Available Now: The Crucible of Francoism: Combat, Violence, and Ideology in the Spanish Civil WarUK readers: Order now from Sussex Academic Press or Amazon
US readers: Order now from Independent Publishers Group Co-edited with Ángel Alcalde and Francisco J. Leira-Castiñeira The July 1936 coup d’état against the Spanish Second Republic brought together a diversity of anti-Republican political and social groups under the leadership of rebel africanista military officers. In the ensuing Civil War this coalition gradually came under the rule of Generalissimo Franco. This volume explores the hypothesis that the violence and combat experiences of the war were the fundamental ideological crucible for the Francoist regime. The rebels were a group of reactionary and anti-liberal forces with little ideological or political coherence, but they emerged from the conflict not only victorious but ideologically united under the dictator’s power. Key to understanding this transition are the different political cultures of the rebel army, how the combatants’ war experiences contributed to the transformation of diverse rebel groups, and the role of foreign armed intervention. |
The contributors examine not only the endogenous Spanish political and military cultures of the Francoist coalition, but also the transnational influence of foreign groups. The roots of Francoist political culture are found in the Falangist and Carlist militias, and Civil Guard units, that lent their support to the military rebellion. The war experiences of conscripts, colonial troops, and junior officers forged the Francoist ideology. It was reinforced by fascist influences and assistance from Germany and Italy, and the lesser-known contributions of Swiss volunteers. At the beginning of the conflict the rebel side was not homogeneous. But it weaved together a complex, transnational web of political and military interests in the midst of a bloody and destructive war, transforming itself in the process to a political and dictatorial platform that was to rule Spain for many years.
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Research Questions
- How did Europe’s military police forces or gendarmerie contribute to the fall of many of the continent’s democratic regimes during the interwar period?
- Why was the Civil Guard in particular, Spain’s gendarmerie, the country’s most violent profession during the country’s Second Republic period?
- What was the organizational culture of the Civil Guard, how was it formed, and how did it evolve over time?
- How did this military culture shape the actions that civil guards took when they confronted the unprecedented mass political mobilizations of the Second Republic?
Methodologies and Sources
- Organizational culture, including the ideas of both military and police culture provides a framework for analyzing the structural causes of the Civil Guard’s violence during the Second Republic
- Case studies of particular incidents of political violence involving the Civil Guard allow a closer examination of how local tensions, cultural patterns, and individual decisions combined to produce violence outcomes
- Study of Civil Guard service records provides information on members’ social origins and prior experiences
- Other primary sources include regulations, internal publications, Ministry of the Interior telegrams, court records, congressional debates, propaganda booklets and newspapers
Scholarly Interventions
- Modern European history: Militarized police forces provided conduits to introduces the brutal practices of colonial warfare to Europe in the first half of the twentieth century
- Military history: The concept of military culture can be adapted to help understand how military police forces respond to civilian policing situations
- Criminology: The concept of police culture has analytical utility when applied to militarized police forces outside of the English civilian policing model