The Spanish Republican Army went through two clear phases during its existence: • The pre-Civil War phase, before the
coup of July 1936 that would fracture the Spanish military institution • The Civil War reorganization of the forces that remained loyal to the established republican government.
Background ridiculing the Spanish Army that led to the attack of the Cu-Cut! head office Following the loss of Spain's last colonies,
Cuba and
Philippines, in 1898, the country's armed forces grew disgruntled and the public's view toward them worsened. Military leaders resented the attitude of the Spanish politicians and the public opinion who unjustly blamed the Spanish Military for the failures in the colonies. In November 1905 Spanish Army personnel stormed the offices of Catalan magazine
Cu-Cut!, where
En Patufet and
La Veu de Catalunya were also located, for having published a caricature ridiculing the military. Following the attacks, the
Captain generals of Sevilla, Barcelona and Madrid openly opposed the prosecution of those members of the military involved in the storming. This crisis led in 1906 to the approval of the
Ley de Jurisdicciones ("Law of Jurisdictions"), which severely restricted
freedom of expression in Spain by making speech against "Spain and its symbols"—the Spanish Armed Forces including themselves as one of the symbols— a criminal offence. According to renowned writer
Salvador de Madariaga the Spanish Armed Forces became henceforward a "State within the State" that would interfere in civilian matters in an overbearing manner, becoming a major player in Spanish politics. Other Spanish intellectuals such as
Miguel de Unamuno and
Ramiro de Maeztu were seriously worried at the time about the future implications of the "
Law of Jurisdictions". Unamuno openly expressed his concern that it would be left to the military to define what was correct regarding patriotism. The "Moroccan Question" (), however, would be the main cause of the ensuing fractures in the political and social life in Spain. The disastrous
wars in Morocco ended up bringing about severe social reactions in Spain that could no longer be silenced by means of the "
Law of Jurisdictions". The
Tragic Week protests in Barcelona in July 1909, which quickly turned
anticlerical, were primarily the result of the unpopular Moroccan wars that "merely satisfied the needs of the Military" in the eyes of the public. The consequence of such developments was that the division between the Spanish military and the Spanish people became deeper. The liberal traditions that the Spanish Army had spearheaded in the 19th century were replaced by a defensive, reactionary outlook. The mutual suspicion led to the creation of the
Juntas de Defensa (Boards of Defence) during the
1917 Spanish crisis caused by the
First World War. The Spanish military had an excess of officers, as much as 16,000 officers for 80,000 troops at one point and the economic crisis, coupled with a low pay, brought the problem of the economic hardships of military families to the fore. Allegedly the aim of the
Juntas de Defensa was to defend the interests of Spanish military officers, but their intention to get involved in political issues was clear to the public. Finally on 13 September 1923,
General Miguel Primo de Rivera made a successful
coup d'etat. After overthrowing the parliamentary government he established himself as dictator with the tacit consent of King
Alfonso XIII. The General's dictatorship, however, did not solve the problems of the Spanish Armed Forces for the support of the military institution for General Primo de Rivera's move was not unanimous. Already in 1926 there was the first serious attempt of a coup, popularly known as
La Sanjuanada (after St John), against the dictator in which four high-ranking generals —
Valeriano Weyler,
Domingo Batet,
Francisco Aguilera and
José Riquelme y López-Bago, as well as Colonel
Segundo García and Lieutenant colonel
Cristino Bermúdez de Castro— were involved. Besides the failed coup, the resistance of the
Artillery branch of the Spanish Army to General Primo de Rivera's attempts to integrate and reorganize the Spanish military, created uneasiness within the ranks and in the face of the stubbornness of the Artillery officers in
Pamplona, he had to declare
Martial law (
Estado de Guerra). Henceforward the Artillery officers would develop a pro-Republican stance. The Second Spanish Republic was preceded by two pro-Republican coup attempts, the
Jaca Uprising led by
Fermín Galán and a rebellion of Air Force officers in
Cuatro Vientos and
Getafe air bases.
The first years of the Republic (1931–1936) topped by the
mural crown In 1931, following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, the armed forces of the Spanish Kingdom became the Spanish Republican Armed Forces.
Admiral Aznar's casual comment: "Do you think it was a little thing what happened yesterday, that Spain went to bed as a monarchy and rose as a republic" became instantly famous, going quickly around Madrid and around Spain, making people accept the fact and setting a more relaxed mood. Republicans within the Spanish Armed forces were then a minority, but so were pro-monarchist reactionaries; the majority within the military were at first indifferent. What began to antagonize the Spanish Military against the new government were the
reforms of the armed forces introduced by newly nominated Republican
Minister of War Manuel Azaña within the first months of the newly installed republic. The officers of the Armed Forces resented that a man without a military background had been appointed to lead the War Ministry. Later in October the same year Azaña became Prime Minister and continued the
reform of the bloated and old-fashioned military the Republic had inherited. This was seen as a necessary step with the goal to modernize the Spanish Military and cut down the expenses of the state in the aftermath of the
Great Depression. In order to implement its reforms the Republican Government promoted to high posts military men that it perceived as loyal. As a result, it tended to display favoritism towards the branches of the Armed Forces more amenable to its reforms, the
Air Force and, in a lesser degree, the
Navy. Officers such as
Gonzalo Queipo de Llano and
Ramón Franco with a background in the pro-republican
Jaca and Cuatro Vientos-Getafe uprisings during the monarchy rose to high posts for which they were not the most competent. In the same manner Spanish Republican Navy officers who displayed pro-republican fervor were rewarded with political posts. In July 1936, five years after the proclamation of the republic, a section of the Spanish Republican Army in
Spanish Morocco rebelled under the orders of
General Franco. Although relatively more successful than the 1932
Sanjurjada, this rebellion succeeded only in fractioning Spain, with roughly half of the territory still loyal to the Republic. Instead of giving up or calling for a compromise, Franco began a bloody war of attrition, the
Spanish Civil War. During the Civil War the part of the army loyal the Spanish republican government was forced to fight against the better equipped fraction of the army in revolt and their powerful
Third Reich and
Italian Fascist supporters.
