History of Spain: Complete Information on the History of Spain

History of Spain: Complete Information on the History of Spain!

Spain is one of the few countries in Europe which remained neutral during the two World Wars. That is partly due to her geography as Spain is walled off from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees and is cut off by mountain ranges into different provinces.

Alfonso XIII, the King of Spain, came to the throne at his birth in 1886.

When he was still a minor, Spain had to fight against the United States and she lost not only Cuba, but all other remnants of the once vast Spanish colonial empire.

This saved the country from the colonial embarrassments and wars. Some material progress was made but that was not much. The King was an autocrat and he believed in the divine right of kings to rule. The nobility was very strong in the country and the army was under his control because most of the military officers came from the nobility. Spain had a Cortes or Parliament, but the people were illiterate and could not make much use of it. They were indolent. Their agriculture was backward.

Industry and trade were practically stagnant. There was corruption everywhere in the government. The Roman Catholic Church exercised great influence throughout the country. The Jesuits owned vast trading concerns and estates. In this atmosphere, the Communists, Anarchists, Socialists and Fascists made their appearance.

In 1923, General Primo de Rivera asked King Alfonso to dismiss his ministers and appoint him as a dictator. The king was so weak that he could not resist the demand and the result was that for seven years. General Primo de Rivera was the real ruler of Spain.

The rule of the General was unpopular. Many plots were hatched against him and ultimately he resigned in 1930. The discontentment prevailing in the country did not end with the resignation of the General but the same was now directed against the King who had resumed full authority in the state.

When General Elections were held in April 1931, the popular slogan was, “Your vote must be an arrow into the heart of Monarchy”. The Republicans won the elections and King Alfonso abdicated and ran away to Paris.

The Parliament met in July 1931 and the new Constitution declared Spain a Democratic Republic of Workers of all Classes. A large number of reforms were carried out by the Republican Government and those created a lot of trouble. The situation in the country became unstable.

The vested interests which were attacked by the Republican regime became its enemies. While the friends of the new regime had not learnt the necessity of loyalty to it, its enemies gained in strength.In the new elections held in November 1933, the landlords and the clericals scored a victory. The new Government tried to nullify most of the legislations which had been enacted previously.

The Church got back once again the annuities from the state. The Priests were reinstated as instructors in state schools and private institutions. The Army officers who had been dismissed were reinstated.Catalonia began to be afraid of her autonomy. There was a lot of unrest in the country. There were conflicts between the Clericals and anti-Clericals, the peasants and the landlords and the Socialist and Conservative Republicans.

When such was the condition in the country, General Franco revolted on 17 July 1936 and crossed into Spain from Morocco. The military garrisons in Spain also revolted. In order to paralyse the rebellion, the Leftist forces staged a general strike throughout the area occupied by Rightists.

Although President Azana was not an effective war leader, he improvised armies out of labourers untrained in military tactics. He was short of officers and half of the fleet went over to the side of Franco. In spite of that, the Republican Government held Madrid, Barcelona and other big cities.

The Republican Government had a definite superiority in planes and tanks. When the struggle between General Franco and his followers on the one hand and the Republican Government on the other started, the latter seemed to be in a stronger position. In spite of that, General Franco came out successful in the Civil War which lasted for three years.

The Civil War ran its full course and entailed intervention on both sides. The people of Spain were in a real sense the first victims of the World War II. What prolonged the struggle was the remarkably even balance of resources between the two sides. The Navy was divided and the lack of naval supremacy told against the rebel forces, which, to begin with, operated from Morocco.

Of the two battleships of the Navy, one was seized by each side and the other vessels were almost equally shared. If the officers were nationalists, the sailors were Republicans. On the Republican side, there were a few army officers such as General Miaja and General Rojo, a mass of workers and peasants trained in military service, large sections of urban workers and most of the Basques and Catalans. They also held important economic resources in the industrial areas of Madrid, Barcelona and Asturias.

By the end of 1936, the Nationalists under General Franco held rather more than half of Spain mostly in the south, west and north-west and the Balearic Islands. General Franco installed himself at Burgos as “Chief of the Spanish State”. 30 Junker transport planes provided by Germany were ferrying troops to Spain from Morocco. The Republican Government was led by Largo Caballero and it held all eastern and south-eastern Spain, Madrid and most of the northern coast-line belt.

The Republican forces recovered from the first shock and were able to organise resistance. The war was ferocious because the extremists on both sides indulged in great barbarities. In November 1936, Germany and Italy officially recognised the Government of Franco.

In 1937, General Miaja organised the defence of Madrid and among the strong reinforcements sent to him was the first International Brigade which was recruited from the Left-Wing opponents of Fascism in several European countries, including France and Great Britain.

The Soviet Union also sent fighter planes to the Republican Government of Spain. In March 1937 came the first trial of strength between the major international contingents. The Italian troops launched an attack on Guadalajara with a view to capture Madrid. The attack was met and repulsed by the International Brigade. Franco attacked the northern zone of the Basque Provinces and Asturias and captured the key port of Bilbao.

The Republican forces launched attacks from Madrid and Aragon. In May 1937, Largo Caballero was replaced by Don Juan Negrin who by the end of the year commanded an army of about 800,000 men. In October 1937, the Republican Government moved to Barcelona and in December 1937, it defeated the Nationalists at Teruel. By the end of 1937, there was a stalemate in the country and each side had consolidated its defensive positions.

Salazar, the new dictator of Portugal, showed all sympathy for Franco and gave him all possible help. The sympathies of Leon Blum of France were with the Republican Government of Spain, but he had to show moderation on account of the internal politics of his country where he did not want to annoy the Rightist elements in the country.

In Britain, the Labour Oppositions sympathised with the Spanish Government but the Conservative Government of Britain under Baldwin was not prepared to annoy General Franco who was expected to come out successful. The British Government also did not want to annoy Italy whom it wanted to keep apart from Germany.

