The Two Sides in the Spanish Civil War (For Sorting Activity)

Jose Maria Gil Robles

(1898 -1980) Was a right-wing journalist who supported the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and opposed the Second Republic. He formed CEDA in 1933, which was basically antidemocratic and supported Franco. He was forced to dissolve his party in 1937, and he played little part in post-war Spain.

Francisco Caballero

A Spanish politician and trade unionist. He was one of the historic leaders of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and of the Workers' General Union (UGT). In 1936 and 1937 Caballero served as the Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War.

Falange

A fascist (right wing) movement in Spain founded in 1933 by Primo de Rivera. It was an idealistic mix of Christian nationalism and an alternative to communism for the working classes. It attracted a great deal of intellectual support, and its members were fervent opponents of the Republic.

Catalonia

A region in northeast Spain, controlled by the anarchist and socialist trade unions, parties, and militias during the Spanish Civil War.

Condor Legion

A unit composed of volunteers from the German Air Force and from the German Army which served with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War of July 1936 to March 1939.

Foreign Brigades

Aka International Brigades: They were paramilitary units set up by the Comintern to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. The organisation existed for two years, from 1936 until 1938. Between 32,000 and 35,000 members served in the International Brigades, including 15,000 who died in combat; however there were never more than 20,000 brigade members present on the front line at one time.

Alfonso XIII of Spain

Assumed power in 1902. In January 1930, due to economic problems and general unpopularity. The King had so closely associated with the Primo de Rivera dictatorship that it was difficult for him to distance himself from the regime he had supported for almost 7 years. In April 1931, even the army was not loyal. On 12 April, the republican parties won a landslide victory in municipal elections. The municipal elections were fought as a virtual referendum on the future of the monarchy. On 14 April, he fled the country as the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed, but did not formally abdicate. He settled eventually in Rome.

United Kingdom

Britain allowed the Nationalists to use Gibraltar as a base of Nationalist communication and traded with the Nationalists.

left-wing Republicans (Spanish Civil War)

Communists, Socialists, Liberals, Anarcho-Syndicalists, Basques, Catalans, Marxists, and republicans (duh)

Jose Primo de Rivera

Creator of the Falange. Dictator of Spain between first and second republics of Spain. (1923 to 1930) Son of Miguel. He ruled Spain during the 1920's. His "republican" government enacted a series of social, political, and economic reforms and abolished the monarchy. Overthrown to establish the second republic.

FNTT, Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de la Tierra

FNTT The socialist-led peasant workers' union of the National Federation of Land Workers.

Second Republic

Form of government that existed in Spain from 1931 to 1939.

Miguel Primo de Rivera

General and statesman who, as dictator of Spain from September 1923 to January 1930, founded an authoritarian and nationalistic regime that attempted to unify the nation around the motto "Country, Religion, Monarchy."

Germany

Germany contributed military advisors, aid, and heavy air support with the Condor Legion to Spain + military advisors.

Abraham Lincoln Brigades

Group of US volunteers who served in the Spanish Civil War as soldiers, technicians, medical personnel and aviators fighting for Spanish Republican forces against the forces of General Francisco Franco and his Spanish rebel faction. Of 3,015 American volunteers, 681 were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness

anti-clericalism

Hostility to organised religion, particularly to the Catholic Church, which was common in Europe in the 19th century and sometimes encouraged by governments. Otto von Bismarck led a campaign in Germany against the church in the 1870s, and laws were passed against the church in France in 1902-05. In Spain, the new Republic passed anti-clerical measures between 1931 and 1933.

George Orwell

In December 1936, Orwell went to Spain as a fighter for the Republicans. He did not join the International Brigade as most leftist did , but the little known Marxist POUM .In conversation with Philip Mairet, editor of New English Weekly, Orwell said: 'This fascism ... somebody's got to stop it'.To Orwell, liberty and democracy went together, guaranteeing, among other things, the freedom of the artist; the present capitalist civilization was corrupt, but fascism would be morally calamitous.Later he became disillusioned with communism and socialism. He wrote 'Homage to Catalonia' and "Animal Farm' as a response to his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.

Italy

Italy traded with the Nationalists, kept their supply routes open, prevented sea-trade with the Republican side with their submarines, combat-tested their new air force and ground units, and donated 75,000 troops to aid the Nationalists. Italy kept Nationalist trade routes in the Mediterranean open.

Braceros

Landless men and lived hard and miserable lives. At most times up till the civil War there were 2,5 million of them. The problem of the latifundia was once described by one historian as 'that cancer of Spanish society, then unwieldy, uneconomic estates of the great landowner'

CNT

National Confederation of Labour. A revolutionary, anarchist organization during the Spanish Civil War, they directly opposed Fascism and worked with the POUM militia until propaganda surfaced and led them away from unification. Left Side. (1919-1943)

Civil Guard

Nationalist police

El Caudillo

Nick name for Franco, meaning 'strongman'. Compare to Il Duce, Fuhrer or Great Helmsman

Africanistas

Officers of the Spanish Army who made their careers by serving in the Moroccan colonial wars (Rif War 1921 - 1926).

