AHC: Republicans Win Spanish Civil War

Rhaegar I

Rhaegar I

The challenge here is simple. Create a scenario that could allow the Republicans to beat the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. I will allow any POD you want, although it has to be after April 14, 1931 (when the Republic was founded). I'm aware at that early stage, PODs could form that prevent the breakout of war altogether. That is also acceptable.

In the event it's decided the Republic is doomed from the start, then suggest the best way to allow it to last as long as possible.

What Say You!
 

Revolutionary Avocado

Greater French intervention on the Republican side, or perhaps a failure of the Nazis to come to power (thereby keeping Germany away from direct support for the Nationalists)?
 

Herzen's love-child

Direct French intervention to counter the Italo/German one to the Nationalists and to compete with or replace the USSRs efforts. No Anglo/French arms embargo.
 

snerfuplz

Ya Western intervention would help. From what I know this has never been proved but there are claims that it was the USSR that ordered the main Communist Bloc to turn against the POUM and the Anarchists. However, even with French intervention or the like it is possible that the Anarchists might still be purged depending how friendly the French government is to Anarcho-Syndicalism. Needless to say the Republicans need a more unified command structure, note I don't think this needs to mean bring the Anarchist militias (some of the strongest in the beginning) to come into a unified centralized top down army instead of the democraticish units they formed. Instead the Republicans need is supplied arms (no more using rifles from the last war or even older and handmade grenades that would blow up in your hand), and a communication center. Perhaps having Madrid never be threatened would be good as the capital would be fairly symbolic place to have one
 

HeavyWeaponsGuy

Banned
While helpful, foreign intervention would be ultimately secondary to the lack of unity among Republican factions, many of whom distrusted or even outright wanted to kill other ideological groups represented by the coalition. The Nationalists were in the same boat, but had Franco as a rallying figure to unite otherwise divisive and fragmented groups. The Republicans had no such figure.

And without either a rallying point provided by a popular leader acceptable to all factions, or something that similarly allowed the Republicans to be a more unified force, their effort is doomed.
 

Uruk

Not having the US and UK actively sabotaging the Republicans while aiding the Nationalist would be a great step towards victory
 

Daztur

Keep Franco and the Army of Africa in Morocco by any means necessary (the easiest would be the UK preventing them or if you have the right POD the Rif rebelling that'd take the Popular Front working with the Rif and pissing off the French but something might be possible but it'd be harder). Not having Franco hurts the Nationalists and the Army of Africa was probably the best and most politically reliable unit on the Nationalist side.

Without Franco tearing through Andalucia, slaughtering the Republicans in Badajoz and marching on Madrid the Republicans would've been able to consolidate control over Andalucia and keep the bulk of Extremadura. That'd be a massive help to the Republicans. Later they'd be able to use Andalucian manpower to finish up the war.

Alternatively, send the Catalan anarchists south and the liberals south as well instead of doing stupid stuff in Majorca. The CNT-FAI would've had more success in Andalucia than in Aragon since they wouldn't be running into a mountainous area where the locals don't like them much and would be able to link up with local anarchists in the south. Of course CNT-FAI militias aren't much of a match for the Army of Africa (well they'd do well enough in the cities, but the Moroccans would've chewed them to pieces out in the open) but if they slowed Franco down and rallied the Republicans in the south they'd be able to outnumber Franco by a good margin. Franco was able to seize a lot of area in Andalucia without much of a fight since he came in so fast, even a bit of resistance would've gotten the Republicans time to get organized and make a fight of it in Andalucia.

IOTL the Moroccans of the Army of Africa got killed off pretty badly in the initial attacks on Madrid. If you have more Republicans heading to Andalucia ASAP perhaps you could have the same thing with some nasty city fighting in the south. Even if Franco wins and grabs a few cities, the Republicans would have time to get out of the way of his army and it could've killed or wounded a lot of good Rifian soldiers who would've been hard to replace.

Yeah a lot of focus on the Army of Africa, but that's the group that really turned the tide in favor of the Nationalists. The initial risings had gone pretty badly for the Nationalists and they were pretty isolated in rural bits of the north until Franco started his march on Madrid.
 

anon_user

The trouble with having the RN block movement of the Army of Africa is that the British were already fairly friendly with the Nationalists - and rather unsympathetic to the Republic, particularly after they learned that Republican sailors had killed their own officers to ensure their ships didn't end up in Nationalist hands. That does bring up another possibility, though - the Republican Navy could've attempted to block the Army of Africa. Any interception of the Army of Africa at sea would run the risk of a confrontation with the German warships protecting the nationalist troop convoys, and the resultant diplomatic fallout, but without the heavy equipment and supplies brought over by sea, the troops airlifted into Southern Spain wouldn't be able to march right up to Madrid.

Still, if the Army of Africa is blunted early, rather than pushing up to Madrid, it would certainly benefit the Republican cause - rather than Nationalist victory seeming inevitable (up until Madrid manages to hold), the Nationalists would seem to be in a more tenuous position.
 

Daztur

Yeah the Army of Africa doesn't need to be stopped (although that would certainly help), if it's slowed down significantly Franco will have a right fight on his hands for Andalucia. He'll probably win but that'll stop him from marching on Madrid (for now) and have attrition gnaw away at what was probably the best bit of the Spanish army at that time.
 
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