Explanation: In the mid-1930s, the democratic socialist Republic of Spain erupted into civil war after a coup attempt by right-wing putschists in the vein of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Europe’s surviving democracies, instead of throwing their weight behind democracy, chose instead to implement an arms embargo on the entire country and tut-tut the warring factions for not just ‘talking it out’. BOTH SIDES!
This was a horrific abdication of the basic responsibility of free countries to support one another, but one largely motivated by memories of the horrors of the First World War, still fresh in the minds of the ‘lost generation’, and the ongoing Great Depression. Despite majority opinion in favor of this inaction, a vocal minority castigated this inaction for the betrayal it was, attempting to raise funds and materiel for the Republican side, and a large number of foreign volunteers went to assist the Spanish Republic. Sadly, as the fascists in Spain were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany sending both equipment and troops, and infighting on the leftist side largely spurred on by the Soviet Union’s interference, the Spanish Republic would ultimately lose the civil war, though it was a near-run thing.
While I would caution against attributing all of the inaction of Europe’s democracies to anti-socialist sentiment - France in particular at this time being run by a leftist coalition and thus unlikely to have refrained from assistance on ideological grounds - it also cannot be denied that the leftist slant of the Spanish Republic likely encouraged conservative bourgeois elements which dominated most European democracies to prefer a fascist victory over a republican socialist victory.
Hey, while you’re on a roll you could just copy paste the meme to explain why they stopped “liberating” Europe at the border despite the Spanish resistance having held out in the Pyrenees all through WW2 int he full expectation that they’d be supported the same way French resistance was and having helped in the retaking of France in the first place.
I mean, it’s one thing to back off out of a sense of bothsideism on a hypothetical, but as you’re crawling out of the rubble of the consequences having narrowly averted total global defeat? That takes some REAL chops.
“That was close, but we have finally freed Europe from fascism.” “But…” “ALL of Europe is now free from fascists. Thanks to us.”
Hey, while you’re on a roll you could just copy paste the meme to explain why they stopped “liberating” Europe at the border despite the Spanish resistance having held out in the Pyrenees all through WW2 int he full expectation that they’d be supported the same way French resistance was and having helped in the retaking of France in the first place.
Ultimately, fascist Spain was nominally neutral throughout WW2. The idea of starting a new war with another country was not regarded as particularly desirable, even for the sake of overthrowing a totalitarian regime.
Could have told the people holed up in the mountains and fighting to retake France. I have it on good authority that they had not gotten that particular memo. From a Spanish fighter perspective, the war started in 36 and ended in 45, rather anticlimactically.
By the 50s this was pretty much a meme, to the point where they were sneaking movies about it past the Franco censorship.
Once the Brits and Americans had gone back home Franco set up death squads to go across the mountains and wipe out the remnants under the guise of fighting crime and terrorism. Which wasn’t strictly incorrect, in that those pockets of resistance had grown over time with common criminals and people escaping political retaliation.
I mean, we got Pan’s Labyrinth out of it, so… worth it?
No? Too soon?
Could have told the people holed up in the mountains and fighting to retake France. I have it on good authority that they had not gotten that particular memo.
Unfortunately, they were well-aware. One of the reasons why they made one last push at the end of WW2 to try to topple the Franco regime was the hope that if there was a major rebellion against Franco, the Allies would finally at least oppose the Franco regime and turn on tap of military aid, which could have been (if there was an actual major rebellion) decisive.
Unfortunately, Franco’s control over Spain, both in the information sphere and militarily, was too firm, and the hoped-for rebellion provoked by the offense never materialized, making the question of Allied aid moot.
Their resistance was heroic, but ultimately, most of them knew that they were fighting long odds in trying to get outside help for their guerilla war, rather than sitting expectantly for Allied aid that never came.
I’m… glad you have available surveys of postwar Spanish Maquis. That’s handy.
I’m still gonna disagree on the concept of allied aid. They had tanks and planes. I mean, even by your description that’s a move to extend the retaking of Europe into Spain. Could have done something about it. Whether you justify that politcally, strategically or out of public opinion’s exhaustion, they chose not to, before and after what is now the relatively arbitrarily decided start of the larger war.
