The Spanish Civil War 3 Essay Research

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The Spanish Civil War 3 Essay, Research Paper The Spanish Civil War In the Spanish Civil War conflict there were three types of governing: Right-wing, Left-wing, and Center. Each of the groups in these classifications was a little more or a little less extreme than the next but each side had common goals. On the right side there were Landlords, Aristocracies, the Catholic Church, Falangists Monarchists, and the Spanish National Guard (the Army) who were fighting for facsim and old world order. On the left were the Socialists, Anarchists, and the Communists who were basically the people of the country fighting for new world order and communism to a degree. In the center was the Republicans and Liberals, a minority who didn’t support one viewpoint or another. Was the

overthrow of the Monarchy a good idea or did it just shake the countries’ stability? Was the Communist support beneficial? How was it a microcosm of the war in which to follow? In order to answer these questions the politics and causes of the war must be analyzed. Causes of the Revolution and Pre War Politics: The Rightists: The right side consisting of the earlier mentioned groups was using three methods of governing which were Monarchy, Fascism and Dictatorship. Monarchy had been around for numerous years and King Alfonso the XIII was ruling at the time of the war. General strikes, assassinations, riots, disorders, police brutality, corruption and Army massacres of peasants had brought the Monarchy to the verge of collapse. Knowing that his government was in such peril King

Alfonso turned to the Army for help. General Miguel Primo de Rivera persuaded King Alfonso to invoke a dictatorship regin saying that “Today we are resolved in moderation, but on the other hand we will not shrink from bloodshed.” (Goldston 1966, 29) This new form of government did not sit well with the workers or peasants. Due to this government many people were imprisoned or murdered and this only fuelled the revolution more. The eventual downfall of Primo de Rivera’s government was due to the financial depression of the thirties and once Rivera realized that he had no support across the country he fled to Paris where he later died. Realizing the economic and political collapse of the dictatorship Alfonso tried to return to constitutional rule but alike Rivera had no

support and so fled to Rome where he died ten years later. Jose Antonio who was the son of the old dictator Primo de Rivera took over rule of the right-wing activists. He created a new party called the FALANGE which was strongly fascist. Being a fascist country increased support from Italy and Germany and, if needed arms, troops and political support would be sent to them. Having this kind of aid was a definite advantage to the right-wing Falangists and it was not put to waste. The Leftists: On the left-hand side was the Anarchists, Socialists, and Communists. Although the Communists started out small they grew to become a major influence in the war having as many as 250,000 members. The Anarchists consisted of mainly peasants who believed that in order to accomplish their goals

force would have to be used. The Anarchists believed in organizing very small self-governing bodies and for a collective agreement to be made with all the parties. They did not believe in police or army and so their decisions would not be enforced, everything would be voluntary. The only problem with the Anarchist views is that not everybody followed the same set of ideals. Some organizers would become almost preachers and go around to villages preaching the error of their ways. One of the morals that the Anarchists did stick to is the use of force. There were many terrorist acts committed in these times and many of them attributable to the left-wing extremists. The other social class that was part of the left-wing was the Socialists. This group contained the workers and they