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The Inter-war crisis
Unit 9
1- Democracy and dictatorship 1923-1939
-INTRODUCTION
-Economy: 1920's, Roaring Twenties.
1929, Great Depression.
-Politics: two directions: .democracy
.dictatorship
-Spain: .1923-1929 Dictatorship
.1931-1936 Second Republic
.1936-1939 Civil war
.From 1939 Dictatorship
2- The inter-war economy
2.1. THE POST-WAR CRISIS
-Material destruction, death and casualties.
-End of the war economy.
-Shortage of consumer goods.
-High level of inflation.
Inflation is a rise in the general level of
prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money.
Hyperinflation is extremely high inflation, usually over 50 per cent per month, often involving social disorder.
The opposite is deflation: a reduction in the level of total spending and economic activity resulting in lower levels of output, employment, investment, trade, profits, and prices.
2.2. The Roaring Twenties
-The USA and Japan did not suffer such a postwar crisis because they were not in the war scene.
-The USA became Europe's "bank", giving them loans and selling them consumer goods, so its economy improved fastly.
-Europe recovered soon, and that period was known as the Roaring Twenties.
-New ways of entertainment emerged led by a new period of consumerism.
Speculation is the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions
in an attempt to profit from short or medium term fluctuations in the market value.
The role of speculators is to absorb excess risk that other participants in financial markets do not want, and to provide liquidity in the marketplace by buying or selling when no participants are available.
Successful speculation entails collecting an adequate level of monetary compensation in return for providing immediate liquidity and assuming additional risk so that, over time, the inevitable losses are offset by larger profits.
2.3. The Great Depression
-The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding WWII. The timing varied across nations, but in most countries it started in 1930 and lasted until the late 1930s or middle 1940s. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century.
-Economic historians usually attribute the start of the Great Depression to the sudden devastating collapse of US stock market prices on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday.
Causes of the Great Depression
-Overproduction. Consumerism led to overproduction of goods. Companies couldn't sell them and they went bankrupt.
-Falling consumption. As a consequence of overproduction and the bankrupt of some companies, people lost their jobs, so they stopped consuming unnecessarily. The rise of unemployment produced the decrease of the demand and as a result, more companies had to close.
-The Wall Street Crash. Due to the previous causes, investors felt panic on the stock market and tried to sell their shares creating a situation of dramatic fall which led to the crash of New York stock market in October 1929.
The Great Depression effects
-Change in economic indicators:
-The crisis soon affected Europe, because the USA asked them to pay back the loans. This led to the fall of Europe's consumption as well, and the closure of companies, increase of unemployment rate and so on.
International trade
-Protectionist policies were adopted. Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.
Activities
Exercises 1, 2 and 4 on page 185.
***Listening: ex. 5 on page 185.
3- Democratic States
3.1. EUROPEAN DEMOCRACIES
-After the WWI, democracy continued to be the main form of government in Europe, developed in different ways, mainly Republics or monarchies.
-They had some common characteristics:
.Democracies in this period did not always protect all rights and freedoms equally.
.Parliaments during this period were gaining left-wing seats.
.In response, richer people supported right-wing parties, which had conservative and more traditional policies.
Left-wing parties
-In politics, left-wing describes an outlook or specific position that accepts or supports social equality, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. It usually involves a concern for those in society who are disadvantaged relative to others and an assumption that there are unjustified inequalities (which right-wing parties view as natural or traditional) that need to be reduced or abolished.
-The political terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution (1789), referring to the seating arrangement in the Estates General: those who sat on the left generally opposed the monarchy and supported the revolution, including the creation of a republic and secularization, while those on the right were supportive of the traditional institutions of the Old Regime.
3.2. Democracy in the United States
-Democracy in the USA took a different form, it was a Republic, but with a two-party political system.
-The two parties were (and still are today):
.Republican Party: supports an American conservative platform, with further foundations in economic liberalism, fiscal conservatism, and social conservatism.
.Democratic Party: has positioned itself as the party of labor on economic issues.
-The USA had fear of Communism spread, so they used conservative policies: isolationist in foreign policy, and hostile to immigration.
-In 1933 democrats turned to power, Roosevelt passed a series of measures called the New Deal.
