The Iberian Knot - A History of the Spanish Civil War

The concluding episode of the podcast. I talk about the aftermath of the war, international treatment of Spain after WWII, the Franco years and what came afterward. It was an honor and a joy to produce this podcast for you all. Thank you for listening!

The conclusion of the war.

The historical blender on high speed that was Europe in 1938 affects the war in Spain directly and the Republicans try one last time to make a dent in the Nationalist’s progress.

This week we plow into 1938 and the frigid Battle of Teruel. Map of Republican and Nationalist Spain prior to The Battle of Teruel

This week’s episode talks about the personal experiences of George Orwell and Manuel Azaña during the Spanish Civil War and the Barcelona May Days and the international situation in the summer and fall of 1937.

The battle for the Northern Republican-held territories commences in earnest and major political earthquakes take place on both sides of the war.

We head into spring 1937 and the attempt by the Nationalists and their allies to weaken the Republicans at new points around the country after realizing that they wouldn’t be able to take the capital as easily as they had originally hoped.

This week we get right back into the situation in Spain at the end of the winter of 1936-37. We’ll finish right before the spring offensives by the Nationalists. Map of Spain in Winter 1936-37

Back after a very long absence, we return with a podcast about Spain’s closest neighbor, how it’s history, much like it’s architecture and language, is like a colorful, fun house mirror version of its neighbor and how they ended up having a leader in the 1930s whose goals for his country would line up better … Continue reading "Episode 10 – Lusitania, Porto Cale, Portugal"

This week Russia rides in on a white horse along with thousands of international troops to support the Republicans and the battle for Madrid commences. Tensions run high on both sides causing them to look for enemies internally as well as on the battlefield.

The Nationalists advance, the Republicans fracture and are beaten back while democracies around the world fail to come to the aid of their Republican counterparts in Spain for fear of angering Italy and Germany. Large losses by the Republicans lead to major changes, not all for the better. Pictures of people and places mentioned in … Continue reading "Episode 8 – A Fine Mess"

This week we return our focus to Spain and the immediate aftermath of the Nationalist uprising. In addition to extreme violence, we will see radical social and economic changes take place as a result. Spain became a cauldron of political experimentation, for better or for worse. Pictures of people mentioned in the podcast + Battle … Continue reading "Episode 7 – Let Slip the Dogs of War"

The great powers who had been at war less than a generation ago will react to the news of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in many different ways according to their respective political situations and experiences during The Great Depression. Democracies will be found wanting while the new fascist powers will be eager … Continue reading "Episode 6 – The World Reacts"

This week we actually begin the Spanish Civil War and see how what was originally planned as a right wing military coup transforms into a interminable civil war. spanishcivilwarpodcast.com Pictures of people mentioned in the podcast + Country Map

We go over the reaction of left to the right wing CEDA party entering into government after the 1933 election and how the government’s clamping down on dissent only adds more fuel to the fire. spanishcivilwarpodcast.com

In this episode we’ll see the fall of the monarchy, the beginning of the Second Republic, its constituent political parties, unions and ideologies, and the events afterwards that would expose the political fault lines just below the surface in Spain at the beginning of the 1930s. spanishcivilwarpodcast.com

We start with King Charles III’s reign of enlightened absolutism in the last decades of the 1800s through Spain losing all of their American colonies and finding themselves torn apart by internal wars and poor leadership all around in the latter part of that century. All of this leads to Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship in … Continue reading "Episode 2 – A Century of Turmoil"

The 1st episode of The Iberian Knot takes us from pre-Roman civilization through the Visigoths, the Muslim Conquest of Spain, the Reconquista up through the Enlightenment and the cusp of the French Revolution. Given the condensed nature of this history, it’s definitely not recommended as a study guide for your AP History class. spanishcivilwarpodcast.com