https://www.olyarte.com/en/guernica-s-painting-10-009/
From monarchy to dictatorship
In 1814, Ferdinand VII established absolutism in Spain. This regime lasted until February 11, 1873, the day on which the 1st Republic was proclaimed after the abdication of Amédée. The monarchy is back. Yet it was under the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera that Spain, between 1923 and 1930, was ruled. On April 14, 1931, the 2nd Republic was proclaimed. It puts an end to the reign of Alfonso XIII, because the victory is for the Republicans.
Five years later, on February 16, Spain witnessed the defeat of the national front against the popular front following the elections. The Socialists and the Communists adhere to the new government, but the right, feeling in danger, allies itself with the extreme right in order to "contest the reforms of the left". The left reacts and goes on strike, the one against which General Franco will lead the triggering event of this civil conflict:following the assassination of José Calvo Stelo on July 13, a right-wing politician, Franco decides to take part in the insurrectionary movement against the new republican government. The uprising is scheduled for July 17.
Uprising of July 17, 1936
Escorted by his garrisons from Morocco, Franco landed in Spain from below. Its purpose is to suddenly dethrone the government now in power. Most of the army remains loyal to the government; the rebels are the Nationalists, those who follow Franco and the insurrection. It seeks to conquer the largest possible part of the territory for three days. However, hit by the popular resistance, the big cities escape them, and remain on the side of the Republicans. Spain is divided into two camps.
The Francoists against the Republicans
Spain is separated into two zones:on one side the Republicans, with the big cities and the richest regions. On the other, the Francoists, who compensated for the terrain in men and weapons, since they benefited from the help of the Germans and the Italians. The Francoists are called Nationalists because they want another nation. For three years, from 1936 to 1939, the two camps clashed. Civilians fight, women also take part in the fighting for the first time. Francisco Largo Caballero, Marxist, leads his party towards the revolutionary way with, in mind, the Russian revolution and the victory of Bolshevism.
On the left, the Communists are doing everything to bring together the Anarchists and Socialists who are constantly competing, so that their forces unite. On the other hand, the bourgeois left follows President Azania, and Indalecio Prieto leads the independent socialists to the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification). In May 1937, the Republicans crush the Nationalists with arms. On the Russian model, the cities are filled with Cheka, and the tortures act as strong as on Russian soil, so much so that the Communists become hostile towards the Republicans.
The miners on the left resisted the onslaught of the army, until the intervention of Moroccan units led by Franco. After two weeks of fighting, the Marxists are defeated.
European countries facing the war in Spain
The France of 1936 was socialist, and the popular front was torn apart. England advocates non-intervention, because its fear concerns the commitment of the USSR, Hitler and Mussolini. However, these three powers will be the most present in the civil conflict. This is why left-wing activists from all countries will spontaneously join the Republicans in the fight. The fear remains:"Hitler must not be angry!" because that would be tantamount to entering into a new war. Despite the help received from the Republicans, Fascist Italy was just as effective among the Nationalists and gradually occupied all of Spain.
In Switzerland particularly, the desire to leave to fight at side of the Republicans is frowned upon, because this momentum is interpreted by a proximity with the Communists, and therefore amounts to placing oneself in the firing line of Hitler and Mussolini.
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
From the start of the war, Germany and Italy committed themselves to the Francoists. Both having strategic aims, Germany was particularly generous, and provided Spain in particular with combat aircraft. Hitler's goal is to train German officers by presenting this war to them as training for what the Second World War will be like. Germany tests its tactics on the villages of the Republicans and prepares as well as possible for the Blitzkrieg, which will allow the annexation of Poland in 39 and the occupation of France in 40.
The Soviet Union and the Communists
From 1919 to 1922, Spain was the only country to adhere to Bolshevik ideas. Peasants and workers see the Socialist International as liberation, and that is why many Spaniards in turn become communists. They are the only ones in Europe to create Soviets
During the Civil War, the Soviet Union sided with the Republicans. It provides them with weapons, tanks or planes, even men, in order to see them win the fight. She is the essential ally of the Spanish Republicans, who see the threat of Mussolini in fascist Italy. However, the USSR fights “as much the Anarchists and the Trotskyists as the Francoists”.
The victorious Francoists
The victory of the Nationalists was celebrated on March 28, 1939. Madrid saw the Francoists parade before the country's next dictator, General Franco. The Democratic Republic of 1931 comes to an end, and executions multiply, in accordance with the authoritarian regime set up on the model of fascist Italy. Three days after the victory of the insurgents, the whole of Spain is controlled by Franco.
The general's dictatorship lasted more than thirty years. On October 1, 1936, he was appointed head of government of the Spanish state, and three years later he "enjoys absolute power". We will say little about the disappearances of children, those of imprisoned Republicans whose children are placed in nationalist families. All traces will be carefully erased.
On November 20, 1975, Franco died, and Juan Carlos I succeeded him. Picasso was then able to exhibit Guernica , the scar of the war in Spain, the denunciation of the Franco dictatorship, which led the painter to keep this painting in the United States until the end of Franco's power.