80 years ago: the dream of a people becomes the nightmare of a nation.

[Capitaine Vengeur]

On 17-18 July 1936, a military coup in Spanish Morocco and Southern Spain proved a decisive challenge for the young Spanish Republic. After almost 3 years of a terrible civil war (pleonasm), an improbable coalition of militarists, Phalangists and Royalists, known as The Nationalists, prevailed over an even more improbable coalition of Social Democrats, Stalinists, Trotskysts and anarchists, known as The Republicans. The bloody cleansing that followed for years, the leaden shroud of morale repression that followed for decades, kept Spain for long in a serious delay behind the rest of Western Europe. The heavy emigration to France until the 80s is a clear symptom.

 

In the recent aftermath of the Turkish failed military coup, one can just wonder: What would have happened, had the coup epically failed like the one we saw recently, and had a progressive Spanish Republic survived? Probably, Spain would have been invaded by the Germans in 1940 after the fall of France. Possibly, a Spanish Republic with a strong Communist constituent would have been kept aside for a while by NATO and the Western Europe, Yugoslavia-style at best, Cuba-style at worst. But surely anyway, the place and weight of Spain in today's Western Europe may have been very different.

[Snailman]

Yes, I was just recently thinking about Spain... Many things could have happened differently. And Franco might have joined the Axis as well - as a what-if. 

 

What-if is such thing historians used to refuse to talk... yet, of course it is most interesting part of history.

 

Not much I know about the Spanish Civil war, but it was a lot more important than it seems. It is still affecting the politics and public opinion... so it's a sensitive topic. I'll be an ear here, happy to read anything.

[macelena]

Talk about a clusterfuck. I watched the Turkish coup live on TV and it reminded me a lot of how or war began pretty much like that, with a portion of the military rising against the government in a botched coup, massive civilian concentrations stopping them...and then the purges. We pretty much couldn´t wait for WW2 before getting our fascist-communist struggle...with the moderate people split in the middle.

[RUSTYMORLEY]

I bet a great many of the individuals who instigated this coup against the Turkish government end up in a cold wet ditch somewhere or simply disappear never to be seen or heard of again. 

[+Gepard]

A lot of volonteers all around the world fought on the side of the Republic against the Franco fascists.

There were 5 international Brigades. One german "Thälmannbrigade", one italian "Garibaldi", one mixed nations "Dabrowski", one french "Marseillaise", one anglo american "Lincoln/Washington"

 

Song of the international Brigades:

 

Spaniens Himmel breitet seine Sterne                                                 Spanish sky spread his stars

über unsern Schützengräben aus.                                                      over our trenches

Und der Morgen grüßt schon aus der Ferne,                                      and the morning greets from far

Bald geht es zu neuem Kampf hinaus                                                 soon we go to new fight again

 

Die Heimat ist weit                                                                               The home is far away                                     

doch wir sind bereit                                                                             but we are ready

wir kämpfen und siegen für dich                                                         for fight and Victory, for you

Freiheit!                                                                                              Freedom!

 

 

3 Songs of the american Lincoln Brigade

 

 

 

  Edited July 19, 2016 by Gepard

[UK_Widowmaker]

I bet a great many of the individuals who instigated this coup against the Turkish government end up in a cold wet ditch somewhere or simply disappear never to be seen or heard of again. 

 

Well, many already have been killed..saw a beheading online of a Turkish Soldier..it's a real mess out there...and it's likely to spill over into Europe. If the EU want Turkey to join..all I can say is "Good luck..cos you're gonna need it!"

Edited July 19, 2016 by UK_Widowmaker

[Capitaine Vengeur]

A lot of volonteers all around the world fought on the side of the Republic against the Franco fascists.

There were 5 international Brigades. One german "Thälmannbrigade", one italian "Garibaldi", one mixed nations "Dabrowski", one french "Marseillaise", one anglo american "Lincoln/Washington"

 

There were lots of foreign combatants on both sides: on Franco's side were the German and Italian Expeditionary Corps, and the Spanish Legion, which during the conflict attracted many foreign anti-Communist and reactionary volunteers, up to have several banderas displaying a clear national identity. This led to some confrontations that proved very personal, for example Italian anti-Fascists vs Italian CTV "volunteers" or legionarios, or Irish Catholic bandera versus English Socialist brigadists...

 

"La Nueve", the 9th Company of Régiment du Tchad which spearheaded the Liberation of Paris in 1944, to the capture of the German HQ and commander, was almost entirely made of highly motivated Spanish Republican veterans. Their half-tracks were named after battles of the Civil War (Teruel, Guadalaraja...), as they had been prohibited to name them after Socialist or syndicalist leaders. In the instable aftermath of this Liberation, one of their first (unauthorized) acts was to head to the Spanish Embassy and replace the King's flag with the Republican red-gold-purple flag.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Capitaine Vengeur