Spanish Civil War Factions: The Republicans 

Republicans in the US: conservatives Republicans in Spain: communists Opposite sides of the pond, opposite meanings

I learned that Spain had a civil war, and it was waaaaay more complicated and had way more impact on Europe's history than the total absence of its discussion in school here would suggest.

I'd be interested in something longer on the civil war overall.....

Orwell was indeed a member of POUM and fought with them on the Aragón front during 1937. He even saw combat during the May Days in Barcelona where the Frente Popular asserted itself over the anarchists that were so popular in Cataluña. But you are right in Orwells sympathy towards anarcho-socialism and disdain for the communists. Homage to Catalonia is an excellent book and really spells out the issues within the republican side that showed why they would lose, written in 1938.

As a spanish i just want to thank you for getting interested in our history, and as always, great video.

If Republican Spain won, here’s what would happen today Dominica: I’m the only one with purple on the flag Republican Spain: Not so fast

My grandpa died there, my other grandpa "disapeared misteriously" when franco sat on the throne

as a German I was really confused for a bit during 3:09

So I am Spanish and I have to come here to learn objective history from my own country! Great job. Thank you so much.

I've always thought Tolkein just put an R in "Aragon" to name the hero of his trilogy.

It's interesting how much of a role anarchists had in this war

"too many cooks spoil the broth"

Disbanding the army was pretty dumb. It was the only professional force that could for sure match its counterparts in the Nationalists.

This would make a badass movie or game.

I recommend `Homage to Catalonia` by George Orwell to all. It's my favorite book.

Fantastic book that takes place during The Spanish Civil War is Ernest Hemingway’s “For whom the bell tolls”

This is nicely done history infographic type presentation. Very tidy and concise that still gives a lot of detail. Bien hecho, amigo.

New sub here. I love learning about the Spanish civil war. Please do more about it. Especially about the upheaval that led to it.

Orwell fought in the POUM militia - the POUM was affiliated with his own British party, the ILP (Independent Labour Party). Both parties were Marxist but anti-Stalinist, much more similar in basic outlook to today's democratic-socialist parties than to either the period's CPs or traditional social democracy (I mean, way before Blair). Good video, btw.

Militia aren't really that useful as regulars in a army. Use them as guerrillas or reserves would probably be better strategy. Or am I just being stupid?

Should do a full video on the international volunteers for both sides

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!!!

Keep up the great stuff

As ever, absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

Definitely do a full video on the Spanish Civil War

This is such a great video

I have but one question: For whom the bell tolls?

Orwell was democratic socialist ideologically, not anarchist

Great video, but just minor corrections. FAI was never some kind of separate organization that "broke away from" the CNT. FAI was an internal organization within the CNT that sought to maintain stricter adherence to anarcho-syndicalist ideology against the more moderate factions led by Ángel Pestaña and others that sought greater cooperation with the republican government, and by the war's outbreak had broke away into a separate political party Partido Sindicalista. The common labeling of the CNT during the war as CNT-FAI represents this hegemony of the ideologically committed anarcho-syndicalist faction within the CNT, but as an organization, it was never separate from the larger labor union. Also, the UGT was affiliated with the PSOE at the time, not with the Communists which were a party of their own. Its true that large segments of the UGT supported the radicals within the PSOE such as Largo Caballero, but the pro-Soviet turn of the Republican government had more to do with the actions of the Communist party within the international context surrounding the republic rather than the UGT itself becoming formally Communist.

Very informative. Thanks for the short/brief explanation about the Republican side.

Thank you for the education!

I love your channel

Im spanish and honestly very thankful for the 2 videos you have made, yet I think you miss out somewhat the more centrist part of the republican side, which though did not manifest necessarily in a military war, had several prominent figures, such as the general Vicente Rojo Lluch, a devout republican catholic, Juan Negrín, a socialsit though somewhat moderate, Manuel Azaña, president of the republic during most of the spanish war, a moderate left wing republican and founder of the IR, izquierda republicana. In the last days of the republic there was a counter-coup conducted by an officer called Segismundo Casado, who together with the so called "casadists" wished to remove the communists from power and their influence as well as put an end to the spanish civilwar and commence negotiations with the nationalist side.

