Foreign Intervention During the Spanish Civil War

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What was the impact of foreign intervention in the Spanish Civil War ? Although Spain remained neutral during the First World War, the country was not politically united whatsoever. This political division of many years finally led to a civil war outbreak after the victory of the left in the 1936 elections. However, both fighting sides, the Republicans and the Nationalists, were practically squarely matched; the common theory was that “the side which had arms would win”1 the war. Therefore it is clear that a crucial factor in this battle was the intervention, or non-intervention, of foreign powers. This civil war turned into a total war for Spain who invested huge amounts of money, soldiers, arms and efforts as well as an international conflict that mirrored the political disputes occurring in Europe at the same time between Fascism and democracy on one hand and the opposition to godless Communism on the other. As soon as the civil war broke, a Non-intervention agreement was drafted in September of 1936, which was a joint diplomatic initiative by the governments of France and the United Kingdom to stop any foreign involvement in this domestic affair, involvement which could eventually have lead to the outbreak of a wider European war 2. At this point, foreign intervention would both lengthen and intensify the war. A Non-intervention Committee was then created to maintain this agreement and to not let Spanish issues be ignored and “submerged by bigger ideological battles taking place in Europe at the same time”3. Twenty-seven countries were part of this committee, including the key actors of the war: Germany, Britain, Italy, France, Portugal and the Soviet Union, who had concurred on signing the Non-intervention agreement. However, Germany, Italy and the USSR all three strayed away and failed the agreement all twenty-seven countries had settled on. When the Civil
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