Spain 1936: From Coup d'Etat to Civil War
Paul Preston follows the unsettled road leading to the clash between the Republicans and Nationalists.
Few of those who thronged the streets of Spain's towns and cities to greet the coming of the Second Republic on April 14th, 1931, can have foreseen that the country would be plunged into war within five years. A coalition of middle-class liberals known as 'left-Republicans' and moderate Socialists came to power hoping to introduce progressive reforms to destroy the reactionary influence of the Church and the Army, to improve the lot of the wretched braceros (day-labourers) of the sprawling southern estates and to meet the demands of Basque and Catalan regionalists.
The right mobilised to meet the challenge in two ways: one was legal and aimed, through the creation of a mass Catholic authoritarian party known as the CEDA, to obstruct reform in parliament, the other was violent or 'catastrophist' and was committed to the overthrow of the democratic regime.
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