The origins of the Spanish civil war 1936-1939

Abstract

It was the intention of the socialist-republican coalition, when it came to power in 1931, to solve a series of pivotal issues that had never found solutions since the inception of liberalism a century earlier: implementing a genuine democracy, structuring the State in order to take into account the nationalist aspirations of certain regions, curtailing the financial, ideological and educational powers of the Church; reducing social injustice while granting rights to the working classes; tackling the unequal distribution of the landed property; and lastly establishing civilian control over the army. This paper shows that, far from being accepted and supported by a significant majority of public opinion, the measures that were taken had the opposite effect of exacerbating the rifts and hatreds that, for decades already, had plagued Spanish society.