#1 What was the Spanish Civil War?

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Without further adieu, here’s today’s Daily Concept:

Daily Concept #1: What were the International Brigades, and what was the Spanish Civil War?

This week, Spanish government authorities announced that they’d discovered the identities of hundreds of bodies from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Over two hundred German, Austrian, and Dutch fighters were identified thanks to the efforts of researchers who combed through casualty reports and historical documents left by the International Brigades.

The International Brigades (or Brigadas Internacionales in Spanish) were battalions of left-wing foreign fighters who flocked to Spain to fight for or alongside the Spanish Republic against the right-wing nationalist coup staged by General Francisco Franco and his allies in 1936. After a coalition of leftist and liberal parties won the 1936 Spanish election, conservative groups in Spain aligned with Franco and other generals who launched a civil war in an effort to depose the democratically-elected Spanish government.

The Spanish Civil War is a fascinating historical period that was described by historian Adam Hochschild as the “first battle of World War II.” The U.S. and Western European governments stayed neutral during the war. Franco took arms and support from fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union provided similar support to the left-wing Spanish Republican government and its offshoots. It was a complex period in which Spain was sharply and violently divided along lines of class, religion, ethnicity, ideology, and regional allegiance.

Nearly 2,800 Americans went to fight in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, with roughly a quarter of them dying there. One of the Americans who went to Spain during the war was Ernest Hemingway, who wrote about the war for international newspapers and socialized with members of the International Brigades. Hemingway's 1940 novel For Whom The Bell Tolls is about an American professor of Spanish who fought alongside Spanish guerillas against Franco and his fascist allies.

The famous Guernica painting by Pablo Picasso is based on the suffering caused by German air raids on the city of Guernica in April 1937. Picasso was commissioned by the Spanish Republican government to create a mural for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. His depiction of the tragic bombing was based primarily on an eye-witness account of the attack written by journalist George Steer. Steer wrote:

“Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders.

The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter [by German bomber planes]…

The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machine- gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields.”

Recommended Reads: I’ve read two excellent books on the Spanish Civil War. Antony Beevor’s The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 is an extraordinarily well-researched and comprehensive history of the war. Adam Hochschild's Spain In Our Hearts Americans in the Spanish Civil War is a more detailed book that focuses on the Americans who came to Spain during the war and their motivations for doing so.

• Hochshild’s interview with NPR on the Spanish Civil War is worth reading if you want to learn more.

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Yours,
Dan