Page 48 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Northern Spain

46  INTRODUCING NOR THERN SP AIN

and the country was rocked by
outbreaks of anticlerical ism, and
unemployment rose.

Civil War and Franco
In 1936, when the general election
was won by the left, the army rose in
revolt, starting the Spanish Civil War.
In much of southern Spain, Madrid,
Catalonia, and part of the Basque
Country, Cantabria and Asturias
Republican forces defeated the
General Primo de Rivera, who ruled Spain from 1923 to 1930 initial revolt. The rest of the country
was controlled by the Nationalists
Unrest and the Second Republic (the army and the right), led by General
In the first 30 years of the 20th century, Francisco Franco. The war dragged on for
during the reign of Alfonso XIII, the country three years, the Nationalists supported by
was plagued by strikes and political crises. Germany and Italy, and the Republicans,
and disorder grew. During World War I much less so, by the Soviet Union. The
Spain remained neutral, which boosted the International Brigades fighting on the
economy but also encouraged demands Republican side included volunteers from
for reform, with violent confrontations many other countries.
between the government and radical In the north, the Basque Country,
forces. In 1923 General Miguel Primo de Cantabria and Asturias were cut off from the
Rivera suspended the constitution and rest of the Republican-controlled zone, and
declared himself Dictator, with the support were gradually overrun by Franco’s forces
of the king. He ruled with an iron
hand, curtailing civil liberties and
banning regional languages.
In 1930 Primo’s dictator ship
collapsed, and the fol lowing year
local elections showed huge
support for Republican candidates.
The king was forced to leave the
country, and in 1931 Spain’s Second
Republic was pro claimed, amid
high hopes that it would deal
with the country’s problems.
Reforms proved ineffective, however, The Basque town of Gernika (Guernica), after the bombing of 1937

Second Republic 1937 Battle for Madrid rages; on
election poster 27 April Nazi planes bomb Gernika
1923–30 Dictatorship of 1939 National Army enters Madrid on 28 March;
General Primo de Rivera Franco declares the war ended on 1 April
1900 1920 1940 1960
1909 Semana Trágica 1934 Revolution in Asturias,
(Tragic Week) in suppressed by General Franco
Barcelona Post-World War II
1936 Start of the Spanish Civil War ration card

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