The phrase Spanish Republic at war refers to the Second Spanish Republic during the Civil War of 1936–1939. It represents the last stage in this war's history. The territory that remained under its control after the coup of July 1936—which was called the republican zone or the loyalist zone—gradually reduced as the rebel zone spread, until it was finally occupied in its entirety by the Francoist side (which had referred to the areas as the red zone throughout the civil war).
During this time, there were three consecutive governments: the one presided over by José Giral, from Republican Left, although during his short term (July–September 1936), real power was actually in the hands of the hundreds of committees that were created when the social revolution of 1936 broke out. The next government was presided over by Francisco Largo Caballero, the leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), one of the two trade unions that had led the revolution. Finally, the third government was presided over by Juan Negrín, also from the PSOE, as a consequence of the fall of Largo Caballero's government after the events of May 1937. Negrín governed until early March 1939, when Colonel Segismundo Casado's coup took place, putting an end to the Republican resistance and giving way to the victory of the rebel faction led by General Francisco Franco.
Government's reaction to the military uprising of July 1936
On the afternoon of Friday 17 July, it was already known in Madrid that a military uprising had begun in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. Prime Minister Santiago Casares Quiroga issued the first orders to the Army, the Navy, and the civil governors to take action. The following day, the uprising spread to the peninsula. The workers' organizations (the CNT and the UGT) demanded armas para el pueblo to put an end to it but the government refused, basically because, at that time, the left-wing Republicans feared:
On the evening of that Saturday, 18 July, Casares Quiroga tendered his resignation to President Manuel Azaña. The latter commissioned Diego Martínez Barrio, president of the Cortes and leader of Republican Union, to form a government with the greatest possible political support, leaving out the two extremes (the CEDA and the Communist Party of Spain). The goal was to quash the rebellion without having to resort to the armed support of the workers' organizations. Martínez Barrio formed a government that, although it was not much different from the previous one (he did not manage to get the Socialists to take part), included moderate politicians willing to reach some kind of agreement with the rebel faction, such as Justino de Azcárate and Felipe Sánchez Román, the leader of the (PNR), who left the Popular Front coalition when the Communist Party became a part of it.
In the early morning of Sunday 19 July, Martínez Barrio spoke on the telephone with General Emilio Mola—known as El Director of the uprising—but the latter flatly refused to enter into any kind of negotiation, saying:
According to the subsequent Francoist version, he even offered him a few state ministries for the rebels, but Martínez Barrio always denied this version of events. Therefore, the supposed negotiation with the rebels failed, and so the "reconciliation government" resigned late in the afternoon of Sunday 19 July. Azaña then appointed José Giral as the new prime minister. Giral was a fellow party member who formed a government made up solely of left-wing Republicans, although with the explicit support of the Socialists, and who made the decision to hand out arms to the workers' organizations. The latter was something that Martínez Barrio had also refused to do because he believed that this went beyond what was considered as a constitutional and "legal" defense of the Republic. Nonetheless, because of this decision, the Republican State lost its monopoly on violence and it was not able to prevent the start of a social revolution, since the workers' organizations did not take to the streets:
Controversy of handing out "arms to the people" According to British historian Hugh Thomas (1961):
Meanwhile, for historian Julio Aróstegui (2006), the government's delay in giving arms to the workers' organizations was key to the success of the uprising in certain cities such as Seville, Granada, or Ávila. Aróstegui refers to aquella fatal duda of the governments of Casares Quiroga and Martínez Barrio as to whether or not to hand out the weapons:
On his part, historian Julián Casanova (2007) considers a myth the idea that "the people in arms" were the ones who defeated the rebels in the streets of the main Spanish cities:
Moreover, historian Francisco Alía Miranda (2018) agrees with Casanova, since according to him, the main cause of the success of the uprising in some provinces and the failure in others was the position taken by the senior military officers in each one rather than social or political factors, as in the cases of Madrid and Barcelona, where the rebellion failed porque los militares sublevados no contaron con apoyo suficiente por parte de sus compañeros. However, Alía Miranda adds that the response of the Republican authorities to the uprising was also important since each civil governor acted differently. Where they acted quickly, they managed to quash the rebellion (such as in Málaga, Huelva, Almería, Badajoz, Oviedo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, and Jaén), while in those places where they hardly did anything, due to indecision or ignorance, the rebellion triumphed (as in Logroño, Cáceres, and Guipúzcoa).
