On This Day in History: July 18
The Spanish Civil War
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Spain got to sit out World War II. The country was already fascist, so Hitler gave it a pass. And Spain remained fascist for another three decades after the end of WWII, making it the longest dictatorship in modern European history.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: July 18, 1936--
In 1931, Alfonso Unlucky # XIII was unlucky. He was deposed as King of Spain, a title he’d held for all of his 45 years, and booted out. The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. The elections in early 1936 saw victory for a left-wing coalition called Popular Front. Righties were pissed. There was violence. People died.
The right felt like a bunch of dirty commies were running the country and stirred up some shit. Anarchy ensued, and six months later there was a series of assassinations of political figures on both sides. On July 18, 1936, the right-wingers said, “Fuck it. Time for a coup.”
And the instigators of the coup, called Nationalists, or pendejos, or whatever, tried real hard, but failed to seize control of the country. Those loyal to the legitimate left-wing government, which some may be surprised to learn were called Republicans, retained most of their power. But that wasn’t the end of it. Merely the beginning. Let’s have a war, they decided.
And so, they did. Hitler helped out the Nationalists, and the Soviets sided with the Republicans, which is an interesting factoid considering Trump’s love affair with Putin. The war lasted three years and there were plenty of atrocities and purges and mass executions on both sides. Having the only big European war going at the time, volunteers poured in from all over to get in on the killing, including from the U.S. and Canada.
But by 1939, the Republicans were done for. Due to suppression, it’s hard to say how many died. It might be as high as two million. The Nationalists were now in charge under no-longer-rebel-but-now-president-for-life Francisco Franco. He gave himself the title of Caudillo (military or political leader) and ruled as dictator until his death in 1975.
Democracy was finally restored to Spain in 1978.
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I have a memory of being in Spain on holiday as a child with my family just before Franco died in 1975. Despite it being a fascist dictatorship, the Spanish were keen to encourage tourists to come to the costal resorts and the Balearic islands. Brits like us took advantage of the relatively short flying distance to get guaranteed sun, sand, sea and Sangria (and for certain demographics, the other "s", sex - I was only 7 years old, so the Sangria passed me by as well).
Anyway, my Mum and Dad were quite concerned that Franco would snuff it before we were due to fly home and we'd be stuck in Benidorm or wherever it was. In the event, we made it out and Franco shuffled off his mortal coil a few days or weeks later.
My husband’s father was in the Lincoln brigade. He never stopped talking about it until his death at 95 years old. He was honored at a ceremony at the Ritz Carlton in NYC, all expenses paid.