Interesting how most of the navy and air force remained loyal

Im basque , during the civil war we get independence of o e part , Vizcaya and a little bit of Guipúzcoa and araba , during 4 years the 1st basque republic gets full independence , bit the franquists anexed our basque republic

I’d love to see the long documentary

A longer documentary about the war would be cool! If I remember correctly, you did a rather long video about Akbar of the Mughals that I enjoyed. Keep up the good work! :-)

I’m reading homage to Catalonia rn and Orwell joined the POUM, not the Catalan Nationalists.

Nice video. If you want to pronounce Basque properly, just pronounce it as if it were Spanish, but without the /th/ sounds and you're good. Now, I don't know if the borders of the maps were deliberately drawn like that on purpose, but they were... painful to watch.

*¡No Pasaran!*

you should do something similar for the war of italian liberation during WWII

You didn't talk about any socialists or social democrats which were another faction of the republican front you might want to correct that.

Hmmm. The government didn't build all militias. Perhaps they did some, I don't know. But in the beginning, the government was mostly powerless. The Catalonian anarchists armed and supplied 6000 milicianos to go to war in the first week, under Durruti. The government had nothing to do with it. EDIT: you said as much in the second part. Sorry.

how's the 45 minute doco coming along? that would be very very welcome

I always really enjoy your videos but did you have a bus to catch when you recorded this? You spoke so fast, the information was impossible to take in. I will play it again at 3/4 speed so I can understand. Please forgive my criticism.

Well I always appreciate anyone seeking to educate people about what I consider to be one of the most important events in human history, the video does contain quite a few errors that should have been easily corrected with minimal research. 1. As many have already pointed out, as a member of the Independent Labor Party, I.L.P., in Britain, Orwell was assigned to a POUM column. What is most interesting is that Orwell initially describes his attraction to much of the Communist Party’s propaganda, but his experience in Spain educated him on the reality of Stalinism and this can be seen clearly reflected in later works like 1984. 2. The UGT (at least initially) was allied to the Spanish Socialist Party, the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español), not the Communist Party. Largo Caballero was a leader in both. 3. Your struggle to separate identifying nationalism with both the actual Nationalists (Franco’s coalition) and many Catalans and Basques is easily solved by using the term more commonly used to refer to this political position - separatists, Catalan and Basque separatists. 4. You refer to the Communist Party having some aspirations toward social transformation in Spain. Actually Stalinist policy in Spain and elsewhere during this period was to avoid social unrest, in the interests of the national interests of the Soviet Union. This is the source of the conflict between them and the CNT and the POUM. They didn’t drift apart as you describe. 5. Yes, the majority of the International Brigades were allied with the Communist Party, like the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, but not all such as the Eugene V. Debs Column which was organized by the non-Stalinists U.S. Socialist Party. Other individuals, as you do point out, like Orwell fought in Spain through other avenues outside the Brigades. 6. Lastly and perhaps most importantly when you say that the Communists and the Republicans “realized” they “needed” to abandon the social revolution in order to win the war, you seem to be implying this is a fact rather than a highly contested issue. Many would argue (including myself) that the social revolution was inseparable from victory in the war and that it's crushing at the hands of the Stalinists helped lose the war for the Republic. Another related error is when you say the CNT and POUM agreed to the creation of the Communist dominated Popular Army and the disbanding of the militias. In actuality, they resisted this move and one of the results was one of the most important events of the period, the May Days of 1937. And again the Communists didn’t “realize” they needed to abandon the social revolution, they were never for it to begin with. It is one of humanity’s greatest losses that the Communists destroyed one of the most exciting attempts at a real worker’s revolution and partly, as a result, lost the war to the Fascists. How different the history of the world might have been had this not happened.