The New Deal
-Upon accepting the 1932 Democratic nomination
for president, Roosevelt promised "a new deal for the American people".
-The New Deal was a series of economic programs enacted in the USA between 1933-36. They involved presidential executive orders or laws passed by Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
Homework
Activities 6, 7 and 8 on page 185.
4- Authoritarianism and totalitarianism
-Authoritarianism -> a philosophy or system that believes in the necessity of strong authority and strict obedience to it.
-Totalitarianism -> the advocacy or practise of totalitarian policies. It is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life whenever necessary.
-During the 1920's and 1930's a second form of government apart from democracy, were authoritarian dictatorships.
-In some cases they evolved to totalitarian regimes.
-There were examples of both sides: left-wing authoritarian regimes, like in the USSR, or right-wing authoritarian regimes, for example in Italy or in Germany.
Characteristics of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes:
-POLITICS: just one supreme leader and one political party. No free elections, no other political parties. Propaganda was used to spread the ideology.
-ECONOMY: State controlled the economy. Public-works programmes to reduce unemployment. No trade union allowed or just one controlled by the ruling party.
-SOCIETY: Rights and freedoms limited. Repressive measures against opposition.
-FOREIGN POLICY: expansionism was the main policy.
4.1. Stalinism-Lenin died in 1924. After his death, Marxism-
Leninism developed into a variety of schools of
thought, specifically Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism (China).
-Trotsky and Stalin confronted after Lenin's death for the power. Finally Stalin succeeded Lenin as the leader of the Soviet Union.
-Stalinism is the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology.
-Stalinist policies in the Soviet Union included: rapid industrialization, socialism in one country, a centralized state, collectivization of agriculture, and subordination of interests of other communist parties to those of the Soviet party - deemed to be the most forefront vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
Stalinist policies
Stalin's ideas of Socialism in one country, his adoption of many aspects of capitalism, and his turn to complete, permanent dictatorship were all in hard contradiction to the ideologies proposed by Lenin or Marx.
-POLITICS: Stalin controlled all the government issues and the army. A police state was set, and any kind of opposition was severely repressed. Prison camps in Siberia were a common punishment.
-ECONOMY: Stalin planned every aspect of economy. The Gosplan or State Planning Committee was the committee responsible for economic planning in the Soviet Union. One of its main duties was the creation of Five-Year Plans.
-SOCIETY: Theoretically it was a classless society, but there were big differences between the ruling elite and the rest of the population. Starvation was suffered during these years by peasants and workers, and many of them died.
Women and Stalinism
-During Stalinism women's rights and freedoms were restricted.
-Progressive measures adopted during the Russian Revolution were suppressed.
-Under Stalinism, women were expected to get married, stay at home and have children. Couples were rewarded for having large families.
-Divorce became a difficult affair.
Homework
Activities 11 on page 189.
4.2. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany-INTRODUCTION
After the WWI, Italy and Germany had suffered serious economic problems (inflation, unemployment, social conflicts) which led to the arrival of extreme right-wing political parties to power. Both became totalitarian regimes.
-Common features - Totalitarian regimes
-Society supported them, varied social classes created a real social movement.
-They were opposed to liberal democracy.
-They rejected socialism, communism and any kind of organised working movements. They suppressed them.
-They had a deep sense of nationalism, that ended up as racism.
-They instituted totalitarian regimes having their party as main organizational element.
-They worshipped the leader.
-Society was organized into a hierarchy.
-Militarism was exalted. Young people was instructed in their values.
-They used strategies to implement terror and propaganda to attract and manipulate people
The Fascist regime in Italy-Mussolini was the leader of the National Fascist
Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting.
-The original symbol of fascism was the fasces, an ancient Roman symbol of power; a bundle of sticks featuring an axe, indicating the power over life and death. Before the fascists adopted it, the symbol had been used by Italian political organizations of various political ideologies, called Fascio as a symbol of strength through unity.
-Italian Fascism utilized the colour black as a symbol of their movement, black being the colour of the uniforms of their paramilitaries, known as Blackshirts.