The Civil War (1936–1939) After the partly successful
coup of the pro-
fascist generals in July 1936, militias were formed in many cities in Spain that had not sided with the rebellion lest the units of the Spanish Republican Army stationed in their territory be tempted to join the rebels. By means of this new structure, the Regular Popular Army unified all the branches of the military, including the
Fifth Regiment, as well as all scattered militias, a process that was gradually implemented with the goal of completion by February 1937. By 30 October all Spanish males aged between 20 and 45 were being conscripted. The restructuring of the Spanish Republican Army showed the
Communist influence in the new discipline imposed by the Popular Front authorities. The new Republican People's Army instituted the
Comisariado de Guerra by means of which
political commissars were charged with the mission of lifting the morale of the troops and ensuring their cooperation with their high-rank officers in all units. The commissar had to overcome the mistrust of the troops towards the officers in order to achieve the necessary discipline for proper coordination. Based on a model that would replace the columns (
columnas) and militias, the Mixed Brigade (
Brigada mixta) was the basic military unit of the Republican People's Army. The first six
Mixed Brigades were created on 18 October 1936. The first was led by Communist colonel
Enrique Líster, the second by
Jesús Martínez de Aragón, the third by
José María Galán, the fourth by
Eutiquiano Arellano, the fifth by
Fernando Sabio and the sixth by
Miguel Gallo Martínez. The reorganization included as well the XI and XII
International Brigades joining the Republican People's Army in its combat. Anti-fascist volunteers from all over the world that joined the brigades were trained at
Albacete.
Development of the war The Spanish Republican Army units often lacked proper equipment. The situation improved somewhat by spring 1937, but a large proportion of units remained short of equipment and ammunition throughout the war. The shortage of proper clothing, boots, weapons and ammunition was especially acute during the first months of the war, right after the reorganization. Priority, however, was given to ensure that the Republican troops received adequate food rations and that they received their salaries. Usually the latter were paid to the soldier's families in their homes. The reorganization of the Spanish Republican Army was almost complete by mid-1937. Groups such as the Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias,
Milicias Antifascistas Obreras y Campesinas (MAOC), the militias of the Socialist Youth (
Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas), the Communist Fifth Regiment, as well as the Anarchist militias were rallied under one banner and given proper military training. In places such as the
Aragon Front, however, the Anarchist and minority Communist groups, such as the
POUM, resisted what they saw as Communist-led "militarization". They distrusted the Communist leadership and perceived the move as an effort to force them to abandon their militia model, making them depend from a single central power, which was against their ideals. The power and leadership of the Communists within the armed forces was promoted by the government of
Juan Negrín and its
Communist Party of Spain allies. The
Soviet Union, profiting from the
international isolation of the Spanish Republic imposed by the
Non-intervention agreements, assisted the beleaguered Republican government chiefly by providing weapons. Despite the fact that the Soviet arms shipments were duly paid at high prices, the USSR used this opportunity to extend its power over the Spanish Republic. In April 1938 Socialist minister of defense
Indalecio Prieto resigned in protest at the level of Soviet influence over the Spanish Republican Army. The influence of the
USSR was largely the consequence of the western democracies, like
France, the
United Kingdom and the
United States not helping the young Spanish Republic. Fearing the "
Communist threat",
Neville Chamberlain and
Léon Blum were ready to sacrifice Spain (as they later would sacrifice
Czechoslovakia) in the belief that
Adolf Hitler could be appeased. In the void thus created, only the Soviet Union helped the Spanish government effectively, but its assistance came at a high monetary cost. At the end of October 1936, three months after the rebels had been supplied with German and Italian weapons by Hitler and
Mussolini, the first Soviet war supplies arrived to alleviate the lack of material in the loyalist side. The People's Republican Army reached its highest level of organization in the
Battle of the Ebro, during the last half of 1938, but it was also the battlefield where it was broken. Very young soldiers, averaging 17 and a half in age, whose unit was known as the 'Baby bottle conscription' (
"quinta del biberón") would be mobilized for this last big battle of the Civil War, the last one in which the International Brigades operated. These large war operations fulfilled the
Communist propaganda goals promoted by Juan Negrín and his clique, but were disastrous and wasteful for the Spanish Republican Army, whose energy and organization would have been better employed in small-scale operations. From there some managed to go into exile or went to join the
armies of the Allies to fight against the
Axis powers, while part of them ended up in
Nazi concentration camps. Finally, there was a smaller group of men which scattered and hid in the mountainous areas of Spain, such as the
Montes de Toledo, the
Galician Massif, the
Pyrenees and the cordilleras of the
Iberian System. There they waged a guerrilla war with the
Spanish Maquis, the last military units to fly the flag of the Spanish Republic, well into the 1960s. == Battles of the Spanish Republican Army ==