Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Spanish Civil War 1936–39 by Patrick Turnbull Spanish Civil War. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Spanish Civil War , (1936–39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States. What caused the Spanish Civil War? Spain spent much of the 1920s under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, and the economic hardships caused by the Great Depression intensified polarization within the Spanish public. Labor unrest was widespread in the early 1930s, and the election of February 16, 1936, brought to power a leftist Popular Front government. Fascist and extreme-right forces responded in July 1936 with an army mutiny and coup attempt that expanded into a civil war. Who fought in the Spanish Civil War? The main antagonists were the Nationalists under Gen. Francisco Franco and the Republicans under Francisco Largo Caballero and, later, Juan Negrín. The Nationalists were supported by Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and North America. How was the Spanish Civil War a preview for World War II? What began as a failed coup spiraled into a proxy war between Europe’s fascist and communist countries, with the future Allies backing the Republicans and the Axis powers supporting Franco’s Nationalists. While ground combat was somewhat reminiscent of World War I—tanks had a comparatively limited role, and lines remained fixed for months at a time—Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe offered a glimpse of the role that air power would play in the German blitzkrieg. How did the Spanish Civil War end? The final Republican offensive stalled at the Ebro River on November 18, 1938. Within months Barcelona would fall, and on March 28, 1939, some 200,000 Nationalist troops entered Madrid unopposed. The city had endured a siege of nearly two-and-a-half years, and its residents were in no condition to resist. The following day the remnant of the Republican government surrendered; Franco would establish himself as dictator and remain in power until his death on November 20, 1975. The war was an outcome of a polarization of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades. On one side, the Nationalist, were most Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, most landowners, and many businessmen. On the other side, the Republican, were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, and many of the educated middle class. Politically, their differences often found extreme and vehement expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to socialism, including a small communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival, Leon Trotsky. In 1934 there was widespread labour conflict and a bloody uprising by miners in Asturias that was suppressed by troops led by General Francisco Franco. A succession of governmental crises culminated in the elections of February 16, 1936, which brought to power a Popular Front government supported by most of the parties of the left and opposed by the parties of the right and what remained of the centre. A well-planned military uprising began on July 17, 1936, in garrison towns throughout Spain. By July 21 the rebels had achieved control in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) and in the part of Spain north of the Guadarrama mountains and the Ebro River, except for Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces along the north coast and the region of Catalonia in the northeast. The Republican forces had put down the uprising in other areas, except for some of the larger Andalusian cities, including Sevilla (Seville), Granada, and Córdoba. The Nationalists and Republicans proceeded to organize their respective territories and to repress opposition or suspected opposition. Republican violence occurred primarily during the early stages of the war before the rule of law was restored, but the Nationalist violence was part of a conscious policy of terror. The matter of how many were killed remains highly contentious; however, it is generally believed that the toll of Nationalist violence was higher. In any event, the proliferation of executions, murders, and assassinations on both sides reflects the great passions that the Civil War unleashed. The captaincy of the Nationalists was gradually assumed by General Franco, leading forces he had brought from Morocco. On October 1, 1936, he was named head of state and set up a government in Burgos. The Republican government, beginning in September 1936, was headed by the socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero. He was followed in May 1937 by Juan Negrín, also a socialist, who remained premier throughout the remainder of the war and served as premier in exile until 1945. The president of the Spanish Republic until nearly the end of the war was Manuel Azaña, an anticlerical liberal. Internecine conflict compromised the Republican effort from the outset. On one side were the anarchists and militant socialists, who viewed the war as a revolutionary struggle and spearheaded widespread collectivization of agriculture, industry, and services; on the other were the more moderate socialists and republicans, whose objective was the preservation of