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Spain The Civil War and its Aftermath
After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, a
majority of
the officers remained to fight in the Republican forces,
as much
from a sense of obligation to the legitimate government as
on
ideological grounds. Their units usually stayed intact and
followed them. Many remained with the forces controlling
the
areas in which they found themselves. More conservative
officers
tended to join the Nationalist forces of the rebellion.
The
Republican forces controlled the larger share of the land,
including the cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at the
beginning of
the war. Their troops often fought superbly; however,
their
leaders were less effective than those of the Nationalist
army,
which also had the better disciplined of the army's
fighting
units (those that were based in Morocco) and better
organized
international support, primarily from Germany and Italy.
Moreover, in Franco they had by far the most gifted combat
leader
(see The Spanish Civil War
, ch. 1).
At the outset of the war, the Nationalists controlled
most of
the highlands of the north, much of the western part of
the
country, and a part of Andalusia (Spanish, Andalucia) in
the
south
(see
fig. 4). The Republicans controlled the
northern coast
and most of the country east of Madrid, including all of
Catalonia (Spanish, Cataluna; Catalan, Catalunya). It
became
apparent that the war was to be a long struggle, when
Franco's
forces from Andalusia advanced to the Madrid area in the
early
months of the war but failed to take the city.
In subsequent campaigns, the Nationalist forces
expanded the
areas they held to include most of the northern, the
southern,
and the western portions of the country. During the last
year,
they drove a wedge between the Republican forces in Madrid
and
Catalonia, decisively defeated those in Catalonia, and
seized
Barcelona. Forces in Madrid could no longer be supplied.
The city
and the Republican cause were surrendered in March 1939.
Franco's victorious troops had by then been molded into
a
powerful and well-equipped army, organized into sixty-one
divisions. Its strength compared favorably with other
European
armies on the eve of World War II. The country's energies,
however, were spent. It soon became apparent that a force
of that
size was not needed to maintain order and that it could
not be
supported under the prevailing economic conditions. By
1941
demobilization had brought the army down to twenty-four
divisions
in peninsular Spain. Its offensive capability was already
depleted; with only one motorized division, it was rapidly
becoming out of date.
Franco avoided being drawn into World War II, although
a
volunteer Spanish unit known as the Blue Division served
with
German forces on the Soviet front between August 1941 and
October
1943. Fully outfitted and financed by Germany, it fought
almost
entirely in the Leningrad sector. The 40,000 volunteers
who
served in the Blue Division swore allegiance to the German
dictator, Adolf Hitler, rather than to Franco or to Spain
(see Foreign Policy under Franco
, ch. 1).
Although the economy had recovered to pre-Civil War
levels by
1951, the army was ill-trained and poorly equipped,
lacking
modern armaments and transport. Substantial United States
assistance after the signing of the Pact of Madrid in 1953
helped
to reverse the deterioration and contributed to a slow
improvement in quality. World War II-vintage tanks and
artillery
were introduced into the army, new and refurbished ships
were
supplied to the navy, and the air force was equipped with
modern
jet aircraft
(see Military Cooperation with the United States
, this ch.).
An important reorganization of the army in 1965 grouped
it
into two distinct categories: an intervention force
organized to
protect against external threats, and a territorial
defense army
divided into nine regional garrisons. Both forces were
deployed
in such a way that they were available to protect against
internal disorder rather than to defend the country's
borders.
The strongest units of the intervention force were
concentrated
around Madrid, in the center of the country; others were
assigned
to the nine military regions under captains general into
which
the country was divided, in such a manner as to maximize
security
against regional dissidents.
Data as of December 1988
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