The civil war in Catalonia

On July 18, 1936, the colonial army of Morocco revolted before the government of the Republic. Catalonia was one of the most industrialized areas of Spain, so there was a large bourgeoisie that depended on trade. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you a summary on the civil war in Catalonia , which, although it is true that it happened as in the rest of the peninsula, its control by the national side would be very important to be able to win the war quickly.

Days before Franco's coup, the coordinators of the same were looking for collaborators in Catalonia obtaining support especially in official of the middle rank of the regiments installed in the city of Barcelona, ​​being what the UME and the enemies of the ERC. The problem is that the true leaders of Catalonia, such as José Aranguren Roldán or Francisco Llano de la Encomienda, were out of the picture.

In this summary of the Catalan civil war we will focus on the idea that the insurgents had about how to obtain control of Catalonia. For this, all

the troops had to go to the Plaza de Catalunya taking by surprise the Police Station of Public Order, the Palace of the Generalitat and the General Captaincy. We must know that it was not a secret that there was going to be a coup in Spain, therefore, the side of the government and the CNT, the FAI and the government of Catalonia, began to carry out a series of tricks, to get to know exactly the plans of the coup plotters.

So that, the CNT dedicated themselves to guarding all the barracks in Barcelona so that as soon as the soldiers leave towards the position, attack them and thus be able to enter the barracks and collect all the possible weapons. For its part, the Catalan government dedicated itself to finalizing preparations and spying on possible coup leaders in their area.

After the coup d'état broke out, many soldiers tried to prevent their comrades from taking to the streets, sometimes being taken prisoners and others remaining on the sidelines. The July 19 at 04:30 the first troops left the barracks from Pedralbes jumping all the alarms. These troops were finding a series of barricades, formed by the same members of the CNT and ERC, in the same way, the government took to the streets to the Assault guards and the Mosos de Escuadra, who had the order to protect the most important buildings in the city, among which was the telephone.

This made the secessionist troops in the minority and they were quickly reduced, in fact, at 11:30 in the morning it was announced on the radio that the coup had been stopped in the city of Barcelona. However, General Goded had arrived from Mallorca and managed to enter the Captaincy General and, although they arrested Francisco Llano, could not prevent the civil guard from taking to the streets and joining the fight to defend the Republic. Everything ended at 6:00 p.m. when General Goded was arrested and forced to announce defeat on the radio.

While all this was going on, the CNT and the FAI seized most of the barracks of Barcelona lynching all those soldiers who opposed his designs.

Continuing with the summary on the Civil War in Catalonia we know that, on the contrary, in Gerona, Lérida, Mataró and Figueras the coup triumphed, although after knowing the defeat in Barcelona, ​​they gave way behind.

Political power went from being at the government table to being held entirely by the common people. A) Yes the city of Barcelona became in the hands of the anarchists Those who had obtained most of the barracks and shipyards, therefore, had a great war arsenal, all this was to the detriment of the Catalan government.

It was at this time that July 20 appeared in the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia. The problem with all this was that little by little the different leftist ideologies, both republican and anarchist, they were distancing themselves seeking totally opposite ends and therefore making said division to be used by the rebels and the rest of the population that saw the struggle that had just appeared on the public stage and that was to the detriment of the country.

So we will find the Appearance of meetings throughout the Republican area each having under his command a series of militias that had no education whatsoever in the art of war; therefore, although they possessed great weaponry, they did not know how to use it properly. In the same way, in the economic sphere, the communist model began to prevail, expropriating a large number of industries, especially in Barcelona, ​​creating great instability in this regard.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a summary on anarchism in the Civil War.

To conclude with our summary of the Civil War in Catalonia, we must place ourselves in between March 16-18, 1938, at which time the constant bombardments began, both to the city of Barcelona and to Granollers and other places in the Catalan geography.

This came from the hand of the Italian and German aviation that they were testing the weapons they would use in WWII, while also helping Franco gain control of Spain. All this made the rebellious army occupy the city on January 26, 1939, eliminating autonomy, the Catalan language, and so on.

All of this came after defeat of the battle of the Ebro, in which the Catalan troops were greatly reduced allowing the entry of the bulk of the army to Catalonia.