Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
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- Wikipedia, "Spanish Civil War."
| Nacionales — rebels | Republicans — elected in 1933 |
|---|---|
| Generalissimo Francisco Franco (dictator) | |
| "Right-wing": supported by Nazi Germany, Kingdom of Italy, and Portugal. Some monarchists? Supported by Italy and Germany. | Reds, socialists: supported by Soviet Union and Mexico. |
| Anti-Communist, "Christian civilization," Catholic | Secular and anti-Catholic; banned the Jesuits in 1931; killed clergy and laity; some anarchists |
| "Nacionales" (Nationalists), "Francoists," "Fascists" | "Loyales" (Loyalists), "the Popular Front," "the Government," "the reds" |
| People's Republican Army | |
| White terror: 200,000 deaths ("limpieza," cleaning up; 20 Protestant ministers murdered; 22,000 Basques) | Red terror: 38,000 (including many clerics) |
| George Orwell fought on behalf of the Republicans. |
- What people in Spain forget today is that Franco, despite the human rights abuses at the time of the Civil War, single-handedly preserved the union of Spain as a single entity. In his absence, Spain could quite possibly have disintegrated into several entities - Andalusia, Basque Country, Aragon, Galicia, Asturias, Catalonia and Canary Islands. He kept Adolf Hitler at a distance and ensured that Spain never entered the Second World War. To Franco's credit, he restored the constitutional monarchy with Juan Carlos II - grandson of King Alfonso XIII - when he named him as the next head of State in 1969, and Spain eventually returned to a democratic form of government.