1044 Ch. 25 • Economic Depression and Dictatorship

Map 25.2 The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 The growing domination of

Spain by the nationalists; arrows show nationalist and republican loyalist attacks

during the Spanish Civil War.

“black shirts.” In response to a wave of violence against republicans, the gov­

ernment declared the Falange illegal and arrested its leader in March 1936.

A military insurrection against the republic began in Morocco on July

17, 1936. It was quickly followed by planned garrison uprisings in most of

Spain’s major cities (see Map 25.2). German and Italian planes carried

insurgents to the Spanish mainland. Right-wing nationalist rebels over­

whelmed loyalist troops and soon held the traditionally conservative regions

of Castile, Galicia, and Navarre.

The fragility of the loyalist alliance compromised the loyalist defense of

the Spanish Republic. In Madrid, socialist trade unions held the upper

hand. In Catalonia and Andalusia, anarchist workers and peasants were a

majority. They took the outbreak of the war as a signal to begin a social rev­

olution, expropriating land, occupying factories, and establishing coopera­

tives. Workers’ committees, holding power in some regions, unleashed terror

against the upper classes. The Socialists now were in the awkward position