-Other symbols used by the them included the aquila,
the Capitoline Wolf, and the SPQR motto, each
related to Italy's ancient Roman cultural history, which
the Fascists attempted to resurrect.
Mussolini and Fascism
-At first (1922), he was Prime Minister, under the Kingdom of Victor Emmanuel III (King of Italy between 1900-1946), but within five years he had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means, aspiring to create a totalitarian state.
-Mussolini remained in power until he was replaced in 1943; he remained the leader of the Italian Social Republic until his death in 1945.
Italian fascism. Characteristics:
-Absolute power of Mussolini and the
National Fascist Party.
-One-party political system.
-Extreme nationalism was the ideology.
-Parliament was substituted by the Grand Council of Fascism.
-Economically self-sufficient.
-Arms race.
-Corporate spirit, State intervention in working
issues and privatization of some companies.
-Public infrastructures and more lands cultivated.
-Imperialism continued.
-Militarism.
Nazi germany
-Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich,
is the common name for Germany when it was a totalitarian state ruled by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).
-Hitler was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, WWII in Europe, and the Holocaust.
-Hitler was a decorated veteran of WWI. He joined the German Workers' Party (precursor of the NSDAP) in 1919, and became leader in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup d'état in Munich. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
-After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. After his appointment as chancellor in 1933, he transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.
-Hitler's aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe.
FlagEmblema
Its motto was "One People, one Reich, one Leader".
Characteristics of Nazism
-One-party system, with supreme leader, secret
police force (Gestapo) and paramilitary groups (SS).
-Hitler used the desire of revanchism against the war
winners. He adopted an exaggerated pan-Germanism.
-Economic measures were took from the ideas of Mussolini, a self- sufficient economic policy. Public works were developed to reduce unemployment. By 1938 he reached full employment.
-Industrial production was intervened and orientated to be used for military needs.
-Hitler encouraged a policy aimed at raising the birth rate.
-He militarized workers in exchange for stable jobs.
-In foreign policy Hitler denounced the Treaty of Versailles and abandoned the League of Nations in 1934.
-Arms race was quick.
-Anti-Semitic racism was hard, they considered the aryan race superior to other people.
-In 1938 Germany had overcame the crisis but it had laid the foundation for a new war.
Nazi propaganda
In National Socialist propaganda about women and families, men and women were portrayed as having equal importance in the German national community. But because women’s “natural” tasks – motherhood and housekeeping – were indispensable to the continued existence of the Aryan race, women were expected to concentrate on those tasks alone. The ideological improvement and glorification of women's role in the national community was manifested, for instance, in the militaristic language used in Nazi propaganda. Women were assigned to the "child-bearing front" or were called upon to take part in the "birthrate battle." In this way, their contribution to the ongoing war among the races was placed on an equal footing with that of male soldiers. This propaganda poster by the Mother and Child Relief Agency proclaims, "Germany Grows through Strong Mothers and Healthy Children."
Activities
Exercises 13 and 15 on page 189.
Listening: exercise 14 on page 189.
5- Spain: dictatorship and democracy
5.1. THE DICTATORSHIP OF PRIMO DE RIVERA
-In 1923 General Primo de Rivera led a military coup against the government which Alfonso XIII had allowed.
-He established a dictatorship.
-At first many sectors of society supported him.
Patriotic Union
-The only official political party during the
dictatorship was the Spanish Patriotic Union.
-It was the political party created in 1924 from above by Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera, conceived as a support to his conservative dictatorship and integrating political catholicism, technocrats, and the business-owning classes.
-It was supposed to be a citizen organization to substitute corrupt traditional political parties.
-In practice, it was a method of propaganda for the dictator and his ideology.
-After the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, the party changed its name to Unión Monarquista (Monarchist Union). It was merged into the Falange in 1936.
Main events of the dictatorship
-End of the Rif War -> France helped Spain to win the war and were together for the final attack commencing on May 1926, the French and Spanish had ranged 123,000 men, supported by 150 aircraft, against 12,000 Riffians. Superior manpower and technology soon resolved the course of the war in favour of France and Spain. The French troops pushed through from the south while the Spanish fleet and army secured Alhucemas Bay by an amphibious landing, and began attacking from the north. After one year of bitter resistance, Abd el-Krim, the leader of both the tribes, surrendered to French authorities, and in 1926 Spanish Morocco was finally retaken.
