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Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB History HL

Essay Question: Analyze the reasons for the Nationalist victory in the Spanish civil war. The Spanish civil war of 1936 was a war of strategy where the Nationalists were able to exploit the structural weaknesses of the Republicans and the ability of the military commanders also contributed to their victory. However, some of these reasons can be attributed to uncontrollable factors such as foreign intervention. The growing divide by the Nationalists and Republicans for many reasons after the war were eventually met with physical aggression. This was due to the unequal divide of power struggle between different social classes, such as landowners and peasants. With 50% of the population tied with agriculture, there was sometimes a shortage of jobs that expressed resentment towards landowners. There was growing desire for autonomy from a government that was divided between conservatives and liberals that prevented effective and constructive policies to be implemented. Moreover, the presence of extremist factions within the government began to emerge and exploited the weaknesses of post WWI Spain to its advantages. During the Spanish civil war, Francos leadership for the Nationalists arguably was the most important factor towards its victory in the sense he greatly contributed to consolidating all of the military power, logistics, and foreign intervention methods to create a divisive strategy to defeat the opposition. Examples include the use of tactics and the assistance of the armies of Africa and junior officials and more from the Spanish army. The armys enthusiasm in involving itself into politics advantaged Franco. This was exemplified by the fact other possible successors and opposition were assassinated or killed, likely by sympathizers and supporters of Francos cause. Foreign intervention also helped the Nationalists led by Franco win the civil war. German and Italian aid contributed to the sending of troops to side with the Nationalists. These troops came from pronationalist forces in Africa. Other world leaders at the time also assisted the Spanish nationalists, with Hitlers supply of transport vehicles and Italys deployment of 40,000 troops by Mussolini. Hitler supplied 26 transport planes for the purpose of deploying Spanish troops, 30 junkers and gave around 215 million dollar in military aid in total. Italys support mainly took the form of men power and war materials. Local intervention in the form of economic aid also helped prosper the Nationalists. The use of terror, propaganda and misinformation was also another host of tactics the Nationalists employed to instigate fear into people from possibly being potential opposition members. Francos intentions were clearly demonstrated by a massacre at Badgoz and the destruction of Guernica. A weakness of the Republicans that attributed to the successes of the Nationalists in part was their overall collective discontent and disunity. There was no clear policy and goal given that many of the republicans were divided on policy aims when they won the war. This was also worsened by military failures, where there was no central control in their army and was only supported by the USSR. However, there were also other factors that were necessary to have occurred in order for the unprecedented successes of the Nationalist party to victory. This included the adoption of a noninterventionist policy by Britain and France that was attributed by the conversation of military spending due to huge deficits from post WW1. Moreover, the Spanish army favored the Nationalists

Word count: Date:

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB History HL

Essay Question: Analyze the reasons for the Nationalist victory in the Spanish civil war. instead of the republicans, which may also have had a considerable impact on their standing in the war. Moreover, luck was with the Nationalists due to certain trade embargos that affected the Republicans more than it affected the Nationalists. A main reason was that the main weapons channel to the republicans was from the USSR, while the Nationalists have several European sponsors to aid them in their fight both militarily and financially. Therefore with these reasons it appears that many of the reasons leading to Nationalist victory were from the situational disposition that by luck or default, enabled Franco the upper hand, which included foreign intervention in his favor and local political views.