:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/es/article/spanish-civil-war
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerra_civil_española
https://historiaespana.es/edad-contemporanea/guerra-civil-espanola