Who actually supported the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War?

[TinyTartar]

I had always kind of wondered how the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War have been covered by both Hollywood and by historical study. I have noticed that while there are details abundant on the Republicans, their support base, their conflicts, and points of view well represented, the Nationalists do not get similar treatment.

All I really know is that the army officers and the clergy were backing Franco, but who else? Italy and Germany, yes, but within Spain, who actually supported the Nationalists, and why? Was Franco's army a mostly foreign bunch, or were certain segments of Spanish population on his side and not just oppressed by force? Who actually joined his army?

And what could the Republicans have done to have bitten into this support base that gets so little attention to improve their chances?

 

[riggerrob]

Generalissimo Franco was supported by major land owners and old-money families (aka. the Establishment).
At the start of the Spanish Civil War, Franco imported the Spanish Foreign Legion from Morrocco. Those professional soldiers gave Franco a decisive military advantage at the start if the war. Later, fascist Italian and German Army volunteers brough the latest technological advances in the form of airplanes and tanks.
However, the Spanish economy had devolved into "minority capitalism" with a handful of families holding most of the wealth. OTOH the majority of Spanish citizens laboured close to the poverty line.

Meanwhile Republican (left wing and Communist) "rebels" struggled to smuggle in volunteers and second-line airplanes.

 

[TinyTartar]

Generalissimo Franco was supported by major land owners and old-money families (aka. the Establishment).
At the start of the Spanish Civil War, Franco imported the Spanish Foreign Legion from Morrocco. Those professional soldiers gave Franco a decisive military advantage at the start if the war. Later, fascist Italian and German Army volunteers brough the latest technological advances in the form of airplanes and tanks.
However, the Spanish economy had devolved into "minority capitalism" with a handful of families holding most of the wealth. OTOH the majority of Spanish citizens laboured close to the poverty line.

Meanwhile Republican (left wing and Communist) "rebels" struggled to smuggle in volunteers and second-line airplanes.

There were enough professional soldiers to carry out the war to begin with from Africa? That might explain his success at Toledo in breaking the siege so close to Madrid.

However, I have to think that Franco recruited troops inside of Spain itself, and this is what I was kind of curious about. Was Franco more popular in certain regions and with certain classes of people besides the landowners (who obviously sided against land reform)?

 

[KotoR45]

Also don't forget the support from the more conservative catholics, especially from Navarre. People tend to forget that the Civil War was the swansong of Carlism.

 

[TheMannis]

He had support from the catholics, monarchists, right-wingers, traditionalists and anti-communists.

Some people forget that the left wingers got 46% of the votes in the '36 elections...same as the CEDA(coalition of right wing parties)...you cannot win a civil war without support from the population, period

 

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Just to reiterate the Catholic support for the nationalists, I heard an interesting anecdote that the church establishment support for the Nationalists was so great that the Nationalist army had to turn away priests from volunteering because there weren't enough left to hold mass! Meanwhile the poorer workers and peasants already had a tradition of attacking churches during unrest such as in the 1909 riots against conscription for the colonial war in Morocco and such spontaneous destruction occurred again in areas of Republican control. Spain truly was a country of extremes during this period.

- armed priests training to fight for Franco

 

[Niko Malaka]

Nationalist forces were composed by the bulk of the land army, a part of the air force and a smaller fraction of the naval forces. Besides that and theportuguese, italian and german troops, members of Falange, Acción Católica and the carlist Requetés formed militias early in the war. The manpower of those militias came mainly from rural areas in the northern half of Spain, with the carlists specially strong in Navarre and to a lesser extent the Basque Country. You have to take into account also that both sides drafted soldiera from the population in the areas they controlled, thus many combatants were not ideologically motivated or even had to fight for the side the didn't support (at least until they had the occassion to cross the lines) In the natiinaliat side, many old castilian peasants, generally conservativeareas (and those barelly republican were quickly executed in those areas, that is, Old Castille, Navarre and Galicia) werent behind the coup and probably would have stayed quiet in other circumstances, but once the war started many if them joined the nationalist armiees. Another key support for the bationalist, besides the big landowners, was the financial capital, with people like Juan March (the richest man in Spain at the time)and several banks funding the rebels. Formations like the Lliga Regionalista Catalana (the party of the catalan bourgeoisie) were also supporting the nationaliats, though they beitherwere behind the planning of the coup and joined latter.

