Effects of the spanish civil war Flashcards
(10 cards)
Human cost:
Approx. 100,000 Republicans and 70,000 Nationalists were killed during the war.
Post-war, Franco’s terror campaign (“White Terror”) led to the death of an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 more people.
Around 250,000 Republicans fled into exile, many to French refugee camps.
Thousands imprisoned in concentration camps and prisons; Republican children were taken from parents for indoctrination.
Enduring social divisions and hatred within Spanish society for decades.
Political
Franco became dictator of Spain until 1975.
Brutal repression of opposition; intellectuals, professionals, artists forced into exile or silenced.
Law of Political Responsibility (1939): Punished Republican supporters (confiscation of land, fines, death sentence).
Restoration of elite privileges; wages cut, union activism banned (CNT, UGT destroyed).
Republican reforms reversed, especially church-state separation.
Catholic Church gained massive power — era called the “national church”.
Suppression of Basque and Catalan autonomy; regional languages banned.
Centralized authoritarian rule in Madrid.
Despite internal repression, political stability through fear.
After WWII, Franco under pressure but remained head of state; monarchy partially restored.
Army lost dominance after Morocco’s independence (1956).
Gradual delegation of power in the 1960s, leading to democratic restoration post-Franco (1975).
Economic
10-15% of Spain’s wealth destroyed; per capita income 28% lower (1939 vs. 1935).
Madrid’s industries and infrastructure ruined (70% factory machinery destroyed, transport systems broken).
Merchant shipping decimated (1/3 out of action).
Severe inflation from war spending and printing money.
Republican land reform reversed, preserving inefficient agriculture.
Mass unemployment, especially among laborers; landowners resisted modernization.
Foreign debts to Britain and Germany.
Post-war shortage of skilled workers and general labor.
Attempts at foreign loans hindered by debt repayment demands.
WWII created limited economic improvement — trade agreements with Britain and France in 1940.
German exploitation of Spanish resources during WWII weakened economy.
Post-WWII isolation, famine (1946), and industrial output below 1918 levels.
Aid from Argentina (Juan Perón) may have helped stabilize economy.
Long-term: Economic reforms in 1950s-60s, leading to industrialization and a strong service sector.
Spain eventually became a modern capitalist economy.
Social
Deep and lasting societal divisions between Republicans and Nationalists.
Republican children forcibly re-educated, often raised in Nationalist families or church-run orphanages.
Suppression of workers’ rights and political freedoms.
Church domination over education, society, and culture.
Cultural suppression of minority languages and identities (Catalan, Basque, Galician).
USSR and Communism:
Defeat of Spanish Communists weakened Soviet international standing.
Stalin’s limited, manipulative aid disillusioned left-wing supporters globally.
Loss of Western intellectual support for USSR.
Contributed to Stalin’s shift from alliance-building to appeasement of Nazi Germany.
Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939) partly influenced by Western inaction in Spain
Germany and Italy
Germany gained military insights: blitzkrieg tactics, air-ground coordination, radio communication, bombing civilians.
Strengthened German-Italian alliance: Rome-Berlin Axis (1936), Pact of Steel (1939).
Britain and France’s non-intervention emboldened Hitler and Mussolini.
Spain’s war distracted international attention from Hitler’s moves in Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Spain remained neutral in WWII, but supported Germany with logistics and trade.
Italy suffered economic strain from intervention, affecting its WWII readiness.
Britain and france
The Spanish Civil War revealed horrors of modern warfare, reinforcing appeasement policies.
Public fear of another war drove support for non-intervention.
Seen as weak and indecisive, encouraging Hitler’s aggression.
Their policy failures in Spain and appeasement of Germany (Munich Agreement) shaped WWII dynamics.
USA
Maintained neutrality, reinforcing isolationism.
Roosevelt’s ‘Quarantine the Aggressors’ speech (1937) had no real effect.
No aid for Spain during/post-war; excluded from Marshall Aid.
UN sanctions and diplomatic isolation of Franco (1946).
Cold War changed U.S. stance: Franco seen as anti-Communist ally.
U.S. economic aid began in 1951, in exchange for military bases.
Spain joined UN, ending isolation.
After the Civil War (Francoist Spain, 1939-1970s)
Franco’s regime reversed all feminist progress and enforced traditional Catholic roles.
Anthony Beevor notes that motherhood became a woman’s primary social function.
The Labor Charter of 1938 forced married women out of factories and workshops.
Women lost access to education and employment, and Franco reinstated pre-Second Republic laws (Civil Code of 1889 and Law Procedure Criminal) that upheld women’s legal inferiority.
Republican women were harshly punished—many imprisoned, children taken, and mourning Republican dead forbidden.
Economic reprisals: In Galicia, 14,600 people were arrested or killed, and property confiscated.
Gradual Change in the 1950s-60s
Gradual Change in the 1950s-60s
Tourism in the 1950s introduced more modern gender perspectives.
Pilar Primo de Rivera helped relax restrictions in the 1960s.
Economic shifts from agrarian to industrial jobs brought women into the workforce.
Legal changes:
1961: Gender discrimination in employment was banned.
1962: Women were legally guaranteed equal pay.
1963: Employers couldn’t fire women for being married, though they still needed their husband’s permission to work.
Women’s organizations began emerging in the 1960s but weren’t fully legal until 1978.
