Introduction

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Spain has suffered a series of civil wars of which that of the 1930s – to all outside Spain the Civil War – is the most recent and certainly the most crippling in terms of simple human and material loss. Fundamentally Spanish in origin, these were wars between town and country, between constitutionalists and Carlists, between new and old Spain. Sometimes, as in the wars of the 1830s or 1930s, foreigners were drawn in to what were essentially domestic conflicts between Spaniards with differing visions of Spain. The war of 1936–39 fell within this long, unhappy tradition: it was fought with the ferocity of Carlist* wars, and, on the Nationalist side, with the banners and slogans of Old Castile, defending herself against the new insidious poison of Marxism. The Church and the Catholic middle class fought the war as a crusade against godless ideas threatening the true quality of Spanish life and they rallied enthusiastically behind the army leaders who raised their standard in a traditional pronunciamiento* On both sides the war began with a simple panoply of ideas: defence of the Republic pitted against a call to restore public order. In Europe, the Spanish war was quickly confused with the fascist challenge to democracy, and Spanish problems were interpreted in European terms; yet, in fact, the breakdown had peculiarly Spanish causes. Indeed, it might almost be seen as a consequence of Spain’s failure to become a mature state rather than as evidence of her involvement with the major European conflicts of the 1930s. In the view of one Spanish historian, Carlos Rama [18], the Civil War resulted from Spain’s failure to create a state which could command at least the allegiance, and perhaps even the lukewarm support, of its citizens.