Spanish Republic at War

Negrín governed until early March 1939, when Colonel Segismundo Casado's coup took place, putting an end to the Republican resistance and giving way to the victory of the rebel faction led by General Francisco Franco.

The latter commissioned Diego Martínez Barrio, president of the Cortes and leader of Republican Union, to form a government with the greatest possible political support, leaving out the two extremes (the CEDA and the Communist Party of Spain).

An alliance between the security forces loyal to the Republic and activists of the political and union organisations played a fundamental role in the crushing of the rebellion in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Valencia, Gijón and San Sebastián.

Nevertheless, having lost its monopoly of arms, the state could not prevent a sudden and violent outburst of revolution in those places where the rebels had been defeated.Moreover, historian Francisco Alía Miranda (2018) agrees with Casanova, since according to him, the main cause of the success of the uprising in some provinces and the failure in others was the position taken by the senior military officers in each one rather than social or political factors, as in the cases of Madrid and Barcelona, where the rebellion failed porque los militares sublevados no contaron con apoyo suficiente por parte de sus compañeros.

[22] On the domestic front, it dismissed those officials it suspected of supporting the uprising and passed the first measures to try to control the "indiscriminate, arbitrary, and extrajudicial executions of fascists" carried out by dozens of "revolutionary courts"—also known as checas [i]—set up by the workers' organizations and parties that had imposed the Red Terror in Madrid and elsewhere.

Largo Caballero—who, in addition to serving as prime minister, also took on the leadership of the key Ministry of War—understood this government to be an "anti-fascist alliance" and thus welcomed into the cabinet the greatest possible number of representatives of the parties and unions fighting against the "fascist" rebellion (as the workers' organizations were calling the July military uprising).

This was followed by the militarization of the militias by creating the mixed brigades to incorporate them, as well as the corps of commissars; the nationalization of the war industries; the centralization and coordination of the economic activity; the defense of small and medium-sized properties; the containment of experiments in social revolution; and pacts of unity between parties and unions.

[p][36] While Juliá (1999) adds:[37] Quienes se quedaron en Madrid no pudieron interpretar estos hechos sino como una vergonzosa huida... sobre todo porque los madrileños fueron capaces de organizar su defensa.

As for the Council of Aragon, the Largo Caballero administration had no choice but to legalize it, so that the eastern half of Aragón, which was within the Republican zone, had its own police force, carried out inspections, controlled the collectivized economy, and administered justice.

The crisis was provoked on 13 May by the two communist ministers who threatened to resign if Largo Caballero did not vacate the Ministry of War (the PCE, especially, since the fall of Málaga on 8 February, held him responsible for the continuous Republican defeats), and dissolve the POUM.

In this attack on Largo Caballero, they had the support of the socialist faction of Indalecio Prieto, who controlled the leadership of the PSOE which, like the communists, wanted to oust the trade union organizations—the UGT and the CNT—from the government and rebuild the Popular Front.

On 17 May, after not having found sufficient support for his administration, Largo Caballero submitted his resignation, and President Azaña, who also disagreed with the presence within the government of the two trade union confederations, appointed a prietista socialist, Juan Negrín, as the new prime minister.

After Anthony Eden, who was in favor of not making any more concessions to Hitler, left the Foreign Office on 20 February 1938, the British Conservative government reached an agreement with Mussolini that allowed the presence of Italian forces in Spain in exchange for Italy's commitment that it would not seize any Spanish territory or island after the foreseeable victory of the rebel side.

[67] As soon as the Francoist offensive in Aragon began on 10 March, President Negrín made a secret trip to Paris where he met with prominent French pro-Republican figures such as Blum, Édouard Daladier, and Vincent Auriol to ask them for France's direct intervention in the war in Spain by sending five divisions.

[z] The PCE and the PSUC called for a large demonstration in favor of continuing the war on 16 March 1938—one day after Negrín's return from his secret trip to Paris to ask for help from the French—in front of the Royal Palace of Pedralbes in Barcelona while Azaña was presiding over a government meeting.