Social revolution of 1936 and the Giral government According to Aróstegui (1997), many working-class citizens interpreted the military uprising more as a justification for radical social change than as the need to take up arms in a war. While for Casanova (2007), many workers and peasants believed that the time had come to realize the changes that would improve their living conditions, those changes that the reforms of the Republic had failed to achieve. Now it was possible to realize so many expectations that had been frustrated before. And therein lay one of the paradoxes of the situation in the summer of 1936: that the military coup that falsely claimed to want to quash a non-existent revolution was the one that "opened the doors to the revolution".
Aróstegui further adds that the military uprising was the one that created the conditions for revolutionary change to occur. Thus, he says, the rebellion was the response to the uprising and not the other way around, as the rebels and the subsequent regime always claimed afterwards.
Social revolution of 1936
The handing out of arms to the workers' parties and organizations caused them to quickly constitute armed militias to confront the rebellion in the military sphere and to move forward with a profound social revolution. They ignored the Republican authorities, which they did not overthrow, and proceeded to seize and collectivize farms and industrial and commercial enterprises to ensure the continuity of the production and distribution of goods. They also took over the main state functions. Production, supply to the public, surveillance, repression, communications, transportation, and health, were all left in the hands of trade union committees, which in many locations abolished the currency and replaced it with vouchers. Faced with the collapse of the mechanisms of public authority, a new working class power emerged in the summer of 1936, at once military, political, social, and economic. As sociologist Santos Juliá (1999) says:
Juliá further adds that the revolution thus came to be under the control of the labor unions. To collectivize an enterprise or a farm was tantamount to placing it under the control of committees formed by representatives of the CNT or the UGT or both.
The revolution had different consequences depending on the territory. In Catalonia, for instance, the CNT collectivized the industry while at least respecting land ownership and allowing a "bourgeois" government to remain in place at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Meanwhile, in Aragón, the militias imposed collectivization against the will of small and medium landowners and installed an organ of political power, the Council of Aragon, outside the fold of Republican laws. Furthermore, in areas of New Castile, Valencia, and Andalusia, the peasant unions occupied the lands that had been abandoned by their owners. In contrast, there was no social revolution in the Basque Country, where the Basque Nationalist Party had rejected a coalition with the CEDA in the February 1936 elections and had backed the left in the process for the statute of autonomy. Instead, a Catholic and nationalist party remained in place until June 1937 at the head of an autonomous government with power over little more than the Biscay territory.
Furthermore, Juliá points out that the destruction of the State's authority and the proliferation of local union powers determined the fate of the revolution. On one hand, those committees were autonomous and thus incapable of centralizing resources, and on the other, they did not establish any limits to their actions. Such a fragmented, autonomous, and discretionary power, without any external control or enemy that could confront them in their own territory, is the reason why the Spanish Revolution of 1936 was one of the most socially profound of the 20th century.
The irony was that the revolution did not put an end to the Republican state but rather simply ignored it and rendered it ineffective. In Catalonia, where the workers' organizations—mainly the CNT—were in complete control of the situation, the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia was established, although the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya continued to be in office. Then in Valencia, the Popular Executive Committee made an appearance, while in Málaga and Lleida, Public Health Committees were established. Moreover, in Santander, Gijón, and Jaén there were provincial committees of the Popular Front. In Biscay, a Defense Board was established. Finally, in Madrid, a National Committee of the Popular Front was set up. It organized militias and ran the city, while the government of José Giral—made up of only leftist Republicans—continued to exist alongside it.
Government of José Giral (19 July – 3 September 1936) Despite not having any real power, the Giral government continued to act, especially at an international level. This administration was the one that requested the sale of arms to the government of the French Popular Front, and when it did not obtain it, then it asked the Soviet Union, for which it used the gold reserves of the Bank of Spain. On the domestic front, it dismissed those officials it suspected of supporting the uprising and passed the first measures to try to control the "indiscriminate, arbitrary, and extrajudicial executions of fascists" carried out by dozens of "revolutionary courts"—also known as checas—set up by the workers' organizations and parties that had imposed the Red Terror in Madrid and elsewhere. Thus, immediately after the Cárcel Modelo massacre in Madrid, during which politicians and right-wingers were murdered by militias, the Giral government created special courts:
These courts would be made up of three judges, loyal to the Republic, and fourteen jurors appointed by the parties and workers' organizations that made up the Popular Front. However, these courts did not put an end to the activities of the checas, which continued to kill "fascists" via or