Spanish Civil War (OTL) Previous: World War I Next: World War II Beginning: 1936 End: 1939 Place: Spain Outcome: Nationalist victory; dissolution of the Second Spanish Republic and formation of the Spanish State Combatants Republic of Spain Supported by: Soviet Union Mexico Various International Brigades Nationalists of Spain Supported by: Nazi Germany Fascist Italy Portugal Commanders Manuel Azaña Díaz Julián Besteiro Fernández Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín y López Indalecio Prieto Tuero Joseph Stalin Ernest Hemingway George Orwell Francisco Franco Gonzalo Queipo de Llano y Sierra Emilio Mola y Vidal José Sanjurjo Juan Yagüe y Blanco Manuel Goded Llopis António de Oliveira Salazar Eoin O'Duffy Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini

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The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of the Second Spanish Republic. The Civil War devastated Spain from July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939, ending with the victory of the rebels and the founding of a dictatorship led by the Nationalist General Francisco Franco.

The participation of the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy in providing arms and personnel made the Spanish Civil War a proxy war between two sides that would later clash during World War II.

Note:The above applies to OTL and all Harry Turtledove timelines with a Point of Divergence set after 1939. For different versions of the Spanish Civil War, see below.

Spanish Civil War in The War That Came EarlyEdit

The Spanish Civil War that had begun in July 1936 was still being waged with ferocious intensity two years later when a general European war broke out over the Sudetenland crisis. As a result of the new great war, Britain and France opened up the supply lines to the Spanish Republicans, and the armies facing José Sanjuro's men began receiving better weapons.

Literary CommentEdit

This timeline already diverged from ours in 1936, with Sanjurjo surviving the accident where he was killed in OTL and leading the Nationalist forces, rather than Franco. However, the book makes clear that until September 1938 this made little difference to the conduct of the war, and that Sanjurjo made much the same political and military decisions which Franco would have made. Specifically, both the Nationalist offensive reaching the sea in April and the Republican counter-offensive across the Ebro in July are seen as having taken place in virtually the same way as in OTL, despite the difference in the Nationalist supreme command.

The conduct of Sanjurjo clearly diverges from Franco's only later on, in early 1939, when Sanjurjo embarks on the conquest of Gibraltar and thus makes Britain into Nationalist Spain's staunch foe. In OTL, Franco avoided any step against Gibralter even when repeatedly urged to it by Germany, kept Nationalist Spain neutral in the larger war and retained his open channels to the British – which ensured his survival in the post-war world.

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