purely Spanish causes always lie just under the
surface and explain why in 1936 Spain was split
into two warring sides which inflicted savage cru-
elties on each other.
In the north the Republicans held most of
Asturias and the Basque region; Catalonia, with
the large city of Barcelona, became a Republican
stronghold; Valencia and the whole Mediterranean
coast and central Spain, the eastern regions of
Andalucia and New Castile with the capital of
Madrid were also Republican regions. The other
bigger cities, except for Seville and Saragossa, were
Republican too. Western Spain, western Aragon,
Old Castile, León and the south – mainly the agri-
cultural regions of Spain – fell into the hands of the
Nationalists. Within each of the regions of Spain
controlled by Nationalists and Republicans, there
were minorities who adhered to the opposite side
and so were subject to murderous reprisals. The
Church, an object of Republican hatred, suffered
grievously in the Republican areas. Landless peas-
ants recruited in the south by the socialists and
anarchists were exposed to Nationalist terror.
If we look back no further than to the nine-
teenth century, the contest over how Spain was
to be governed was already splitting the country
and leading to civil wars. The more extreme
monarchists, supported by the Church, fought
the constitutionalists and liberal monarchists who
then enjoyed the support of much of the army.
Superimposed on this constitutional conflict was
the desire of the northern regions for autonomy:
they opposed attempts to centralise and unify
these regions which enjoyed extensive local rights
and traditions. Spain’s internal turbulence did not
come to an end during the last quarter of the
nineteenth century with the establishment of the
constitutional monarchy and the granting of uni-
versal male suffrage. The votes of the peasants in
the countryside were managed by the wealthy and
by local men of influence. Despite the liberal con-
stitution, the parliamentary system did not
embody the hopes of all the reformers. Popular
discontent was further increased by Spain’s poor
showing abroad. The loss of colonies, the war
with the US at the turn of the century and the
failures of its imperial policies in Morocco, where
the Spanish army suffered defeats, weakened the
authority of government.
Besides the constitutional conflict, the problem
of the regions and the failures of foreign and
imperial policies, Spanish industrialisation, though
slow, was concentrated in the north and so
added to regional particularism as well as leading
to bitter economic conflict between worker and
employer. Spain was a very poor country, and suf-
fered perennially from the agricultural problem of
its landless and impoverished peasantry. In the
early twentieth century socialism made headway in
Spain. As in France, the movement was divided
and the anarcho-syndicalists who believed in
direct action had won many adherents among the
workers of the north and some of the peasants
in the south. The strength of their main trade
union organisation, the CNT, lay in Catalonia
and especially in Barcelona. Before 1936, the
Communist Party was small.
On more than one occasion in the early twen-
tieth century Spain seemed to be poised on the
brink of civil war; Barcelona, the capital of
Catalonia, was a focal point of bloodshed and civil
conflict. The civil guard, hated by the workers,
kept unrest just in check by ruthless force. Spain
was disintegrating amid warring factions, while
the politicians of the Cortes, the Spanish parlia-
ment, proved unable to provide effective and
stable governments. In September 1923, repeat-
ing a pattern familiar in the nineteenth century,
an army general seized power to bring peace to
Spain and save it from monarchist politicians.
Compared with other dictators, this general,
Primo de Rivera, was a charismatic figure. The
king, Alfonso XIII, acquiesced in the overthrow
of the constitution. Primo de Rivera followed a
policy of repression of politicians, the Socialist
Party, anarchists and supporters of Catalan
regionalism. The socialist trade union, the UGT,
became a mainstay of the regime. He also inau-
gurated public works which, in the 1920s, seemed
to promise some economic progress. Yet by 1930
he had exhausted his credit and lost support in
the army, and the king dismissed him. The king
himself did not long survive. The cities had
turned against him and he left for exile in 1931.