Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)

{{Short description|Major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox militant organization | name = Nationalist faction | native_name = ''Bando nacional'' | native_name_lang = es | caption = Flag until and from 1938 | logo = 140px|border 140px|border | leader = {{plainlist| * '''Francisco Franco'''<ref>Payne, SG ''The Franco Regime, 1936–1975'' Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1987 p. 101, note 27.</ref> * José Sanjurjo{{KIA}} * Emilio Mola{{KIA}} * Manuel Goded Llopis{{executed}}}} | active = 17 July 1936 – 1 April 1939 | area = Nationalist zone | partof = {{nowrap|''Movimiento Nacional'' (from 1937)}} | ideology = Spanish ultranationalism<ref name="ultra">{{cite web|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30831069.pdf|title=The Extreme Right in Spain – Surviving in the Shadow of Franco|publisher=Hedda Samdahl Weltz|date=2014|website=core.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/contemporary-european-history/article/abs/on-historicising-the-war-in-spain/D116191863FB5805596A692FFF3205C8 Graham, H. (2020). On Historicising the War in Spain. Contemporary European History, 29(3), 268-271]: "For the war itself transformed Francoism into something new – and modern: an ultranationalist project..."</ref> National palingenesis<ref name="bonfire">{{cite book |last=Lorenz |first=David Alegre |year=2023 |chapter=The New Fascist Man in the 1930s Spain |title=The "New Man" in Radical Right Ideology and Practice, 1919-45 |editor1-first=Jorge |editor1-last=Dagnino |editor2-first=Matthew |editor2-last=Feldman |editor3-first=Paul |editor3-last=Stocker |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781474281119 |pages=215–230|quote=That would be the narrative around which the new national community and the Francoist state were constructed, and it would also mark in an indelible form, the new fascist man in Spain as a Christian knight. [...] Accordingly, this modern, Spanish version of the Crusading knight would be visibly guided by a combative conception of Christianity... that understood the civil war as a kind of purifying bonfire one whereby an individual and collective rebirth would take place...}}</ref> Authoritarian conservatism<ref>{{citation |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |title=A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_MeR06xqXAC&pg=PA255 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |year=1995 |page=255 |isbn=978-0-299-14874-4}}</ref> Right-wing populism<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_xE1EQAAQBAJ|quote=Similarly, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco also came to represent the populist right during this period.|isbn=9789819978021|page=279|title= Encyclopedia of New Populism and Responses in the 21st Century|date=2 December 2024 |publisher=Springer }}</ref> Para-fascism{{refn|group=n|name=pf| *{{Harvnb|Shubert|2023|page=320|ps=:"European historians still disagree over the definitions and boundaries of 'fascist Europe', but the idea of a spectrum of right-wing movements heavily influenced by the growing fascist presence has added a nuanced perspective to the question of whether the Nationalist camp was part of the European fascist project or not. Concepts like fascistization, para-fascist or fascistized capture the sense of dynamism and hybridity that have challenged binary frameworks."}} *{{Harvnb|Casanova|2010|pp=10|ps=:"As such, although a 'genuine' mass Fascist party had not taken root in Spanish society, what had germinated and gathered strength was a counter-revolutionary politico-cultural tradition, which, like 'pre-Fascism' in Italy and völkisch nationalism in Germany, was able to be mobilised to play a similar role."}} * {{Harvnb|Preston|2005|pp=14|ps=:"The Unification of 1937 and the emasculation and bureaucratization of the radical Falange had their parallel in the fusion of fascists, nationalists and monarchists in 1923. There are fascinating similarities between the social support, ideological objectives and crucial importance to their respective causes of the agrarian Fascists and the agrarian CEDA. Equally, there are valid comparisons to be made between Renovación Espanola and the Italian Nationalist Association, both in their relationships to the more radical, populist Falange and Fascist Party and in the disproportionate role that their theorists were later to play in each of the dictatorships."}} *{{Harvnb|Blinkhorn|2003|pp=81|ps=:"The Franco regime... studied here by Paul Preston{{snd}}is a useful example. Notwithstanding the aforementioned ''fascisant'' tendencies within the Spanish Catholic and monarchist right, radical fascism, in the form of the Falange (fused from 1934 with the JONS), was weak until 1936... The product, like the Italian Fascist regime, was a compromise between radical fascism and conservative authoritarianism, in this case, with unambiguous military and Church support."