Hitler's Intervention in Spanish Conflict

Hitler’s intervention in Spanish conflict

Jacob Q

World War Two had a long and complex build-up towards the inevitable conflict of an all out War. Many of huge international changes were occurring in the years building up to the start of World War Two. The one we shall be focusing on today is the Spanish Civil War. It is a significant event even though Spain never officially entered the Second World War because Germany one of the major Axis powers intervened in it welts most other countries did not and even forbid interference. I will be arguing that the Germans intervened in the Spanish Civil war for self-centered military, political, and economic reasons more than looking to aid the Spanish rebellion. With the lack of action from the League of Nations who had opposed intervention in the conflict, gave the Germans even more confidence in their own strength and the lack that there of the Western powers. The Spanish Civil War began with a swift coup attempt on July 17th 1936 by Nationalist leader General Francisco Franco who was based in Spanish Morocco at the time. Franco 's right winged Nationalist Spanish military had declared war on the newly-elected left winged Republic Popular Front government. With his initial failure to capture major Spanish cities amongst other predominant necessities Franco was forced to seek aid or have his uprising crushed. With Franco’s government being on the right side of the political scale he looked towards fascism regimes such as Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The Nationalist were in desperate need of aid after the initial coup occurred. Most of the Spanish army, and naval fleet which Franco had hoped to commandeer during the coup were still loyal to the Republic. The Republic had control of over one battleship, three cruisers, ten destroyers, twelve submarines; versus the rebels which captured one battleship, two dry docks, one destroyer, and two submarines. With such odds stacked against Franco in the

Bibliography: Browne, Harry. Spain’s Civil War. Singapore: Longman Group Limited, 1983. Keylor, William R., Jerry Bannister, Tracey J. Kinney. The Twentieth-Century World an International History, 2nd Cdn. Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Krammer, Arnold. The Cult of the Spanish Civil War in East Germany. London: Journal of Contemporary History 39, no.4, 2004. Payne, Stanley G. Franco and Hitler. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. Pike, David Wingeate Ribeiro de Menses, Filipe. Franco and the Spanish Civil War. London: Routledge, 2001. 92 [ 3 ]. Filipe Ribeiro de Menses, Franco and the Spanish Civil War (London: Routledge, 2001), 41. [ 5 ]. William R. Keylor, Jerry Bannister, Tracey J. Kinney, the Twentieth-Century World an International History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 131-134. [ 6 ]. Filipe Ribeiro de Menses, Franco and the Spanish Civil War (London: Routledge, 2001), 49. [ 7 ]. Harry Browne, Spain’s Civil War (Singapore: Longman Group Limited, 1983), 104. [ 10 ]. Stanley G. Payne, Franco and Hitler (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 27. [ 11 ]. Filipe Ribeiro de Menses, Franco and the Spanish Civil War (London: Routledge, 2001), 43. [ 13 ]. David Wingeate Pike, Franco and the Axis Stigma (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 15.