What If Franco Lost The Spanish Civil War? | Alternate History

in Spain the decades which led up to 1936 were characterized by political social and cultural upheaval really ever since the collapse of the Spanish Empire the country had been beaten down time and time again by poor circumstance and mal governance which rose dramatically in the 19th century as what could best be described as an era of unreliable power a period which saw invasions cooze revolutions restorations etc all of which really came to paint an image of a nation and decline an image which would truly be finalised and made clear to the Spanish following their loss in the spanish-american war when their nations crashing and no one seems to be doing anything to stop it you of course want to take matters into your own hands and in Spain that's precisely what occurred two major ideological camps emerged at the turn of the century the traditionalists and the Socialists who would later go on to form the core of the Nationalists and the Republican factions of the war both the traditionalists and socialists would branch off into numerous factions themselves yet throughout it all seemingly held polarized views as to the direction Spain should take but one of the core issues had been the role of the Catholic Church the traditionalist one to establish a society of greater adherents of religious doctrine which they felt would make the nation stronger whereas the Socialists won to both separate and reduce the role of the church from Spanish governance and culture because they believed it was holding back progress and these disputes would become core to a number of early clashes that would erupt in the 30s in 1931 following an experiment with dictatorship the second Spanish Republic had been established and the Spanish king was deposed the Republic sought to modernize Spain in every manner of the word industries were to be developed unions to be established reforms to be made and secularization would begin as previously stated much to the displeasure of the majority devout Catholic population which would again fuel ideological clashes throughout the years and also spell power changing hands from the Liberals of the traditionalists around 1933 the traditionalists essentially undoing all the secular reforms of the liberal Republicans and throwing the pendulum further the other direction as socialist and anarchist initiated mass strikes and revolts and retaliation this period saw the rise of the Popular Front a coalition of various left-wing groups primarily of the socialist Marxist communist anarchist and Republican parties the Popular Front would take back power for the leftists which triggered even more chaos in the streets hardline communist and anarchist fellows of the coalition was diluting their cause and protested the slow pace at which reforms were made as well as the democratic system which allowed the traditionalists to simply undo these reforms within a matter of years the traditionalists in turn were growing tired of watching their culture a road and feared the total breakup of the country along ideological and cultural lines the resulting chaos led to the deaths of many right wing and some left wing leaders which ultimately left the right-wingers without a significant representative the army which held overwhelming right-wing sympathies felt as though they would never win an election again because of this and we're now forced to sit back as their home was rapidly redefined by the leftists refusing to accept this outcome the army launched a coup against the current left-wing government who in response armed various left-wing factions and United them into a loose alliance of anarchists independence groups communists Republicans and so on most flying the banner of the Popular Front but others maintaining their allegiance only to their own faction thus beginning the Spanish Civil War in our world the nationalist security victory thanks to superior weaponry training leadership and allies the war-torn country had been forced to sit out the Second World War as it had the first and underwent a number of reforms which strengthened the power of the Catholic Church and traditional practice granted greater freedom to domestic businesses to implement practices they saw fit and it also established an economic system based on self-sufficiency which was perhaps not the best choice for a nation both as devastated and as industrially behind as Spain was Spain for the next half-century would remain grossly isolated and play a minor role in world events today with democracy mostly revived in the nation the political polarization between left and right has once again risen and it seems Spain is still carrying on with its historic status quo as stated before the Nationalists held supremacy in a number of fields including the reliable support of Germany and a leadership which kept together the various factions of the nationalist front the Republicans in contrast had the mediocre support of the Soviets in Mexico as well as suffered from internal disunity the various factions at times held contrasting goals which on occasion even led to internal clashes most notably between the anarchists and Republicans there was an opportunity for France to get itself involved and greatly support the Republicans as prime minister at the time Leon Blum was a socialist and held heart sympathies to his left-wing comrades however fear dividing his coalition and being forcibly removed by the Pro right-wing military but ultimately he ended up being from power regardless because the matter left his coalition divided and ultimately deadlocked the government in this world let's propose that by some means the Nationalists lose the war this is a bit of a long shot simply because of how much the Republicans had going against them but let's try to resolve