And regarding wether you can win a civil war with smaller support, the nationalist advance over Andalusia and Extremadura, staunchy left-wing fiefs, shows otherwise, that when you have a proffessional army fighting armed peasants you can win even if your side is a minority. Spacially if you take care to reduce the numbers of oponents once you have taken the area (the Massacre of Badajoz, for example)

Regarding the internal factions in the nationalist side, tenssions existed, amongst the generals commanding the coup and amongst the different political organizations, with an special dislike between Falangists and Carlists akin to the dislike between Anarchists and Communists. Once Franco's position as Generalísimo was secured, his next step was the Decree of Unification, ordering all the militias and political.organizations to become a sole political party (Falange Española Tradicionalista de las JONS (Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista) or FET-JONS or also simply "Movimiento Nacional" ) which would be the One Party until Franco's death. So, their uniform was the blue shirt of Falange and the red beret of the Requetés. Of course many didn't like that and there was some exchange of fire and throwing of grenades amongst carlists and falangists, but an small scale. For this very reason, some of the opposition leaders in the 50's had been falangists (Dionisio Ruidriejo, Sánchez-Mazas...) and considered themselves "camisas viejas" (Old Shirts) in opposition to the "camisas nuevas" who had joined Falange after the unification. Also in carlist circles opposition movments appeared in this time, but I'm disgressing and I'm not sure if I have answered the question.

Cheers.

 

[Niko Malaka]

Also, it's important to note that catholic= nationalist is not that accurate. The catholic hierarchy supported the coup, as many priests (except in the Basque Country) but many catholics stayed loyal to the Republic, including some high rank members like the generals Miaja and Vicente Rojo.

The story of the relations between the spanish catholic hierarchy and its base of believers is specially difficult, and not always one of mutual love.

 

[Blackfox5]

but within Spain, who actually supported the Nationalists, and why? Was Franco's army a mostly foreign bunch, or were certain segments of Spanish population on his side and not just oppressed by force? Who actually joined his army?

The factions within the Nationalists are typically described as:

• Falangists - the outright fascists. They were anti-clerical and anti-monarchist.
• Monarchists - opponents of the Spanish Republic who backed one of the two pretenders for the Spanish throne that was abolished in 1931. The Carlists (who based their claims on pretender from 1833) were much more right wing than those who supported the claims of the old monarchy.
• CEDA (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups) - Conservative Catholics who represented the right during the Republic and participated in politics. Originally a more moderate version of Spanish conservatism, it steadily became more fascist in the years before the civil war. However, it is best seen as being the force for reactionary Catholicism with its main policy being anti-Marxism.
• Military - much of the professional military supported the Nationalist; indeed the top generals were its leaders

They provided the main organization of the Nationalist coalition with the core troops coming from the military, the Falangists, and the Carlist Requetes.

In addition, most of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church supported the Nationalists against Marxism, but obviously they were not in a position to organize their own forces. Conservative Catholics would join whatever faction they were most attracted to usually one of the monarchist forces.

There was definite popular support for the Nationalists, but it's important to note that they narrowly lost the popular vote in the 1936 elections (although they lost by a lot in terms of seats because of the electoral laws).

Popular Front - 47.03%
Nationalists - 46.48%
Centrists - 6.49%

Not everyone who voted for the Nationalists would have supported a coup, but they were definitely not a small group without mass support.

Spanish politics had deteriorated to the point that everyone felt that if they did not control the government, they would be harmed, oppressed, or killed. The various political parties of Spain could not agree to work together, and governance became impossible in any real sense. Only when the Nationalists began their revolt did the Popular Front actually work together, and even then the factions competed against each other while fighting the Nationalists.

 

[TinyTartar]

Okay, I think I get a more clear picture of this now.

