The Spanish Civil War

The Spanish civil war

The Spanish civil war was a blood driven conflict of divergent ideologies. The war stretched from 1936 to 1939 but the effect of war was evident in many coming years. The causes of this bloodshed can be divided into two parts: Long term and short term. The shifting power between monarchs and democrats due to their lack of efficiency created an uprising for communists and anarchists. These uprising ideas were further tested in the second republic lead by Asana, which concluded as failure due to constant opposition from right wing and inept governance. The friction between the right wing – Army, church, conservatives and carlists- and left wing – Communists, anarchist, socialists and farmers- rose due to abolishment of conservative ideas by Asana. Furthermore, the same was reiterated by Right winged leaders during their reign, after fall of Asana. This constant back and forth and influence from external factors, such as Hitler, eventually led to Civil war in Spain. It affected many countries including Spain and is said to have played role in rise of WWII. Hence, it is vital to explore the internal as well as external effect of this Civil War.

The civil war was a total war for Spain with Spaniards fighting each other. So, the civilians faced deep impact of the civil war; the death toll was as high as 170,000 plus the slaughter of republicans by General Franco, White Terror, which worsened the situation. It was a post war scenario filled with despair and no resources to fulfill people’s basic needs. Moreover, The Wall Street crash, no modernization, loss during US-Spain war and domination of aristocrats, Spain had faced rough days for past years and the war toped its new low with high inflation, starvation and high unemployment. The valuable resources of country – gold mines- were used to repay aids from Germany and Britain. Although, the loan from Argentina’s dictator, Peron, helped stabilize Spain, war resulted in low economic growth for a long period of time. Furthermore, the new general Franco reversed all the reforms made by left wing: restored church, civil guard, Army and destroyed trade unions and modernization. The Church, hated by civilians, was now a dominating power in Spain as Frances Lannon stated, ‘ The Catholic Church enjoyed a degree of state support that was much greater than at any time since the 18th century’.

The Civil war, as stated earlier, a result of divergent ideas within a country and external influence such as Germany, USSR and Italy. These countries played a vital role in mapping the war. It is believe that Germany and Italy were the predominant reasons for the nationalist victory due to the modernized weapons provided by them. Since, these countries were involved in the civil war, it had an effect of them too. Germany enjoyed the increasing popularity of Hitler, use of Spain’s resources as a payback