Spain entered the 20th century divided.

A growing liberal movement clashed with

an entrenched system of bureaucrats,

landowners, and clergy manipulating

politics to preserve power, influence,

and the general status quo. In 1923,

General Miguel Primo de Rivera seized

power with King Alfonso I 13th's

backing. His dictatorship alienated both

the elites and the left before

collapsing in 1930.

A year later, support for the monarchy

had evaporated. King Alfonso fled and

the second republic was proclaimed. From

the outset, the republic faced pressure

from all sides. The left pushed radical

reforms curtailing the church, army, and

landowners, which the right saw as an

existential threat. A failed coup by

General Jose Senorho in 1932 only

deepened leftist fears of a fascist

conspiracy against these reforms. After

a right-wing electoral win in 1933,

many of the reforms were finally

reversed leading to major unrest in the

country. In 1934, miners in Astrusius

launched an insurrection, but were

crushed by troops under General

Francisco Franco. By 1936,

new elections saw the left-wing popular

front narrowly win elections amid

allegations of fraud. For much of the

right and the military, this new

government was unacceptable.

Plans for a military uprising had been

in motion for months, directed by

General Amelio Mhola in the north.

General San Horho, who had been exiled

since his failed 1932 coup, was chosen

as a symbolic leader. General Franco was

also invited. Though initially cautious

with his own exile in the Canary

Islands, he agreed to join shortly

before the coup began on July 17th,

1936. Using rumors of a far-left plot as

justification, the generals struck

first. Franco secured the army of Africa

in Spanish Morocco. While on the

mainland, the nationalists seized much

of western and northern Spain. However,

they failed to capture Madrid. For now,

all the coup had achieved was splitting

the nation in two. However, the divide

between nationalist rebels and the

Republican left was not so simple. Both

sides were coalitions, each with

competing visions. For the Republicans,

the main objective was to defend the

elected government from the

nationalists.

However, maintaining a united front

would be difficult thanks to the surge

of violent revolutionary groups that

sprang up in response to the rebellion.

The face of the popular front was

arguably the liberals whose center-left

parties helped propel Manuel Azana into

the position of prime minister and later

the president. The liberals wanted to

build a modern secular democracy but

were left relying on more radical

elements of the popular front after the

military's coup attempts had severely

weakened republican control over the

country. Of these radical elements, the

socialists and communists made up the

bulk of the popular fronts workingclass

movements. The socialists were split

between their own moderate and radical

wings, while the smaller Communist Party

of Spain had to contend with the

anti-Stalinist Marxists.

Beyond these camps were groups like the

[music] powerful National Confederation

of Labor and Iberian Anarchist

Federation who were often lumped

together as the CNT FAI.

Unlike the other factions, the

Anarchists were unique in that they

rejected the idea of a state in any

form. Ultimately, their goal was not to

save the republic, but to build

libertarian communism in the aftermath

of the war. Defeating the nationalists

would help that cause. So for the time

being, they aligned themselves with the

popular front. Lastly, there were the

regional nationalists who had little in

common with the radical left or the

central government. Groups like the

Basque Nationalist Party [music] and

Republican left of Catalonia sided with

the republic because it had promised

them autonomy, something the right-wing

nationalists would never [music] give.

For these separatists, the end goal was

independence, and they saw the

Republicans [music] as their best bet.

Contrasting the Republicans were the

nationalists, who were more unified in

purpose, if not ideology. Whatever their

allegiance, the right-wing all agreed

that their common enemies were

communists, liberals, and separatists,

who were all conspiring to destroy the

Spanish nation. The core of the

rebellion was the Spanish army with its

most ruthless and effective leaders

being the Africanistas,

veterans of Spain's brutal wars in

Morocco. For them, the campaign had to

be waged with the same terror tactics

once used in North Africa. Behind the

military stood the monarchists, an

everpresent force in [music] Spanish

politics. In one camp were the

Alfonsoists who wished to restore the

exiled King Alfonso [music] I 13th. In

the other camp were the older Carists

who clung fanatically to the belief that

the rightful successor would come from

the descendants of Don Carlos, the Count

of Molina. Another extremist faction was

the Spanish fan, a fascist party founded

in 1933 by Miguel Primo de Rivera's

eldest son, Jose Antonio. By the time of

the war's outbreak, Joseé Antonio was

already languishing in prison. Yet, the

fan's membership swelled with right-wing

youths eager to combat the red menace.

