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THE MAROON TIGER
Page Five
THE BACKGROUND OF THE SPANISH
CIVIL WAR
By Dr. Rayford W. Logan
Department of History, Atlanta University
For centuries the Spanish people have suffer
ed from four major evils, namely, a worthless
monarchy, a rotten nobility, a bigoted Catholic
Church, and a caste-ridden army. Whether Haps-
burgs or Bourbons sat on the Spanish throne,
they can in general be described in the words
which a famous French historian applied to one
of the queens: “She had much emptiness in her
head, and even more in her heart.” The apparent
ambition of the nobility was to achieve distinc
tion in doing gracefully nothing worth while. The
Catholic Church, one of the principal landowners
and bankers, controlled education so as to prevent
the people from learning any thing that would
make them dissatisfied with their miserable
earthly existence. The army, as we learned dur
ing the Spanish-American War, had soldiers who
could fight courageously but who had inadequate
equipment because funds had been diverted to
other purposes.
It is these forces, rather than the racial com
position of the Spanish people, that have made
Spain a backward country. Of course, “heredity-
mongers” would seek to explain the present brut
al civil war in terms of race. But who are the
Spaniards? The first inhabitants, according to the
best authorities, were a Negroid people from
North Africa. They mingled with Celts to form
the so-called Celto-Iberians. There came in later
Phoenicians from the Eastern Mediterranean,
Carthaginians from North Africa, and Greeks.
For some four centuries Romans mingled their
blood with an already mixed people. For three
centuries Germans and others from Central and
Northeastern Europe added to the crossing of rac
es in Spain. From 711 to 1492, Moors, mixed with
Negroes, dominated the country. This long period
of domination is apparent today in Spain, in cus
toms, architecture, learning, and physical appear
ance of the people. A considerable number of Jews
from all parts of Europe and some Irish Catholics
also migrated to Spain. When, therefore, one
speaks of the “Spaniards”, he simply means the
people who live in Spain. One should specify which
of the many races is responsible for the back
wardness.
The roots of the present civil war may be trac
ed as far back as the French Revolution at the
end of the eighteenth century. While a strict cen
sorship prevented the ideals of Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity, from disturbing the mind of many
of the Spaniards, the French Revolution did pro
vide an initial impulse to rouse the people from a
centuries-old lethargy. The first fruits of this
sowing of the seeds of liberalism came in the Con
stitution of 1812 which provided for a constitu
tional monarchy in place of the previous
absolutism. But this early revolution, as well as
a similar attempt in 1820, prdouced only tempo
rary results. Liberal leaders then believed that
a republican form of government might bring the
desired reforms. From 1873 to 1875 Spain made
her first experiment in republicanism. But again
neither the leaders nor the masses of the people
were prepared for this revolutionary departure—
Spain was still too backward. The monarchy was
restored and with it the privileges of the con
servatives.
At about this time, however, the effects of the
Industrial Revolution began to manifest them
selves in Spain. The urban proletariat greatly in
creased in numbers and in an understanding of
the extent to which workers, both urban and rural,
were being exploited. The success of the Russian
Revolution of 1917 gave great encouragement to
the Radicals. In an attempt to destroy this men
ace of a radical government, King Alfonso XIII
in 1923 named Primo de Rivera virtual dictator as
King Emmanuel had made Mussolini dictator in
Italy. But the Spanish dictator did not posses the
ability of Mussolini. Moreover, he was unsuccess
ful in his attempt to use a foreign war to divert
the mind of the people from their misery at home.
His venture in Morocco, unlike that of Mussolini
in Ethiopia, resulted in serious losses and the hu
miliation of having to call in France to complete
the job. But the Morroccan fiasco was like Mus
solini’s aggression against Ethiopia in that it did
result in a greatly increased debt which, of course,
necessitated heavier taxes upon the people. The
Great Depression added its burden of suffering
to produce an intolerable situation.
By 1931 the long-suffering Spanish people de
cided that they had had enough. In April of that
year they deposed the King and established the
Second Republic. But the leaders of the Repub
lic committed the blunder of not exiling, sending
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