How Did The Spanish Civil War Begin? | The Spanish Civil War Ep1 | Our History

[Music] oh [Music] um [Music] this was the town of belchitte in spain when the spanish civil war ended in 1939 it was left in its ruins to serve as a memorial to the devastation of spain in one of the most savage civil conflicts europe has ever seen [Music] the civil war lasted from 1936 to 1939 it cost perhaps half a million lives it ruined cities towns and villages for some the victors it was a crusade against godless revolution for others the defeated it was a struggle against the forces of reaction that had oppressed spain for generations [Music] the spanish civil war still haunts the world's imagination many came to see it as the prelude to the second world war the first battle between democracy and fascism thousands of volunteers came to fight and die in a foreign land for ideals they believed to be their own but the spanish knew that the war had spanish causes [Music] it was after all their country that was ruined their history that exploded forty years on the dictatorship has dissolved and the survivors can speak more freely they can question some of the myths they can evoke something of what they saw and understood during the spanish civil war [Music] on july 17 1936 a group of army officers rebelled against the government of the spanish republic workers took up arms to fight the rising and what began as a military coup led to almost three years of civil war for both sides political opponents became enemies to be hunted down and killed the republic nina bonita the beautiful girl five years before the civil war joyful demonstrations throughout spain agree to the proclamation of the republic [Music] [Applause] the monarchy had fallen without violence to the crowds the republic meant that spain had broken through to the 20th century to progress to a long delayed victory for social and economic change it was an april day spring like it was a mild day with sunshine so we walked and there were huge throngs of people in lorries the few cars that they were in those days in trams [Music] and then unexpectedly unsurprisingly republican flags appeared everywhere nobody knew where so many had come from [Music] while the crowds rejoiced king alfonso was spending his final hours in the royal palace only weeks before he had led the solemn palms and his ceremonies unaware that the monarchy was doomed over the years one part of spanish society after another had lost faith in the monarchy the middle class despised alfonso xiii for tolerating a seven-year military dictatorship the ruling classes now fear the king can no longer protect them and for the workers out on the streets that day the monarchy was the clamp holding an oppressive system together two days before on april the 12th royalist parties were heavily defeated in local elections suddenly the king understood his own isolation while spain rejoiced he went unresisting into exile the king was replaced by a government of mostly middle class liberals are their plans for an advanced democracy without a step with history elsewhere in europe liberalism was weakened by economic depression poisoned by dictatorship the government was releasing huge forces in this tightly repressed society the class hatreds of the agrarian poor and of the rapidly growing working class yet these republican optimists and their socialist allies thought that orderly reforms would soon transform the nation was a member of that first republican government of 1931. there was this feeling of freedom for many years publications had been subject to censorship and academic freedom had been restricted now there was a general trend towards freedom and also new laws to create a social and economic order that would be more just and more egalitarian the farm laborers and the industrial workers underpaid almost unprotected and frequently unemployed hoped that the republic would immediately end exploitation and break the part of the old ruling classes artiso hudian was a young socialist at the time the birth of the republic brought great hope among the working class that their aspirations would be satisfied that was the main feeling among industrial workers and peasants for centuries peasants had long to own land industrial workers wanted their union rights recognized the right to strike to a fair salary so here were all these social and economic problems that had to be solved the arrival of a democratic regime of the republic meant so much for a vast majority of workers the hope that all these aspirations would come true for many the republic seemed already the revolution but the republic's leaders knew that under the new political surface the pillars of the old society remained untouched a powerful and deeply conservative church hostile to change an army accustomed to having the last word in politics a possessing class determined to defend his privileges southern spain above all was an area of bigger states rich landowners many were hated by the landless farm neighbors nearly three-quarters of a million of them for whom daily survival was a struggle on the one side there was a huge number of impoverished laborers and on the other a few landowners and this meant tremendous humiliation to the point where laborers here were hired as though they were cattle in the market it was virtual slavery because there were no fixed wages they paid what they wanted to pay in many families children went to bed hungry because you didn't get paid enough you weren't paid enough for the subsistence knew that democracy might collapse if land was not divided more justly but its complicated cautious reforms disappointed farm workers while alarming the landlords well the main reason was that the republic right from the very start was totally opposed to rural property it campaigned against