The Spanish Civil War and George Orwell
Whether you’re writing about the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) or George Orwell separately or connectedly, I’m hoping that these few pointers will be helpful to you! In drawing links between the author and the conflict, as well as providing some further reading and general information, I’m hoping to give you an understanding of the ideas behind Orwell and his interactions with the Spanish Civil War.
In this first section, I’m going to go through the origins of the Spanish Civil War. We’re going to look at why the conflict began and understand how it became so bloody so quickly! After that, we’re going to delve into Orwell and take a look at who he was and why he joined the conflict!
Some questions that you could use to guide discussion on the root causes could be…
- What was at stake in the conflict?
- Why did the conflict go beyond Spanish borders?
In brief, the Spanish Civil War had a bloody beginning in July 1936, but its divisions had began long before then. In the 19th century, Spain was extremely weak as the last of its colonial power had drained away following its defeat in the Spanish-American war. Spanish people, in their desperation, placed their faith in a number of different ideologies like Communism and Anarchism in order to try and improve their lives. At this time, the Catholic Church were highly influential in Spain. The Spanish upper classes were conservative in their beliefs and feared a Communist revolution that would seize their lands and wealth, draining them of their influence and power. Over the early 20th century, Spanish anarchists, socialists, and communists increasingly demanded the redistribution of the wealth that was held in the lands of the Spanish elite. These groups believed that if the influence of the Catholic Church and Spanish elite were absent from society, Spain would become a more equal society.
By 1930, Spain was locked into ideological and social division that saw different regions demand autonomy (i.e. independence from Spain) such as the Catalans and the Basque peoples. World War One (1914–1918) caused a big economic slump in Spain and the rural poor (i.e. farm hands and workers in the countryside) began to suffer great poverty. Out of this suffering, more and more people turned to the ideologies that called for wealth redistribution. Strikes occurred and some peasants took it upon themselves to seize the land of the wealthy Spanish elite. Over the 1920s, the Spanish monarchy collapsed and Spain’s dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera, was forced to resign. Therefore, by 1931, Spain was ready to move away from tradition and become a true democracy with the introduction of a new constitution.
This constitution granted basic freedoms and rights to the Spanish people and ensured the traditional power structures (i.e. the Church and wealthy Spanish elite) no longer had such a big influence. Instead, the constitution pushed for democratic elections in 1932. These first elections were not successful and the government eventually collapsed. BUT in 1936, there were new elections! In these elections, there was a victory for a left-wing alliance of anarchists, socialists, and communists. They completely changed Spain and launched a program of land reform, which aimed to meet the needs of the urban and rural poor.
However, these reforms didn’t signal peace for Spain. Under the surface, right-wing forces remained unhappy with the ousting of the Spanish elite and the Catholic Church. These forces carried out a string of political assassinations and encouraged the Spanish military (who were stationed in Morocco at this time) to violently oust the elected left-wing government. The leader of the Spanish army was General Franco. He came from a Spanish upper class military family and was highly conservative, equating socialism and communism with ‘barbarism’. With the help of Nazi Germany, Franco and the Spanish Army Generals arrived in Spain intending to stage a coup against the Republican forces. Their arrival marked the beginning of a conflict that would leave half-a-million people dead and would cause an international outpouring of support for the Republican government. George Orwell arrived as part of the International Brigades, consisting of fighters from around the world who arrived in Spain to support the fight against fascism.
So far, we’ve examined the root causes of the Spanish Civil War and looked at what exactly people were fighting for! Next time, we’re going to look at Orwell and his own reasons for travelling to Spain!
I’m going to leave some recommended reading down below so feel free to explore some of it! There are tonnes of good documentaries out there too on a wide range of topics around the conflict so don’t be afraid to dig deep!
For a summary of the conflict I would highly recommend J. Casanova’s A Short History of the Spanish Civil War (2013). For a closer look at the connections between the Spanish Civil War and Britain I suggest, Frederick Benson, Writers in Arms: The Literary Impact of the Spanish Civil War (1968). We will touch upon the literary impact mentioned by Benson in another post (it’s very interesting!). Finally, feel free to read his ‘Politics and the English Language’ and ‘Why I Write’ essays, both of which are important for a closer look into Orwell and his beliefs.
