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Long Term Causes Of The Spanish Civil War

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The Spanish Civil War was a war that fought between the Nationalists and the Republicans. Although this war was relatively short lasting from 1936 to 1939, there were many long term causes leading up to this event. Some of the long term causes were the Spanish-American War, the church and the army, and failed dictatorships. One of the biggest long term reasons was the Spanish- American War because prior to this war, Spain was one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world (Grabowski 37). However, this led to Spain’s fatal mistake of buying all their necessities instead of producing it. As a result, Spain was left behind in terms of industrialism and stayed as a rural country instead of an industrial one (Payne 46). This became a …show more content…

This situation set up the poverty, unrest, and turmoil that occurred before and during the Spanish Civil War. The influence of the church and the army also was an important long term cause of the war. The army was hated due to its unjust ways of dealing with situations. In fact, many times it worked with the Civil Guard (armed police enforcement) to violently put down resistance (Wernick 192). This led to a severe dislike of the army from the general populace. The Church was no better in terms of popularity. Some of its main goals were propaganda and supporting the army (Wernick 194). The general populace was not in favor of this and the actions of the army and Church led to a widespread want for change setting up the civil war. There were also many political issues leading to the war. Failed dictatorships prior to the civil war such as the one under General Miguel Primo de Rivera led to civil unrest and the collapse of the monarchy (Bolloten 24). General dislike for the dictatorship also led to the unrest needed for the civil war. Causes such as the Spanish American war, the army and the church, and political issues were crucial in leading up to the Spanish Civil …show more content…

In the time before the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War, there was a variety of political ideas and beliefs in the government. However, as the civil war approached, only two political ideologies became relevant. The left-wing party members supported democracy and the Second Spanish Republic while the right-wing party members supported fascism, more specifically falangism. These fascist were called Nationalists and the left-wing party members were called Loyalists or Republicans. However, the Nationalists viewed the Republicans as Reds and the Republicans viewed the Nationalists as traitors to Spain (Grabowski 34). The Republicans supported a wide range of ideas from liberal democracy to anarchy. The Nationalists supported anti-clericalism and anti-communism. They wanted to keep Spain united and feared separatism. These differences in ideologies were a major reason leading to the

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