the Republic. Seeking allies against the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had embraced a Popular Front strategy, and, as a result, the Comintern directed Spanish communists to support the Republicans. Both the Nationalist and Republican sides, seeing themselves as too weak to win a quick victory, turned abroad for help. Germany and Italy sent troops, tanks, and planes to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union contributed equipment and supplies to the Republicans, who also received help from the Mexican government. During the first weeks of the war, the Popular Front government of France also supported the Republicans, but internal opposition forced a change of policy. In August 1936, France joined Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy in signing a nonintervention agreement that would be ignored by the Germans, Italians, and Soviets. About 40,000 foreigners fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades largely under the command of the Comintern, and 20,000 others served in medical or auxiliary units. By November 1936 the Nationalists had advanced to the outskirts of Madrid. They laid siege to it but were unable to get beyond the University City area. They captured the Basque northern provinces in the summer of 1937 and then Asturias, so that by October they held the whole northern coast. A war of attrition began. The Nationalists drove a salient eastward through Teruel, reaching the Mediterranean and splitting the republic in two in April 1938. In December 1938 they moved upon Catalonia in the northeast, forcing the Republican armies there northward toward France. By February 1939, 250,000 Republican soldiers, together with an equal number of civilians, had fled across the border into France. On March 5 the Republican government flew to exile in France. On March 7 a civil war broke out in Madrid between communist and anticommunist factions. By March 28 all of the Republican armies had begun to disband and surrender, and Nationalist forces entered Madrid on that day. The number of persons killed in the Spanish Civil War can be only roughly estimated. Nationalist forces put the figure at 1,000,000, including not only those killed in battle but also the victims of bombardment, execution, and assassination. More recent estimates have been closer to 500,000 or less. This does not include all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease. The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between—depending on their point of view—tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization. For Germany and Italy, Spain was a testing ground for new methods of tank and air warfare. For Britain and France, the conflict represented a new threat to the international equilibrium that they were struggling to preserve, which in 1939 collapsed into World War II. The war also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to take up arms. Among the most notable artistic responses to the war were the novels Man’s Hope (1938) by André Malraux, Adventures of a Young Man (1939) by John Dos Passos, and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway; George Orwell’s memoir Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica (1937); and Robert Capa’s photograph Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain (1936). This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray, Editor. The Spanish Civil War 1936 39. By the spring of 1936 an armed clash was imminent between the forces of Spain's extreme Left and extreme Right. Viewed largely as a confrontation between democracy and fascism, the resulting civil war proved to be of enormous international significance. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy intervened to assist General Franco, while the Soviet Union came to the aid of the Republican forces. This book explains the background to the war and charts the course of the nearly three-year long conflict through to General Franco's victory. Photographs and colour plates illustrate the uniforms and equipment of the Republican and Nationalist armies. …mehr. Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War) State flag of the Spanish State from 1936 to 1938. State flag of the Spanish State from 1938 to 1945. The Nationalist faction (Spanish language: Bando nacional ) [nb 1] or Rebel faction [1] was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of political groups that supported the Spanish coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic, including the Falange, the CEDA, and two rival monarchist claimants: the Alfonsists and the Carlists. After 1937, all the groups were merged into the Falange. The main leader (Spanish language: Caudillo ) of the 1936 coup, General Francisco Franco, would lead this faction throughout the war and later would become the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975. The name Nationalists or Nationals ( nacionales ), was mainly used by its members and supporters, while its opponents used the terms fascistas (fascists) [1] or facciosos (sectarians) [2] to refer to this faction. Contents. Participants [ edit | edit source ] Political groups [ edit | edit source ] Falange [ edit | edit source ] The Falange was originally