Spanish Civil War When Viewed

¶ … Spanish Civil War

When viewed from a historical perspective, the Spanish Civil War was basically the opening battle of World War II, and perhaps "the only time in living memory when the world confronted, in fascism and Nazism, something like unqualified evil" (Nelson pp). However, when viewed internally, the Spanish Civil War was the culmination of a prolonged period of national political unrest in a country that was increasingly polarized and repeatedly unable to improve the conditions of millions of its citizens living in extreme poverty (Nelson pp). This was a country in which landless peasants eked out a bare subsistence living by following the harvests on huge, wealthy agricultural estates (Nelson pp). The Catholic Church identified more with the wealthy landowners and was in complete control of secondary education, believing that it was unnecessary for women to be educated, viewing universal literacy as a danger rather than a goal (Nelson pp). Meanwhile, the military saw itself as the only safeguard against civil disorder and as the only defense of the core values of Spanish society (Nelson pp).

In February 1936, when a progressive Popular Front government was elected, promising realistic land reform, conservative forces planned resistance (Nelson pp). On July 18, the military rebellion took place, and those who organized it expected a quick victory and control of the entire country (Nelson pp). However, they underestimated the determination of the Spanish people, "who broke into barracks, took up arms, and crushed the rebellion in key areas like the cities of Madrid and Barcelona" (Nelson pp). When the military realized they faced a prolonged struggle with an uncertain outcome, they appealed to fascist dictatorships in Italy, Germany, and Portugal for assistance, and soon began receiving men and supplies from Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Antonio Salazar (Nelson pp).

The 1936 Spanish election was seen as a great victory in progressive publications in Britain, France, and the United States, for the world was in the midst of a depression, and the military rising was viewed as an assault against the working class everywhere (Nelson pp). The intervention of German and Italian troops created a dramatic international character to the civil war, and thus immediately, it became a literal and symbolic event of the growing worldwide struggle between fascism and democracy (Nelson pp). The elected government perceived the country as being invaded by foreign troops, and by the time Hitler's Condor Legion had reduced the Basque's holy city of Guernica to rubble the following April, many throughout the world had come to share that opinion as well (Nelson pp). And when Hitler and Mussolini immediately gave support to Franco, and when Franco began to make pronouncements about conducting a holy war against a progressive conspiracy, which contained rhetoric with long-standing anti-Semitic connotations, both the cultural and political status of the Republic's enemies became obvious (Nelson pp). In retrospect, many believe that world history would have proceeded quite differently had the democracies taken a strong stand against fascism in Spain in 1936, however, they did not (Nelson pp).

The night Fernando Valera, a Republican deputy, read this statement over the air: "Here in Madrid is the universal frontier that separates liberty and slavery. It is fighting for Spain, for humanity, for justice, and, with the mantle of its blood, it shelters all human beings! Madrid! Madrid!" The Spanish capital became something more than itself, it became the heart of the world (Nelson pp). Volunteers came from all of the world, and from all walks of life, such as French novelist, Andre Malraux, who organized a squadron of pilots, and numerous other anti-fascists from Germany, Italy, and other parts of Europe (Nelson pp).

Many American volunteers took up arms to defend the Spanish Republic against the military rebellion led by Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini, including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which saw the Republic defense as the last hope of stopping the spread of international fascism (Sills pp). The Lincoln Brigade fought alongside some 35,000 anti-fascists from fifty-two countries who, like themselves, were organized under the aegis of the Comintern, and who sought to "make Madrid the tomb of fascism" (Sills pp). Together with the British, Irish, Canadian, and other nationals, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the George Washington Battalion, and the John Brown Battery, formed the Fifteenth International Brigade (Sills pp). Moreover, approximately 125 American men and women also served with the American Medical Bureau as nurses, doctors, technicians, and ambulance drivers (Sills pp).

The reason for such volunteer support for a war against fascism was born from the economic calamity and the political turmoil of the 1930's (Sills pp). Thus, like many during the Great Depression, the young volunteers had experienced with deprivation and injustice, leading them to join the "burgeoning student, unemployed, union, and cultural movements that were influenced by the Communist Party and other Left organizations" (Sills pp). These groups had exposed the volunteers to a Marxist and internationalist perspective, and with their successes in bringing people to conscious, political action led to a revolutionary spirit (Sills pp).

American radicalism was spurred by the appearance of pro-fascist groups like the Liberty League, and the expansion of fascism abroad (Sills pp). With Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Hitler's rise to power in 1933, and Italy's assault on Ethiopia in 1934, (all accomplished without hindrance from Western governments), the Communist Party responded with the coalition-building strategy of the Popular Front, attracting thousands of inspired citizens into its ranks or into "front" organizations (Sills pp). Then when four right-wing Spanish generals, supported by Italy and Germany, attacked the legally elected government on July 19, 1936, the desire to confront fascism in Spain swept through the progressive communities in Europe and the Americas (Sills pp). Within weeks, German, French, and Italian anti-fascists were fighting in Madrid, and by January 1937, despite a U.S. State Department prohibition against travel to Spain, Americans were crossing the Pyrenees (Sills pp).

Western governments' reaction to the war was ambivalent and duplicitous, and all agreed to a nonintervention pact and the United States embargoed aid to the Spanish Republic, a move that actually undermined the Republic rather than de-escalating the war (Sills pp). Several American corporations such as General Motors and Texaco supplied Franco with trucks and fuel (Sills pp). In fact, the Soviet Union and Mexico were the only governments that sold armaments to the Republic, although most of it was impounded at the French border (Sills pp). However, the Lincoln Brigade was strengthened with help from writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Lillian Hellman who helped fuel the anti-fascist opinion in the U.S. (Sills pp). And throughout the war, a vociferous political and cultural movement in the U.S. rallied by raising money for medical aid and demanding an end to the embargo, with such participants as Albert Einstein, Gene Kelly, Helen Keller, and Dorothy Parker (Sills pp). Yet, the Lincolns and the Republican military who were fighting with inadequate weaponry could not sustain defense against the forces against them and by March 1939, Madrid fell (Sills pp). The Lincoln Brigade lost about 750 men and sustained a casualty rate higher than that suffered by Americans in World War II (Sills pp).