[ac]Besides, Negrín, General Vicente Rojo Lluch, and the communists believed that the Republican Army was still capable of one last offensive, which began on 24 July 1938, thus kickstarting the Battle of the Ebro, the longest and most decisive of the Civil War.

[ad][81] The ultimate goal of the Ebro offensive was to reunite the two republican zones, which Negrín considered necessary to underpin his policy of resistance and deal a blow of effect of international repercussions at a time when Europe was going through the Sudeten crisis.

On 29 September 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed between the United Kingdom and France, on one hand, and Germany and Italy, on the other, which put an end to the possibility of war breaking out in Europe and the democratic powers intervening in favor of the Republic.

Barcelona cuarenta y ocho horas antes de la entrada del enemigo era una ciudad muerta... [Se] perdió lisa y llanamente porque no hubo voluntad de resistencia, ni en la población civil, ni en algunas tropas contaminadas por el ambiente... [ag]On 3 February, a representative of the French government had arrived in Burgos to prepare the official recognition of Franco's government by France and the United Kingdom, thus completing their abandonment of the Republic because, as Lord Halifax said during the 8 February meeting of the British cabinet, "it was clear that Franco was going to win the war" and so it was necessary to deal with him directly.

The following day, General Franco's unofficial representative in London, the Duke of Alba, conveyed to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax "the gratitude of the Generalíssimo and the national government" for his collaboration in "reconquering Menorca.

[96] At the same time, Azaña also met with the ambassadors of France and the United Kingdom to express his opinion against Negrín and asked their governments to intercede with Franco so that he would provide guarantees to allow compromised persons to leave Spain, a single condition for the end of hostilities that ignored the three that had been approved by the Republican Cortes at the meeting in Figueres.

Negrín y Álvarez del Vayo utilizaron para su viaje [de regreso a España] el servicio regular aéreo y compraron sus billetes como simples pasajeros.

[96] Therefore, the possibilities of Negrín's policy "to resist is to win" were very remote, especially when adding the difficulties of receiving military supplies in the central-southern region due to the loss of the Pyrenees and the naval blockade of the rebel fleet in the Mediterranean, apart from the lack of industries that could produce arms and ammunition and the depletion of the Republican coffers.

These conversations were held between professional soldiers, in the manner of the 1839 Convention of Vergara that put an end to the First Carlist War, an "offer" which was expanded on by the fifth column, especially in Madrid where it was very well organized and where it had initiated contacts with anti-negrinista Republican military men and politicians.

[105] On 15 February, three days after meeting with Negrín, Colonel Casado received the awaited letter from General Fernando Barrón in which he specified the conditions and the plan for capitulation offered by Franco's forces for the surrender of the Republican Army.

[al] Shortly afterward, Casado received the order from Negrín to attend a meeting of the military high command the following day at Los Llanos Air Force Base [es] in Albacete.

[as]Ángel Bahamonde and Javier Cervera Gil  [es] (1999) also consider Negrín's decision to be somewhat inexplicable, because moving away from the capital increased his solitude, that is, his lack of support for the policy of resistance, which some of his ministers were also beginning to question.

Then, he announced the creation of a National Defense Council presided over by General Miaja and composed of two Republicans, three socialists (Julián Besteiro, Wenceslao Carrillo, and Antonio Pérez Ariño), and two anarchists (Manuel González Marín and Eduardo Val).

[132] The first Soviet ships loaded with heavy weapons arrived at the port of Cartagena on 4 and 15 October, almost three months after the start of the Civil War, while the Nationalists had been receiving regular supplies from Italy and Germany since the beginning.

A month later, on 28 October 1938, the International Brigades marched through the streets of Barcelona for the last time in an event led by the President of the Republic Manuel Azaña and Prime Minister Juan Negrín, with around 250,000 people in attendance.