Resumen De La Guerra Civil Española (En Ingles)

Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War



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Civil war: armed disputes that erupt over radically different ideas about the direction, governmental system or composition of a country / A war between rival factions within a country.

Before the civil war: The constitutional monarchy under Alfonso XIII (king since 1885) was never veryefficient and reached rock bottom in 1921 when the Spanish army tried to put down a revolt in Spanish Morocco and failed. In 1923 General Primo seized power in a bloodless strike, with Alfonso´s approval, and ruled for the next seven years. Primo was responsible for a number of public works: railways, roads, massive industrial production (developed at three times the rate before 1923) and he managedto end the war in Morocco in 1925.
When the world economic crisis reached Spain in 1930, unemployment increased, Primo and his advisers failed with the finances (causing depreciation of the peseta) and the army withdrew its support which led Primo to resignation (renuncio). In 1931 municipal elections were held in which the republicans won control of the mayor cities. As multitudes gathered inthe streets of Madrid, Alfonso decided to abdicate to avoid a bloody confrontation, and a republic was proclaimed.
The new formed republic suffered serious problems: Catalonia and the Basque provinces wanted independence; The Roman Catholic Church was against the republic, which disliked the church and wanted to reduce its power; It was felt that the army had too much influence in politics andmight attempt against the republic; Because of the depression there were problems such as: agricultural prices were falling, wine and olive export declined, land went out of cultivation and peasant unemployment increased. The industrial productions of steel and iron fell. It was a time of falling salaries and unemployment. Unless the republic made a progress with these problems it will lose thesupport of the workers (the majority)
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): Fought between forces loyal to the elected government (Republicans / Loyalists / left) and those seeking to overthrow that government (Nationalist—rebel group led by General Franco / right)
During its regime, the right party Cortes (parliament), afraid of a possible social revolution, decided to:
- allow Catalonia someself-government
- An attack was made on the church (priest no longer be paid by the government, religious education cancelled, Jesuits expelled, etc)
- a large number of army officers were forced to retire
- a start was made on the nationalization of large estates and attempts were made to raise the salary of industrial workers.
Some right –wing groups were furious (Church, part of the army,landowners). In 1932 some army officers tried to rebel against the prime minister, but they were easily suppressed because the majority of the army was still loyal to the government. A NEW RIGHT-WING PARTY WAS FORMED, THE CEDA, TO DEFEND THE CHURCH AND THE LANDLORDS.
The republic was weakened by opposition from two powerful left-wing groups, the anarchist and the syndicalist, who favored a generalstrike and the overthrow of the capitalist system. They organized strikes, riots and assassinations. In January 1933 some government guards set fire a house to kill anarchist, 25 people were killed. This event made the government lose the support from the majority f the worker class and the socialist and made the Prime Minister Azana resign (renuncio). In the elections of November of 1933 theright-wing party group Catholic Ceda won.

The new right-wing government:
* Cancelled most of Azana´s reforms.(previous government´s reforms)
* Interfered with the working of the new Catalan government and refused to allow the Basques self-government.
This was a serious error since the Basques had supported the right in the elections but now supported the left.
As the government moved...