Main events of the dictatorship
-Imitating Mussolini, Primo de Rivera ordered the construction of many public works in order to create employment.
-He also copied the italian corporate spirit in which the State intervened in the economy trying to stop strikes and protests.
-The State creates some big public monopolies, such as CAMPSA or Telefónica reaching certain economic development.
-In Cataluña social conflicts about regionalism were increasing, so Government repressed any kind of protest. Political freedom was suppressed and police and military forces were used.
-He also eliminated Anarchist organizations.
Opposition to Primo de Rivera
-From 1928 onwards, the dictatorship faced growing opposition.
-Opposition parties wanted to restore the Parliament.
-Universities opposed the government's censorship.
-Some members of the army were discontented about the promotion system, so they began to oppose the dictator.
-In 1929 the Barcelona International Exposition and the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville took place, but they couldn't hide the decline of the regime and the beginning of the Great Depression which affected also Spain.
-With the economic crisis the political situation in Spain deteriorated even more. It caused rising unemployment and social conflict.
-Alfonso XIII had to withdraw him support to Primo de Rivera, and in 1930 he had to resign.
Homework
Exercise 16 on page 195.
5.2. The Second Republic
-In 1930 Alfonso XIII tried to re-established the
political system of the Restoration again but monarchy was very debilitated and discredited.
-Politicians pro Republic signed the Pact of San Sebastián in August 1930, making an agreement to establish a Republic in Spain.
-In April 1931 elections were held and the coalition of Republican-Socialists won.
- In the cities people were free to vote whatever they wanted because there were no local bosses as in the smaller towns. So Republican parties won in them.
-On 14 April the Second Spanish Republic was declared and became working on a new Constitution.
1931 Constitution
- In June 1931 a Constituent Cortes was elected to draft
a new constitution, which came into force in December.
-The new constitution established freedom of speech and
of association, extended suffrage to women, allowed divorce and stripped the Spanish nobility of any special legal status. Initially it also largely disestablished the Catholic Church.
-The legislative branch was changed to a single chamber called the Congress of Deputies.
-The constitution provided generally accorded civil liberties and representation, a major exception being the rights of Catholics.
-The Constitution also changed the symbols of the country. The Himno de Riego was established as the national anthem and the Tricolor, with three horizontal red-yellow-purple fields, became the new flag. Under the new Constitution, all of Spain's regions had the right to autonomy.
The Second Republic: Periods
The first President of the Republic was Alcalá Zamora.
-LEFT-WING GOVERNMENTS (1931-1933)
.The first government was led by Manuel Azaña, and it was a left-wing government.
.The main characteristic of this period was the reformism carried out in several fields:
-Territorial reforms
-Land reform
-Educational reforms
-Labour reforms
-Military reforms
-Religious reform
Territorial reforms
-It included the right of all Spain's
regions to autonomy and
consequently the authorization to
Cataluña to have its statute of
autonomy.
-From the late 19th century in
Cataluña a big sense of
regionalism was developed and
finally it became in a strong
nationalism opposed to the
centralised liberal State.
Land Reform
-Agricultural lands had some problems. In northern Spain small-scale farming made impossible to their owners to survive. In the South it was the opposite, large estates belonged to big owners who usually exploited peasants with no lands.
-To solve the problem large estates were expropriated to divide them among poor peasants who would become little landowners.
-This measure allowed also to end with the despotism (caciquismo).
-The landowners opposed this policy and its slow implementation caused discontent also among the rural working class.
Educational reforms
-Public education became free, compulsory and free of the religious influence.
-New schools and high schools were created.
-Teacher conditions were improved.
-Culture was brought to the countryside as well.
Labour reforms
-New laws forced businesses to negotiate working conditions and wages with the trade unions.
-The working week was limited to 40 hours and wages were increased. Business owners were opposed to these changes.
-A lot of strikes and demonstrations were performed during this period by both, trade unions and employers.
Military reforms
-Spanish armed forces had an excessive number of officers from the Disaster of 98.
-The Government took some measures to reduce the officers and also to obtain loyalty from the remaining ones.