}}}} Antisemitism<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOY3EAAAQBAJ|quote=Spain's Nationalists were also anti-Semitic. Historian Gerben Zaagsma describes their propaganda as "a mix of traditional Catholic anti-Semitism and contemporary theories about a world Judeo-Freemason-Bolshevik conspiracy.|isbn=9789004462540|page=60|title= Armed Jews in the Americas|date=5 July 2021 |publisher=BRILL }}</ref> {{Collapsible list | title = '''Factions:''' | bullets = yes | Fascism (Falangism){{refn|group=n|name=fascism| {{Harvnb|Blinkhorn|2003|pp=10–11|ps=: "... radical fascism, in the form of the Falange (fused from 1934 with the JONS), was weak until 1936 began to expand rapidly, not least through the recruitment of disillusioned JAP-ists. [...] As Preston indicates, Falangism played a superficially prominent and important role for as long as it suited Franco...}} *{{Harvnb|Griffin|Feldman|2004|pp=82–83}}; {{Harvnb|Albanese|Hierro|2016|p=54|ps=: "It was the FET-JONS, the main actor in Spain, which wanted the full fascistization of the country and which was most active during the period in trying to achieve it through the so-called 'syndicalist revolution'. This should not come as a surprise; ''Falange'' did not need the fascistization process since it was already fully fascist. Further, relations between ''Falange'' and Italy had become stronger since the Spanish Civil War. Mussolini saw the Spanish party as the main vehicle capable of transforming Spain into a fully fascist country. Similarly, FET-jons also regarded Mussolini's Italy as its main reference point. They even asked the authorities in Rome for advice about carrying out the fascistization process of the Francoist regime as effectively as possible."}}; *{{Harvnb|Thomàs|2020|pp=38–39|ps=: "Al referirnos a fascismo español lo hacemos a dos organizaciones diferentes. En primer lugar al partido fascista Falange Española de las JONS, que existió entre 1934 y el 19 de abril de 1937; y en segundo, al partido único del régimen franquista, Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS, creado el último día citado y subsistente durante toda la vigencia del Franquismo -ni más ni menos que hasta abril de 1977, aunque en 1958 trocó su denominación por la de Movimiento Nacional. Existieron así dos organizaciones fascistas diferentes, aunque la segunda nació en parte de la primera y la integró."}}}} | Carlism | Anti-Catalan sentiment | Alfonsism}} | position = Right-wing to far-right | allies = {{nowrap|{{flag|Nazi Germany|name=Germany}} {{flag|Kingdom of Italy|name=Italy}} {{flag|Estado Novo (Portugal)|name=Portugal}} {{flagicon image|Flag of Vatican City (1929–2001).svg}} Holy See}} | opponents = Republican faction *{{nowrap|{{flagicon image|Flag of Spain (1931–1939).svg}} Second Spanish Republic}} {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}} | war = Spanish Civil War *Spanish coup of July 1936 |crimes = White Terror | successor = Francoist Spain }} {{Conservatism in Spain}} {{Anti-communism}} The '''Nationalist faction'''{{refn|group=n|The term "Nationalists" is the most often used in English-language media, while the Spanish term is {{lang|es|nacionales}} 'nationals'. In Spanish-language discussion of the war, {{lang|es|nacionalista}} can be used for Basque and Catalan nationalists, who mostly aligned with the Republican faction. This can lead to confusion when translating from Spanish.}} ({{langx|es|Bando nacional}}), also called the '''Rebel faction''' ({{langx|es|Bando sublevado}})<ref name="Antony Beevor 1982 revised 2006" /> and '''Francoist faction''' ({{langx|es|Bando franquista}}),<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbHEnzeo-7AC | title=La intervención velada: El apoyo cinematográfico alemán al bando franquista, 1936-1939 | isbn=978-84-8371-463-8 | last1=Meseguer | first1=Manuel Nicolás | date=2004 | publisher=EDITUM }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BS6sVRviuEcC | isbn=978-84-370-8917-1 | title=Ritos de guerra y de victoria en la España franquista | date=July 2012 | publisher=Universitat de València }}</ref> was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-wing political groups that supported the Spanish Coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic and Republican faction and sought to depose Manuel Azaña. It included the Falange, the CEDA, and two rival monarchist claimants: the Alfonsist Renovación Española and the Carlist Traditionalist Communion. In 1937, all the groups were merged into the FET y de las JONS. In the course of the war, the Nationalist groups, which exhibited certain "fascisant" and "pre-fascist"{{refn|group=n|name=pf}} tendencies, became unified around a new emerging ideological project marked by modern ultranationalism<ref name="ultra"/> and the goal of purifying and reviving the nation in the "bonfire" of the war to achieve a Spanish "New Man" similarly to Fascism.<ref name="bonfire"/> After the death of the faction's early leaders, General Francisco Franco, one of the members of the 1936 coup, headed the Nationalists throughout most of the war, and emerged as the dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.

