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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (HFORHIST)
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Until the 1930s Spain had been a monarchy for centuries, except
for a brief experiment as a republic in 1873-74. We can begin the
background to the Spanish Civil War with Alfonso XIII, who came to the
Spanish throne in 1902. The general verdict of historians is that he
was incompetent. In 1921, for example, 20,000 Spanish troops died in
an ill-conceived, unsuccessful offensive that he ordered against
Moroccan tribes. He subsequently disbanded Parliament and selected
Miguel Primo de Rivera as a military dictator.
Rivera established a dictatorship with Alfonso as figurehead.
Although Rivera\'s government, which held power from 1923 to 1930,
initially proved efficient and was widely favored, its popularity
later declined and finally even the army withdrew its support.
Rivera fled in January 1930, leaving Alfonso with the huge problem
of trying to run Spain with little popular support.
In the hope of avoiding civil war, Alfonso went into exile,
attempting to do so with a touch of grace by not officially
abdicating. In 1931 the Second Republic, led by a coalition of
Socialists and middle-class liberals, was formed amid enthusiasm.
But the new government tried to do too much too quickly- and often
acted unwisely. This was especially the case in matters of educational
reform and in trying to reduce the immense power of both the church
and the army.
Consequently, opposition mounted. Monarchist plots arose on behalf
of Alfonso and even on behalf of the line of Don Carlos, the
19th-century claimant to the throne. By the end of 1935,
twenty-eight governments had been formed and had fallen. The country
was close to chaos, with frequent strikes and uprisings by
self-declared autonomous governments.
The election of February 1936 gave power to the Popular Front, a
shaky mixture of Republicans, Socialists, Communists, and
Anarchists. But widescale disorder and violence continued to rack
the country. Spain had finally gained a government \"of the people,\"
but the Republic was weak and inefficient- and thus its own worst
enemy.
The situation begged for a force to bring order out of chaos and
hence was ripe for the formation and growth of fascist organizations
based on the premise of a strong central government. Principal among
the fascist groups was the Falange, begun by Jose Antonio Primo de
Rivera, the son of the previous dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera.
Many tradition-minded Spanish people, particularly the landowners
and conservative army officers, began to feel that their way of life
would be destroyed either by official government reforms or by the
general chaos of the country. They started planning to overthrow the
government.
The army made its move on July 17, 1936, charging that the
government could not keep order. It was certainly not the first
fighting in Spain. But it was the beginning of large-scale civil
war, with the lines clearly drawn.
The forces led by the army (with General Francisco Franco in charge)
were called the Nationalists or Rebels. Supporting the Nationalists
were monarchists, Carlists (monarchists who supported the claim of
descendants of Don Carlos, rather than the Bourbon line), the
wealthy upper classes, the Falange fascists, and elements of the Roman
Catholic Church.
The forces defending the Republican government were called Loyalists
or Republicans. This group included much of the working class and most
liberals, socialists, and communists.
The Spanish Civil War was a brutal conflict that included many
appalling acts of cruelty and terrorism. The Nationalist forces
often found themselves in the position of an alien invading army.
Popular sympathy was usually with the Republicans, but the support was
largely passive. One way the Nationalists tried to gain control of
people was through terror: torture, executions, and bloodletting of
all kinds. Loyalists responded with equally reprehensible
atrocities, like those described in Chapter 10 of For Whom the Bell
Tolls.
The Spanish Civil War was, in part, an international affair.
Historians have often commented that the war served as a training
ground, almost a dress rehearsal, for World War II.
Aiding the Nationalists were approximately 50,000 soldiers from
Fascist Italy, 20,000 from Portugal, and 10,000 from Nazi Germany.
These countries also provided modern war materials.
On the Republican side were Soviet soldiers, well trained and able
to assume positions of leadership, and an estimated 40,000
additional volunteers from around the globe, including the United
States. The volunteers were mostly professional soldiers for hire,
international adventurers, or persons who sympathized ideologically
with the Republicans. This last group included people like Robert
Jordan, the main character in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Some arms and equipment were sent to the Loyalists from such
countries as the Soviet Union, Mexico, and France, but this aid didn\'t
equal that provided to the Nationalists. Consequently, Nationalist
forces were nearly always better equipped.
The Nationalist rebels began by occupying the northwest and the
southern tip of Spain and gradually linked these two areas. From there
they executed a pincer movement: down from the north, up from the
south, and toward the Mediterranean coast in the east.
By the spring of 1937, when For Whom the Bell Tolls takes place, the
Nationalists were making serious inroads in Republican-controlled
territory. Madrid, the Spanish capital, was held by the Republicans
but was constantly under siege. The guerrilla camp depicted by
Hemingway in the novel was behind Nationalist lines, about sixty miles
from Madrid. It was also during this time, on April 26, that Nazi
German airplanes bombed the Basque town of Guernica, killing more than
1600 civilians. Guernica was without military importance, and the
bombing brought an international outcry of protest. The incident
also inspired one of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso\'s most vivid and
moving paintings, called Guernica, created out of his heartbreak and
rage.
Yet for all the Nationalist gains in 1937, the Republicans
remained hopeful they could win the war. Hemingway has called this
period of brave optimism \"the happiest period of our lives,\" referring
to those sympathizers and journalists who were in Spain. But less than
two years later, in March 1939, Madrid was captured by the
Nationalists, and the war was over.
The toll in human lives was immense. Nearly 110,000 people died in
battles and air raids. Some 220,000 persons were murdered or executed.
About 200,000 Loyalist prisoners were shot or died of ill-treatment in
prison cells even after the Nationalist triumph. And more than 300,000
people sought exile abroad.
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