West European Studies

In the year 1936 after the election, a military revolt against the government occurred in Spain. The government of the time was a popular front government that was supported by the leftists. The revolt started in the garrisons and spread throughout Spain. The uprising was led by the nationalists with the support of the conservatives in the clergy, the nobles, the military and the land owners. Premier Francisco Largo Caballero was the leader of the ruling republican government. The government with the support of the educated middle class, workers as well as the military anarchist managed to quell the revolt in most parts of Spain. However in the northwestern and the southwestern parts of Spain, the uprising did not end. These regions were under tight control from the nationalists. Francisco Franco was named the head of state in these regions. The republicans and the nationalist in total apprehended more than 50, 000 people whom they considered traitors. The nationalists were under support from the Nazi Germany, the Portuguese, French monarchists, Catholics from Ireland and Italy. The republicans obtained support from the Soviet Union, Italians, British, Canada, Yugoslavia, Hungary and the volunteer International Brigades. Nazi and Italy provided the republicans with planes, troops and tanks. This was a great opportunity for Germans and Italians who used Spain as the testing ground for their weapons. The republicans and the nationalists fought a ferocious battle in a war of attrition. The nationalists side acquired more regions and eventually managed to split Spain from east to west. Thousands of republican forces were forced to flee into France. In 1939, the rest of the republican forces that did not go in to exile surrendered. The war left more than half a million people dead and its end saw the beginning of dictatorship that lasted up to the death of Francisco Franco.

Though the civil war was a characteristic Spanish phenomenon, it is often used as a dress to the II world war. The war led to the development of significant consequences in the European political circles. For example, all the Spanish assets in Britain were frozen as a symbol of neutrality. Britain also banned the export of weapons to Spain. Germany and Italy did contrary to what Britain was doing. They brought their weapons and forces in Spain. The Russians also brought their weapons and forces to the war. The Russians sided with the republicans while the Germans and the Italians supported the nationalists. Their aircrafts flew against the German bombers and fighters. The expertise they acquired from the war helped in developing weapons that would later be used during the invasion of Russia by Germany.

The forces involved in the war became so trigger happy that they shot everyone on sight provided he was not on their side whether on land or on water. The German naval forces together with the French for example, destroyed all the British ships and killed the British naval forces. In 1 937, the German forces bombed Guernica with 550lb bombs. This was the most marked foreshadowing event of the forthcoming World War II.

A lot of European cities suffered the same doom in the subsequent years. Though Germans forces were fully responsible for the bombing, guilt was not placed on them as they wore Spanish uniforms. Sir Winston Churchill of England was fearful of the fascist nation that was to be established by Franco was he to win the war. He also feared the association between the Germans under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and Italy. The conflicts in Abyssinia, Rhineland, and Spain by then reflected an entire European problem rather than regional affair. After the defeat of the republicans whose support came from the Russians, the Russians realized how important it was to develop heavy and more powerful weapons. These weapons saw their use in the Second World War.  After German invaded Russia, the soviet stopped production of heavy bombers and concentrated on the production of aircrafts. The Germans were the ones who benefited most from the technical expertise they obtained form the civil war. They later used these skills at the start of the World War II.