Indrani Goswami

IBDP Yr 1
May 2021

Evaluate the reasons for the

nationalist victory under Franco

By the end of July 1936, the nationalists controlled much of the north where they set
up their capital at Burgos, and the area around Cadiz and Seville in the south. The
republicans had taken control of the centre and north east including Madrid and
Barcelona. The military strengths of the two sides seemed to be fairly evenly balanced
with about half the army, air force and navy remaining on the side of the republic.
The civil war 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 increasing division among the Nationalists and Republicans was eventually met
with physical aggression for many reasons after the war. This was because of the
uneven division of power struggle between various classes of society, such as
landowners and peasants. With 50% of the population bound to agriculture, often
there was a shortage of jobs that conveyed frustration against landowners. There was
an increasing demand for autonomy from a government split between conservatives
and liberals that was preventing the introduction of successful and positive policies. In
addition, the existence of extremist factions within government began to emerge and
to its benefits exploited the vulnerabilities of post-WWI Spain.

During the Spanish Civil War, Franco's leadership for the Nationalists was the most
important factor in his victory in the sense that he had strongly contributed to
consolidating all the strategies of military power, infrastructure, and foreign
intervention to establish a cohesive strategy for crushing the opposition. Sources
include the use of tactics and support from African armies and junior officials and the
more of the Spanish army. The enthusiasm of the army to become involved in politics
benefited Franco. This was exemplified by the fact that other possible successors were
assassinated or killed by opposition.

Foreign intervention had also helped the Franco-led Nationalists regain the civil war.
German and Italian assistance helped send troops alongside the Nationalists. Such
troops came from African pro-nationalist movements. Many world leaders also
supported the Spanish fascists at the time, with Hitler's transport vehicle supply and
Mussolini's deployment of 40,000 troops to Italy. In order to send Spanish forces,
Hitler supplied 26 transport planes, 30 junkers and provided around $215 million in
military aid in total. The help of Italy basically took the form of men's strength and
resources of war. Regional involvement in the form of economic assistance also
enabled the nationalists to prosper.

A Republican weakness that contributed partly to the Nationalists ' victories was their
overall collective discontent and disunity. There was no clear policy and objective
provided that as they won the war, many of the republicans were split on policy goals.
This was also compounded by military defeats, where their army had no central
control and was supported only by the USSR.

Moreover, 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 had
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 favour and
local political views.

Bibliography
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/spaincw.htm
Mastering world history by Norman Lowe
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/share.nanjing-school.com/dist/d/75/files/2013/02/Why-did-
the-nationalists-win-the-SCW-1ndl8h0.pdf