-The Military Academy of Zaragoza led by F. Franco was closed.
-Many officers of the armed forces opposed this measure.
Religious reforms
-The aim of the government was to reduce the power of the Church.
-Teaching was prohibited for the Church.
-Economic contributions from the State to the Church were retired.
-Society of Jesus (jesuits) was dissolved, decision made by the government in order to increase secularism in education.
Consequences of these reforms
-The reforms were very quick, simultaneous and deep, so the new regime got a lot of enemies from different classes who felt that their interests were threatened.
-Protests and disturbances broke out by groups of both extremes of the political spectrum.
-There were serious incidents, one of the more tragic was in Casas Viejas (Cádiz) in january 1933, where many peasants were killed by the police because of a previous incident with anarchists.
-This scandalous fact, together with the growing opposition supposed for Azaña's government a hard blow.
-The situation was getting worse so Azaña finally resigned.
-Elections were held in November 1933 and a right-wing coalition won this time.
The Second Republic: Periods
-RIGHT-WING GOVERNMENTS (1934-1936)
-The government was formed by a coalition of right-wing parties, so the Republic changed radically.
-The CEDA led by Gil Robles (Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right) and the Radical Republican Party of Lerroux, were the most outstanding parties.
-Alcalá Zamora chose Lerroux to form government.
-Right-wing political parties that accepted republican system, wanted the Republic to be more authoritarian and to keep controlled public order and the valid social system.
-Because of these reasons they stopped most of the reforms.
-Left-wing opposition thought that the Republic had been betrayed and a crisis broke out in 1934.
October 1934
-In October a revolutionary wave of strikes broke out led by the left-wing ideology.
-The principal areas of the revolt took place in Catalonia and in Asturias, region in which the most serious events took place.
-Government repressed them violently in Asturias with the Moroccan armed forces led by Franco.
-Catalonia proclaimed itself independent and the government intervened against this through military actions.
-As consequence of the crisis of 1934, the Spanish jails filled with political prisoners involved in the revolutionary movements.
End of the Right-wing government
-The coalition of rights broke finally due to the cases of corruption in which there were involved members of the Government, who went out to the light in the middle of a political tension every time major with the trade unions and left-wing parties.
-Increasing tension eventually brought about in new elections in February 1936.
The Second Republic: Periods
-THE POPULAR FRONT GOVERNMENT (1936)
-A left-wing coalition called the Popular Front won the election in February 1936, and Azaña formed government again.
-The new government tried to take again the previous politics of reforms, however, there were increasing numbers of protests and violent clashes between Falangists, Socialists, Anarchists and Communists that made difficult to implement reforms.
-Calvo Sotelo, leader of the new right-wing, was assassinated. This fact precipitated the events.
-In July 1936 part of the military rose up against the government what triggered the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
Homework
Exercises 17 and 18 on page 195.
Exercises 2, 3, 4 and 9 on pages 196-7.
5.3. The Spanish Civil War
-The Spanish Civil War was fought from
17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939 between
the Republicans, who were loyal to the
established Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco.
-The war began after a pronunciamiento (declaration of opposition) by a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces under the leadership of José Sanjurjo against the elected government of the Second Republic, at the time under the leadership of President Azaña. The rebel coup was supported by a number of conservative groups including the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, monarchists such as the religious conservative Carlists, and the Fascist Falange.
Aims of the military rebellion
-To end the social conflicts and acts of violence.
-To put an stop to the left-wing reforms and to reverse many of them.
-To prevent a potential revolution that might lead to the establishment of Communism in Spain.
RepublicanCivil War Propaganda
Nationalist Civil War Propaganda
Civil War blocs-REPUBLICANS
-The Soviet Union, Mexico, the International Marxists movement and the International Brigades
-Their supporters ranged from centrists who supported a moderately capitalist liberal democracy to revolutionary anarchists; their base was primarily secular and urban, but also included landless peasants, and was particularly strong in industrial regions like Asturias and Catalonia.
-NATIONALISTS
-Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Great Britain (even if it was neutral).
-The Nationalist side included the Carlists and monarchists, nationalists, falangists, and most conservatives and monarchist liberals. Virtually all Nationalist groups had strong Catholic convictions and supported the native Spanish clergy.