rural property you see under the republic more and more people believed in the slogan neither property that's how it really was at the time so it's quite natural that landowners would resist this it's quite understandable so the republican propaganda about land reform raised a lot of interest in immediate support so much so that they then tried to grab land well they not only tried they did occupy land the landless poor were impatient to take over the fields that the republic hesitated to give them was there a chance for gradual change without violence one land reform official jose vergara was soon disillusioned i believe that it is impossible to carry out an agrarian reform without a revolution which dismantles the existing political and social structures in a country where the land is owned by a small group of people who constitute an influential social sector you have to fight for the land you will not be given it voluntarily in the same way that those who do not have land fight for it those who possess it fight to preserve the turmoil in the countryside challenged the fabric of society and the church farm workers like the urban poor often saw the priest as the ally of the landowner or the factory owner [Music] but the church still held the respect of the rich and powerful and of many humble spaniards as well there was as much reverence as there was hatred it was said that spaniards always follow their priests with a candle or with a club but anti-clericalism a fanatical determination to break the hold of the catholic church over society united liberal republicans and socialists alike it was a principle on which the republic refused to compromise less than a month after the proclamation of the republic this resentment against the church erupted in violence following a riot outside a royalist club mob set fire to half a dozen convents in madrid [Music] those were the churches where we had gone to mass had our first communion and been baptized yes the day the convents were burnt was terrible full of sadness and anguish our feelings were aggravated by the knowledge that it was being condoned nothing was done to stop it the mobs were burning churches and convents and nobody intervened it was a terribly sad day as the convents were burned and looted the police stood by and watched manuela tanya then minister of war said that day that all the churches in spain were not worth one republican life words like these were never forgotten all forgiven nearly half the population was illiterate the republican government set about building a non-religious state education system the church's hold of our minds was to be broken in the first years of the republic nearly 10 000 schools were opened [Music] soon the republic was taking art and culture to every corner of spain was part of this offensive the spanish intellectuals were eager to act as the republic's missionaries of enlightenment federico garcia loca poet and playwright took the theater to remote villages [Music] in calderon's classic life is a dream locker play the part of the shadow he was to be one of the civil war's first victims [Music] this cultural upsurge also gave fresh energy to regions which felt themselves distinct from the rest of spain [Music] catalonia and the basque country above all retained a proud awareness of their own histories since the turn of the century their demand for self-government had grown louder and angrier as a student marcel giroux supported the catalan autonomous movement in the past catalonia had been an independent nation we have a tradition of language customs and culture very distinct from the rest of spain it's different at many levels since the proclamation of the republic on april the 14th 1931 we'd been longing for these freedoms to be restored to catalonia like the basques the catalans were more industrialized and prosperous in the rest of the country yet they have been stifling under the backwood over centralized rule of madrid barcelona the catalan capital was the center of a thriving textile industry and a huge port the republic soon granted catalonia home rule the catalans were encouraged to assert their national identity even more strongly an army officer manuel dieth alegria was among those who feared that home rule would lead to the breakup of the spanish state catalans made silly mistakes such as bothering people who went to catalonia telling visitors that they had to speak catalan things like that all this created the impression that they might destroy the unity of the nation given that they didn't hesitate to proclaim their separatist motives [Music] national unity obsessed army officers spain had already lost most of its world empire in the moroccan wars of the 20s it nearly lost one of its last foreign possessions francisco franco helped to turn defeat into victory and became a general at the age of only 33. the republic planned to reform the army which was so our cake and top heavy that there was one officer to every 11 soldiers the army regarded these changes with heavy suspicion but it was a grant of self-government to catalonia which conservative officers saw the most immediate threat to the unity of the nation august 10th 1932 general san joao led an unsuccessful rising against the government sixty months earlier as commander of the police he decided not to resist the coming of the republic now his action was a warning that the loyalty of the armed forces was coming under strain was imprisoned but the government allowed him to entertain his family and supporters in madrid the government's victory over the rising was celebrated with parades and demonstrations in support of the republic [Applause] the sun jorge rising was premature the right wing and the traditional powers in spanish society were not yet ready to overthrow the republic but they detested