Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sets out to redress this imbalance by tracing the important role played by Spanish medical personnel, particularly surgeons, in the development and organisation of their own medical services during the conflict. It examines the surgical and hospital care of Franco's Moroccan troops. Although this book is concerned primarily with the medical history of the conflict, it also seeks to explore these developments within national, European and international (extra-national) contexts, which thus by definition involves an examination of the conflict itself. The complex relationship between propaganda and medicine not only informs on developments in the field of blood transfusion early in the conflict, it is also at the heart of its wider analysis.