For what its worth, Franco assembled a pretty disparate coalition behind him. Perhaps the reason for his success in the end was that he was able to keep his more unified than his enemies could. Franco himself was a monarchist, and probably like many conservatives, he distrusted the Falange, but I am not sure if he was a monarchist in favor of Alfonso or if he was the more extreme type associated with the Navarrese who were Carlists.

It seems that the geographical base of his support was most firm in Galicia, but he also had a very strong base in Morocco because of the army there (and many of his troops were actually Muslim Moroccans at first), as well as Navarre because of the strong Carlist sentiment, and he had a comfortable base of support in Northern Castille. His support was obviously weakest in Catalonia, most urban centers, and probably Andalucia.

 

[Niko Malaka]

Okay, I think I get a more clear picture of this now.

For what its worth, Franco assembled a pretty disparate coalition behind him. Perhaps the reason for his success in the end was that he was able to keep his more unified than his enemies could. Franco himself was a monarchist, and probably like many conservatives, he distrusted the Falange, but I am not sure if he was a monarchist in favor of Alfonso or if he was the more extreme type associated with the Navarrese who were Carlists.

It seems that the geographical base of his support was most firm in Galicia, but he also had a very strong base in Morocco because of the army there (and many of his troops were actually Muslim Moroccans at first), as well as Navarre because of the strong Carlist sentiment, and he had a comfortable base of support in Northern Castille. His support was obviously weakest in Catalonia, most urban centers, and probably Andalucia.

Yes, Franco's success owes amongst other factors to his ability to keep toguether the different factions around him, and playing them with sticks and carrots along his entire life. Franco never made political statements that could be understood as him favouring any faction, even uf he favoured different factions during the dictatorship. It's said that he once advised someone "do like me, don't get involved in politics", and cmming from him probably was not ironical.

Regarding geographical support, as you point it was in Galicia, Old Castille, Navarre were the coup found stronger support, as Morocco (the rebel generals were most of them veterans of the Rif War) In Catalonia the nationalists had more support in the northern parts, traditional carlist areas. Big cities, Andalusia, Extremadura and New Castille were mostly loyal to the republic, excepting parts of Western Andalusia. There is a socioeconomicc reason. On one hand, you have the opposition between urban centers with industry, labour unions etc vs a more conservative countryside. But regarding rural areas, the northern areas have been historically dominated by small landowners while south of the Tajo it's dominated by large estates owned by very few people and using temporary landless peasants as manpower (jorbaleros or temporeros) Obviously those landless peasants awaited a land reform and supported the republic. Asturias and the Basque Country remained mostly loyal to the republic, being Asturias a land of miners (who incidebtally had suffered a merciless repression two years before in the hands of Franco himself, and again an even worse repression during the 1917 general strike) and the Basque Country being a very industrialized area plus the influuence of basque nationalism. Of course, nowhere the support to either side was unanimous, and some regions rised as much volunteers for both sides.

 

[Circonflexe]

Yes, Franco's success owes amongst other factors to his ability to keep toguether the different factions around him, and playing them with sticks and carrots along his entire life. Franco never made political statements that could be understood as him favouring any faction, even uf he favoured different factions during the dictatorship. It's said that he once advised someone "do like me, don't get involved in politics", and cmming from him probably was not ironical.

Which leads to an interesting POD: Sanjurjo's plane, or Mola's, does not crash, and Franco is not the sole leader of the rebellion. Both officers (particularly Mola) seem to be staunch monarchists. Could then be as much infighting in the Nationalist as in the Republican side?

 

[Kome]

Which leads to an interesting POD: Sanjurjo's plane, or Mola's, does not crash, and Franco is not the sole leader of the rebellion. Both officers (particularly Mola) seem to be staunch monarchists. Could then be as much infighting in the Nationalist as in the Republican side?

Sanjurjo supposedly had Carlist sympathies, while not being one himself, which could be interesting.

I doubt there would be much serious infighting though. Sanjurjo was pretty much accepted as the leader (though his nearly instant death probably caused the other officers to change their mind about him afterwards). Besides Sanjurjo, Franco was unanimously voted as leader of the junta with only one abstain vote (by his former superior officer), that was before Mola's death so he would have voted for Franco too.

