A summary of the opposing forces

As a sort of reminder, let’s review both sides in the Spanish civil war at the time of the rising before continuing the time line. On the right we find the nationalist movement. The nationalists want to restore the grand Spanish empire. Within the nationalist movement we find monarchists, carlists (ultra–catholics) and the falange—the Spanish fascist party. Apart from the carlists, the nationalists have the backing of the catholic church in general. The nationalist movement controls most of the Spanish military forces. It is the nationalists that rise against the ruling government.

On the left we find the republicans, coming in many movements. These come down to socialists, anarchists and communists—all with various different parties representing them. The republicans control most of the Spanish workers in the cities and enjoy the larger part of popular and international support. Republicans aim at reforming Spain. The republicans form Spain’s legal government, trying to prevent a coup.

Where is the outside world at at this stage? We’ll look into this in the next post, but for now it is safe to say that most of the outside world regards the rising as a strictly internal Spanish affair. Most hope the coup will be quick and painless.

So far for this short summary of where we’re at. In the next posts we’ll be looking at how the rising escalates and at the role of the outside world in this full–scale civil war.