The term '''Nationalists''' or '''Nationals''' ({{lang|es|nacionales}}) was coined by Joseph Goebbels following the visit of the clandestine Spanish delegation led by Captain Francisco Arranz requesting war materiel on 24 July 1936, in order to give a cloak of legitimacy to Nazi Germany's help to the Spanish rebel military.<ref>Juan Eslava Galán, ''Una Historia de la Guerra Civil que no va a Gustar a Nadie'', Ed. Planeta. 2005. {{ISBN|8408058835}}. pp. 9–12.</ref> The leaders of the rebel faction, who had already been denominated as 'Crusaders' by Bishop of Salamanca Enrique Pla y Deniel{{snd}}and also used the term ''Cruzada'' for their campaign{{snd}}immediately took a liking to it.

The term ''Bando nacional'' or '''''Blancos''''' (Whites){{snd}}much as the term ''rojos'' (Reds) to refer to the loyalists{{snd}}is considered by some authors as a term linked with the propaganda of that faction. Throughout the civil war the term 'National' was mainly used by the members and supporters of the rebel faction, while its opponents used the terms '''fascistas''' (fascists)<ref name="Antony Beevor 1982 revised 2006">{{cite book |last=Beevor |first=Antony |author-link=Antony Beevor |title=The Battle for Spain |publisher=Orion |orig-year=1982 |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7538-2165-7}}</ref> or '''facciosos''' (sectarians)<ref>Ángel Bahamonde & Javier Cervera Gil, ''Así terminó la Guerra de España,'' Marcial Pons, Madrid 1999, {{ISBN|84-95379-00-7}}</ref> to refer to this faction.

==Belligerents== The military rebellion found wide areas of support both inside Spain and in the international sphere. In Spain the Francoist side was mainly supported by the predominantly conservative upper class, liberal professionals, religious organizations and land-owning farmers. It was mostly based in the rural areas where progressive political movements had made few inroads, such as great swathes of the Northern Meseta, including almost all of Old Castile, as well as La Rioja, Navarre, Alava, the area near Zaragoza in Aragon, most of Galicia, parts of Cáceres in Extremadura and many dispersed pockets in rural Andalusia where the local society still followed older traditional patterns and was yet comparably untouched by "modern" thought.<ref name="NG">Navarro García, Clotilde. ''La educación y el nacional-catolicismo.'' Univ de Castilla La Mancha, 1993. {{ISBN|84-88255-21-7}}, pp. 36–37</ref>

The historians Paul Preston and Julián Casanova note that what they describe as Spanish fascism was not centered in a fascist party, but was established by the unity of the right-wing groups and parties and the military rebels, which formed the Nationalist faction. They view the Nationalists as a united movement, where different groups shared the unity of "regiments in the same army." According to them, the Spanish right shared a political culture, similar to the Italian " 'pre-Fascism' like of the Italian Nationalist Association and the German Völkisch movement. In the Civil War, the Spanish right, including the military rebels, underwent further political radicalization and fascisation. As Preston writes, "throughout the Civil War, the politics of the army were indistinguishable from contemporary fascisms."{{sfn|Preston|2005}}{{sfn|Casanova|2010}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Press, Propaganda and Politics: Cultural Periodicals in Francoist Spain and Communist Romania|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=9781443865678|year=2014|pages=4–5}}</ref>

===Political groups=== Politically this faction rallied together various parties and organizations, such as the conservative CEDA, Falangists, Catholics and pro-monarchic movements such as the Agraristas and the Carlistas (among whom were the Requetés).<ref name="NG"/>

====Falange==== {{main|Falangism|Falange Española de las JONS{{!}}FE de las JONS|FET y de las JONS}} [[File:Bandera FE JONS.svg|thumb|160px|Falange]] The Falange Española was originally a Spanish fascist political party founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the former Spanish leader Miguel Primo de Rivera.<ref name="Michael Alpert 1997. Pp. 36">Michael Alpert. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Paperback ed. Hampshire, UK / London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. p. 36.</ref> The Falange was created with the financial assistance of Alfonsist monarchist funding.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 70">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 70.</ref> Upon being formed, the Falange was officially anti-clerical and anti-monarchist.<ref>Patrick Turnbull. ''The Spanish Civil War, 1936–39''. 6th ed. Oxford, England; New York: Osprey Publishing, 2005. p. 8.</ref> As a landowner and aristocrat, Primo de Rivera assured the upper classes that Spanish fascism would not get out of their control like its equivalents in Germany and Italy.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 70"/> In 1934, the Falange merged with the pro-Nazi Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista of Ramiro Ledesma Ramos,<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 70"/> to form the Falange Española de las JONS.