 

[TinyTartar]

Sanjurjo supposedly had Carlist sympathies, while not being one himself, which could be interesting.

I doubt there would be much serious infighting though. Sanjurjo was pretty much accepted as the leader (though his nearly instant death probably caused the other officers to change their mind about him afterwards). Besides Sanjurjo, Franco was unanimously voted as leader of the junta with only one abstain vote (by his former superior officer), that was before Mola's death so he would have voted for Franco too.

Had Jose Antonio somehow escaped prison (I think that an exchange is unlikely), that might have definitely complicated matters. Getting the Falange on his side was the one way that Franco could have a youth movement with substantial following not based around regional loyalty, even if Franco did not like or trust the Falange.

I cannot see Jose Antonio being subservient to what was in essence a Reactionary Dictatorship without himself at the forefront, unless of course Franco went further to include national syndicalism. Franco actually liked the idea of a corporatist economy, but only for labor peace. At heart he was an agrarian who idealized the peaceful coexistence of the peasantry and the church. He did not like some of the more revolutionary aspects of the Falange, like the anti-clericalism. He also didn't like Jose Antonio personally, calling him a playboy, as well as the fact that Antonio had punched a superior officer in the face while in the army.

 

[Francisco Cojuanco]

Also, it's important to note that catholic= nationalist is not that accurate. The catholic hierarchy supported the coup, as many priests (except in the Basque Country) but many catholics stayed loyal to the Republic, including some high rank members like the generals Miaja and Vicente Rojo.

The story of the relations between the spanish catholic hierarchy and its base of believers is specially difficult, and not always one of mutual love.

Not to mention that the Vatican, for what it was worth, declined to support Franco until his victory was a fait accompli.

 

[Green Painting]

A part of those who fought for the Nationalists were ex-Republicans who felt pressures because of their or their families' Republican ties. The could be trying to whitewash their own records or to help their families getting out of imprisonment. The Falange picked up some of such members, so did the (post Civil War) Blue Division.

I'm not sure how many of these people are there, but they showed up more and more when the chances of a Nationalist victory gradually became certain.

 

[TinyTartar]

Not to mention that the Vatican, for what it was worth, declined to support Franco until his victory was a fait accompli.

The Church in general advocates for peace and restraint on all sides, etc.

However, because of the specific nature of attacks on churches by the Republicans, there was a growing segment within the Vatican who called for supporting the Nationalists. The fact that the Nationalists were also committing crimes was the only thing stopping that. The Church probably understood that war was coming and pissing off the West or the Fascists was not in its best interests.

In Spain, the hierarchy supported the Nationalist out of self preservation and ties with the Carlists. However, there was a split between regionalist (and mostly rural) Republicans and the urban Republicans. The urban Republicans were VERY anti-clerical and proponents of massacres against clergy, but the rural Republicans, at least the non anarchists, like the Basques and some of the Catalonians and Valencians, were fine with the Church and used it to organize around.

It would be interesting to see what would have happened if the Republicans did not tolerate anti-clericalism. They might have found more supporters.

 

[Kome]

Had Jose Antonio somehow escaped prison (I think that an exchange is unlikely), that might have definitely complicated matters. Getting the Falange on his side was the one way that Franco could have a youth movement with substantial following not based around regional loyalty, even if Franco did not like or trust the Falange.

I cannot see Jose Antonio being subservient to what was in essence a Reactionary Dictatorship without himself at the forefront, unless of course Franco went further to include national syndicalism. Franco actually liked the idea of a corporatist economy, but only for labor peace. At heart he was an agrarian who idealized the peaceful coexistence of the peasantry and the church. He did not like some of the more revolutionary aspects of the Falange, like the anti-clericalism. He also didn't like Jose Antonio personally, calling him a playboy, as well as the fact that Antonio had punched a superior officer in the face while in the army.

Ah yes, can't forget about Jose Antonio. Yet another one of those nationalist leader deaths that left Franco as last man standing.