Portugal

Portugal donated 20,000 troops and allowed their border cities to be used as a base of Nationalist communication.

Manuel Azaña

Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1933 and 1936) and the last President of the Republic (1936-1939). Leader of Popular Front

Manuel Azana

Radical left Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic, anti-religious, influenced greatly by communism and the soviet union. His government introduced measures that transferred right-wing military leaders such as Francisco Franco to posts outside Spain, he outlawed the Falange Española and granted Catalonia political and administrative autonomy.

right-wing Nationalists (Spanish Civil War)

Rich, army, high command, Church, landowners, monarchists(Pro King/Queen), fascist party (Falange), Carlists (Pro King/Queen), CEDA(Church)

Calvo Sotelo

Right Wing Leader of the Nationalist; executed by leftist death squad which for Spain's generals justifies military intervention, which then sparked the Civil War

Popular Front

Spain's Second Republic: An electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organizations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election.

CEDA (Confederatión Espanola De Derechas Autónomas)

Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right. A Catholic conservative force, thought it was a defence of the principles of Christian civilization and as an organisation, formed to protect religion, family, and property. Founded by José Maria Gil Robles on 28th February, 1933 out of a collection of small right-wing parties opposed to the policies of Manuel Azaña and his Republican government.

Francisco Franco

Spanish general (right wing, conservative, militaristic, monarchist, catholic) whose armies took control of Spain in 1939 and who ruled as a dictator until his death (1892-1975)

Carlists

Supported the claim of the descendants of Don Carlos (the uncle of Queen Isabella II) to the throne of Spain. They wanted a return to a "traditionalist" ultra-Catholic monarchy.

FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica)

The Iberian Anarchist Federation is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants

The Vatican

The Nationalists had support from the Pope and the Vatican.

US

The Nationalists were able to trade with Britain and the U.S.

Bourbon

The Spanish royal family from the 18th century were a branch of the French Bourbon family after the last Habsburg ruler of Spain died childless. The present king is a member of the Bourbon family.

Texaco Oil and General Motors

The U.S. allowed Texaco Oil and General Motors to trade with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. This gave the Nationalists an additional advantage.

Second Republic

The republican regime that existed in Spain from 1931 to 1939, preceded by the Bourbon Restoration and followed by Francoist Spain after the Spanish Civil War

The Asturian miners' strike of 1934

This event was a major strike action, against the entry of the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) into the Spanish government on October 6, which took place in Asturias in northern Spain, that developed into a revolutionary uprising. It was crushed by the Spanish Navy and the Spanish Republican Army, the latter using mainly Moorish troops from Spanish Morocco. Francisco Franco controlled the movement of the troops, aircraft, warships and armoured trains used in the crushing of the revolution.

anarchism

This is a belief associated in the 19th century with the Russian thinker Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76). It rejected the need for disciplined revolutionary organisation and looked to a working-class revolution which would bring an end to state rule and usher in government by the people. Anarchism was particularly influential on the Spanish revolutionary movement.

Marxism and socialism

This was the belief based on the writings of the German theorist Karl Marx (1818-83) that all human history was the history of class struggle. The workers were bound to take over and dominate the state, and their rule would bring true social justice and the destruction of capitalism and the ruling class who owed their wealth to exploitation. Socialist groups and parties had spread across Europe by the 1880s.

Rebels

Those opposing or taking arms against a government or ruler

UGT, The Unión General de Trabajadores

UGT. This was a trade union initially founded by the Barcelona printing workers in 1888, which supported republicanism and socialism. It led a general strike in 1909, was responsible for the first trade union member being elected to parliament, and had 100,000 members by 1913.

Latifundia

Very large farms which were worked using a feudal system. The rich owned all the land and poor labourers earned their living by hiring themselves out by the day, month or season. In Seville in the nineteenth century, for example, 5 percent of people owned 72 percent of the province's farming land.

POUM

Workers' Party of Marxist Unification. Spanish communist political party.

Fascism

a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

Revolutionaries

a person who advocates or engages in political revolution. In Spain, revolutionaries were the ones who fought against the Nationalists and were in favour of the Republic, although there was a lot of in-fighting amongst the revolutionaries about which particular style of revolution and society was going to be implemented.

anarcho-syndicalism

a theory of anarchism which views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and, with that control, influence broader society.

Popular Front

an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political dudes. The USSR gave its support. There were many divisions within the Popular Front itself, this ultimately proved to be a weakness for them against the more united Nationalist forces.

Insurgents

people who rebel against their government

Comintern

purpose was to encourage world-wide revolution, also called the Communist international. Founded by Lenin.