© Cor Faber en Ellen Bijma
Last update website march 2024
This article is divided into 4 parts:
- part 1: the run-up to the civil war
- part 2: the course and end
- part 3: the Franco era
- part 4: Spain after Franco
The
article
does
not
pretend
to
be
complete,
but
should
give
an
impression
of
these periods.
With
the
declaration
of
victory
by
Franco
on
April
1,
1939,
the
Spanish
Civil
War
(1936-1939)
ended.
It
started
on
July
18,
1936
with
a
military
uprising
in
Spanish
Morocco
aimed
at
committing
a
coup
d'état
and
overthrowing
the
government
in
Madrid.
And
so
the
dictatorship
of
General
Franco
began.
A
dictatorship
that
would
last
until
his
death
on
November
20,
1975.
Also
a
dictatorship
that
may
not
be
called
a
totalitarian
regime,
but
has
had
many
characteristics of it.
Part 1: preface
How
did
the
war
get
this
far?
A
war
doesn't
start
with
the
first
shot.
Somewhere
before
that,
unrest
has
already
arisen.
How
far
back
in
time
do
you
have
to
go
to
understand
why
the
Spanish
Civil
War
came
about?
You
can
actually
go
back
centuries.
The
people
of
Spain
had
been
oppressed
and
exploited
all
along.
In
fact,
an
elite
was
in
power:
large
landowners
and
also
the
Catholic
Church.
Incidentally,
the
latter
was
also
the
largest
owner
of
land
and
the
power
of
the
church
was
to
be
found
everywhere
in
society.
Only
church
marriage
was
allowed,
divorce
was
not.
Education
was
also
in
the
hands
of
the
church
and
clergy
were
paid
by
the
state.
It
is
sometimes
claimed that even the atheists in Spain were and are Catholic.
At
the
beginning
of
the
20th
century,
not
much
had
changed.
Spain
was
actually
still
alive
in
the
Middle
Ages.
In
agriculture
there
was
hardly
any
mechanization
and
there
was
industry,
but
only
sparsely
in
the
regions
of
Catalonia
and
the
Basque
Country.
The
army
also
had
a
high
status
and
you
can
count
yourself
among
the
elite.
The
army
had
grown
somewhat
out
of
its
strength: At one point there was one officer for every five soldiers.
But
in
the
1920s
it
started
to
heat
up
in
Spain,
there
was
social
unrest
because
the
common
people
couldn't
take
it
anymore.
This
has
been
going
on
for
some
time
in
other
countries.
At
the
end
of
the
19th
century,
many
things
had
already
changed
in
the
social
field
in
various
western
countries
such
as
the
United
Kingdom
and
the
Netherlands.
Also
think
of
the
Russian
revolution
in 1917, where the population no longer took it.
Socialism,
communism
and
anarchism
began
to
take
root
in
Spain.
Communism
not
least
because
it
sent
Stalin's
Russia
people
to
Spain
to
gain
and
exercise
influence.
Stalin
made
good
use
of
the
social
unrest
and
would
be
pleased
if
his
influence
in
Spain
would
become
great.
That
country
could
become
a
kind
of
satellite
state.
Controlling
access
to
and
from
the
Mediterranean Sea will certainly have played a role there.
On
communism
and
anarchism.
At
least
the
two
are
fundamentally
different.
While
communism
requires
a
central
government,
anarchism
completely
lacks
this.
Everyone
has
an
equal
say.
There
is,
of
course,
much
more
to
say
about this.
The
ever-present
urge
to
become
independent
began
to
play
a
role
again
in
the
regions
of
Catalonia,
Galicia
and
the
Basque
Country.
After
all,
there
are
always
people
who
use
anxiety
to
make
themselves
look
better.
Spain
may
be
geographically
one
country,
but
as
far
as
the
different
regions
are
concerned,
it
is
not.
It
is
a
collection
of
countries
with
often
a
very
different
culture
and
mentality. It has always been and still is.
In
2017,
Catalonia
once
again
declared
its
independence
and
once
again
the
government
in
Madrid
took
strong
action.
Whether
you
agree
or
not,
it's
understandable
from
the
government's
side.
If
one
were
to
accept
that
independence,
the
Basque
Country,
for
example,
would
also
seize
the
opportunity, perhaps following the Catalan example.
In
1931,
Spain
changed
from
a
monarchy
under
King
Alfonso
XIII
to
a
parliamentary
democracy.
It
was
known
as
the
2nd
Republic.
The
1st
was
from
1872
to
1874.
It
turned
out
to
be
a
total
failure
and
the
country
became
a kingdom again.
In
1931,
King
Alfonso
XIII
was
expelled
and
went
into
exile
in
Portugal.
According
to
some
accounts,
he
left
because
he
was
said
to
have
been
"afraid
of
plunging
Spain
into
civil
war".
Free
elections
took
place
and
a
left-wing
socialist government came to power. A lot changed...
-
the
church
had
to
pay
its
priests
itself
from
then
on.
Education
was
taken
away from the church (within two months 10,000 new schools opened).
- civil marriage was introduced, divorce was now allowed.
- women were given the right to vote.
- landowners had their land taken and given to agricultural labourers.
-
the
army
was
reorganized.
Some
8,000
officers
were
sent
home.
While
retaining their income, they were afraid of an uprising.
Spain
had
to
become
a
modern
socialist
state.
All
this
happened
in
a
period
of
two
years,
at
least
as
far
as
it
worked.
Far
too
soon,
the
elite
resisted
fiercely.
In
1932,
General
Sanjurjo
staged
a
coup
attempt
that
failed.
We
will
come
across
this
general
again
later
as
one
of
the
initiators
of
the
1936
uprising.
Incidentally,
Sanjuro
received
a
very
angry
letter
from
Franco
about
that
attempted
coup;
yes,
the
same
one
who
later
led
the
Spanish
Civil
War
and
came to power as a dictator.
In
1933
new
elections
had
to
be
held
and
that
resulted
in
a
right-wing
conservative
government.
But
the
unrest
only
grew.
More
churches
were
burned,
more
clergy
raped,
tortured
and
murdered.
As
well
as
landowners
who
were
lynched
in
revenge.
Political
assassinations
were
the
order
of
the
day. One strike followed another.
In
1934,
Catalonia
declared
itself
independent,
again
and
again,
and
like
all
other
times,
with
a
heavy
blow
by
Madrid.
The
Basque
Country
was
given
extensive autonomy, even had its own money for a year in 1935.
Also
in
1934,
a
strike
broke
out
among
miners
in
the
Asturias
region,
on
Spain's
northern
coast.
That
strike
was
brutally
broken,
directed
by,
there
he
is
again,
Franco.
Soldiers
from
Spanish
Morocco
also
took
part
in
crushing
the
strike,
soldiers
who
played
a
decisive
part
in
Franco's
victory
in
the
eventual
Spanish
Civil
War.
That
breaking
of
the
strike
ultimately
cost
around
1,600
people's lives.
Spain was falling apart!
Franco
Alfonso XIII