It was under these circumstances that the British Government welcomed and backed the proposal of Blum to establish a Non-intervention Committee whose purpose was to prevent other powers from becoming involved in the Civil War in Spain and to withhold military aid from both sides. Such a Committee was actually set up in September 1936.

In spite of that, Franco got his supplies from Portugal and the Republican Government from France. In December 1936, the Council of the League resolved that all other states were under an obligation not to intervene.

President Roosevelt got the neutrality laws of his country amended to prevent the sale of American arms to either side. In spite of all these measures, volunteers came to join the sides. General Franco got both troops and equipment from Italy and Germany.

A critical examination of the circumstances shows that the working of the Non-intervention Committee was in favour of General Franco and against the Republican Government of Spain.

That was due to the fact that General Franco continued to get illegal help from Portugal, Germany and Italy, while the sources of the Republican Government in Spain dried up. All attempts by the Non-intervention Committee to check the flow of supplies by naval blockade and frontier supervision broke down.

In the spring of 1938, General Franco, who was backed by 100,000 Italian troops and efficient German equipment, was strong enough to renew his advances. The Government forces were torn by internal dissensions. In February 1938, the rebels retook Teruel and they were also able to cut the Government territory in half. There was stubborn fighting to occupy more and more territories. General Franco resorted to indiscriminate bombing of civilian population.

But in spite of that, Barcelona and Madrid held out until early in 1939. Barcelona fell at the end of January 1939 and Madrid at the end of March 1939. Thousands of Spaniards fled to France to escape reprisals at the hands of General Franco. The Non-intervention Committee was dissolved. The Italian and German Legions were withdrawn.

The Civil War probably cost Spain a million in dead or exile. Many cities were destroyed. The countryside was laid waste. General Franco set up a Fascist state in Spain. Communism, Anarchism, Socialism and Liberalism were either destroyed or driven underground. However, the chief beneficiary of the war was not Mussolini, but Hitler. While Mussolini was busy in Spain, Hitler extended his influence in the Balkans at the expense of Italy. Italy had been used as Germany’s cat’s paw.

The victory of General Franco was due to many causes. He got a lot of help both from Italy and Germany. A week after the opening of the struggle, Italian planes were flown to Spanish Morocco at the request of General Franco.

In September 1936, hundreds of German planes bombarded Republican cities. From December 1936 to April 1937, more than one lakh of Italians were sent to Spain. About 40,000 more Italians were sent later on.

The Italian planes raided the Republican cities and dropped thousands of tons of explosives. Italian warships managed to send Franco large quantities of tanks, trucks, automobiles, cannon and ammunition. The Republican coast was blockaded by Italian ships. Thousands of Italians were killed and wounded.

Three days after the break-out of the civil war. Marshal Goering of Germany started recruiting an air force to help General Franco. On 31 July 1936, 85 aviators disguised as tourists sailed from Hamburg. Before the ending of the Civil War, the Condon Legion consisting of more than 15,000 aviators and ground crewmen had fought practically on all the fronts. They also set up air training schools and worked in different capacities. The German navy played an important part in blockading the Spanish coast. More than one thousand Germans lost their lives in the civil war in Spain.

Another cause of the victory of General Franco was the working of the Non-intervention Committee. This Committee was not able to stop the flow of help to General Franco from Italy, and Germany but put a great strain on the Republican regime in Spain.

She could not get her requirements from anywhere. It is true that the Soviet Union gave some help to the Republican Government, but that was not enough. Under these circumstances, the success of General Franco was merely a matter of time.

It cannot be denied that the Civil War in Spain solidified and strengthened the position of the Fascists in Europe and weakened that of the democratic states of Great Britain and France. Their successful intervention in Spain convinced them that the democracies were so much scared of communism that they would not take any action against them. Under these circumstances, the system of Collective Security completely collapsed.

As regards the attitude of the various powers towards the civil war in Spain, the French Government was headed by Blum and Daladier and the British Government by Baldwin and Chamberlain. Both the Governments were determined to avoid war at any cost. They wanted the war to be localised and not to spread to the whole of Europe. That is why they stood for a policy of non-intervention. Great Britain was very much interested in the defence of Gibraltar and consequently she wanted to be on friendly terms with General Franco who was expected to win.

The Englishmen were so much afraid of the bogey of communism that they would like to help the dictators to become stronger so that they could become an effective bulwark against communism. That is why they allowed Franco to strangle the Republican regime in Spain without any help from any quarter. France was merely following the lead given by Great Britain. She was also following the policy of winning over Italy against Germany.

As Italy was helping General Franco, France had to follow a policy of Non-intervention. Mussolini intervened in Spain as he thought that by doing so he would be able to eliminate completely the British and French control from Western Mediterranean.

Franco also promised to give Mussolini bases in Africa, Spain and the Canaries Islands. It was the lust for gains that made Italy energetic in her help of General Franco. Germany helped Franco as his regime in Spain was bound to help Germany against France.

Moreover, Hitler wanted to test his new weapons and military tactics in Spain. The Soviet Union made a serious effort to help the Republican Government in Spain but stopped doing so after some time. She also became a member of the Non-intervention Committee. The United States also followed a policy of non-intervention.

It is stated that when four members of the House of Representatives requested the Secretary of State on 2 June 1937 to apply the Neutrality Act to Germany and Italy, he is stated to have given the following reply. “This is not our war. We must be cautious, We must be quiet”.

After his victory in the Civil war, General Franco ruled Spain from 1939 to 1976. Spain under him remained neutral during the World War II. It is true that his autocratic regime was criticised from many quarters but the circumstances forced the United States to come to an understanding with him. Spain became a member of the NATO.