In July of 1936, a faction of Spanish troops stationed in northern Africa staged a takeover of Spanish territory in the region. Fueled by nationalistic ideals and a hatred of the newly-instated liberal government, these insurgents quickly seized control of the Canary Islands, Morocco, Navarre, and several other districts in and around Spain. Thus began the Spanish Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of World War I some eighteen years earlier. Like the Great War before it, this conflict would have lasting and far-reaching consequences that were felt far beyond the borders of Spain itself.
In the early twentieth century, Spain was fraught with political, social, and economic tension. A rise of radicalism and extremism propelled growing strife and
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However, the Spanish Civil War’s causes proved more complex than those of the Great War before it. The failure to seek compromise—as a result of the aforementioned ideological polarization—certainly contributed to the outbreak of conflict; perhaps less readily apparent, however, are the ways in which successful compromise—such as a non-intervention pact agreed to by other Western democracies—also served to facilitate violence and had far greater international consequences than political extremism within Spain. Although the failure to compromise as a result of divisive partisanship and ideological polarization sparked the Spanish Civil War, the conflict and its lasting harmful effects were perpetuated by a series of successful compromises by Western democracies and fascist powers. The