Spanish+Civil+War+Reading+Notes-Chapter+2

Spanish Civil War Chapter 2—Rebellion, revolution, and repression

Start of violence: Republican areas: Note: Territorial divisions generally favored the Republic
 * Beginning of War:**
 * Began with military coup agains the Republic on July 17, 1936 in Morocco and shortly spread to the Spain
 * The Rebels paralyzed the Republican regime but did not takeover the Spain entirely
 * Some police and the worker militia joined forces to suppress in urban, industrial Spain
 * Absence of police force and a sound judiciary system made it possible for issues to be settled on a personal level, causing inane criminal acts to occur in the behavior of revolutionary justice
 * Aerial bombardment triggered acts of violence as well, and rumors of mass shootings in rebel territory spread
 * Republican violence was directed toward the Rebels attempt at restoring “old power”
 * The mass Catholic party (CEDA) and the Falange, on the side of the Rebels, “unleashed a savage repression that happened from the outset” on all parts of Rebel Spain
 * This turned into a 'culture war;' their belief that Spain needed to “be purged or purified” opening the door to “mass murder”
 * Backbone of violence was the abolition of the other forces
 * Republican forces killed to achieve 'tabula rosa'
 * Rebel forces killed to cleanse the polluted population
 * Included numerous assassinations of authors, vigilantes, and other groups labeled as a threat to the Rebels
 * Geography of war:**
 * Urban Centers--Rebellion failed in areas with widespread Republican reform support and in progressive areas
 * Catalonia and Valencia (regions in the countryside)
 * Madrid (center of communication and gold reserves in Spain)
 * Caused for the control of industry

Rebel areas: Note: No area of Spain was entirely conservative
 * Seville--General Queipo de Llano combated a labour movement
 * Majority of the countryside--area with thousands of landless peasants, caused for the coup to generally fail, thus favoring the Rebels
 * Rural, smallholding center-north and northwest Spain--areas with returned conservative majorities in the February 1936 election
 * Small villages where people felt the need for support from the Rebels
 * //No// collapse of police or public order
 * Wide use of terror


 * International Intervention: Aid to the Rebels**
 * Received planes from Hitler and Mussolini to transport crack troop (Foreign Legion and the Army of Africa)
 * Both dictators wanted to shorten the way by aiding a quick Rebel victory
 * Fighting force of Moroccan mercenaries (Africanistas)
 * A group headed by Francisco Franco
 * Rebel expansion of power:**
 * Created order by terror in occupied areas
 * The Rebel repression was able to annihilate home as a safe place
 * People believed if they could return home, to their place of origin, they could escape the fall-out of political divisions
 * But most civilian deaths by the Rebels occurred because they returned home
 * In 'rebel-held' south, there was “systematic brutality, torture and rape of women”
 * Rebels conquered villages as if they were carrying out a colonial conquest against “insubordinate indigenous people”
 * Franco noted: “the need to annihilate all resistance in occupied zones”
 * The Catholic Church legitimized the coups