that in one of two ways this timeline could either see the Republicans like Franco put forward a plan or manifesto to fulfill the desires of their major factions post-war as I said before the Republican factions were at constant odds and their goals vastly contrasted the major thing holding them together was simply shared animosity of Franco while Franco himself made great efforts to unite the varying factions of fascism traditionalism monarchism etc under the banner of nationalism this time around the Republicans could do the very same under the banner of socialism alternatively Leon bloom could damn the expense and push for total support of the Republicans much as he attempted to do during his second brief administration and 38 an action which would surely earn him the ire of Britain who despite neutrality leaned toward the Nationalists or rather against what they perceived as the socialists Blum feared that his actions could have triggered a military coup as France wasn't in the most stable of states at the time and in this timeline it may just but we'll get back to that we could opt for either of these points of divergence but realistically the effects of one may simply end up triggering the effects of the other as if French support can muster a victory the Republicans would need to come together anyhow with the other left factions to decide on Spain's direction or risk a second civil war among the leftists vice-versa if an end plan is decided upon early and a victory is drawn blooms government wouldn't need to compromise its position and goes on to reign over France certainly becoming friendly with post-war Spain and implementing more socialist policies which could in effect trigger a military coup regardless essentially a Republican victory almost always spills into France unless by some means the Socialist factions don't come to power and only the Republicans do just to keep things simple we'll be going with the first option a better plan for how to divide up and organize Spain is developed by the leftist and grandson greater cohesion just enough to beat the Nationalists so the Republicans win the nation is in shambles but the left-wing coalition now knows where it wants to go and can begin the reconstruction process immediately drawing upon both financial and labor support from France in the USSR major independence groups who pre-war had settled for regional autonomy would for their F desire total independence bringing the new states of Catalonia in the southeast and the best Republic in the northeast the Basque people were generally in opposition to the left-wing ideas of the Republicans and one of them sells highly religious and inclined towards strong centralized government however because of the nationalist opposition to Basque independence and a seeming desire to assimilate the region into the general Spanish culture the best population back the Republicans their state would likely adopt a conservative Catholic agrarian character Catalonia on the other hand saw a great concentration of anarchists communists and socialists unions the region though it would likely see regular instability due to internal disagreements would generally adopt a policy of anarcho-syndicalism allowing workers total self-management reducing the role of government to miniscule levels and creating a decentralized commune of workers unions similar to the Soviets of the early USSR the USSR mind you with its volunteers still stationed in Spain would no doubt attempt to influence the whole of Spain and especially Catalonia Galicia also desired greater autonomy however it's politics remain much in line with that of the Spanish order and its role in the war was notably passive and thus it would remain a part of Spain though as an autonomous province which was supported by the Republicans something which would also be seen with Morocco the remainder of the Spanish state would see the rise of the Popular Front to the seat of power granting Authority not merely to the Republicans but also in large part a legion of socialists communists and Marxists by this point in since the outbreak of the war the Socialists and communists really held dominance over the party many of whom held or developed relationships with the Soviets by the end of the war it would be because of this that they would allow for the Soviets to make of Spain an outpost to operate out of and further spread communist influence into neighboring countries while religious practice would be suppressed in Spain violence against churches and clergy would cease in a bid to calm the Catholic populations into cooperation private religious practice would continue much as in the USSR but officially the nation would adopt a secular character much of the radical right-wing parties would be arrested and given show trials major military leaders seeing execution or imprisonment while monarchists and pro religious figures were granted lighter sentences or released to prevent public outrage like under Franco minor dissonance would be allowed to leave Spain however under this new government landowners who chose to flee would see their property collectivized by the government without compensation devised a ssin overall would not be mandated by the government but would be encouraged via government compensation for the land to all those who remained having lost much of the skilled army the Republicans are rather now the socialists would need to compensate by improving upon the quality of Spanish weapons again perhaps acquiring some from France and drawing upon financial or industrial support from the USSR who would certainly want to keep its new ally afloat creating a relationship similar to what was seen with Cuba years later the new government would attempt to balance its policies moderately and not drift too far into the radical direction of