By the beginning of 1938, it was clear that the Spanish Nationalists were likely to win the civil war. Only the USSR came to the Republic’s aid, but the Soviet aid favored pro-Soviet Communists at the expense of anti-Soviet elements in the Republic.
The Republicans continued to hold out hope that Britain and France would come to their aid, but those countries were more interested in maintaining peaceful relations with the Nationalists’ allies, Germany and France.
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Love the podcast, and this is a very interesting view of a conflict I don’t know much about beyond the U.S. centered view.
Would you consider something like the democracy/oligarchy civil wars in Greek city-states during the Peloponnesian war a similar era of ideological proxy war? Something like
Delian League:Soviets::Sparta:Fascists
These ideological proxy wars are uncommon in the modern era prior to the Cold War, but may not be unknown in history.
It’s an interesting point, and you may be right. I don’t have enough expertise in ancient Greek history to judge.
Good afternoon Mr Painter. I have recently heard this episode on the end of the Spanish Civil War, and I wanted to thank you for doing these. Spanish history is a doozie of a topic, even before the 20th century, but you managed to present it in a very evenhanded way. As you stated, even nowadays the Civil War is a topic of intense argument in Spanish society that makes talking about it sometimes an impossible task due to family ties or political convictions.
What I wanted to mention, though, is a story within the Civil War that I think was, lets say the bright spot in a dark time. The Prado museum in Madrid is famous for housing some of the most famous paintings from Spanish history (“Charles V at the battle of Mühlberg” by Titian, “the Meninas” by Velazquez, “”the third of may” by Goya, etc…). When the war broke out, the Republican government decreed that Spain’s national treasures would go where the government went, the movement and maintenance of the pieces being left in charge of the Committee for the Artistic Patrimony (Junta del Tesoro Artístico). This committee succesfully transferred the artworks first from the besieged Madrid to Valencia, sometimes via nothing more than dirt roads, then from Valencia to Barcelona during Franco’s push to the Mediterranean, and when the Nationalist forces advanced into Catalonia, the artworks were moved to Geneva, Switzerland for safekeeping by the League of Nations. When they got there, the foreign individuals in charge of cataloguing what had made it to Geneva, as the story goes, were amazed to find the great condition that these artworks arrived in. It is said that not one artwork transported was lost. When the Civil War ended, and the new nationalist government demanded the paintings back, the French train that transferred the paintings back to Madrid had to actually make frequent stops, in order to let French military convoys to pass by, as World War II had begun.
It is a fascinating story that really struck me when I learned of it. As far as information goes, I can provide this link to the Prado Museum’s website that has some more information and pictures of the ordeal, though unfortunately most of the information I know of is only available in Spanish (the timeline is found under the “exhibition” section). https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/protected-art/81811f39-e3f9-4fe7-94af-225676279523
Thank you once more for your effort in producing the podcast. Your show helps me start the coming week on a positive note, and I am glad to have found it.
That is a great story. Thank you for sharing it.
Just a glitch: the link to the transcript is to episode 306!
I assume the transcript for “We Shall Not Forget You” is forthcoming…
Broken link. It’s fixed now.