a Spanish fascist political party founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the former Spanish leader Miguel Primo de Rivera. [3] The Falange was created with the financial assistance of Alfonsist monarchist funding. [4] Upon being formed, the Falange was officially anti-clerical and anti-monarchist. [5] As a landowner and aristocrat, Primo de Rivera assured the upper classes that Spanish fascism would not get out of their control like its equivalents in Germany and Italy. [4] In 1934, the Falange merged with the pro-Nazi Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista of Ramiro Ledesma Ramos. [4] Initially the Falange was short of funds and was a small student-based movement that preached of a utopian violent nationalist revolution. [4] The Falange committed acts of violence prior to the war, including becoming involved in street brawls with their political opponents that helped to create a state of lawlessness that the right-wing press blamed on the republic to support a military uprising. [4] Falangist terror squads sought to create an atmosphere of disorder in order to justify the imposition of an authoritarian regime. [6] With the onset of middle-class disillusionment with the CEDA's legalism, support for the Falange expanded rapidly. [6] By September 1936, the total Falangist volunteers numbered at 35,000, accounting for 55 percent of all civilian forces of the Nationals. [7] The Falange was one of the original supporters of the military coup d'état against the republic, the other being the Carlists. [8] After the death of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, Manuel Hedilla sought to take control of the Falange, but this was usurped by Franco who sought to take control of the movement as part of his move to take control of the National faction. [9] In 1937, Franco announced a decree of unification of the National political movements, particularly the Falange and the Carlists into a single movement, nominally still the Falange, under his leadership. [10] Both Falangists and Carlists were initially furious at the decision, Falangists in particular saw their ideological role as being usurped by the Catholic Church and their "revolution" being indefinitely postponed. [10] Upon unification and seizure of leadership by Franco, Franco distanced the party from fascism, and declared "The Falange does not consider itself fascist; its founder said so personally." [11] After this announcement, the practice in the National faction of referring to the Falange as "fascists" disappeared by 1937, though Franco did not deny that there were fascists within the Falange. [11] Franco declared that the Falange's goal was to incorporate the "great neutral mass of the unaffiliated," and promised that no ideological rigidity would be allowed to interfere with the goal. [11] Under Franco's leadership, the Falange abandoned the previous anti-clerical tendencies of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera and instead promoted neotraditionalist National Catholicism, though it continued to criticize Catholic pacifists. [12] Franco's Falange also abandoned hostility to capitalism, with Falange member Raimundo Fernández-Cuesta declaring that Falange's national syndicalism was fully compatible with capitalism. [13] CEDA [ edit | edit source ] The Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups, CEDA, was a Catholic right-wing political organization dedicated to anti- Marxism. [14] The CEDA was led by José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones. The CEDA claimed that it was defending Spain and "Christian civilization" from Marxism, and claimed that the political atmosphere in Spain had made politics a matter of Marxism versus anti-Marxism. [14] With the advent of the rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany, the CEDA aligned itself with similar propaganda ploys to the Nazis, including the Nazi emphasis on authority, the fatherland, and hierarchy. [14] Gil-Robles attended in audience at the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg and was influenced by it, henceforth becoming committed to creating a single anti-Marxist counterrevolutionary front in Spain. [14] Gil-Robles declared his intention to "give Spain a true unity, a new spirit, a totalitarian polity. " and went on to say "Democracy is not an end but a means to the conquest of the new state. When the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it." [15] The CEDA held fascist-style rallies, called Gil-Robles " Jefe ", the equivalent of Duce , and claimed that the CEDA might lead a "March on Madrid" to forcefully seize power. [16] The CEDA failed to make the substantive electoral gains from 1931 to 1936 that were needed for it to form government which resulted in right-wing support draining from it and turning towards the belligerent Alfonsist monarchist leader José Calvo Sotelo. [17] Subsequently the CEDA abandoned its moderation and legalism and began providing support for those committed to violence against the republic, including handing over its electoral funds to the initial leader of the military coup against the republic, General Emilio Mola. [6] Subsequently supporters of the CEDA's youth movement, Juventudes de Acción