Initially, the Falange was short of funds and was a small student-based movement that preached of a utopian violent nationalist revolution.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 70"/> The Falange committed acts of violence before the war, including becoming involved in street brawls with their political opponents that helped to create a state of lawlessness that the right-wing press blamed on the republic to support a military uprising.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 70"/> Falangist terror squads sought to create an atmosphere of disorder in order to justify the imposition of an authoritarian regime.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 89">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 89.</ref> With the onset of middle-class disillusionment with the CEDA's legalism, support for the Falange expanded rapidly.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 89"/> By September 1936, the total Falangist volunteers numbered at 35,000, accounting for 55 percent of all civilian forces of the Nationals.<ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977''. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1999. p. 242.</ref>

Falange Española de las JONS was one of the original supporters of the military coup d'état against the republic, the other being the Carlists.<ref name="Preston94">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006, p. 94.</ref> After the death of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Manuel Hedilla sought to take control of the Falange, but this was usurped by Franco who sought to take control of the movement as part of his move to take control of the National faction.<ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977''. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1999. p. 268.</ref> In 1937, Franco announced a decree of unification of the National political movements, particularly the Falange and the Carlists into a single movement, nominally still the Falange, under his leadership,<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 214">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 214.</ref> under the name Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS. Both Falangists and Carlists were initially furious at the decision, Falangists in particular saw their ideological role as being usurped by the Catholic Church and their revolution being indefinitely postponed.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 214"/>

Upon unification and seizure of leadership by Franco, Franco distanced the party from fascism and declared "The Falange does not consider itself fascist; its founder said so personally."<ref name="Payne272">Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977''. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1999. p. 272.</ref> After this announcement, the practice in the National faction of referring to the Falange as "fascists" disappeared by 1937, but Franco did not deny that there were fascists within the Falange.<ref name="Payne272"/> Franco declared that the Falange's goal was to incorporate the "great neutral mass of the unaffiliated", and promised that no ideological rigidity would be allowed to interfere with the goal.<ref name="Payne272"/> Under Franco's leadership, the Falange abandoned the previous anticlerical tendencies of José Antonio Primo de Rivera and instead promoted neotraditionalist National Catholicism, though it continued to criticize Catholic pacifism.<ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977''. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1999. pp. 280–281.</ref> Franco's Falange also abandoned hostility to capitalism, with Falange member Raimundo Fernández-Cuesta declaring that Falange's national syndicalism was fully compatible with capitalism.<ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977''. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1999. p. 281.</ref>

====CEDA==== {{main|Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups}} [[File:Flag_of_CEDA.svg|thumb|160px|CEDA]] The Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups, CEDA, was a Catholic right-wing political organization dedicated to anti-Marxism.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 62">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 62.</ref> The CEDA was led by José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones. The CEDA claimed that it was defending Spain and "Christian civilization" from Marxism, and claimed that the political atmosphere in Spain had made politics a matter of Marxism versus anti-Marxism.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 62" /> With the advent of the rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany, the CEDA aligned itself with similar propaganda ploys to the Nazis, including the Nazi emphasis on authority, the fatherland, and hierarchy.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 62"/> Gil-Robles attended in audience at the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg and was influenced by it, henceforth becoming committed to creating a single anti-Marxist counterrevolutionary front in Spain.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 62"/> Gil-Robles declared his intention to "give Spain a true unity, a new spirit, a totalitarian polity..." and went on to say "Democracy is not an end but a means to the conquest of the new state. When the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it."<ref>Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: reaction, revolution and revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 64.</ref> The CEDA held fascist-style rallies, called Gil-Robles "''Jefe''", the equivalent of ''Duce'', and claimed that the CEDA might lead a "March on Madrid" to forcefully seize power.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 45, 69">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: reaction, revolution and revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 pp. 45, 69.</ref> The CEDA failed to make the substantive electoral gains from 1931 to 1936 that were needed for it to form government which resulted in right-wing support draining from it and turning towards the belligerent Alfonsist monarchist leader José Calvo Sotelo.<ref>Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: reaction, revolution and revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 pp. 88–89.</ref> Subsequently, the CEDA abandoned its moderation and legalism and began providing support for those committed to violence against the republic, including handing over its electoral funds to the initial leader of the military coup against the republic, General Emilio Mola.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 89" /> Subsequently, supporters of the CEDA's youth movement, Juventudes de Acción Popular (JAP) began to defect en masse to join the Falange, and the JAP ceased to exist as a political organisation in 1937.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 89" />

====Monarchists====

=====Carlists===== {{main|Carlism}} [[File:Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg|thumb|160x160px|''Requetés/CT'']] The Carlists were monarchists and ardent ultratraditionalist Catholics who sought the installation of Carlist Pretender Francisco Javier de Borbón as King of Spain.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 10">Patrick Turnbull. The Spanish Civil War, 1936–39. 6th ed. Oxford; New York: Osprey Publishing, 2005. p. 10.</ref> The Carlists were anti-republican, anti-democratic and staunchly anti-socialist.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 8-9">Patrick Turnbull. The Spanish Civil War, 1936–39. 6th ed.. Oxford; New York: Osprey Publishing, 2005. pp. 8–9.</ref> The Carlists were so anti-socialist that they opposed both Hitler and Mussolini because of their socialist tendencies.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 8-9"/> The Carlists were led by Manuel Fal Condé and held their main base of support in Navarre.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 8-9"/> The Carlists along with the Falange were the original supporters of the military coup d'état against the republic.<ref name="Preston94"/> The Carlists held a long history of violent opposition to Spanish liberalism, dating back to 1833 when they launched a six-year civil war against the reformist regency of María Cristina de las dos Sicilias.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 9">Patrick Turnbull. The Spanish Civil War, 1936–39. 6th ed. Oxford; New York: Osprey Publishing, 2005. p. 9.</ref> The Carlists were strongly intransigent to any coalition with other movements, even believing that no non-Carlist could have honest intentions.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 9"/>

