The Spanish Civil War

Spain was once one of the world’s most powerful countries, but by the 20th century everything was going downhill. Spain was divided in almost every aspect, be it politically, socially, religiously or economically all of which lead to Spain’s civil war. The Spanish Civil War was not caused by only one immediate cause but by a combination of long and short term causes. Nevertheless, whether it is because of a weak government, regionalism or socio-economic troubles, we can all agree that the division in Spanish society played an important role in causing the Spanish Civil War.

One of the causes that created a domino-like effect in precipitating the civil war was regionalism. The struggle between the centralist state with Catalonia and Basque, both of which desired independence, caused tension and when Robles withdrew from the agreement that had granted the regions more independence, tension intensified and led to divisions in Spanish society. The

For instance, in 1820 the Spanish army -supported by the liberals- overthrew the absolute monarchy and made Spain a constitutional monarchy but a year later the absolute monarchy was restored to Spain with the help of French forces in an attempt to reinstate the previous order. However, following the Carlists revolt (1833), the ‘Queens rule’ (1833-69) and the Anarchist revolts (1869-70), the Spanish army restored a constitutional monarchy in 1871. Although this monarchy allowed for democratic elections, it was corrupt, with the real power remaining with the wealthy oligarchs or ‘caciques’. In addition to that the monarchy also failed when General Primo de Rivera took control in a bloodless coup and ruled for 7 years which fatally undermined the legitimacy of the monarchy. This, in turn, made the Spanish people lose faith in their government and believe that it was weak which further divided