Popular (JAP) began to defect en masse to join the Falange. [6] Monarchists [ edit | edit source ] Carlists [ edit | edit source ] The Carlists were monarchists and ardent ultratraditionalist Catholics who sought the installation of Carlist Pretender Francisco Javier de Borbón as King of Spain. [18] The Carlists were anti-republican, anti-democratic and staunchly anti-socialist. [19] The Carlists were so anti-socialist that they opposed both Hitler and Mussolini because of their socialistic tendencies. [19] The Carlists were led by Manuel Fal Condé and held their main base of support in Navarre. [19] The Carlists along with the Falange were the original supporters of the military coup d'état against the republic. [8] The Carlists held a long history of violent opposition to the Spanish state, stemming back to 1833 when they launched a six-year civil war against the state. [20] The Carlists were strongly intransigent to any coalition with other movements, even believing that no non-Carlist could have honest intentions. [20] During the war, the Carlists' militia, the Requetés reached a peak of 42,000 recruits but by the end of hostilities in April 1939 their overall strength had been reduced to 23,000. [20] Alfonsists [ edit | edit source ] Bank note issued by the Nationalist government in October 1937 with the coat of arms of Alfonso XIII. The Alfonsists were a movement that supported the restoration of Alfonso XIII of Spain as monarch following the founding of the Spanish Second Republic in 1931. They competed with rival monarchists, the Carlists for the Spanish throne. After the overthrow of the monarchy of Alfonso XIII, Alfonsist supporters formed the Renovación Española , a monarchist political party, which held considerable economic influence and had close supporters in the Spanish army. [21] Renovación Española did not, however, manage to become a mass political movement. [21] In 1934, the Alfonsists led by Antonio Goicoechea along with the Carlists, met with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to gain support for an uprising against the republic, in which Mussolini promised to provide money and arms for such a rising. [22] From 1934 to 1936, the charismatic Alfonsist leader José Calvo Sotelo spoke of the need for the "conquest of the state" as the only means to secure the establishment of an ideal authoritarian, corporatist state. [22] Sotelo made passionate speeches in support of violent counterrevolution and emphasized the need for a military insurrection against the republic to counter the threats of communism and separatism that he blamed as being caused by the republic. [23] Sotelo was kidnapped and assassinated by political opponents (who were initially searching out Gil-Robles of the CEDA to kidnap) on 13 July 1936 which sparked fury on the political right and helped legitimize the military coup against the republic. [24] When the war broke out, Infante Juan, the son of Alfonso XIII and heir to the Spanish throne, requested the permission of Franco to take part in the Nationals' war effort by enlisting as a member of the crew of the cruiser Balaeres , which was nearing completion. [25] He promised to abstain from political activities, but Franco refused, believing that he would become a figurehead for the Alfonsists who held a strong presence in the military. [25] Military [ edit | edit source ] Army of Africa [ edit | edit source ] The Army of Africa was a field army garrisoned in Spanish Morocco - a legacy of the Rif War - under the command of General Francisco Franco. Consisting of the Spanish Foreign Legion and Regulares , volunteer infantry and cavalry units recruited from the population of Spanish Morocco, they operated as the shock troops of the National forces. Civil Guard [ edit | edit source ] Direct foreign support [ edit | edit source ] Italy [ edit | edit source ] Italy under the Fascist leadership of Benito Mussolini supported the overthrow of the republic and the establishment of a regime that would serve as a client state to Italy. Italy distrusted the Spanish Republic due to its pro-French leanings and prior to the war had made contact with Spanish right-wing groups. [26] Italy justified its intervention as an action intended to prevent the rise of Bolshevism in Spain. [27] Italy's Fascist regime considered the threat of Bolshevism a real risk with the arrival of volunteers from the Soviet Union who were fighting for the Republicans. [28] Mussolini provided financial support as well as training to the Alfonsists, Carlists, and Falange. [16] Mussolini met Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1933, but did not have much enthusiasm in the establishment of fascism in Spain at that time. [3] By January 1937, an expeditionary force of 35,000 Italians, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie, were in Spain under the command of General Mario Roatta. [18] The contingent was made up of four divisions: Littorio, Dio lo Vuole ("God Wills it"), Fiamme Nere ("Black Flames") and Penne Nere ("Black Feathers"). The first of these divisions was made up of soldiers; the other three of Blackshirt volunteers. [29] Italy provided the National forces with fighter and bomber aircraft which played a significant part in