During the war, the Carlists' militia, the ''Requetés'' reached a peak of 42,000 recruits but by the end of hostilities in April 1939 their overall strength had been reduced to 23,000.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 9"/> The Carlists contributed some of the Nationalists' most effective shock troops during the war.<ref name=uca>{{cite web |url = http://libro.uca.edu/payne2/payne26.htm |title = Chapter 26: A History of Spain and Portugal vol. 2 |access-date = 8 May 2015 }}</ref>

===== Alfonsists ===== {{Main|Alfonsism|Renovación Española}} [[File:Bandera de Renovación Española.svg|thumb|160x160px|''Renovación Española'']] The Alfonsists were a movement that supported the restoration of Alfonso XIII of Spain as monarch following the founding of the Spanish Second Republic in 1931. They competed with rival monarchists, the Carlists, for the Spanish throne. After the overthrow of the monarchy of Alfonso XIII, Alfonsist supporters formed the ''Renovación Española'', a monarchist political party, which held considerable economic influence and had close supporters in the Spanish army.<ref name="Andrew Forrest 2000. Pp. 10">Andrew Forrest. ''The Spanish Civil War''. London; New York: Routledge, 2000. p. 10.</ref> ''Renovación Española'' did not, however, manage to become a mass political movement.<ref name="Andrew Forrest 2000. Pp. 10"/> In 1934, the Alfonsists, led by Antonio Goicoechea, along with the Carlists, met with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to gain support for an uprising against the republic, in which Mussolini promised to provide money and arms for such a rising.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 69">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 69.</ref> From 1934 to 1936, the charismatic Alfonsist leader José Calvo Sotelo spoke of the need for the "conquest of the state" as the only means to secure the establishment of an ideal authoritarian, corporatist state.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 69"/> Sotelo made passionate speeches in support of violent counterrevolution and emphasized the need for a military insurrection against the republic to counter the threats of communism and separatism that he blamed as being caused by the republic.<ref>Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Reveng''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 pp. 92–93.</ref> Sotelo was kidnapped and assassinated by political opponents (who were initially searching out Gil-Robles of the CEDA to kidnap) on 13 July 1936 which sparked fury on the political right and helped legitimize the military coup against the republic.<ref>Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 99.</ref>

When the war broke out, Infante Juan, the son of Alfonso XIII and heir to the Spanish throne, requested the permission of Franco to take part in the Nationals' war effort by enlisting as a member of the crew of the cruiser ''Balaeres'', which was nearing completion.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 209">Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 209.</ref> He promised to abstain from political activities, but Franco refused, believing that he would become a figurehead for the Alfonsists who held a strong presence in the military.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 209"/>

=== Military === {{See also|Spanish Military Union}}

====Army of Africa==== {{Main|Army of Africa (Spain){{!}}Army of Africa|Regulares}} [[File:Merchant flag of Spanish Morocco.svg|thumb|160x160px|Flag of the Spanish Moroccan Protectorate]] {{see also|Mohamed Meziane}}

The Army of Africa was a field army garrisoned in Spanish Morocco – a legacy of the Rif War – under the command of General Francisco Franco. It consisted of the Spanish Foreign Legion and the ''Regulares'', infantry and cavalry units recruited from the population of Spanish Morocco and with Spanish officers as commanders.

The ''Regulares'' operated as the shock troops of the National forces in exchange for a substantial pay. More than 13,000 Moroccan troops were airlifted on 20 Junkers Ju 52 planes supplied by Hitler between the beginning of the conflict in July and October 1936. Their proverbial cruelty and reckless behaviour were not random, but were part of a calculated plan of the Francoist military leaders in order to instill terror in the Republican defence lines.<ref name=cas278>Julián Casanova, ''República y Guerra Civil.'' in ''Historia de España,'' directed by Josep Fontana y Ramón Villares. Vol. 8, Barcelona: 2007, Crítica/Marcial Pons Publishers. {{ISBN|978-84-8432-878-0}}, p. 278</ref>

