From The Spanish Civil War To World War II
The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 and officially ended with Franco's victory in April 1939, leaving 190,000 to 500,000 dead. Despite the Non-Intervention Agreement of August 1936, the war was marked by foreign intervention on behalf of both sides, leading to international repercussions. The nationalist side was supported by Fascist Italy, which sent the Corpo Truppe Volontarie, and later by Nazi Germany, which assisted with the Condor Legion. The United Kingdom and France strictly adhered to the arms embargo, provoking dissensions within the French Popular Front coalition led by Léon Blum, but the Republican side was nonetheless supported by the Soviet Union and volunteers fighting in the International Brigades (see for example Ken Loach's Land and Freedom).
Because Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin used the war as a testing ground for modern warfare, some historians, such as Ernst Nolte, have considered the Spanish Civil War, along with World War II, part of a "European Civil War" lasting from 1936 to 1945 and characterized mainly as a left/right ideological conflict. However, this interpretation has not found acceptance among most historians, who consider the Spanish Civil War and Second World War to be two distinct conflicts. Among other things, they point to the political heterogeneity on both sides (See Spanish Civil War: other factions) and criticize a monolithic interpretation which overlooks the local nuances of Spanish history.
Read more about this topic: Francisco Franco
Famous quotes containing the words from the, spanish, civil, war and/or world:
“How did they meet? By chance, like everybody.... Where did they come from? From the nearest place. Where were they going? Do we know where we are going?”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“As the Spanish proverb says, “He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.” So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“The subjectivist in morals, when his moral feelings are at war with the facts about him, is always free to seek harmony by toning down the sensitiveness of the feelings.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun,
And wish th’ estate o’ the world were now undone.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)