Spanish Civil War Causes

Long-term causes
1. Weakness of gov.t
  1. Once a constitutional monarchy
  2. Power held by wealthy oligarchs = gov.t has no power
2. Role of Spanish Army
  1. very powerful
  2. intervened in politics if crisis occured
    1. intervened in 1936 = war
      1. Army conservative and Africanists nationalist and traditional
  3. bad reputation with the people
    1. brutal, ineffective (lost Spain's colonial assests) and expensive
    2. Social tension - middle/upper class defended military interests as dominated jobs as officers and generals
3. Role of Church
  1. Catholic Church
    1. wealthy and powerful
    2. used influence to support social, economical and political conservatism
    3. aristocracy = close bonds to church as funded church
      1. = church defended interests of upper class
      2. =resentment among poor and urban workers
4. Economical
  1. agriculture main source of employment
    1. work seasonal = peasants had to move around to get jobs
    2. most peasants live in abject poverty
  2. Industrial modernisation and reform
    1. workers = low wages, long hours and bad working conditions
    2. Trade unions formed
      1. could not achieve anything substantial
        employers could always find alternative labour
    3. legal means = workers resorted to violent uprising
5. Regional
  1. struggle between centralist state and Catalonia and Basque
    1. wanted independence
    2. increase tension
      1. = divisions in society
Short-term causes
1. Left republic (1931-33)
  1. Manuel Azana = president
  2. Church
    1. limited their power
    2. no longer in control of education
    3. state payment stopped
  3. Army
    1. offered early retirement to officers
      1. was expensive
      2. remaining members of army were conservatives and nationalists
      3. army radicalised
  4. Economic
    1. Agriculture
      1. prices tumbled
        wine and olive exports fell
      2. unemployment
      3. land redistributed (<7,000 families had benefitted
    2. Industrial
      1. iron and steel production fell
  5. Catalonia
    1. given own parliament and some power
      1. RW angered by change
        saw as way towards breaking up Spain
        opposed reforms: sometimes with violence
        saw change as threat
2. Right Republic (1933-36)
  1. 1933 elections = swing to reight
  2. New gov.t
    1. ruled for 2 years
    2. reversed work of Left Rep
  3. Catalonia
    1. attempted to resist interference
      1. autonomy suspended after Austrian miners' uprising 1934
  4. RW: lost support of Basques (now LW)
  5. Gil-Robles
    1. CEDA President
      1. Caballero
        demanded shift to authoritarian approach
        suggest CEDA was Spanish Nazi Party
3. Popular Front (1936)
  1. RW disintegrated
    1. co. + political situation deteriorated
  2. anti-fascist pact made by LW groups
    1. way to uphold democracy (others saw it associated with Stalin)
  3. Anarchists
    1. encouraged peasants to seize power
    2. increase violence
    3. conflict between groups
Immediate Causes

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Spanish Civil War Causes

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	Created by hanalou about 10 years ago