Spain : im gonna separate my army in factions 😁😁 what could go wrong

The republican nationalist, in Spanish are "nacionalistas" The other nationalist, are called "nacionales" And yes, basque people is very religious when compared with the rest of Spain. The provinces of Vizcaya/Bizkaia and Guipúzcoa sided with the Republic. Alava, in the south, fight against the republicans

What's the royal coat of arms doing on the Republican flag?!

could anyone send me a link to the uniform of the unit george orwell fought in ?

I find the similarity of Spain at that time so much the same as Afghanistan today. Countries with Many different groups with many different agendas and belief's, that it was difficult for them to unify.

Great video. The republican/socialist faction was a mess. As some people have already said, you have mistakes in the maps (the mistakes are understandable in that I know where the confusion stems from).

This vid is so misleading. Where to start? The UGT was aligned to the PSOE. The so called Nationalists were fascists. Italian and Nazi German columns were despatched to aid Franco. Franco was a fascist. Only 2 countries came to the aid of the elected government. The Soviet Union and Mexico. A point completely unmentioned is the simple fact that the militias (POUM, CNT, UGT etc) played a key role in the early stages of the war against the rebel fascist army. But it very quickly became clear that the elected government needed the disciplined force of a regular army, properly trained and equipped if it was to stand any chance of defeating the fascists. References to the ejercito popular as 'the popular army' display an ignorance of Spanish. The term 'popular' is in fact correctly translated as 'people's ..The People's Army and so on....Not The Popular Army (Very few armies, if any, can be said to be 'Popular'). The International Brigades were formed under the guidance of the communist international. However, not all brigadistas were communists. Roughly, the split was 60% communist and 40% from other organisations. Ultimately the brigades were mixed with regular Spanish forces and lost much of their individual character. No mention in the vid about the so called non intervention treaty (which in practice favoured the fascists). You should study your subject more closely before making some of the sweeping generalisations contained in your vid.

Music please?

Congratulations on an excellent presentation! A few points/questions: 1. Did the republic's flag include the royal coat of arms? 2. I think Russia's national anthem was The Internationale during this period. You might want to adjust that. 3. As a teacher, I question the wisdom of labeling the Catalan fighers "nationalists." You aren't wrong, but it's too confusing. I would either reword that part or else just omit it entirely. The Spanish Civil War is a favorite topic of mine. If America has a second civil war, it will necessarily be patterned on Spain, 1936. Antifa actually uses Anarchist regalia.

What is the music played at 9.17?

9:53 Wait...so are you telling me that there was a Canadian battalion called "Abraham Lincoln" who fought for the communists????

A las barricadas!

Pronuncias muy bien el español, buen videos saludos.

Thx

Currently reading Orwell for my grad class, I got to Chapter 5 in which he says "I had made no attempt to understand it [revolutionary atmosphere of barcelona], As for the kaleidoscope of political parties and trade unions with their tiresome names". He was most definitely right, it was hard to continue reading without some background as to the factions and this video helped an enormous deal! Keep it up, love watching your videos especially in conjunction with any reading material ive been assigned. I understand that videos like these may be broad, but wow...I wish my professors were a little more open minded. Granted they are concenred with upper level sources and interpretations but in 2020 I truly believe that videos like these should be used as a tool for a general understanding. After this and the nationalist faction I was able to continue reading with a much better understanding. Ok, monologue over tl;dr = great video, really helped with understanding of current assigned reading, 11/10 will watch again

as comunist im very sory to my anarchist bros for leftist infighting

You should have mentioned the Estat Català militias, a hard right catalan nationalist organisations (the Escamots). They tried to take back Mallorca on their own and failed. Later they were integrated in the Pirenaic Battalion.

Franco came from Galicia and was friends with a famous Galician writer, did he speak it himself, did he treat the Galician language better than Basque and Catalan?

There is a film called land and freedom which show some of the problems faced the republican side during the war.

neville chamberlain said that spain was the true threat of peace in Europe. Their also a mod of the Spanish civil war campaign where you play both sides on call of duty 2 pc.

