Memory and Amnesia. The Role of the Spanish Civil War in Transition to Democracy

This chapter analyzes foreign combat participation in the Spanish Civil War. Fought from 1936 to 1939, the war hosted covert interventions by Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. The chapter leverages variation in intervention form among those three states, as well as variation over time in the Italian intervention, to assess the role of escalation concerns and limited war in the use of secrecy. Adolf Hitler's German intervention provides especially interesting support for a theory on escalation control. An unusually candid view of Berlin's thinking suggests that Germany managed the visibility of its covert “Condor Legion” with an eye toward the relative power of domestic hawkish voices in France and Great Britain. The chapter also shows the unique role of direct communication and international organizations. The Non-Intervention Committee, an ad hoc organization that allowed private discussions of foreign involvement in Spain, helped the three interveners and Britain and France keep the war limited in ways that echo key claims of the theory.

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Studying Desertion in the spanish Civil War

Desertion ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501752940.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 38-48

Author(s):

Théodore McLauchlin

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Spanish Civil War ◽

Civil Conflict ◽

High Rate ◽

Armed Group ◽

Micro Level ◽

The Impact ◽

Group Characteristics

This chapter develops the account of desertion primarily in the context of the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, which clarifies the role of several variables through Spain. It looks at many different organizations on both the rebel side and the Republican side in order to examine the impact of different armed group characteristics on desertion. It uses the Spain case study to understand desertion dynamics in a particularly fascinating civil conflict. The chapter focuses on the Republican side, analyzing the dynamics of its relatively high rate of desertion at various points in the conflict. It demonstrates norms of cooperation and coercion at the micro level to statistically assess individual soldiers' decisions to fight or to flee.

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Desertion, Terrain, and Control of the Home Front in Civil Wars

Journal of Conflict Resolution ◽

10.1177/0022002714547901 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 58 (8) ◽

pp. 1419-1444 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Theodore McLauchlin

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Civil Wars ◽

Spanish Civil War ◽

Individual Characteristics ◽

Home Front ◽

Rough Terrain ◽

Hill Country ◽

Structural Variables ◽

And Control

This article examines desertion in civil wars, focusing on the role of combatants’ hometowns in facilitating desertion. Analyzing data from the Spanish Civil War, the article demonstrates that combatants who come from hill country are considerably more likely to desert than combatants whose hometowns are on flat ground. This is because evasion is easier in rough terrain. The finding implies that the cohesion of armed groups depends on control, not just positive incentives, and that control of territory in civil wars goes beyond rebel–government contestation, and consists also of control behind the lines. The article bridges micro and macro approaches to civil wars by indicating the multiple uses to which individuals can put structural conditions like rough terrain. This helps to clarify the macro-level link between rough terrain and civil war. It also shows that micro-level research can profitably examine structural variables alongside individual characteristics and endogenous conflict dynamics.

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Ambassadeurs op het sportfront : Sport, politiek en diplomatie tijdens de Spaanse Burgeroorlog (1936-1939)

Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis ◽

10.5117/tvgesch2020.4.003.cast ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 133 (4) ◽

pp. 639-658

Author(s):

Enrico Castro Montes

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Spanish Civil War ◽

Public Diplomacy ◽

Sporting Events ◽

Left Wing ◽

Sports History ◽

Nation States ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Ambassadors on the Sports Front: Sports, Politics and Diplomacy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)This article examines the role of sports in the international politics and diplomacy of nation states in wartime. Through a case study on public diplomacy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), this article shows how sport could influence international public opinion. By focussing on some lesser-known international sporting events from this period, such as the 1937 Labour Olympiad in Antwerp, this article will move away from the dominant focus in sports history on mega-events such as the Olympic Games. Although research about the relationship between sports and diplomacy has grown in recent years, it has barely taken into account the influence of a war context on sport and diplomacy. This article attempts to fill this gap by analysing left-wing Belgian and Spanish newspapers, archives of the Belgian workers' sports movement, and unused source material from the FIFA archive.

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The Nurses No-One Remembers: Looking for Spanish Nurses in Accounts of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

Nursing History Review ◽

10.1891/1062-8061.28.63 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 63-92

Author(s):

Sioban Nelson ◽

Paola Galbany-Estragués ◽

Gloria Gallego-Caminero

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Spanish Civil War ◽

National Policy ◽

Transition To Democracy ◽

Second Republic ◽

Skilled Nursing ◽

War Effort ◽

The Impact ◽

Franco Dictatorship ◽

International Volunteer

Accounts of Spanish nursing and nurses during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) that appear in the memoirs and correspondence of International Brigade volunteers, and are subsequently repeated in the secondary literature on the war, give little indication of existence of trained nurses in country. We set out to examine this apparent erasure of the long tradition of skilled nursing in Spain and the invisibility of thousands of Spanish nurses engaged in the war effort. We ask two questions: How can we understand the narrative thrust of the international volunteer accounts and subsequent historiography? And what was the state of nursing in Spain on the Republican side during the war as presented by Spanish participants and historians? We put the case that the narrative erasure of Spanish professional nursing prior to the Civil War was the result of the politicization of nursing under the Second Republic, its repression and reengineering under the Franco dictatorship, and the subsequent national policy of “oblivion” or forgetting that dominated the country during the transition to democracy. This policy silenced the stories of veteran nurses and prevented an examination of the impact of the Civil War on the Spanish nursing profession.

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The Scenes of Memory during the Era of the Democratic Transition in Spain: Politics and Culture / Los escenarios de la memoria durante la transición democrática en España: política y cultura

Historiografías ◽

10.26754/ojs_historiografias/hrht.201472431 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 13

Author(s):

Gonzalo Pasamar

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Spanish Civil War ◽

Democratic Transition ◽

Transition To Democracy ◽

Political Strategies ◽

Historical Events ◽

Politics And Culture ◽

Fertile Ground ◽

Generational Changes ◽

The Way

In this article we shall examine the scenes of memory of the Civil War and the Franco era during the years of the transition to democracy in Spain, especially 1976 and 1977. After discussing the usefulness for research of the narratives describing the role played by such remembrances, we study the different interplays between memories and oblivions of those historical events. Instead of using memory and oblivion as static and predetermined ideas as is normally the case with such narratives, we highlight the dynamic elements that help organize them (generational changes, culture, political strategies, etc.). While culture became a fertile ground for the remembrance of the Civil War and the Franco era, politics was clearly obliged to limit its use because of the way the transition evolved.Key Words:Memory, Spanish Civil War, Transition, generation gap.ResumenEn el presente artículo examinamos los escenarios de la memoria de la Guerra Civil y del franquismo durante los años de la transición a la democracia en España, especialmente 1976 y 1977. Tras discutir la utilidad de las narrativas que han dado cuenta del papel que tales recuerdos han jugado durante de la Transición, estudiamos la interrelación entre los recuerdos y los olvidos de dichos acontecimientos históricos. En lugar de utilizar la memoria y el olvido como ideas predeterminadas y estáticas, subrayamos los elementos dinámicos de ambos (cambios generacionales, cultura, estrategias políticas, etc.). Defendemos que mientras la cultura llegó a convertirse en un terreno destacado para la evocación de la Guerra y el franquismo, la política se trazó a sí misma una serie de límites en el uso de dicha evocación debido al modo en que se desarrolló la propia Transición.Palabras clave:memoria, guerra civil española, Transición, brecha generacional

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