the reforms and that alarm was growing on the left two disillusionment was spreading the hungry and endless the unemployed in the underpaid were beginning to confront the state openly one source of this left-wing opposition was anarchism gathered around its trade union the cnt born during the bloody social conflicts of barcelona in the early years of the century the cnt's creed was a narco syndicalism the belief that revolution would lead to total worker self-management [Music] although the anarchist movement had weakened in the rest of europe in spain it had prospered by 1932 the cnt claimed over one million members federica monsenia was a young anarchist leader i believe there's something different special about spaniards created by the mixture of so many different races by the history and by constant oppression by an army that has always cast its long shadow over spain by the pressure of the church and all of this has created a constant spirit of rebellion among spaniards it has driven them towards ideas of emancipation towards revolutionary concepts of society and of life when the republic was proclaimed in 1931 the anarchists declared we remain in open war with the state they rejected all governments monarchies or republics they fought for a society of equal cooperating human beings freed from the curses of private property god and bosses in spain extremes of poverty created a climate ripe for revolutionary violence in january 1933 anarchist led futile risings in several andalusian villages one of them was casas viejas [Music] the police showed the villagers no mercy prisoners were shot one house defended by anarchists was set alight and the occupants died the blame for these tragedies was put on the republican leaders the socialists decided to pull out of the government disgusted at scandals like castles viejas delaying the reforms and mounting unemployment new elections were called in 1933 the socialist left was now losing faith in the whole parliamentary system the anarchists had never believed in it anyway most of the right had not yet rejected parliamentary democracy they hope that by winning the elections they could still halt and reverse the whole tide of events a new party emerged on the right it was called the theta this was spain's first mass catholic party its leader was the ambitious young jose maria robles who would learn from the campaign style of the nazis the right wing made a supreme effort to bring out its voters it was helped by women who were voting for the first time ironically it was a liberal republic that had given them the franchise the elections of november 1933 made theta the largest party in parliament he robles became the hero of conservative spain the government shifted right the reform program slowed down or went into reverse the left was appalled behind hierobliss is suspected the shadow of fascism was waiting [Applause] foreign [Applause] by 1934 fascism was reaching out across europe in germany the nazis were crushing what opposition remained the spanish socialists were determined not to go down without a struggle they imagined there would soon be jack bruce on the streets of madrid if theda and euroblast took power when theta did join the government in october 1934 the spanish socialist decided to strike back [Applause] socrates gomez was a member of the socialist youth we felt there had been a serious regression in spanish politics and we were well aware that even without a civil war fascism could come to power in spain perhaps camouflage behind politicians such as hill robles and this is what led us to strike yes you must realize that this wasn't just another strike for things like wages or better working conditions this was a revolutionary strike and our aim was to overthrow the government and take power the socialists some of the work has to rise against the elected government but the insurrection was easily defeated everywhere except in the northern mining district of asturias they are the whole left for once united in rebellion socialists and anarchists communists and trotsky's seized control and declared the revolution the coal miners shut down their pits and marched out eagerly to fight for red astorias is men women it was open war against the madrid government the miners drove back local army units and murders some of their political enemies but the government now sent moroccan troops and the spanish foreign legion into the battle [Music] a fortnight after it had begun the asturias rising have been broken [Music] the fighting had ravaged towns and villages general franco hoped to plan the government campaign as the army fought its way along the australian valleys the defeated miners will show no mercy [Music] the civil guard did it and the army troops and some of the local bosses who went with them pointing out suspects they said this one nearly 2 000 people were killed in the asturias revolution some of them slaughtered in cold blood tens of thousands were marched off to prison in spain as a whole the socialist led risinger failed to get off the ground because the left could not act together but the lesson of asturian unity sank home over the next two years the left drew closer together as the government imprisoned opposition leaders and demolished their reforms in 1936 with elections approaching once more most of the left united in a popular front the anarchists did not join but supported the popular front in order to rescue their own imprisoned supporters on the right euroblast launched a noisy confident campaign he claimed that he alone stood between spain and a murderous bolshevik revolution february the 16th perding day was a turning point in the history of spain as the results came in it became clear that the popular front had won the largest block of seats the release of political prisoners