International Brigades
-The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to fight for the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.
-The number of combatant volunteers has been estimated at between 32-35,000, though with no more than about 20,000 active at any one time.
-They came from a claimed "53 nations" to fight against the Spanish Nationalist forces led by Franco and assisted by German and Italian forces.
-Albacete soon became the International Brigades headquarters and its main depot.
-The French Communist Party provided uniforms for the Brigades. They were organized into mixed brigades, the basic military unit of the Republican People's Army. Discipline was extreme. For several weeks, the Brigades were locked in their base while their strict military training was under way.
Course of the war
• September 1936:
Course of the war
-The victory of the Popular Front in the elections was badly regarded by the conservative forces and a military coup started to be plotted by the Generals Mola, Sanjurjo and Franco. The event was triggered by the assassination of Calvo-Sotelo, leader of the Right-wing monarchist Renovación Española.
-The uprising started on July 18th in the Rif and spread on the next day in mainland Spain. The coup was stopped in many cities and succeeded in some others depending on the initiative of each rebel leader. After the failure of coup Spain was split in two and a bloody Civil War began. Winds of war blew in Europe because of the Nazi expansionism. The Soviet Stalinism was also regarded as a threat in the West, so the Spanish war was an international conflict that involved the main powers in the continent. Despite the European nations agreed an official Non-intervention Committee, few of them kept outside it.
-The conflict was a total war marked by a ruthless violence. For the very first time a systematic terror was used on civilians in both sides through bombardment and retaliations: priests and conservative citizens in the Popular Front side; Union leaders and leftists in the Nationalist zone.
-The uprising started in Melilla on July 17th 1936 under the command of the General Franco, and spread through the Peninsula the next day. The coup failed in the big cities, all the Mediterranean coast, eastern Andalusia and the Northern regions. All the industrial areas and the state centres remained in hands of the Popular Front. -The rebels kept Castile, León, Aragon, Navarre, Galicia and eastern Andalusia. The country had been split in two, the Popular Front or Republican side and the rebels, or Nationalist side.
1st Stage - (July 1936-March 1937)-The insurgents managed to cross the strait of Gibraltar and passed their
troops to the peninsula thanks to the Italian and German planes.
-Despite the failure of Franco in taking Madrid, the Nationalists consolidated in the central region.
-On October 1st 1936, Franco was appointed Generalísimo and Head of the State by the military Junta.
2nd Stage - (March 1937-November 1937)
-The rebel army took control of the Cantabric strip (Biscay, Santander and Asturias) and then focused on the conquest of the Mediterranean coast.
-The Popular Army of the Republic stopped the blow in Guadalajara and Brunete but failed in its attempt of taking Saragossa in Belchite.
-Map showing Spain in October 1937:
Area under Nationalist control
Area under Republican control
-The bombing of Guernica (April 26, 1937) was an aerial attack on the Basque town of Guernica, causing widespread destruction and civilian deaths, during the Spanish Civil War. The raid by planes of the German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" and the Italian Fascist Aviazione Legionaria was called Operation Rügen.
-The number of victims of the attack is disputed; The Basque government reported 1,654 people killed, although modern speculations suggests between 126 to 400 civilians died.
-The bombing has often been considered one of the first raids in the history of modern military aviation on a defenceless civilian population, although the capital (Madrid) had been bombed many times previously.
3rd Stage - (November 1937- February 1939)
-The Republicans attacked in Teruel but the Nationalist counter- offensive took them to Mediterranean in Vinaroz and split the Republican Zone in two.
-The Republic launched its final offensive in the Battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest battle in the War and a useless waste of lives and resources. After the Republican swan song in it the Nationalist easily took Catalonia.
-The war ended as the last republican troops surrendered to Franco on April 1st 1939.
-Map showing Spain in February 1939:
Area under Nationalist control
Area under Republican control
Consequences-The Civil War was the most traumatic event in the Spanish modern
History. Its darkest aftermath, the Francoism, brought a dictatorial regime that excluded those who didn't join its side and endured in Spain for nearly 40 years.
