La Guerra Civil de EspañaThe Spanish Civil War

Some Basic Information • The war was between two opposing

political sides: the nationalists and republicans

• The nationalists (believes in supremacy of one group and obedience to a leader), considered the rebel party, were led by Francisco Franco and believed in fascism

• The republicans or loyalists (those who remain loyal to the government system in place simply wanted to keep the government that they already had, a constitutional monarchy

The Nationalists and Fascism• Fascism is defined as:

• dictator• Strict economic control• Suppression of opposition through terror and

censorship• Typically a policy of racism.

• Franco was that dictator and he was aided by people such as Hitler (Germany) and Mussolini (Italy)

• the Nationalists were mostly Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, landowners, and businessmen

The Republicans and the Constitutional Monarchy• A constitutional

monarchy is defined as:• the power of the monarch

(the king or queen) is restrained by a parliament, by law, or by custom.

• This group was comprised of urban workers, agricultural laborers, and many of the educated middle class

QUESTION:

• List as many facts about the Fascists and the Republicans/Loyalists as you can in one minute.

How it started

• Franco’s fascist troops invaded Spain on July 18th 1936 with the purpose of overthrowing the young and unstable Republic

• This caused a revolution from the working class and led to a three year war

The opposing sides

• The government had the support of all the left-wing political parties including the republicans, socialists, communists and anarchists. These were the people who made up the armed militias

• The rebels had the support of most of the army, the catholic church and the right-wing political parties including the monarchists, carlists and the Falange (the Spanish Nazi party)

• Germany also aided the Fascists party.

QUESTION:

• What were the basics of the Spanish Civil War? (1 sentence summary)

• On July 8, 1936 he rebel group, Fascists led by Franco, invaded Spain in order to overthrow the constitutional monarchy in place.

The Bombing of Guernica• It was market day in Guernica

(located in Spain) when the church bells of Santa Maria sounded the alarm that afternoon in 1937.

• People from the surrounding hillsides crowded the town square. "Every Monday was a fair in Guernica," says José Monasterio, eyewitness to the bombing. "They attacked when there were a lot of people there. And they knew when their bombing would kill the most. When there are more people, more people would die."

The bombing continued

• Those trying to escape were cut down by the strafing machine guns of fighter planes. "They kept just going back and forth, sometimes in a long line, sometimes in close formation.

• The fires that engulfed the city burned for three days. Seventy percent of the town was destroyed. Sixteen hundred civilians - one third of the population - were killed or wounded.

QUESTION:

• What happened in Guernica? Write as many facts as you can in 30 seconds.

News Spreads• News of the bombing spread like wildfire. The Nationalists

immediately denied any involvement, as did the Germans (who were aiding the Fascists and Franco). But few were fooled by Franco's protestations of innocence.

• In the face of international outrage at the carnage, Von Richthofen (German military leader) claimed publicly that the target was a bridge over the Mundaca River on the edge of town, chosen in order to cut off the fleeing Republican troops.

• But although the Condor Legion (German) was made up of the best airmen and planes of Hitler's developing war machine, not a single hit was scored on the presumed target, nor on the railway station, nor on the small-arms factory nearby.

QUESTION:

• What are your thoughts/reactions to the last slide?

“Guernica” by Pablo Picasso

• “Guernica” is a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-four bombers on April 26th, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

• The painting was commissioned by the Spanish Republican government to decorate the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair.

“Guernica”• “Guernica” is an immense black and white, 11 ft tall and 23 ft wide mural painted in oil.• The mural presents a scene of death, violence,

brutality, suffering and helplessness without portraying their immediate causes.

• It depicts suffering people, animals and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos.

• The overall scene is within a room where, at an open end on the left, a wide-eyed bull stands over a woman grieving over a dead child in her arms

“Guernica”• The center is occupied by a horse falling in

agony as it had just been run through by a spear or javelin. The shape of a human skull forms the horse’s nose and upper teeth.

• Under the horse is a dead, apparently dismembered soldier, his hand on a severed arm still grasps a shattered sword from which a flower grows

• To the upper right of the horse a frightened female figure appears to have floated into the room through a window

“Guernica”

QUESTION:

•Jot down your thoughts on the painting that Pablo Picasso created.