Spanish Civil War Begins

Setting the scene

Spain in 1936 was deeply polarized. The Second Spanish Republic, established in 1931, had enacted liberal reforms—separating church and state, granting Catalonia autonomy, and redistributing land—that infuriated conservatives, the military, the Catholic Church, and landowners. The Popular Front, a leftist coalition, won narrow elections in February 1936, prompting right-wing generals to plot a coup. The plotters included General Francisco Franco, stationed in the Canary Islands, and General Emilio Mola in Pamplona. They were backed by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, who saw Spain as a testing ground.

What happened

The war began on July 17, 1936, when military garrisons in Spanish Morocco rose up. Franco flew from the Canaries to Morocco on a British plane to take command. The coup failed to seize Madrid and Barcelona, where workers armed themselves and resisted. Spain split—Nationalists controlled the conservative north and west, Republicans held the industrial east and major cities. What followed was three years of brutal war with atrocities on both sides. Germany sent the Condor Legion, which bombed Guernica on April 26, 1937, killing 200-300 civilians and inspiring Picasso's masterpiece. Italy sent 70,000 troops. The Soviet Union backed the Republicans with weapons and advisors. The International Brigades brought 35,000 foreign volunteers, including Americans in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Why it still matters

The Nationalists won on April 1, 1939, when Madrid fell. Franco established a dictatorship that lasted until his death in 1975. The war killed approximately 500,000 people, including 200,000 executed after the war. It was a dress rehearsal for World War II, testing blitzkrieg tactics, terror bombing of civilians, and modern propaganda. The war created the narrative framework of fascism versus democracy that defined the era, though the reality was more complex—Republicans included Stalinists who suppressed anarchists and Trotskyists. The war's legacy divided Spain for generations, with mass graves still being excavated today. It demonstrated that the Western democracies would not intervene to stop fascism, emboldening Hitler and Mussolini.

Background

The war ended with Franco's victory in 1939.