The Army of Africa would be the most decorated unit in the May 1939 victory brigade by the Nationalists; it has been estimated that one in five of its members were killed during the war, a casualty rate twice as high as that of the peninsular forces within the Spanish Nationalist faction. For several years after the war, Franco would have a squadron of Moorish troops act as his escort at public ceremonies as a reminder of the Army's importance in the Nationalist victory.<ref>Bolorinos Allard, Elisabeth. "The Crescent and the Dagger: Representations of the Moorish Other during the Spanish Civil War." ''Bulletin of Spanish Studies'' 93, no. 6 (2016): 965–988.</ref>

====Civil Guard==== {{Main|Civil Guard (Spain)}} Approximately 47% of the Spanish Republican Civil Guard defected to the rebels during the onset of the civil war.<ref>{{Citation | last = Muñoz-Bolaños | first = Roberto | title = Fuerzas y cuerpos de seguridad en España (1900–1945) | journal = Serga | volume = 2 | year = 2000 }}</ref> With the highest authority of the Spanish Republican Civil Guard, Inspector General Sebastián Pozas, remaining loyal to the republican government,<ref name=INDE>Hugh Thomas (1976); ''Historia de la Guerra Civil Española'', Ed. Grijalbo, p. 254</ref> the rebel units of the Civil Guard were placed under direct command of the Nationalist army until after the war ended.

====Other military forces==== * Aviación Nacional * Spanish Navy (rebel factions)

==Foreign support== {{Main|Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War}}

===Italy=== [[File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg|thumb|160px|Kingdom of Italy]] {{main|Italian military intervention in Spain}} Italy under the Fascist leadership of Benito Mussolini supported the overthrow of the republic and the establishment of a regime that would serve as a client state to Italy. Italy distrusted the Spanish Republic due to its pro-French leanings and prior to the war had made contact with Spanish right-wing groups.<ref>Michael Alpert. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Paperback edition. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. p. 35.</ref> Italy justified its intervention as an action intended to prevent the rise of Bolshevism in Spain.<ref>Michael Alpert. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Paperback ed. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. p. 93.</ref> Italy's Fascist regime considered the threat of Bolshevism a real risk with the arrival of volunteers from the Soviet Union who were fighting for the Republicans.<ref>Michael Alpert. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Paperback edition. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. p. 91.</ref> Mussolini provided financial support as well as training to the Alfonsists, Carlists, and Falange.<ref name="Paul Preston 2007. Pp. 45, 69"/> Mussolini met Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1933 but did not have much enthusiasm in the establishment of fascism in Spain at that time.<ref name="Michael Alpert 1997. Pp. 36"/>

By January 1937, an expeditionary force of 35,000 Italians, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie, were in Spain under the command of General Mario Roatta.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 10"/> The contingent was made up of four divisions: Littorio, Dio lo Vuole ("God Wills it"), Fiamme Nere ("Black Flames") and Penne Nere ("Black Feathers"). The first of these divisions was made up of soldiers; the other three of Blackshirt volunteers.<ref>{{cite book |last = Eslava Galan |first = Juan |title=Una historia de la Guerra Civil que no va a gustar a nadie |trans-title = A History Of The Spanish Civil War That No-one Will Like |publisher = Planeta |language = es |chapter=Penne Nere (Pena Negra)}}</ref> Italy provided the National forces with fighter and bomber aircraft which played a significant part in the war.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 10" /> In March 1937, Italy intervened in the political affairs of the Nationals by sending Roberto Farinacci to Spain to urge Franco to unite the various political movements of the Nationalist faction into one fascist "Spanish National Party".<ref>Paul Preston. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. 2006 p. 200.</ref>

===Germany=== {{Main|German involvement in the Spanish Civil War}}

[[File:Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg|thumb|160px|German Reich]]

Germany provided the Nationals with material, specialists, and a powerful air force contingent, the Condor Legion German expeditionary forces that provided airlift of soldiers and material from Spanish Africa to Peninsular Spain and provided offensive operations against Republican forces.<ref name="Patrick Turnbull 2005. Pp. 10"/> Nationalist forces were supplied with tanks and aircraft, including the Panzer I, Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Heinkel He 111.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dailey |first1=Andy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1S-4oQEACAAJ |title=Access to History for the IB Diploma: Causes and Effects of 20th-Century Wars |edition =2nd|last2=Webb |first2=Sarah |date=2015 |publisher=Hodder Education Group |isbn=978-1-4718-4134-7 |language=en}}</ref> The Spanish Civil War would provide an ideal testing ground for the proficiency of the new weapons produced during the German re-armament. Many aeronautical bombing techniques were tested by the Condor Legion against the Republican Government on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Franco. Hitler insisted, however, that his long-term designs were peaceful, a strategy labelled as "Blumenkrieg" (Flower War).<ref>Evidenced in a January 1937 speech prior to the outcry over the bombing of the Basque city of Guernica, known by the Luftwaffe as Operation Rügen. Hitler speech to Reichstag 30 January 1937 available via the [http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/hitler1.htm German Propaganda Archive.]</ref>

