Spanish Civil War: A Visual History

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) began on 17-18 July 1936 with a military rising against the Popular Front government of the Second Republic. General Franco flew the Army of Africa to the mainland in German and Italian aircraft and by November stood at the gates of Madrid, which held with Soviet tanks and the International Brigades. Nationalists took the north in 1937 (Guernica was bombed by the Condor Legion), cut the Republic in two at Vinaroz in 1938, and defeated the last Republican offensive at the Ebro; Barcelona fell in January 1939 and Madrid on 28 March. About 500,000 died in battle, bombing, and terror on both sides, and Franco's executions and camps continued for years; he ruled until 1975.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Spanish Civil War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Foreign fighters

Timeline of the Spanish Civil War

1. 1936
   Rising; Alcazar; siege of Madrid beginsJuly to November.
2. 1937
   Guadalajara; Guernica; May Days; the north falls
3. 1938
   Teruel; Vinaroz; the Ebro
4. 1939
   Catalonia falls; Madrid surrenders; Franco's victory1 April.

The rising and Madrid

Five years of polarised Republic, land and church conflicts, the 1934 Asturias rising and the Popular Front's election in February 1936 preceded the generals' plot; the murder of the monarchist Calvo Sotelo on 13 July was the trigger. The rising succeeded in Old Castile, Navarre, Galicia and Seville but failed in Madrid, Barcelona and the industrial north, where workers' militias took over and revolutionary terror killed clergy and landowners; Nationalist columns shot thousands, notably at Badajoz. Franco relieved the Alcazar of Toledo, became Generalissimo and head of state, and attacked Madrid in November; 'No pasaran' held with the first Brigades and Soviet arms while the Republic's government fled to Valencia.

1937: the north and the internal war

Italian troops were beaten at Guadalajara in March, but Mola and the Condor Legion took the Basque country, bombing Guernica on 26 April; Bilbao fell in June, Santander and Asturias by October, giving Franco the north's industry. Republican offensives at Brunete and Belchite failed. In Barcelona the May Days of 1937 saw communists crush the anarchists and POUM (Orwell's Homage to Catalonia describes it); Negrin's government relied ever more on Moscow, and Nationalist Spain unified the Falange and Carlists under Franco.

Teruel, the Ebro and the end

The Republic took Teruel in the winter of 1937-1938 and lost it; the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean at Vinaroz in April 1938, cutting Catalonia off. The Ebro offensive of July-November 1938 was the war's longest and bloodiest battle and ended in Republican defeat as Munich showed no help was coming; the Brigades were withdrawn. Catalonia fell in January-February 1939 and half a million refugees crossed into France. Casado's coup in Madrid against Negrin sought terms; Franco took the capital on 28 March and declared victory on 1 April. Britain and France had recognised him in February.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)
• Nazi Germany (1933 to 1945)
• Italian Empire (1882 to 1947)
• Soviet Union (USSR) (1922 to 1991)
• Third Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)

Wars of the same era and region

• World War II (1939 to 1945)
• Carlist Wars (1833 to 1876)
• Cristero War (1926 to 1929)
• Cold War (1947 to 1991)
• Algerian War (1954 to 1962)
• World War I (1914 to 1918)

8 surprising things about the Spanish Civil War

1. Guernica, bombed on market day by German and Italian planes, inspired Picasso's mural for the Paris exhibition of 1937.
2. The International Brigades drew about 35,000 volunteers from 50 countries, including George Orwell, who was shot through the throat.
3. Franco's airlift of the Army of Africa in Ju-52s was the first major military airlift in history.
4. The Republic sent 510 tonnes of gold, the fourth largest reserve in the world, to Moscow to pay for arms; it never came back.
5. Ernest Hemingway covered the war and wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls; Robert Capa's 'Falling Soldier' photograph came from it.
6. The Nationalists' Moroccan troops, fighting for a Catholic crusade, were among Franco's most effective units.
7. The Non-Intervention Committee in London, joined by Germany and Italy while they intervened, was widely mocked as a farce.
8. Franco's Valley of the Fallen, built partly by prisoners, held his tomb until his exhumation in 2019.

Sources

• Spanish Civil War Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Spanish Civil War Wikipedia
• Spanish Civil War World History Encyclopedia
• Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge (2006) Harper Perennial

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