General Franco
On March 28th 1939, the Spanish Civil War came to an end after three years of bloody fighting, when the Republican defenders of Madrid raised the white flag over the city.
In 1931, Spanish King Alfonso XIII approved elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favour of a liberal republic. Alfonso subsequently went into exile, and the Second Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate socialists, was proclaimed. During the first five years of the Republic, organised labour and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reforms, and the independence-minded Spanish regions of Catalonia and the Basque provinces achieved virtual autonomy.
The landed aristocracy, the church, and a large military clique increasingly employed violence in their opposition to the Second Republic, and in July 1936 General Francisco Franco led a right-wing army revolt in Morocco, which prompted the division of Spain into two key camps: the Nationalists and the Republicans. Franco’s Nationalist forces rapidly overran much of the Republican-controlled areas in central and northern Spain, and Catalonia became a key Republican stronghold.
During 1937, Franco unified the Nationalist forces under the command of the Falange, Spain’s fascist party, while the Republicans fell under the sway of the communists. Germany and Italy aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and arms, while the Soviet Union aided the Republican side. In addition, small numbers of communists and other radicals from France, the USSR, America, and elsewhere formed the International Brigades to aid the Republican cause. The most significant contribution of these foreign units was the successful defence of Madrid until the end of the war.
In June 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean Sea and cut Republican territory in two. Later in the year, Franco mounted a major offensive against Catalonia. In January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was captured, and soon after the rest of Catalonia fell. With the Republican cause all but lost, its leaders attempted to negotiate a peace, but Franco refused. On March 28, 1939, the victorious Nationalists entered Madrid in triumph, and the Spanish Civil War came to an end. Up to a million lives were lost in the conflict, the most devastating in Spanish history.
Craig Hill Media and Consulting 
I read (or actually, listened) to Orwell’s book Homage to Catalonia. He nearly lost his life fighting on the Republican side and wanted the British people to know what had actually happened to all the brave men that fought against Fascism. The British were not interested, and never bought or read the book.
America was not much better, and allowed Franco’s Spain to repair German submarines in their harbors.
Posted by halsmith | March 28, 2012, 00:25My conclusions are similar to those of HALSMITH: americans or british – they speak same things in yiddish…
Thanks for this post.
Posted by retrofilms.in | March 28, 2012, 01:10With Franco we were younger 🙂
Posted by Dugutigui | March 28, 2012, 02:43Franco … was some evil soul too – I refused to go to Spain on holiday so long as he was in power and I never did. Terrible man!
Fantastic post, Craig. Thank you so much.
Posted by viveka | March 28, 2012, 04:12