the Soviet Union fearing that a proclamation of outright communism would trigger action by the European powers essentially much for the same reason Franco didn't directly support the axis greater power is granted to workers for the establishment of councils of which the once owner would now be a member of and unlike Franco is Spain the Socialists had not simply planned to isolate themselves for the long term and did have strong ambitions of spreading their ideology into neighboring Portugal and France once they destabilized lending any and all support possible to fellow socialist movements which now brings us to France the third French Republic was as much a mess as the second Spanish Republic was disorganized ineffective and at odds with itself in an ever more polarized era the nation had yet to fully escape the throes of the Great Depression and began heavily flirting with socialism much to the upset of French traditionalists just like in Spain in our world Socialist Lyon blooms government fell apart in the span of a month three times but in this world because the Republicans are winning Blum has never put under strain by opposition to his neutrality allowing him to remain in power but blooms government doesn't really matter power and France was changing so regularly that current conditions alone gives socialists pain and tweet further extent the Soviet Union the ability to influence French politics in their favor regardless of what transpires in the wake of Spain's ideological shift France because of the now tilted balance of socialism in Western Europe faces a situation which eventually drives it into civil war likely triggered by the guarantee of protection to Poland which when Poland was invaded would see the military mutiny and refused to throw lives away at an effort which in no way benefited the French people it's often taken for granted how close France escaped its own potential civil war though one might argue it still occurred and was simply masked by Germany's invasion in the whole of World War two the German collaborators impotence followers representing a Nash front while the Gauls free France represented a Republican front the resemblance being almost uncanny without the involvement of France Britain made just as quickly withdraw its declaration of war as just as in our world there was an uneventful eight month period following the declaration in which neither side took major action leaving what would have been the Second World War to become nothing more than a phony war a false alarm as it were however at the same time the French Civil War would have begun as with the war in Spain the war in France would become much a proxy war for the fascists and communists powers Germany using its neighbouring proximity to supplying great force the Nationalists even more so than was seen in Spain as for Germany defeat in this proxy war would mean being surrounded by communist powers to the east and west surprisingly the circumstances in Spain and France were actually incredibly similar almost identical even Pathan rallied behind him a wide range of right-wing factions while the Republican coalition was really only united against Bataan and was composed of Republicans anarchists communists you get the picture France would follow the same course Spain had in our world with the Republicans being defeated by the Nationalists and a semi fascist government coming to power we could argue the French Republicans would have far better chances thanks to neighboring Spain but just as in the case of Spain support provided would be fairly subpar considering the nation was still war-torn and undergoing numerous reforms while paying off war debts what we're left with is a Spanish Socialist Republic with big ambitions but much like the USSR has a long transition period to undergo before it can really claim a spot as a formidable power though the nation would no doubt attempt to exert its influence early on again much as the USSR had but with little success because of Spanish meddling in the fact a neighboring state had fallen to socialism the Nationalists and anti-communist within France adopt a more defensive character and just as in Spain in our world overthrow the old regime to install a Nationalist government because of the conflict in France and a refusal to act on the declaration of war made on Germany World War two never happens because Germany has no reason to invade France nationalist France joins Germany in Italy and the anti Comintern pact while Britain having allowed appeasement to go too far but now without the direct means of attacking Germany sits out the conflict in Europe and instead supports the u.s. against Japan for the sake of protecting India and Australia Germany no doubt still plans on invading the Soviet Union but doesn't need to rush the invasion as they had world allowing it to better prepare itself as well support the efforts and development of its allies but the Soviets do the very same pushing through its five-year plans while supporting the militarization and recuperation of Spain and what would become an arms race between the European powers of communism and fascism and that is well in this video for now the us of Z thanks for watching support your Legion bite in 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Keywords: What If Nationalist Spain Joined The Axis, What If Spain Joined The Axis, What If Spain Became Communist, What If The Republicans Won The Spanish Civil War, Armchair Historian, History With Hilbert, Spanish Civil War, Spain, Popular Front, Francisco Franco, Documentary, Crash Course, Alternate History, Althist, What If, Althistory, History, In A Nutshell, Catalonia, Catalan, Socialist Spain, What If Spain Joined WW2, What If Franco Lost The Spanish Civil War

Id: G7Q8d_8xq9E

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019