Origins of the Spanish Civil War

The principal characters in the events which led to the Civil War were numerous on all sides of the conflict. The main figures in the Republican government included Manuel Aza±a, Prime Minister and then President of Spain, and Lluis Companys, head of the Catalan government. The main figures in the Nationalist movement included General Millßn Astray, founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion; JosT Calvo Sotelo, one of the principal leaders of the Falangist movement; Francisco Franco Bahamonde, a general who became the leader of the Nationalists and eventual dictator of Spain; General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, one of the principal military leaders of the Nationalist movement; and General JosT Sanjurjo, designated leader of the 1936 uprising who was killed in a plane crash as he was about to accept the leadership position.

The roots of the Civil War actually extend back to the early part of the 20th Century, when King Alfonso XIII ruled Spain. Initially enjoying the support of most of the Officer Corps, Alfonso initiated military actions in Morocco in order to assert Spanish control. Military support began to slip, however, as the King appointed his favorite generals to

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ed the fascist slogans, "Long live Death!" and "Death to the Intelligence!" These slogans appealed, in part, to the Spanish obsession with death and the feudal mistrust of academic learning. These slogans represented the extremism of the Falangists, and were used in speeches calling for the purification of Spanish soil through the extermination of the "diseased" people on it (Spanish Civil War, pp. 107-17). It was no accident that the virtual home base of the Falange movement was Morocco, where many of the generals had served and come under the influence of Astray and Franco. Morocco was the site of the last Spanish imperial interests and the officers who served there quite naturally grew attracted to nationalist sentiments. In addition, the brutal war against the Moroccan Riffs, in the 1920s, hardened the officers who commanded the combat units and intensified their preoccupation with death and purification through death. Morocco was also the source of the troops most loyal to the Foreign Legion officers: the Moors, North African natives who were practically raised from childhood as soldiers (Chapters 1-3). The Falangists were also closely allied with the conservative Catholic Church in Spain. The conservative bishops saw the F
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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