the war. [18] In March 1937, Italy intervened in the political affairs of the Nationals by sending Roberto Farinacci to Spain to urge Franco to unite the National political movements into one fascist "Spanish National Party". [30] Germany [ edit | edit source ] Nazi Germany provided the Nationals with material, specialists, and a powerful air force contingent, the Condor Legion German expeditionary forces that provided airlift of soldiers and material from Spanish Africa to Spain and provided offensive operations against Republican forces. [18] The Spanish Civil War would provide an ideal testing ground for the proficiency of the new weapons produced during the German re-armament. Many aeronautical bombing techiques were tested by the Condor Legion against the Republican Government on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Franco. Hitler insisted, however, that his long-term designs were peaceful, a strategy labelled as "Blumenkrieg" (Flower War). [31] Germany had important economic interests at stake in Spain, as Germany imported large amounts of mineral ore from Spanish Morocco. [32] The Nazi regime sent retired General Wilhelm Faulpel as ambassador to Franco's regime, Faulpel supported Franco and the Falange in the hope that they would create a Nazi-like regime in Spain. [33] Debt owed by Franco and the Nationals to Germany rose quickly upon purchasing German material, and required financial assistance from Germany as the Republicans had access to Spain's gold reserve. [33] Portugal [ edit | edit source ] Upon the outbreak of the civil war, Portuguese President António de Oliveira Salazar almost immediately supported the National forces. [34] Salazar's Estado Novo regime held tense relations with the Spanish Republic that held Portuguese dissidents to his regime in it. [35] Portugal played a critical role in supplying Franco’s forces with ammunition and many other logistical resources. [36] Despite its discreet direct military involvement — restrained to a somewhat "semi-official" endorsement, by its authoritarian regime, of an 8,000–12,000-strong volunteer force, the so-called "Viriatos" — for the whole duration of the conflict, Portugal was instrumental in providing the National faction with a vital logistical organization and by reassuring Franco and his allies that no interference whatsoever would hinder the supply traffic directed to the Nationals, crossing the borders of the two Iberian countries — the Nationals used to refer to Lisbon as "the port of Castile". [37] In 1938, with Franco's victory increasingly certain, Portugal recognized Franco's regime and after the war in 1939 signed a treaty of friendship and non-aggression pact that was known as the Iberian Pact. [34] Portugal played an important diplomatic role in supporting the Franco regime, including by insisting to the United Kingdom that Franco sought to replicate Salazar's Estado Novo and not Mussolini's Fascist Italy. [35] Other [ edit | edit source ] 1,000 to 2,000 English, Irish, French, Russian "Whites", Romanian, and Belgian volunteers came to Spain to fight on the side of the Nationals. [38] Indirect foreign support [ edit | edit source ] Vatican City [ edit | edit source ] Initially the Vatican held a neutral position in the war, due to the presence of devout Catholics, including high-ranking officers of the Spanish Republican Army such as republican Catholic general Vicente Rojo Lluch, remaining loyal to the Republic, as well as the Catholic Basque nationalists who opposed the rebel faction. [39] Throughout the war, however, many influential Spanish Catholics opposed the Spanish Republic, labeling the secular Republic as "the enemy of God and the Church" and denouncing the Republic's for anti-clerical activities, such as shutting down Catholic schools. [40] In 1938, Vatican City officially recognized Franco's Spanish State. [41] At this point the Vatican barred any Catholics from supporting the Republic. [42] The Spanish Civil War 1936–39. The Spanish Civil War 1936–39. Background. By the spring of 1936 it was becoming increasingly evident that Spain was heading for an armed clash between the forces of the extreme Right and the extreme Left. The moderate Republican government of Madrid was helpless to curb the activities of militants of opposing factions, or to check the tide of political assassinations. Over the period of 16 June to 13 July, terrorists murdered 61 people and wounded a further 224. There were 132 bomb incidents, ten churches and nineteen public buildings were destroyed or badly damaged by fire, ten newspaper offices sacked. Between 15 February and 15 June, 113 general strikes were staged. On 12 July Calvé Sotelo, a well-known monarchist was murdered by Republican storm troopers, and passions were roused to even greater fury when, at the funeral, police opened fire killing four of the mourners. The dominant figure of the extreme Left, known as ‘Largo Caballero’ (the Spanish Lenin), enjoyed the full confidence of the Anarchists, and planned to stage a coup d’état in late July; and, backed by the ultras and their militia groups, he intended to impose a Stalin-type Communist government. To thwart such a take-over, a clique of high-ranking army officers, calling themselves