Germany had important economic interests at stake in Spain, as Germany imported large amounts of mineral ore from Spanish Morocco.<ref>Michael Alpert. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Paperback ed. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. p. 157.</ref> The Nazi regime sent retired General Wilhelm Faupel as ambassador to Franco's regime, Faupel supported Franco and the Falange in the hope that they would create a Nazi-like regime in Spain.<ref name="Michael Alpert 1997. Pp. 97">Michael Alpert. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Paperback ed. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. p. 97.</ref> Debt owed by Franco and the Nationals to Germany rose quickly upon purchasing German material, and required financial assistance from Germany as the Republicans had access to Spain's gold reserve.<ref name="Michael Alpert 1997. Pp. 97" />

=== Portugal === {{Main|Viriatos}}

[[File:Flag of Portugal.svg|thumb|160px|Portuguese Republic]]

Upon the outbreak of the civil war, Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar almost immediately supported the National forces.<ref name="Tom Gallagher 1983. Pp. 86">Tom Gallagher. ''Portugal: a twentieth-century interpretation''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983. p. 86.</ref> Salazar's ''Estado Novo'' regime held tense relations with the Spanish Republic that held Portuguese dissidents to his regime in it.<ref name="Meneses. 2001. Pp. 96">Filipe Ribeiro De Meneses. ''Franco and the Spanish Civil War''. London; New York: Routledge, 2001. p. 96.</ref> Portugal played a critical role in supplying Franco's forces with ammunition and many other logistical resources.<ref>Antony Beevor. ''The Battle for Spain; The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. pp. 116, 133, 143, 148, 174, 427.</ref> Despite its discreet direct military involvement – restrained to a somewhat "semi-official" endorsement, by its authoritarian regime, of an 8,000–12,000-strong volunteer force, the so-called "Viriatos" – for the whole duration of the conflict, Portugal was instrumental in providing the National faction with a vital logistical organization and by reassuring Franco and his allies that no interference whatsoever would hinder the supply traffic directed to the Nationals, crossing the borders of the two Iberian countries – the Nationals used to refer to Lisbon as "the port of Castile".<ref>Antony Beevor. ''The Battle for Spain; The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. pp. 116, 198.</ref> In 1938, with Franco's victory increasingly certain, Portugal recognized Franco's regime and after the war in 1939 signed a treaty of friendship and non-aggression pact that was known as the Iberian Pact.<ref name="Tom Gallagher 1983. Pp. 86"/> Portugal played an important diplomatic role in supporting the Franco regime, including by insisting to the United Kingdom that Franco sought to replicate Salazar's ''Estado Novo'' and not Mussolini's Fascist Italy.<ref name="Meneses. 2001. Pp. 96"/>

=== Holy See === {{see also|White Terror (Spain)#Cooperation of the Spanish Church}} [[File:Flag of Vatican City (1929–2001).svg|thumb|140px|Holy See]] Among many influential Catholics in Spain, mainly composed of conservative traditionalists and people belonging to pro-monarchic groups, the religious persecution was squarely, and based on evidence probably rightly, mostly blamed on the government of the Republic. The ensuing outrage was used after the 1936 coup by the nationalist/monarchist faction and readily extended itself. The Catholic Church took the side of the rebel government, and hailed the religious Spaniards who had been persecuted in Republican areas as 'martyrs of the faith'. The devout Catholics who supported the Spanish Republic included high-ranking officers of the Popular Army such as republican Catholic general Vicente Rojo Lluch, as well as the Catholic Basque nationalists who opposed the rebel faction.<ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''The Franco regime, 1936–1975''. Madison, WI / London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. p. 201.</ref>

Initially the Vatican held itself from declaring too openly its support of the rebel side in the war, although it had long allowed high ecclesiastical figures in Spain to do so and to define the conflict as a 'Crusade'. Throughout the war, however, Francoist propaganda and influential Spanish Catholics labelled the secular Republic as "the enemy of God and the Church" and denounced the Republic, holding it responsible for anti-clerical activities such as shutting down Catholic schools and the desecration of religious buildings, as well as the killing of priests and nuns by frenzied mobs.<ref>Juliàn Casanova. ''The Spanish Republic and Civil War''. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 139.</ref>

Forsaken by the Western European powers, the republican side mainly depended on Soviet military assistance; this played into the hands of the portrayal in Francoist propaganda of the Spanish Republic as a 'Marxist' and godless state. By means of its extensive diplomatic network, the Holy See used its influence to lobby for the rebel side. During an International Art Exhibition in Paris in 1937, in which both the Francoist and the Republican governments were present, the Holy See allowed the Nationalist pavilion to display its exhibition under the Vatican flag, for the rebel government's flag was still not recognized.<ref>Antony Beevor, ''The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939''</ref> The Holy See was one of the first states to officially recognize Franco's Spanish State, having done so by 1938.<ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''The Franco regime, 1936–1975''. Madison, WI / London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. p. 156.</ref>

