Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War (Spanish: Guerra Civil Española)[note 2] was a civil war in Spain fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, and consisted of various socialist, communist, separatist, anarchist, and republican parties, some of which had opposed the government in the pre-war period.[12] The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists led by a military junta among whom General Francisco Franco quickly achieved a preponderant role. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war had many facets and was variously viewed as class struggle, a religious struggle, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, and between fascism and communism.[13] According to Claude Bowers, U.S. ambassador to Spain during the war, it was the "dress rehearsal" for World War II.[14] The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

Spanish Civil War
Part of the interwar period
Clockwise from top-left: members of the XI International Brigade at the Battle of Belchite; Granollers after being bombed by Nationalists aviation in 1938; Bombing of an airfield in Spanish Morocco; Republican soldiers at the siege of the Alcázar; Nationalist soldiers operating an anti-aircraft gun; The Lincoln Battalion
Date 17 July 1936 – 1 April 1939 (2 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and 1 day) Location Spain Morocco Western Sahara Guinea North Sea Result Nationalist victory End of the Second Spanish Republic Establishment of the Spanish State under the rule of Francisco Franco Post-war Francoist mass killings and repression Spanish Maquis
Belligerents
Republicans People's Army Popular Front UGT CNT-FAI Generalitat de Catalunya Euzko Gudarostea[lower-alpha 1] International Brigades Supported by:  Soviet Union  Mexico Foreign volunteers	Nationalists FET y de las JONS[lower-alpha 2] FE de las JONS[lower-alpha 3] Requetés/CT[lower-alpha 3] CEDA[lower-alpha 3] Renovación Española[lower-alpha 3] Army of Africa Supported by: Italy Germany Portugal Foreign volunteers
Commanders and leaders
Manuel Azaña Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Indalecio Prieto Vicente Rojo Lluch José Miaja Toribio Martínez Cabrera  Segismundo Casado Juan Modesto Juan Hernández Saravia Buenaventura Durruti † Joaquín Ascaso Lluís Companys José Antonio Aguirre	Francisco Franco José Sanjurjo † Emilio Mola † Gonzalo Queipo de Llano Juan Yagüe Miguel Cabanellas José Enrique Varela Fidel Dávila Arrondo Manuel Goded Llopis  Manuel Hedilla Manuel Fal Conde Mario Roatta Ettore Bastico Hugo Sperrle
Strength
1936 strength:[1] 446,800 combatants[2] 31 ships 12 submarines 13,000 sailors 1938 strength:[3] 450,000 infantry 350 aircraft 200 tanks 59,380 international volunteers. 3,015 Soviet technicians. 772 Soviet pilots.	1936 strength:[4] 58,000 soldiers 68,500 gendarmes 16 operational ships 7,000 sailors[5] 1938 strength:[6] 600,000 infantry 600 aircraft 290 tanks 50,000 Italian troops 16,000 German troops 10,000 Portuguese volunteers
Casualties and losses
110,000 killed in action (including executions)[7][8][9] 100,000–130,000 civilians killed inside the Francoist zone[10]	90,000 killed in action[7][8][9] 50,000 civilians killed inside the Republican zone[11]
c. 500,000 total killed[note 1]

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Second Republic Provisional Government (1931) First Biennium (1931–1933) Second Biennium (1933–1936) Revolution and Asturian miners' strike (1934) 1936 general election (1936) 1936 coup d'état (1936) Civil War (1936–1939) Nationalist victory (1939)
Francoist Spain Spanish Maquis (1939–1965) Spain during World War II (1939–1945) Blue Division (1941–1944) Basque conflict (1959–2011)
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The war began after the partial failure of the coup d'état of July 1936 against the Republican government by a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces, with General Emilio Mola as the primary planner and leader and having General José Sanjurjo as a figurehead. The government at the time was a coalition of Republicans, supported in the Cortes by communist and socialist parties, under the leadership of centre-left President Manuel Azaña.[15][16] The Nationalist group was supported by a number of conservative groups, including CEDA, monarchists, including both the opposing Alfonsists and the religious conservative Carlists, and the Falange Española de las JONS, a fascist political party.[17] After the deaths of Sanjurjo, Emilio Mola and Manuel Goded Llopis, Franco emerged as the remaining leader of the Nationalist side.

The coup was supported by military units in Morocco, Pamplona, Burgos, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Cádiz, Córdoba, and Seville. However, rebelling units in almost all important cities—such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and Málaga—did not gain control, and those cities remained under the control of the government. This left Spain militarily and politically divided. The Nationalists and the Republican government fought for control of the country. The Nationalist forces received munitions, soldiers, and air support from Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Portugal, while the Republican side received support from the Soviet Union and Mexico. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, continued to recognise the Republican government but followed an official policy of non-intervention. Despite this policy, tens of thousands of citizens from non-interventionist countries directly participated in the conflict. They fought mostly in the pro-Republican International Brigades, which also included several thousand exiles from pro-Nationalist regimes.

The Nationalists advanced from their strongholds in the south and west, capturing most of Spain's northern coastline in 1937. They also besieged Madrid and the area to its south and west for much of the war. After much of Catalonia was captured in 1938 and 1939, and Madrid cut off from Barcelona, the Republican military position became hopeless. Following the fall without resistance of Barcelona in January 1939, the Francoist regime was recognised by France and the United Kingdom in February 1939. On 5 March 1939, in response to an alleged increasing communist dominance of the republican government and the deteriorating military situation, Colonel Segismundo Casado led a military coup against the Republican government, with the intention of seeking peace with the Nationalists. These peace overtures, however, were rejected by Franco. Following internal conflict between Republican factions in Madrid in the same month, Franco entered the capital and declared victory on 1 April 1939. Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards fled to refugee camps in southern France.[18] Those associated with the losing Republicans who stayed were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists. Franco established a dictatorship in which all right-wing parties were fused into the structure of the Franco regime.[17]

The war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired and for the many atrocities that occurred. Organised purges occurred in territory captured by Franco's forces so they could consolidate their future regime.[19] Mass executions on a lesser scale also took place in areas controlled by the Republicans,[20] with the participation of local authorities varying from location to location.[21][22]