the Unión Militar Española (U.M.E.), whose nominal head was the veteran General Sanjurjo, planned a similar coup and counted on the support of anti-Communist, Catholic and traditionalist elements of all classes of society. Indeed by mid-July the only question was, which of the two factions would strike first. General Francisco Franco y Bahamonde inspects a guard of honour at Burgos in October 1936, following his appointment to the supreme command of the insurgents. Franco had enjoyed rapid promotion, founding his reputation for professional competence and personal coolness under fire in the savage Moroccan campaigns of the early 1920s. (Keystone) Under the circumstances, it was the right wing, spurred to action by Calve Sotelo’s murder, that made the opening moves. The weekend of 17/18 July military uprisings broke out, with varying success, in all the main garrison towns of the Spanish mainland. In the north, monarchist Navarra rallied to General Emilio Mola. In Andalucia, in the south, the capital, Sevilla, was taken over by a handful of troops led by the swashbuckling General Queipo de Llano y Sierra, himself a Republican at heart but violently anti-Communist. Córdoba and Granada also declared for the rebels who would be known as the Nationalists, but in Jaen and Málaga the movement was suppressed, both centres voting solidly for the existing government. Most of Castilla, as well as the cities of Burgos, Salamanca and Avila, embraced the revolution, as did much of Galicia. Though predominantly Catholic, the Basques supported the Republic hoping thereby to achieve a measure of autonomy; their example was followed by the Catalans, who were the most left-wing people of the peninsula. In both Madrid and Barcelona, insurgent officers and troops were soon isolated by Communist mobs, and liquidated. Those who surrendered were speedily brought to trial—a mere formality—and as speedily executed. Escaping by plane, piloted by an Englishman, Captain Bebb, General Francisco Franco y Bahamonde, leading member of the U.M.E., reached Tetuan, capital of Spanish Morocco on 19 July, and there, with the wholehearted support of the highly professional ‘African Army’ proclaimed the Revolution, receiving also the full backing of the Khalifa, the local Moorish governor. These turbulent mid-July days marked the beginning of a civil war, which was to last two years and nine months, a war to be remembered not so much for the brilliance of any individual campaign or commander, but rather for its appalling ferocity, and for fanatical, crusader-like belief, held by participants, in the justice of their own cause. Left and Right, alike, were convinced that they were fighting for civilization against the powers of darkness. This fanaticism led to heavy losses, and many of the battles compared for sheer butchery with those of the Western Front of 1914–18. The Republican Army. It is a common, but erroneous, belief that the Spanish Army joined solidly with the insurgents, just as it is equally erroneous to state that the war was waged between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Though in Morocco the troops were almost unanimous in supporting their leader, General Franco, this was far from being the case in metropolitan Spain. On 17 July the mainland army consisted of eight infantry divisions centred on Corunna, Saragossa, Burgos, Valladolid, Sevilla, Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid, and one cavalry division, whose headquarters was also in Madrid. An infantry division was made up of two brigades (or regiments), each of two battalions. Loyalties and ideals caused men of similar rank, from general to private soldier, to oppose each other, and the confusion and bloodshed of the first weekend was great. By the Monday, however, the situation had largely sorted itself out. It has since been estimated that—with the exception of the African Army—33,000 stood by the government, while 23,600 went over to the insurgents (Nationalists). On 17 July the officer corps totalled 8,500. By the 19th, some 3,500 had been killed or imprisoned by the Republicans, 2,000 had declared for the government, 3,000 for the Nationalists. The para-military Guardia Civil, Asaltos and Carabineros, also split. The Nationalists were able to count on 14,000 Guardia Civil, 6,000 Carabineros and 500 Asaltos, while the Republic counted on nearly 20,000 Guardia Civil, 3,500 Asaltos, and 8,750 Carabineros. Republicans could also muster groups of armed militia, men trained in urban and guerilla terrorist tactics who, by July 1936, had reached the impressive total of 15,000 Trotskyists and Anarchists, and 12,000 Communists. It did not help the Republic’s cause, however, that the militia were usually at daggers drawn with the para-military forces, even when these latter were amalgamated and renamed the Guardia Republicana. After some months, warring factions were once more reorganized, this time into a single body, known as the Ejército Popular Republicana (People’s Republican Army), but this was achieved only with great difficulty, clashes occurring between Anarchists, who bitterly resented any form of regimentation or rank privilege, and Communists, who based their concept of service on Russian standards of.