Did the Galicians prefer the Republicans or the Nationalists? Based on the Basque split between the two it seems possible that they could have backed either side in the conflict.

The Basque country is nowadays less catholic than the rest of Spain, because during Franc's dictatorship Basque culture was opressed and catholicism was very important in the regime, so catholicsm in the Basque Country dropped drastically after Franco died.

How to lose a war 101: Have an untrained and disorganized force

Your spanish pronunciation is pretty good

How come that you have not linked the sources of the material used in the video in the video description? Are you trying to spread baised propagenda?

4:53 It isn´t "Quinto Regimiento". The correct name is Quinta Brigada

That's a whale of a job explaining that. I had a middle school teacher back in the 70's who'd fought in the Lincoln Brigade. All these years later, I am still confused... I think the only way not to be confused, or have been confused, is to have actually been fighting there. You'd learn pretty d@#n quick who's who when they're shooting at you!

I get the Mosin Nagants, but why does everyone have Tommyguns 1918 gangster drum mag variant? Tommys would be way too expensive for the republicans to pay. Ppsh or sten maybe but Tommys? Not that I know what I'm talking about.

Please do a video on the corpo truppe volontario, the italian forces where crucial for the nationalists victory

The Mexican support was also very interesting

Orwell fought with the POUM, he wasn't an anarchist

DO THE DOCUMENTARY!

Long life CNT-FAI

How come Catalan, Basque and Galician never became another language in Spain's colonies? Especially with seeing how they mixed with the native population

Navarra and País Basco were on opposing sides Your Euskal is fair. Ese, ixe and zeta are the tricky ones

I own homage to catalonia looking to read it but this is a great overview of the republicans. But Orwell however was a democratic socialist and did i think fight for the POUM didn't he.

Not Aircraft Carriers and not destroyers... They were Battleships. And its makes more thread for Nationalists Navy trying to cross the chanel between Africa and mainland.

Historians: Nationalist victory was inevitable Me playing Republicans in Hoi4: cha cha real smooth

Good job with the Spanish pronunciations I couldn't say them that well.

Some basques chosen to nationalists (carlists)

Cataluña and Pais Vasco regions are much smaller of what you have shown on the maps. If you want to be accurate, don't include areas that belong to another regions.

Great video, surprisingly good Spanish pronunciation for an English speaker! You made a small mistake though when you said Orwell wasn't a communist; he was, that's why he fought for POUM, he just wasn't a stalinist communist (which in my opinion should never be called communists or socialists since they're more inclined towards fascism)

I wonder why the navy and air force remained loyal

UGT was part ot the socialist workers party , not the communists

No pasaran! 'Cept they did pasaran... Hard...

Finally An unbiased view of that very tragic war. Thank you

for a group of militias, the republicans were pretty good actually

I think, I would be a Nationalist in the Spanish Civil War. But it's instating to learn about both sides.

Quick correction: Orwell was not an anarchist; while his political views evolved over his life, democratic socialism -- supporting socialist reform by means of democratic institutions -- was his most consistent philosophy. While he opposed totalitarianism because he saw it as inevitable that such a system would collapse back into a rigid class hierarchy, with Party elites becoming a new aristocracy and oppressing the proletariat as badly or even worse than the old order before them, I have found no indication that he supported anarchist views.

Hey

I never knew that the republican army was mainly workers' militias

My grand-grandfather also fought in the Spanish Civil War for the freedom of Spain! What a hero! I'm so proud of him.

Had the Spanish Republic not denigrated Spain’s traditional (red and gold) colors with that horrid purple column, I believe enough of the Spanish people would have rallied behind them to easily dispatch Franco’s horde of Moorish mercenaries/assassins, Jesuit Luddites from the Basque region, swarthy Moriscos/Cagot, and Brownshirt cosplayers (Falangists). Between the old burgundy cross flag of the high imperial period, the Falange party flag, and the resurrected flag of the Spanish monarchy, I think the reactionary nationalists had the edge in aesthetics department.

Why did the Dutch volunteers loose their citizenship?