Source D extracts from the Franco governments Labour Charter 1938
Reviving the Catholic tradition of social justice . . . The State . . . an instrument wholly at the service of the entire Nation . . . embarks upon the task of carrying out, with a disciplined constructive and soberly religious demeanour, the revolution that Spain is achieving to ensure that Spaniards may once more possess, for good and all, their Country, Bread and Justice . . . Basing itself on the postulate that Spain is one and indivisible as regards her destiny, it hereby declares its aim...
Analysis 1 Why Did The Military Rising Not Achieve Immediate Control Of Spain
Was the failure due to its inability to capture key centres such as Madrid, Bilbao and Santander in the north, Barcelona and Valencia in the east, Badajoz in the west, and M laga and Ja n in the south Indeed, a coordinated enveloping attack on the capital in July 1936 proved impossible. Forty years later, in The Battle for Madrid, the Anglo-Spanish writer and broadcaster George Hills made this point explicit for example, that because of fighting on the northern Basque and Santander fronts, the...
Secondary Sources
Of the general surveys, Martin Blinkhorn's Democracy and Civil War in Spain London, 1988 is succinct and clearly ordered. Paul Preston's Concise History of the Spanish Civil War London, 1996 is a vivid evocation of the background and the conduct of the war itself, with an indispensable bibliographical essay. Patricia Knight's The Spanish Civil War is a recent contribution to the Access to History series London, 1998 . Of the more in-depth accounts, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War...
Source A i from Francos Unification Decree 19 April 1937
In Spain as in other countries where there are totalitarian regimes, traditional forces are now beginning to integrate themselves with the new forces. The Falange Espa ola has attracted masses of young people . . . and has provided a new political and heroic framework for the present and a promise of Spanish fulfilment in the future. The Requet s, in addition to possessing martial qualities, have served through the centuries as the sacred repository of Spanish tradition and of Catholic...
Analysis 2 To What Extent Was Francos Regime Fascist
In November 1936 Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy accorded Franco diplomatic recognition as Chief of State. By January 1938, when by decree he installed his first government, Franco was firmly established as 'National Chief' of the Falange Espa ola Tradicionalista y de las JONS -the monumental 'movement' that was to underpin his dictatorship. In February 1939 Franco's regime was recognized by Britain and France and, on 1 April and with the Caudillo's deceptive termination of the Civil War, by the...
Source A from Francos Manifesto de las Palmas 17 July 1936
Nothing has checked the lust for power the illegal dismissal of moderating elements glorification of the Asturian and Catalan revolutions, the one and the other violating the Constitution . . . Can we consent one day longer to the shameful spectacle we are presenting to the world . . . Justice and Equality before the law we offer you peace and love between Spaniards. Liberty and Fraternity without libertinage and tyranny. Work for all. Social justice, accomplished without rancour or violence,...
Source F from the Bishops Pastoral Letter on the Constitution December 1931
Freedom for all associations, even the most subversive and extreme precautions are taken to limit the religious congregations, which devote themselves to the most rigid perfection of their members, to social charity, to generous teaching and to the functions of the priesthood . . . Notwithstanding, a distinction must be made between 'constituted power' and 'legislation' . . . The acceptance of the constituted power does not imply in any way conformity, still less obedience, to legislation which...
Primary Sources
Although most of Harry Browne's Spain's Civil War 2nd edn, London, 1996 is an established secondary work, the text includes bracketed references to the many document extracts that follow it. In contrast, Patricia Knight's The Spanish Civil War Basingstoke, 1991 is document-centred, with source-related questions at the end of each chapter. Ronald Fraser's Blood ofSpain London, 1979 86 is built on testimony from the 300-plus eyewitnesses he interviewed in the 1970s, interwoven with his own...
Source D from Father Alberto Onaindias eyewitness report
The aeroplanes came low, flying at two hundred metres. As soon as we could leave our shelter, we ran into the woods, hoping to put a safe distance between us and the enemy. But the airmen saw us and went after us . . . The milicianos and I followed the flight patterns of the aeroplanes and we made a crazy journey through the trees, trying to avoid them. Meanwhile women, children and old men were falling in heaps, like flies, and everywhere we saw lakes of blood. I saw an old peasant standing...