Fighting Against Democracy. Military Factions in the Second Spanish Republic and Civil War (1931-1939)
Abstract: The breakdown of the Second Spanish Republic after the military coup of July 1936 plunged Spain in a three-year civil war that ended in Franco's dictatorship. The war marked the end of the attempt to establish democracy in Spain and retarded the economic and political development of the country by at least twenty years. This paper establishes the relevance of the Army as a pertinent political player in understanding the dynamics of the Second Republic and shows that, contrary to traditional views, the military was a non-monolithic organization which was divided in different factions with conflicting interests. The empirical section explores the impact that republican military policies and factional military interests had on officers' side (rebel or loyal) during the Spanish Civil War. The econometric analysis uses a new data set that identifies officers' side and uses information from military yearbooks to follow officers' individual history between 1910 and 1936. The results confirm that the Army was a non-monolithic organization where factions behave differently and responded to the impact that republican military reforms had on them. Officers in favored corps and those that enjoyed greater promotions between 1931 and 1936 were more likely to support the republican regime. Finally, the paper explores the effect of hierarchy on officers' choice. Results show that subordinates tended to follow the side chosen by their senior officer.
