The Spanish War & World War II

1. The Spanish Republic fell because of the depth of the split between left and right in the nation. Internal divisions among the Republic's supporters, the disciplined efforts of its opponents, the lack of much external support for the Loyalists, and higher levels of support for the Nationalist right were responsible for the actual failure of the Republican side in the war. But the nation's internal divisions were so strong to begin with that there was little hope for the Republic once the military took action.

The civil war developed from the opposition between the left and right that grew as the governments switched from the control of one side to the other and the nation was polarized around the extremes. The mildly reformist government of the period 1931-1934 was more than the landowners, the clergy and the military could stand. The reversal of its reforms by the conservative government of 1934-1936, accompanied by repression of the workers' rebellions, went just as far in angering the left. The 1936 Popular Front government, however, felt forced to go too far to the left in trying to maintain the favor of the communist faction. The Nationalists, fearing a complete social revolution, decided to act to eliminate the possibility of power being endlessly wrested away and then returned to them. From the outset the nation was divided so sharply that there was little hope that any accord could ever be reached that would allow the sides to coexist in any kind of politi

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ed. The reasons for Lenin's victories include the Greens' failure to offer a stable alternative government, the disorganization of the Whites, the poorly-organized and inadequate support of the Allies, and Lenin's willingness to be completely ruthless--especially in his deployment of the Cheka. But the most important reason for his repeated successes was probably the fact that the vast majority of the workers and peasants still identified the Bolsheviks with the kind of far-reaching radical change in the structure of Russian society that they had wanted all along. The forces ranged against Lenin were, for the most part, as abhorrent to each other as they were to him and there was never any chance that a united front would be mounted against the Bolsheviks. This required a dispersal of Red Army efforts that might have been fatal if it was not for the broader levels of support that the Bolshevik's perceived ideas and goals continued to enjoy--even when Lenin and the leadership were not wholly approved of by most of the people. 5. The military turning point of World War II came in the months from January through May 1943. Though the continued German failure to make progress in the Battle of Britain had been damaging, this was

Category: History - T