Regarding the position of the Holy See during and after the Civil War, Manuel Montero, lecturer of the University of the Basque Country commented on 6 May 2007:<ref>[http://www.almendron.com/tribuna/?p=15373 Manuel Montero a ''El País'', 6/5/2007, «Otros "mártires" de la Guerra Civil»]</ref> {{blockquote|The Church, which upheld the idea of a 'National Crusade' in order to legitimize the military rebellion, was a belligerent part during the Civil War, even at the cost of alienating part of its members. It continues in a belligerent role in its unusual answer to the Historical Memory Law by recurring to the beatification of 498 "martyrs" of the Civil War. The priests executed by Franco's Army are not counted among them. It continues to be a Church that is incapable of transcending its one-sided behaviour of 70 years ago and amenable to the fact that this past should always haunt us. In this political use of granting religious recognition one can perceive its indignation regarding the compensations to the victims of Francoism. Its selective criteria regarding the religious persons that were part of its ranks are difficult to fathom. The priests who were victims of the republicans are "martyrs who died forgiving", but those priests who were executed by the Francoists are forgotten.}}

=== Other supporters === {{See also|Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War#Support for the Nationalists}}

1,000–2,000 English, Irish, French, Filipino, White Russians, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, and Belgian volunteers came to Spain to fight on the side of the Nationals.<ref>Fighting for Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War. pp. vi, viii.</ref> Only two British women Priscilla Scott-Ellis and Gabriel Herbert volunteered as nurses.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last=Pottle |first=Mark |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-76869 |title=Ellis, (Esyllt) Priscilla [Pip] Scott – (1916–1983), diarist |date=2004-09-23 |volume=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/76869|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>

==References== '''Notes''' {{Reflist|group=n}}

'''Citations''' {{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography''' {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |last1=Albanese |first1=Matteo |last2=Hierro |first2=Pablo del |title=Transnational Fascism in the Twentieth Century: Spain, Italy and the Global Neo-Fascist Network |date=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1472532008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRjmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 |access-date=5 July 2020 |language=en}} * Alpert, Michael. ''A New International History of the Spanish Civil War''. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997; New York: St. Martin's Press Ltd, 1997. * Beevor, Antony. ''The Battle for Spain; The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. * {{cite book |last1=Blinkhorn |first1=Martin |title=Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth-Century Europe |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134997121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zr6JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT10}} * Casanova, Juliàn. ''The Spanish Republic and Civil War''. Cambridge University Press, 2010. * Davis, Paul K. ''Besieged: an encyclopedia of great sieges from ancient times to the present''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2001. * Gallagher, Tom. ''Portugal: a twentieth-century interpretation''. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1983. * {{cite book |last1=Griffin |first1=Roger |last2=Feldman |first2=Matthew |title=Fascism: The 'fascist epoch' |date=2004 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0415290197 |pages=82–83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xeHuSpHzqGUC&pg=PA82 |access-date=5 July 2020 |language=en}} * De Meneses, Filipe Ribeiro . ''Franco and the Spanish Civil War''. London; New York: Routledge, 2001. * Payne, Stanley G. ''Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977''. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1999. * Preston, Paul. ''The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge''. 3rd ed.. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007. * {{Cite journal |url=http://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/che/article/view/9047/7829 |volume=87 |doi=10.34096/che.n87.9047 |journal=Cuadernos de Historia de España |title=La Alemania nazi y el fascismo español durante la Guerra Civil |author-link=Joan Maria Thomàs |year=2020 |first=Joan Maria |last=Thomàs |issue=87 |page=38 |publisher=Universidad de Buenos Aires |location=Buenos Aires |issn=0325-1195 |language=es |doi-access=free}} * Turnbull, Patrick. ''The Spanish Civil War, 1936–39''. 6th ed.. Oxford; New York: Osprey Publishing, 2005. * {{Cite book |last1=Daily |first1=Andy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1S-4oQEACAAJ |title=Access to History for the IB Diploma: Causes and Effects of 20th-Century Wars |last2=Webb |first2=Sarah |publisher=Hodder Education Group |year=2015 |isbn=978-1471841347 |edition=2nd |pages=90–93 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last=Preston |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Preston|year=2005|orig-year=1990|title=The Politics of Revenge: Fascism and the Military in Twentieth-Century Spain|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0415120004|chapter=Resisting modernity: fascism and the military in twentieth century Spain}} * {{cite book |last1=Casanova |first1=Julián |title=The Spanish Republic and Civil War |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=9780511787027|oclc=659843319}} * {{cite book |last1=Shubert |first1=Adrian |editor1=Adrian Shubert |editor2=Alison Ribeiro de Menezes |editor3=Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez |title=The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Spanish Civil War |date=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781350230422}} {{refend}}

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