The Lanhists took to the streets against

anarchists and communists and were

involved in the political violence that

took place between February and July of

1936.

Lastly was the Catholic Church who took

a vocal stand alongside the nationalists

framing the coming war as a righteous

crusade against godless bulsheism. It

blessed the nationalist armies and

provided a moral pretext for the brutal

repression that followed. Their

endorsement of the nationalists was

something that the leftists would

remember going into the war.

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General Mhler's uprising was off to a

bad start, having only captured Seville

and Sarraosa after bloody confrontations

with leftist worker militias. Meanwhile,

Republicans had kept Madrid under their

control while also securing Barcelona,

Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. A further

setback for the nationalists came after

the sudden death of General San Horho

who was killed in a plane crash while

returning from exile. Though largely

symbolic, his loss was a heavy blow. As

the monarchist politician Jose Ignasio

Escobar later recalled, "We were

stunned. The idea that our movement,

though triumphant, was now going to

develop along lines other than those

which we expected, struck fear into our

hearts.

Franco, however, fared better. With the

Army of Africa and its hardened Moroccan

regulares, he captured Spanish Morocco

with ease. His new problem was crossing

the Strait of Gibralar, as most of the

Spanish Navy had gone over to the

Republic. The solution came with German

and Italian help. Under Operation Magic

Fire, Luke Vafa transports buried over

15,000 of Franco's troops to the

mainland in July and August.

On the Republican side, help was scarce.

Western powers enforced a strict embargo

under the non-intervention committee,

choking off arms supplies while turning

a blind eye to covert aid flowing to the

nationalists. Besides a modest amount of

funds and material from Mexico, the

Republic's only real lifeline came from

the Soviet Union, which began supplying

tanks, aircraft, and advisers in

September. Stalin's aid, however, came

with strings attached, empowering

hardline communists within the popular

front and fueling nationalist claims

that the republic had become a bolevik

puppet. It was hard to refute the

accusations as the right exposed the

anti-clerical and class violence that

erupted throughout Republican held

territories, claiming a total of over

55,000 lives. However, the nationalists

were not innocent either, as they

likewise committed their own share of

atrocities that claimed over 75,000

lives. These war crimes would continue

on both sides for the rest of the war.

In Republican zones, anti-clerical fury

exploded into the red terror. Churches

and monasteries were burned while

thousands of priests and nuns were

executed with estimates putting the

clergy death toll alone at nearly 6,800.

Landowners, aristocrats, and anyone

branded as fascist were often shot

without trial. One of the most infamous

examples were the Pericquelos massacres

near Madrid, where thousands of

prisoners, including children, were

executed by Republican militias.

The nationalists responded in kind with

a white terror that was more systematic

and enduring. In their zones, anyone

tied to unions, liberal politics, or

suspected Republican loyalties could be

arrested, tortured, and shot. Teachers,

mayors, journalists, and intellectuals

were signaled out as enemies of God and

country. Thousands were taken on

nighttime walks to the outskirts of

towns where they were executed and left

in ditches as warnings. In Battleos,

after the city fell to Franco's African

troops, between 2,000 and 4,000

civilians were massacred in a single

week. For those involved, it often

seemed arbitrary. Francisco San Pedro, a

Republican officer, recalled asking a

prison chaplain why he had spent 7 years

in prison when he had committed no

crime. The priest replied, "You were on

the point of being shot, but you

weren't." The same could very well have

happened to me had things turned the

other way around. Your side lost, and

the rest, whether you robbed or killed,

matters not a lot. Many who have

committed murders are still alive, and

many who didn't have been shot. You've

been in prison seven years because you

lost the war. These tit fortat

atrocities were simply used as a tool of

political and religious vengeance.

Meanwhile, General Mha consolidated

nationalist control in the north,

cutting the republic off from the French

border. Franco advanced from the south,

relieving nationalist defenders at the

Alcazar of Toledo on September 27th. The

end of this long siege from Republican

forces was a propaganda triumph that

bolstered his reputation. By October

1st, Franco was declared general of the

nationalist forces and head of state.

By the end of 1936,

foreign intervention had escalated.

Germany had formalized its Condor

Legion. Italy sent its own expeditionary

force and Portugal opened its borders to

nationalist aid while Catholic and

anti-communist volunteers from around

the world flocked to join the rebels. On

the Republican side, international

volunteers that had begun arriving in

October were now being organized into

the international brigades, giving the

republic more manpower and fighters for

their cause.

