Spanish Civil War

Why did the war turn out to be such a disaster for the Republicans? Reading about the Aragon Offensive from a tactical and strategic standpoint reads like comedy, how do you fuck up that bad?

>Why did the war turn out to be such a disaster for the Republicans?

The League of Nations wouldn’t allow the Republicans to be supported (other then by the Soviets) but couldn’t stop Germany and Italy from supporting the Nationalists.

They only lost because of foreign aid and intervention, otherwise they would have handily won

Why not? I don't want to take sides here because I'm barely learning about this war and want to keep it nuanced. The Nationalists sounded like some real bastards but the Republicans really ate themselves towards the end and committed some fucked up shit

> Why not?

Because the League of Nations was useless, because France and the UK had suffered horrendous casualties in WWI and didn’t want to get involved in another war and because the Republicans were (forced to be) allied with the Communists and Anarchists.

Of course the chickens came home to roost in 1939…

> The Nationalists sounded like some real bastards

It's a civil war, so everybody involved is behaving like a dick but the Anarchists were particularly retarded and violent and this insured the Republicans wouldn't get any official support.

Yea, from what I've read so far the Anarchists behaved like fucking animals, digging up dead nuns/priests, acting like savages and all that. The fuck was their problem?

Well, for starters, they wanted anarchy.

I'm sorry if I come off as a brainlet but is that seriously the gist of what they wanted? Did the Republicans really have no one else to ally with outside of communists who would eventually stab them in the back and unpredictable Anarchists.

Fuck, there's a lot going on in this war lol

Internal divisions

Who would have guessed that a coalition of liberals, Stalanists and anarchists wouldnt get along which at best meant things supplies were often delivered along partisan lines than need and at worst meant they physically got into battles with each other.

Foreign intervention

For starters aside from supplying Franco with at least 70K of soldiers, technical advisors as well as munitions and oil Western Governments barred the republic from purchasing arms from them.

So unlike the Nationalists who got free aide the Government had to pay for it.

However where it gets worse is that the Bulk of the nationalists military was stuck in Africa (the navy stayed loyal to the government) but they allowed the Germans and Italians to airlift and ship them over to the Spanish mainland - and the ***neutral*** UK went as far as getting MI6 to fly Franco over there early.

Ideological

Whilst not the bulk of the military in the south east anarchism was a problem - whilst a militas might be alright at taking or defending a home city actually organising offensives without hierarchy is p. difficult.

Whilst the Nationalist soldiers raped women in em mass and then paraded through villages with the panties of the women they had raped on their bayonetts.

>I'm sorry if I come off as a brainlet but is that seriously the gist of what they wanted?

It was chaos, the Republicans were a popular front of majority progressives that would be considered conservative by modern standards to literal anarchists and Stalinist with each group with its own vision.

All the more worse when you consider that despite being tiny the Stalinists were the only group who could reliably get supplies from the USSR which was the only country to provide support in material terms.

> The fuck was their problem?

It’s not like they didn’t have reasons for being dicks, the corporate elite were were openly exploiting the working class, straight-up killing workers and not giving a single fuck about it and the government and church was in cahoots with them, (this was the case everywhere, not just Spain) leaving them with few options other than violence.

But as shit got real, the most capable among them (i.e. those most willing to do anything) climbed to power and their retarded behavior became ingrained and institutionalized in the anarchist movement, which hardened attitudes against them.

But the Anarchists were also fierce fighters, (in part because they were fucking crazy) so the broader Republican movement couldn’t afford to not ally with them, which made it all that much harder to get support from over-seas, which put them in a circular bind.

Not that user but here is an example of dickishness

>At the outbreak of the war, according to his own account, Aguilera lined up the labourers on his estate and shot six of them as a lesson to the others.[3]

I believe they sometimes fought each other over what should happen to Spain after victory, like should it be communist or should become anarchic. The Nationalist manage to unite their multiple ideals and factions better.

> So unlike the Nationalists who got free aide the Government had to pay for it.

And frequently got fucked over.

I remember something about the Republicans cutting a deal with weapons suppliers in Belgium(?) and EVERYBODY involved in the process (even down to literally who dock workers) demanded outrageous bribes that the Reps were forced to fork over, only for the suppliers to say in the end; “lol, fuck you, we’re keeping the money and not giving you the weapons.”

>The Nationalist manage to unite their multiple ideals and factions better.

And were lucky enough to have their 3 most senior people die during the war which left Franco the undisputed leader

Yeah, not to mention the USSR getting all of Spain's Gold (after even charging them 50 million immediately to cover the cost of transporting it).

It would almost be comical if it wasnt so tragic.

Republican army was supported by a coalition of lefty factions that weren't that unified. When things went south they turned on each other. Also the military sided with the Fascists or Conservatives so their military leaders weren't very experienced

>forced
nice way to wash up your republicans, Jordi Etxebarria

It was impossible for the republicans aka commies won. They were basically facing of course the spanish nationalists but also, the fascist european countries of the time, Italy, Germany and Portugal.

> It would almost be comical if it wasnt so tragic.

It was a shit show all around.

The powers most capable of shutting this down and installing a democratic government in Spain (France, the UK and the U.S.) imposed an embargo on the Republicans over their (forced) alliance with the Communists and Anarchists, insuring that a democratic government would be impossible and that either the Communists or Fascist would win in the end.

Though it has to be pointed out, the Communists and Anarchists were openly calling for global revolution that included overthrowing the governments of France, the UK and the U.S.

Portugal was supplying the spanish nationalists, even if you look to the cronolo map of the nationalist expansion you will see that the west part of spain fell under the nationalists in a fast way.

Thats the issue they had a huge role in creating the monster in their attempts to suppress it.

Because going up against the Nationalists by themselves, while also fighting the Communists and Anarchists at the same time, would have resulted in victory….

The League of Shitty Nations would have still left the Reps swinging in the wind.

the post-WWI pussyfication of the West, which would remain in effect even into 1940, when then British used heavy bombers to drop _leaflets_ on Germany asking them to please get out of Poland…

>the post-WWI pussyfication of the West

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

I see it less as a pussification and more a sympton of the ruling elite becoming more globalist and less nationalist.

Had Franco decided to go full Falange and start taking English factories and raiding French warehouses I bet you they would suddenly grow balls.

>post-WWI pussyfication of the West
>the largest and most destructive war mankind had ever seen, killing millions and facilitating the spread of disease to kill even more post-war, destroying a generation of young men over nothing such that people would prefer not to fight like that again
>pussyfication
kill yourself, keyboard warrior

Found the Frenchman.

He's right though

Anarchists are also communists

Anarchists can't into organization.

the first thread i've seen on Veeky Forums that actually gives due diligence to why the republican side lost other than "they were dirty communists" and then devolving into franco and primo de rivera worship. well done desu