Also gonna question the idea that their resistance was “heroic”. There’s not much point in idolizing them. It’s not like they had a choice. In 36 they were soldiers, in 42 they were a loose guerrilla resistance as an alternative to being in a concentration camp or dead in a ditch. In 52, as far as I can tell from even the mostly left-leaning sources I’ve read on the subject they were more or less the roaming gangs of bandits the regime painted them as, out of a mix of hunger, desperation and accretion of escapees of all kinds. You probably didn’t want these guys showing up at your doorstep late in the game regardless of your political affiliation.
Because that’s what happens when what should have been a spearhead is left to rot out of fear that they’re too commie to support. Which, let’s be fair, was as much of the issue as whatever on-paper neutrality Franco could claim. He had been sending soldiers to the WW2 frontlines both as punishment for political prisoners and legitimate support for the first half of the war.
I’m… glad you have available surveys of postwar Spanish Maquis. That’s handy.
I mean, not surveys, just my (admittedly dusty) recollection of accounts of maquis.
I’m still gonna disagree on the concept of allied aid. They had tanks and planes. I mean, even by your description that’s a move to extend the retaking of Europe into Spain. Could have done something about it. Whether you justify that politcally, strategically or out of public opinion’s exhaustion, they chose not to, before and after what is now the relatively arbitrarily decided start of the larger war.
My point isn’t that they shouldn’t have done it - they absolutely should have. My point is that the Spanish Maquis were largely not under the delusion that it was going to happen as part of the natural course of WW2.
Also gonna question the idea that their resistance was “heroic”. There’s not much point in idolizing them. It’s not like they had a choice. In 36 they were soldiers, in 42 they were a loose guerrilla resistance as an alternative to being in a concentration camp or dead in a ditch. In 52, as far as I can tell from even the mostly left-leaning sources I’ve read on the subject they were more or less the roaming gangs of bandits the regime painted them as, out of a mix of hunger, desperation and accretion of escapees of all kinds. You probably didn’t want these guys showing up at your doorstep late in the game regardless of your political affiliation.
Resistance against fascism is heroic. Even deeply flawed resistance deserves some amount of admiration. I’m not going to pretend that they were saints, or that the resistance didn’t decay with time, but continuing to fight the regime instead of opting for surrender or flight was laudable.
Made me dust off some Secundino Serrano. Way he tells it, leaders and boots on the ground were much less realistic than you’re painting them.
I mean, not that it wasn’t controversial, but they were clearly assuming they’d have the support and the military resources to set up a position, or they wouldn’t have gotten into the whole Aran mess in the first place. Even after that they were still lobbying foreign governments to intervene. Some even thought they could get Franco to step down without violence, apparently. Serrano records a quote from the UN Secretary General saying “It’s a disgrace that fascist control of Spain continues despite the defeat of Germany and Japan” in 46. It’s not like people weren’t talking about it. Why would the fighters be less keen about it than the diplomats?
Admittedly this is followed by a note that the USSR gave up on the issue right away despite having been the only ally attacked militarily by Spain during the war, so hey, I readily admit that there was plenty of blame to go around. There’s a lot to say about how shitty the USSR was to Spanish republicans both during the war and after the end of WW2, but that’s a different rabbit hole.
IMHO they were more afraid of the anarchists than they were of the fascists.
Always the same tale. The German conservative party rather allied itself with Hitler than finding common ground with the socialists. The rest, as they say, is history.
tbf, the German conservatives of the period were not much more than moderate Nazis themselves.
The real betrayal was from Zentrum. That was a real “scratch a liberal” moment, though arguably it had more to do with cowardice and opportunism than malice.
Lol … Wasn’t that also the implication of Captain America living a long quiet life into old age.
He didn’t do anything in the Korean War, Vietnam War, Central America, the Cuba Missile crisis, the JFK assassination, the Cold War, the Balkan Wars, the Middle East, creeping fascism in the first world, 9/11, etc, etc, etc
He had the means and power but he just decided to sit back, have a nice wife, live a quiet life and watch the world burn. Then wait until he was 90 to finally hand off the responsibility to someone else.
He had the means and power but he just decided to sit back, have a nice wife, live a quiet life and watch the world burn. Then wait until he was 90 to finally hand off the responsibility to someone else.
Sometimes I think “God, if I could go back and change the world…”
And other times I think, “God, what a thankless, hopeless task that would fucking be.”
So Captain America made a shitty and immoral decision, but also, I get it. I fucking get it, man.
