Medical Aid Provided by American, Canadian and British Nationals to the Spanish Republic during the Civil War, 1936–1939

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin F. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Medical Aid ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
Private Citizens

During international or civil wars, private citizens of noncombatant nations often provide medical aid to one of the contending factions, particularly when they support a participant not favored by their own government. This paper details and analyzes the prominent campaign in the United States, Canada and Great Britain to provide medical aid to the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939). The substantial medical aid that was provided clearly alleviated some suffering, but one of the major objectives of the campaign was to arouse public opinion sufficiently to end the boycott of military aid to Republicans; this objective was never achieved. Whether it be in Republican Spain, Vietnam or El Salvador, even a successful medical aid campaign to people in a military conflict may save some lives but may not affect substantially the course of the conflict. Those who are primarily interested in influencing political or military developments, hoping to advance the cause of a particular contending faction, may find tactics other than medical aid campaigns more useful in accomplishing their goals.

Federico Arcos (1920–2015)

2019 ◽  
pp. 258-276
Author(s):  
David Watson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Library

David Watson presents a thoughtful and cogent account of the life and legacy of the Spanish exile Federico Arcos whose career in many ways crossed paths with all the themes related to the evolution of anarcho-syndicalism covered in this book. Arcos grew up in Barcelona and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He immigrated to Canada in 1952 and later participated in anarchist groups in Detroit. He devoted much of his life in the United States to collecting anarchist materials, and his efforts at collecting were vital to maintaining a record of what would otherwise be permanently lost. The bulk of his archives are located at the National Library of Catalonia (Biblioteca de Catalunya).

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-182
Author(s):  
Montse Feu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transnational Ties ◽  
The Way

Fighting Fascist Spain connects some of the major figures of the Spanish Civil War exile with lesser-known actors, making their contributions more visible. While fascism ruled in Spain, España Libre’s authors cultivated a rich set of tools that interrogated the way fascist power operates. The underlying premise of this work is that the Confederadas’ antifascist solidarity was rooted in a cultural realm shaped by a complex web of political and cultural heritages that Spanish immigrants brought with them and were further reinforced by allies in the United States, which in turn built local and transnational antifascist communities. There are interlocking aspects that define España Libre’s cultural and political identity: its self-educated workers, its anarchist adaptability to exile, its transnational ties, its organized solidarity, and its transformative culture and humor.

British Reaction to American Civil War Ironclads

Vulcan ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Jesse A. Heitz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
United States Navy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
Naval Power ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Great Ease

By the 1840’s the era of the wooden ship of the line was coming to a close. As early as the 1820’s and 1830’s, ships of war were outfitted with increasingly heavy guns. Naval guns such as the increasingly popular 68 pounder could quickly damage the best wooden hulled ships of the line. Yet, by the 1840’s, explosive shells were in use by the British, French, and Imperial Russian navies. It was the explosive shell that could with great ease, cripple a standard wooden hulled warship, this truth was exposed at the Battle of Sinope in 1853. For this reason, warships had to be armored. By 1856, Great Britain drafted a design for an armored corvette. In 1857, France began construction on the first ocean going ironclad, La Gloire, which was launched in 1859. This development quickly caused Great Britain to begin construction on HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince. By the time HMS Warrior was commissioned in 1861, the Royal Navy had decided that its entire battle fleet needed to be armored. While the British and the French naval arms race was intensifying, the United States was entering into its greatest crisis, the United States Civil War. After the outbreak of the Civil War, the majority of the United States Navy remained loyal to the Union. The Confederacy, therefore, gained inspiration from the ironclads across the Atlantic, quickly obtaining its own ironclads. CSS Manassas was the first to enter service, but was eventually brought down by a hail of Union broadside fire. The CSS Virginia, however, made an impact. Meanwhile, the Union began stockpiling City Class ironclads and in 1862, the USS Monitor was completed. After the veritable stalemate between the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor, the Union utilized its superior production capabilities to mass produce ironclads and enter them into service in the Union Navy. As the Union began armoring its increasingly large navy, the world’s foremost naval power certainly took notice. Therefore, this paper will utilize British newspapers, government documents, Royal Naval Reviews, and various personal documents from the 1860’s in order to examine the British public and naval reaction to the Union buildup of ironclad warships.

Gunboat Diplomacy of a Different Kind: Robert H. Pruyn and Japan’s Purchase of U.S. Warships, 1862–1865

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Susanna Fessler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Currency Markets ◽  
Personal Gain ◽  
Original Order ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
Investment Capital ◽  
The U.S

This article examines the handling of a contract between the Shogunate of Japan and private agents in the United States for the construction of three ships of war in 1862. Robert H. Pruyn, the U.S. minister, received the original order and down payment from the Japanese government and assigned the contract to two private citizens in Albany, New York. Over the course of the next three years, complications from the U.S. Civil War and fluctuations in the currency markets made it impossible for the U.S. builders to fulfill the order in full; the Japanese received only one ship. Historians consistently have accused Pruyn of mishandling the contract and of using the funds as investment capital for his own personal gain, but evidence shows that Pruyn was scrupulously careful with the contract and the payment, and that he averted a disastrous result which could have soured U.S.-Japan relations.

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