-In addition, the War turned on a violence against civilians whose consequences magnified the horror of the conflict. Terms like "Sacas", "Paseos" or "Checas" soon became well known for the population in both sides. The political or religious ideology of an individual could be used as a pretext for his elimination in a personal vendetta.
-The Spanish Civil War could also be regarded as the first rehearsal of a Total Modern War. The warring nations of WWII (Germany, Italy and the USSR) tested their latest weaponry regardless the Spanish human cost. The bombing of Guernica caused a great shock in the international public opinion and has remained as a prologue of the subsequent air attacks on civilians.
These were some of the most important aftermaths of the Civil War:
-Casualties. The demographic bleeding cost nearly 600.000 deaths out of a population of 24.5 million. This figures had no precedent in any other European civil war.
-Exile. Thousands of families and combatants of the losing side had to go into exile escaping from repression.
-Repression. Once the war was over, thousands of republicans who hadn't gone into exile were convicted and imprisoned under the law for the repression of freemasonry and communism.
-Economy. The effects of the war on the economic structure of the country were devastating: decrease of the active population, destruction of roads, railways and industrial facilities and serious damage or destruction of the housing. It all led to the decrease of the national production and the income level of the Spaniards.
-Culture. All the efforts of regeneration undertaken in the Silver Age (1898-1936) were destroyed. Francoism repressed and fired nearly 60% of the teachers. Half of the most remarkable scientists, artists or intellectuals of the Generación del 27, died or had to go into exile.
Activities
Exercises 19 and 21 on page 195.
Exercises 10 and 11 on page 197.
6- Art in the interwar period
-WWI buried much of traditional art along with millions of human dead. Art at its extreme fringe became incomprehensible to the average viewer, who was thus deprived of perceiving and enjoying world about him. Some felt that art degenerated to mannerism, using stylistic exaggerations as an end in itself. Artists and writers broke up into small schools, and trends, whose ideas were often too esoteric to strike a responsive chord with the broad population.
-New art increasingly became confined to those interested in art for art’s sake. Most normal citizens were offended. They thought their six-year old kid could do better than some of the self-proclaimed geniuses of art.
-On the one hand, art became free from the limits of realism and naturalism, or from subject and tradition. Artists were free as never before to experiment. Artists explored new modes of work unlike any before in human history. On the other hand, a reaction came from the totalitarian and authoritarian states, who tried to make art relevant to the masses.
-However, artists followed two different directions:
.Some artists used art to criticise the historical moment.
.Other artists focused on the imagination and lost contact with real life or real appearances.
-There were a lot of different movements and trends in art during this period, but the most known were:
.Surrealism
.New Objectivity
-Apart from the free movements there was an official art in the Totalitarian regimes used to glorify the leader and their ideology.
New Objectivity
-This style developed in 1920s Germany.
-The New Objectivity comprised two tendencies which are characterized in terms of a left and right wing: on the left were the verists, who "tear the objective form of the world of contemporary facts and represent current experience in its tempo and fevered temperature;" and on the right the classicists, who "search more for the object of timeless ability to embody the external laws of existence in the artistic sphere."
-Otto Dix is one of the more noted artists on the verists. The verists' vehement form of realism emphasized the ugly and sordid. Their art was raw, provocative, and harshly satirical. The verists developed Dada's abandonment of any pictorial rules or artistic language into a “satirical hyperrealism”.
Otto Dix
Stormtroops Advancing Under Gas
Skat Players
Surrealism
-It was an avant-garde style of painting which emerged in Europe and the USA in 1925.
-Surrealists were not interested in reality, they depicted imaginary scenes, dreams and fantasies.
-Surrealists went further into combining images in strange, bizarre, or shocking ways. They often struggled for a dream atmosphere or incorporated Freudian symbolism.
-The work of Salvador Dali was full of humor, jesting, and shock effects. The melting clocks of his tiny The Persistence of Memory (1931), suggests the bending of space and time.
-Joan Miró's work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, and a re-creation of the childlike.
Salvador Dalí
El Gran Masturbador
Alucinación parcial. Seis apariciones de Lenin sobre un piano de cola
Joan Miró
Activities
Exercise 20 on page 195, and exercise 12 on page 197.