began dolores iburu known as la passinaria have been elected as a communist mp for astorias so then i went to the prison the governor had run away but his deputy was there he said i haven't received any orders i replied i'm the mp for asturias i was beginning to sound very grand so i ran along the corridors of the jail shouting comrades all out all barcelona turned out for the return from prison of luis campanche catalonia's president the working-class parties refused to join the government and left republicans were now trapped between the panic of conservative spaniards and the excited hopes of the workers strikes and land seizures broke out as workers tried to win back what had been lost in the last two years as the prisoners marched out into the fresh air the wright concluded that hill robles parliamentary politics had let them down conservative hopes now followed a new star jose calvo sotelo but for some the time for parliamentary compromise had already passed thomas garret was a young conservative officer i was not a member of any political party but we felt there was no way out as hill robles wrote later peace was not possible for me this was only too true and there's something else perhaps too embarrassing to recall but that one has to admit at that time we couldn't stand each other divisions and tensions had reached such a point that even seeing a socialist not to mention a communist was the same as seeing the devil some fifteen thousand members of theo robles youth movement defected and went over to the falanke spain's own fascist party which had been founded by jose antonio prima de rivera in 1933 [Music] jose antonio insisted even to audiences outside spain that he was not just copying fascism elsewhere the movement we are initiating in spain is not a copy of any foreign movement it has learned from fascism what fascism has of the idea of unity authority and substitution of the struggles among classes by the idea of cooperation [Applause] the climate of violence allowed the phalanque to flourish jose antonio was arrested and the falanke was banned but they had helped to ensure that rioting and political murder became predictable when left and right collided while men were using fists stones bullets to settle political arguments they were also using direct action to escape from poverty on the dry hills of estra medura the patience of the farm laborers now snapped they surged out to occupy the land they had yearned for [Music] on a single day march 25th 1936 some sixty thousand landless workers took over three thousand farms revenge was in the air the landowners feared that they could lose not only their estates but their lives and there was trouble brewing in the fire in the north of spain but this time from the right the khalis were traditional monarchies whose catechism was god fatherland and king their own carlos king fanatically religious they were locked into a medieval view of the world the carlos had rebelled against a liberal monarchy in the 19th century now they were eager to overthrow this godless red republic amid the growing breakdown in lawned order some army officers resolved that they must act the government had sensed the danger and posted some of the most disaffected generals away from the mainland general franco was sent to the canary isles but general muller was unwisely posted to pamplona in the carly's country from here moller al director began the secret organization of the plot at first mala encountered reluctance among some key figures he had assigned to general franco the job of launching the rising in spanish morocco franco would take command of the moors and foreign legionaries he had led in the 1920s but franco hesitated to commit himself franco was obsessed with the danger of communism he was convinced that communism had to be stopped but he was in no harm he thought the danger wasn't so imminent and he was quite happy staying in the canary aisle it's not a nia prison [Applause] [Music] may 1st 1936 the parade was intended to show the republic's enemies that the left had overwhelming strength nago caballero whom some call the spanish lenin was the most extreme socialist leader he was now calling for a revolution that would impose the dictatorship of the proletariat her right was a terrified spark could detonate the tension during the parade the cry went up that nuns had given poison sweeps to the children crows broke away and set fire to a convent a government of the republic was fighting desperately to stave off the collapse of the state itself but the socialists still refused to join the coalition the leadership of the republic was now increasingly isolated on june 16th jose cavocitello the opposition leader proclaimed himself in favor of a strong integrated state which would end strikes lockouts starvation wages and anarchic liberty he ended by saying many call this a fascist state if it is then i who share that idea of the state and believe in it declare myself fascist in pamplona july 7 1936 brought the annual running of the bulls the festival of san fermin the crowds of visitors were good cover for mother's emissaries i received a message from a friend saying that they were all there having a good time and that i should join them as i had done in previous years this was the coded message i was expecting as the bulls plunged about the ring muller and his plotters were solving their last problems the rising had been postponed as a khalid squabbled about which flag they should march under and some army officers still refuse to betray the republic [Music] but josie antonio after complaining that muller's movement was too conservative for his radical fascism had finally promised support at last muller felt that he could go ahead i met molar and he told me everything was ready and the names of the officers who