In November, the nationalists launched

their first major assault on Madrid.

Despite heavy bombardment and the

arrival of German and Italian units, the

city held firm. Communist leader Dolores

Iberori, famously dubbed La Pasiania,

recalled, "We called on the people to

build barricades. Every day, thousands

of men and women, young and old, even

children, joined us in digging trenches

and anti-tank ditches, building a

defensive belt around our beloved

Madrid.

Hastily formed militias, Soviet tanks,

and the first international brigades

stiffened the city's defense and stifled

the nationalist siege.

In spring 1937, Franco turned his

attention to the north, targeting the

isolated Republican strongholds of the

Basque country as well as the Atorias

and Santandere. On April 26th, the

Basque town of Gernaka was obliterated

in a bombing raid by the German Condor

Legion and Italian aircraft. While the

bombings did little to hamper Republican

forces, the indiscriminate nature of the

attack hurt the nationalists reputation.

The attack killed hundreds of civilians

and became an international symbol of

fascist terror and was immortalized in a

painting from the Spanish artist Pablo

Picasso. Elsewhere, nationalist progress

stalled. In March, Italian volunteer

divisions launched an offensive

northeast of Madrid, only to be routed

at Guadalajara by Republican forces

reinforced with Soviet armor and

international brigades.

The defeat was a humiliation for

Mussolini and a morale boost for the

republic.

But internal divisions soon undercut

that momentum. In May, street fighting

erupted in Barcelona between anarchists,

anti-Stalinist Marxists, and

Sovietbacked communists. The violence

left hundreds dead and ended with the

suppression and ferging of the

anti-Stalinist factions, deepening

Soviet dominance within the republic.

The Maydays would also be downplayed by

Soviet propaganda.

George Orwell, who fought with the

anti-Stalinists, later wrote, "It would

be impossible for me, for instance, to

debate the rights and wrongs of the

Barcelona fighting with a Communist

Party member because no communist, that

is to say, no good communist, could

admit that I have given a truthful

account of the facts."

The nationalists meanwhile regained the

initiative despite their own setbacks.

On June 3rd, General Mhola was killed in

a plane crash, removing Franco's last

rival and leaving him as the undisputed

leader of the nationalist cause. By

summer, the Republican North collapsed.

[music]

Bilbao fell in June, Santander in

August, and Hihan by October, giving

Franco control over Spain's industrial

heartland and its valuable resources.

By late 1937, the Republic was desperate

to regain the initiative. In December,

they launched a winter offensive at

Terowel, seizing the city in bitter

winter fighting. But Franco's

counterattack in February retook it at

enormous cost to the Republicans who

were now exhausted and overextended.

The nationalists then struck back with

the Aragon offensive, breaking through

thinly held lines and reaching the

Mediterranean by April 1938. Spain was

now cut in two with Catalonia isolated

from the rest of the Republic. In a

final gamble, the Republic threw

everything into the Battle of the Abro

River. From July to November, tens of

thousands of troops crossed the Abro,

hoping to turn the tide. They were

outgunned and outnumbered, and their

offensive collapsed after months of

attrition. The Republic had burned its

last reserves. With morale shattered and

Soviet aid dwindling, Catalonia fell in

early 1939.

Barcelona was captured on January 26th,

sending hundreds of thousands of

refugees fleeing across the French

border. France, already fearing war with

Germany, in turned many of the makeshift

camps. In March, Madrid surrendered

without resistance. On April 1st, Franco

declared victory. The fighting was

finally over. The cost of the Spanish

Civil War was staggering. Over 340,000

people were killed, including 200,000 in

battle, tens of thousands more in

reprisals, and thousands in bombings

like Gernico. Half a million civilians

fled into exile, while countless others

were imprisoned or simply disappeared.

Cities lay in ruins, and an entire

generation was left traumatized.

Abroad, the war was seen as a grim

reversal for what was to come. Germany

and Italy honed new tactics. terror

bombing, close air support, armored

assaults, and propaganda. The Soviet

Union tested modern warfare while

tightening political control over its

allies. Most revealing was the reaction

of Britain and France. Though they

professed to defend democracy, they

enforced [music] an arms embargo that

only crippled the republic. Their

inaction sent a clear signal. Fascist

aggression would go unchecked. For

Hitler and Mussolini, Spain proved that

they could act with impunity. For Spain

itself, the price was a dictatorship

that would endure for decades, while the

nation itself would be left divided over

Franco and his rule.