Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a significant conflict that arose during a period of political turmoil in Spain, following the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931. The new republic, characterized by a liberal constitution with anticlerical elements, faced deep divisions between the political left and right. General Francisco Franco led a rebellion against the Republic, igniting a war that captured international attention and involvement. While Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy provided support to Franco's Nationalists, the Soviet Union and Mexico backed the Republican forces.
A notable aspect of the conflict was the participation of foreign volunteers, with around 35,000 individuals from 52 countries, including the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the United States and the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion from Canada. Despite the official neutrality of the U.S. and Canada, many North Americans joined the Republican side, motivated by anti-fascist sentiments. The war also served as a precursor to World War II, highlighting the ideological struggle between fascism and democracy. The legacy of the Spanish Civil War continues to resonate, as it is often viewed as a pivotal moment in the global fight against authoritarianism.
Spanish Civil War
The Event A civil war between the Spanish Republican government and promonarchist, right-wing members of the Spanish military
Dates July 17, 1936, to April 1, 1939
Place Spain
The Spanish Civil War was a fight between the left-of-center government and right-wing rebel troops. Various countries supported both sides, and volunteers from around the world, including some from North America, came to join the fight. It has been described as a precursor to World War II.
The Second Spanish Republic was established in 1931 after the overthrow of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera and the fall of King Alfonso XIII. Going against its traditions, Spain adopted a liberal constitution that contained anticlerical clauses. During the early 1930’s, the country was divided between the political left and right on issues raised by the constitution and republic. By 1936, the government had moved farther to the left. At the time, Francisco Franco, a general in command of troops in Spanish Morocco, brought his forces to the peninsula and began the three-year civil war, which disrupted the country and became the center of international attention.
Volunteers from Europe and North America came to fight on both sides. Four countries officially joined in the war: Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported Franco, and the Soviet Union and Mexico supported the Republic. The United States and Canada were officially neutral; nevertheless, many Americans and Canadians went to Spain to join the fray, most siding with the Republican loyalists.
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
The American contingent, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was a section of the Fifteenth International Brigade. The Communist International (Comintern), headquartered in Moscow, sponsored the International Brigades. There was also a transport unit. Canadians fought mostly in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, although there were some Canadians and members of other nationalities in the American units, and vice versa. Out of a total of thirty-five thousand foreign volunteers from fifty-two countries, about twenty-eight hundred Americans fought. There was also an American medical bureau with 125 men and women serving as doctors, nurses, technicians, and ambulance drivers.
The United States prohibited travel to Spain, so the volunteers entered from France by crossing the Pyrenees. They came from all parts of the United States and represented all classes: doctors, lawyers, blue-collar workers, farmers, seamen, skilled laborers, miners, the unemployed, teachers, students, artists, and scientists. While almost two-thirds were Communist Party USA members, others came from the socialists, wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World [IWW]), anarchists, and independents. Members of the American Socialist Party fought in a separate battalion called the Debs Column, named for the party’s founder, Eugene V. Debs. American followers of Leon Trotsky, the rival of Joseph Stalin, also fought in Spain but did not join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade sponsored by Stalin Comintern. Most joined the Partido Obrero Unificación Marxista (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification [POUM]. One such American was Harry Milton, made famous in part by Eric Blair, better known by his nom de plume, George Orwell. Orwell recounts in his book Homage to Catalonia (1938) that Milton helped him when he was wounded fighting with the POUM. The POUM and the communist brigades fought each other as well as Franco’s troops.
The brigade was integrated a decade before the American Army was, and an African American communist labor organizer, Oliver Law, commanded the George Washington Battalion. Other commanders included Robert Hale Merriman, Martin Hourihan, Steve Nelson, Hans Amlie, and Milton Wolff.
Prominent Supporters
The United States, Great Britain, and France adopted nonintervention policies, which hurt the Republic more than Franco. American companies such as General Motors and Texaco provided Franco with supplies. The Republican cause was supported by prominent American celebrities, including Albert Einstein, Dorothy Parker, Gene Kelly, Helen Keller, A. Philip Randolph, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, and Gypsy Rose Lee. Reports in the press and journals by eminent authors such as Ernest Hemmingway, Hellman, Herbert Matthews, and Martha Gellhorn favored the Republican cause and helped gain sympathy for the group in the United States.
Impact
The Spanish Civil War was one of the last major international events in Europe before the outbreak of World War II. It set the stage for the struggle between the ideological forces that faced off in that struggle: Marxism and Western democracy on one side and fascism on the other. Most North Americans favored the Republic, although the United States and Canada were officially neutral and recognized Franco when he took Madrid.
Those who fought in the war on the Republican side, and even some of those who just supported it, were branded as procommunist, and many were stigmatized during the Cold War era that followed World War II. However, for many North Americans the Republicans’ struggle was celebrated as a valiant fight against fascism.
Bibliography
Carroll, Peter N., and James D. Fernandez, eds. Facing Fascism: New York and the Spanish Civil War. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Collection of essays about New York City institutions and people that responded to the Spanish Civil War. Includes photographs and bibliography.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994. History of American involvement in the war by a leading liberal historian.
Collum, Danny Duncan. African Americans in the Spanish Civil War. New York: G. K. Hall, 1992. Account of African American volunteers in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Nelson, Cary. The Aura of the Cause. Waltham, Mass.: Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, 1997. Photograph album of American volunteers in the war.
Stephens, D. P. A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War: An Armenian-Canadian in the Lincoln Battalion. St. Johns, Nfld.: Canadian Committee on Labour History, 2000. Memoir of a Canadian communist about his service in the war. Includes a bibliography.
Yates, James. Mississippi to Madrid: Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Seattle: Open Hand, 1989. Account of a Mississippi sharecropper turned labor organizer who fought in the war. Describes other African Americans involved in the struggle, including Law, Paul Robeson, and Langston Hughes.