Social, Economic and Political Factors Involved in the Spanish Civil War

Social, Economic and Political Factors Involved in the Spanish Civil War

With reference to any civil war in the 20th century examine the

social, economic and political background to the divisions in the society

involved. To what extent were the problems which caused the war resolved

in the post-war period?

The state of Spain during the early years of the 20th century can be

said to have been a state of great "unease". Spain was one of the first

powers to loose her imperial influence, the state was politically unstable,

industrially weak and had suffered some humiliating defeats. It can be

said that these were the main causes that lead to the great instability of

Spain during the Civil war and post civil war periods.

Left-winged radicalism and nationalistic movements, such as the

Catalan movement frequently came into conflict with the central government,

which lead the government to use corruption more and more frequently as a

form of control. The result was a military coup in 1923 lead by Miguel

Primo de Rivera. Rivera preferred a more direct way of governing, with a

strong Christian base and a very anti-communist attitude. He did not like

party politics, preferring to govern pragmatically, at first with a

military cabinet, but later on (1926) he decided a systematic government

would be more efficient. So he introduced the `National Assembly' intended

to represent different classes and groups, probably to soften the

opposition; as well as the Union Patriotica, created to mobilize popular

support for his regime.

Rivera also managed to strengthen the Spanish infra-structure, but

the funding had to come from loans from other nations, because the upper

classes would not a...

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A great success was the 1953 Madrid Pact between Spain and the U.S.A,

which provided Spain with quite a substantial amount of military and

monetary aid in return for access to its military bases. This pact, as

well as the better relations between Spain and the other powers and the

great stability brought about because of the enormous repression that came

with his regime, led Spain to booming years during the 1960's.

The Spanish people saw a better Spain, economically, but it was still

in a very primitive state politically and socially compared to other

european nations, who were not under military rule (with a few exceptions,

of course). The end of the Franco regime left many scars in the social and

political side of Spain. People had been submitted to a suppressive state,

where very little regard for any basic human right was given.