THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 1936–1939 term paper

The 1936 election of a Popular Front government (a coalition of democrats, socialists, and the revolutionary left) in Spain produced a turn to violence on the part of those who opposed the republic and its government. Spaniards divided between supporters of the new Popular Front government on the one hand and those who called themselves the Nationalists (drawn from the army, the Catholic Church, large landowners, and Spanish Fascists) on the other.

The Nationalists began the Spanish Civil War on 18 July 1936 with a revolt by Spanish army troops in Spanish Morocco. With transport planes from Fascist Italy, General Francisco Franco, the leader of the Nationalist forces, brought the troops to Spain. Aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany was crucial to the Spanish Nationalist cause. The Spanish Republic received help from the Soviet Union, Mexico, and the volunteers who made up the International Brigades. The British and the French sponsored the Non-Intervention Agreement, which all the European powers signed but only Britain and France actually abided by.

The Spanish Civil War gave permission, as it were, to thousands of Spanish anarchists and syndicalists to act on radical demands. The revolutionary left among the Spanish Republicans wanted to use the emergency to advance revolution in the form of industrial and agricultural collectives and decentralized administration. Officials from the Communist International (Comintern) worked to maintain a broad coalition of republicans, socialists, and communists and to keep the focus on winning the war. Behind the Comintern, of course, stood the Soviet Union, in this period supporting the idea of collective security against fascism. Aid furnished by the Soviet Union served to counter the assistance given the Nationalists by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, but at the same time hostility to radical tendencies doomed the revolutionary aspects of the Republican effort in the civil war. The Spanish Civil War provoked tremendous controversy. Supporters of the Spanish Republic regarded the civil war as a contest between democracy and fascism. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, and André Malraux and artists such as Pablo Picasso supported the Spanish Republic. Supporters of the Spanish Nationalists regarded their cause as a crusade against godless communism. In the end, the response of the great powers made the difference. The Nationalist victory ended any thought of revolution or even reform in Spain for the next three decades.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. A Popular Front government was elected in France as well as Spain in 1936. Compare the leading personalities and the histories of the two Popular Front governments. In particular, comment on why the French Popular Front government initially came to the aid of the Spanish Republic, then turned to the idea of a Non-Intervention Agreement. Begin with Eugen Weber, The Hollow Years (see Suggested Sources).
2. What kind of career did General Francisco Franco have before the Spanish Civil War? Why was he chosen to lead the Spanish Nationalist forces?
3. Investigate the history of anarchism in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and before. How might one account for the popularity of anarchism in Spain in the 1930s?
4. A large number of writers and artists rallied to the cause of the Spanish Republicans. Trace the activities of one or more and read or view some of the works inspired by the Spanish Civil War.
5. Examine the roles played in the Spanish Civil War by the Communist International (Comintern) and the Soviet Union. In particular, pay close attention to connections between the Comintern and the Soviet Union.
6. The Spanish Nationalists received essential aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Also, the Falange, generally considered a fascist organization, played a large role in Spanish Nationalist politics. To what extent might one consider the Nationalists and General Franco to be fascists? Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Nazi ‘Seizure of Power’ in 1933” (#24), “Kita Ikki and Ultranationalism in Japan, 1936–1937” (#27), and “The Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939” (#32). Search under Manuel Azana, GUERNICA, Federico Garcia Lorca, Barcelona, and Madrid.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia. London: Gollanz, 1938. Orwell’s finest book. An account of his experiences in the International Brigades.

The Spanish Earth [Videotape]. 60 minutes, bw. A 1937 documentary film by Joris Ivens, with participation by Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Orson Welles, and Lillian Hellman, among others.

Secondary Sources

Bolloten, Burnett. The Spanish Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979. A devastating attack on communist involvement in the war. Originally published as The Grand Camouflage.

Brenan, Gerald. The Spanish Labyrinth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1943. A classic examination of Spain that places the Spanish Civil War in broad historical context.

Carr, Raymond. The Civil War in Spain. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986. Perceptive and insightful. Published earlier under the title The Spanish Tragedy (1977).

Cattell, David T. Communism and the Spanish Civil War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1955. An older but still useful study of this crucial topic.

Ellwood, Sheelagh. Franco. London: Longwood, 1994. A brief but solid biography of the Spanish leader.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Fifth Column: And Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War. New York: Scribner, 1969. Hemingway’s play about the battle for Madrid.
Large, David Clay. Between Two Fires: Europe’s Path in the 1930s. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991. Contains a very readable and informative chapter on the bombing of Guernica in 1937, one of the most controversial episodes of the Spanish Civil War.

Malraux, André. Man’s Hope. New York: Random House, 1938. An important fictional treatment of the Spanish Civil War by a committed supporter of the Spanish Republic.

Payne, Stanley G. The Spanish Revolution. New York: W. W. Norton, 1970. Excellent on the revolutionary left before and during the Spanish Civil War.

Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1986. An excellent introduction.

Stansky, Peter, and William Abraham. Journey to the Frontier: Two Roads to the Spanish Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. An account of two talented and privileged British students, Julian Bell and John Cornford, who went to Spain to defend the republic. Both died in the war.

Thomas, Hugh. The Spanish Civil War. New York: Harper and Row, 1961. Very long and most readable. A classic account.

Weber, Eugen. The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994. A highly readable account by as leading historian of France.

World Wide Web

“Spanish Civil War: The Posters of the Spanish Revolution.” http://burn.ucsd.edu.scwtable.htm. An introduction and twenty-five posters from the Spanish Civil War.
———. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Scribner, 1940. One of Hemingway’s best known novels, the romantic account of the experiences of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.

Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Edited by James W. Cortada. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982. A useful reference work.