1046 Ch. 25 • Economic: Digression and Dictatorship

century, including the American novelist Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom
the Bell Tolls (1940). The British writer George Orwell’s Homage to Catalo­
nia (1938) memorably related an account of his service on the loyalist side
and of the damaging divisions between the major political factions, above
all, the role of the Communists.

The nationalists enjoyed a significant military advantage over the loyal­
ists because their forces included the bulk of the Spanish armed forces.
The loyalists lacked such necessities as reliable maps. Orwell recalled his
amazement at being issued an 1896 model German Mauser rifle and at the
difficulties of forging an able fighting force out of a motley crew of illiter­
ate peasants, anarchist workers, shop clerks, and foreign volunteers, many
of whom did not speak Spanish and for whom the only word known in
common was “comrade.”
The republican loyalists counted on receiving arms, munitions, and other
supplies from the Western democracies. But the British government wanted
to maintain peace at all costs, and many of its prominent political figures
admired Franco. In France, Premier Leon Blum’s Popular Front govern­
ment hesitated to take any steps that would widen the Spanish conflict and
further polarize his own country. Moreover, he did not w'ant to alienate the
British government, as he w'as counting on its assistance in any eventual
war against Germany. Without tanks, airplanes, and other supplies from
the Soviet Union, the Spanish Republic probably would have almost imme­
diately collapsed in the face of the nationalist forces.
German and Italian assistance to the nationalists proved decisive. While
Britain, France, and the United States abided by nonintervention agree­
ments, Italy sent 100,000 soldiers to Spain. However, the loyalists easily
defeated the ill-equipped Italian forces, which relied on Michelin tourist

Pablo Picasso s Guernica (1937), mourning a German and Italian air attack on the

Basque village.