were assigned to each region franco still in the canary isles got a message to muller in the first days of july the 6th or 7th franco had sent a message to mola written on a piece of paper carried by a woman in her belt saying geography insufficient sufficient franco devious and prudent were still calculating his own chances this really upset mola he was very irritated he said franco will never get here in time it will all be delayed and the government is going to break it all up but the plan to ferry franco to morocco went ahead the search for the right ferryman ended in the home counties at croydon airport captain babe a freelance pilot was introduced to a gentleman from spain and uh he asked me if i was prepared to go to the canary islands to get a rift leader to start a an insurrection in spanish morocco what a great adventure on july 11th captain beb took off from croydon [Music] by the night of the 12th he got as far as casablanca on his way to the canary isles but it was what happened in madrid that night that unlocked the last gate to disaster it began here at the home of lieutenant jose castillo he was a left-wing officer in the assault guards the republic's own police force his life had several times been threatened by right-wing extremists it was nearly 9 30 at night castillo was leaving home to go on duty at the police station no more than a 10 minute walk [Music] [Music] he got no further than the corner news that castillo had been murdered soon reached the police station outraged his comrades demanded that all right-wing extremists should be rounded up headquarters sent them a list it was lieutenant leon lupion who gave out the names to the arrest squads there was just one van left in the corner there then number 17 fan 17 was the last to set out at three in the morning nobody knows who was on its list for arrest all that is clear is that a van arrived at the home of the leader of the opposition the right-winger jose calvo they asked him to step down to the station with questioning he promised a telephone soon to his family unless he added these gentlemen blow my brains out [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] his dead body was dumped to the gate of the east cemetery it was not the authorities who had ordered his arrest but there was no way the government could escape the blame the leader of the opposition had been assassinated in the custody of the government's own special police the calvos attila murder brought the fury of conservative spanish to its peak its timing and my lying coincidence offered the army plot must support the crucial moment it does or to wait for the disintegration to spread so that we would be more justified all those doubts disappeared within hours of the murder muller dispatched a coded telegram it read on the fifteenth last at four am helen gave birth to a beautiful child hidden here with the date time and place of the uprising july 18th at 5 am in morocco the republican government knew that spain was close to explosion but it failed to take seriously the approaching spark the military uprising the left knew all too well what was coming and the workers were already garrisoning party and trade union offices at midnight the socialist leader in deletio prieto with some of his colleagues met the prime minister kasares kiroga they begged him to arm the people but kasares thought this would fling away the last hopes of law and order he refused at dawn on july 14 captain beb took off from casablanca destination the canary isles that same morning the funerals of castillo and carlos attello took place clenched fists for castillo's coffin the straight arm fascist salute for cavo sotelo what remained a political middle ground in spain was crumbling disaster now seemed inevitable juan molina was an anarchist militant in barcelona we hadn't slept at home for several nights we were grabbing what sleep we could on floors of the union in our newspaper offices we were waiting for the inevitable investors in our newspapers we were telling our members to be prepared everybody was ready because we knew the coup was bound to come joseph tarades the catalan leader called on the prime minister but casares quiroga still refused to see what was about to happen i mean while we were chatting news arrived of army unrest in morocco there were reports that some generals were about to rise although general franco's name still wasn't being mentioned so then i told him my friend casarez i'm convinced that the army is going to rise against spanish democracy he said i'm sure it won't know could not believe the generals would go so far but on july 17 the day before it was planned the rising erupted here in malia next date spread to other times in morocco even before general frankfurt arrived to lead the army of africa the military plotters assumed that their coup d'etat would succeed swiftly the government of the republic in turn thought it was strong enough to stamp out this erratic rising [Applause] both were terribly wrong the rising spread to the mainland and the rebel generals soon control great tracks of the countryside but the workers were now at last given arms and with loyal police units they defeated the military in most of spades industrial cities there could be no rapid victory either way the rising swell into full-blown counter-revolution [Music] on the other side the work is now pouring out to the barricades were using their rifles for a spain which was to become not just republican but revolutionary there was no way left to prevent the conflict which was to rage across spain for almost three years there could be no more negotiation no compromise it could only be civil war [Music] you

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Id: M_I6C-VbFvI

Length: 51min 6sec (3066 seconds)

Published: Sat May 07 2022