You know throughout both of the World Wars, I kept wondering, where the heck is Spain? I mean Spain used to be the one of the most powerful empires of them all, so where were they during these World Wars. Wasn’t Spain a powerful force that both sides would want to have on their sides? What was Spain doing during these years?
World War One:
In this war, they were utterly weak in my opinion. They stayed neutral in the war and saved many of their citizens lives, but they got utterly stepped on in the process. Throughout the war, both sides crossed their borders and German U-boats repeatedly sunk Spanish ships. They even let German U-boats come to their ports for repairs just for them to go back out to sea and sink more Spanish ships. There was also an economic struggle due to the war’s demands and also Spain being put on an English blacklists apparently which made it harder for them to get contracts and jobs. There were no imports only exports which helped to drain the country and inflation rose to 9.5%. They also had a political struggle as well. In 1917, they had three governments in power within the span of that year. Spain was divided as a nation and in no condition to enter a war.
World War Two:
Well, for this case Spain did some stuff, but they mostly stayed out of the war due to their recent Civil war. From 1936-1939 they had a bloody civil war in which the rebels overthrew the government but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. While they did lean towards fascism and the nazis, they actually helped both sides a bit. For the Axis, they gave supplies and valuable information. In fact, Spain’s newly established dictator, General Franco, actually offered to join the Axis powers but his demands were too high for the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. This was partially due to their help in winning the civil war so Franco felt obliged to aid them.On the other hand, Spain also had to appease the Allies. France and Britain were very important trade partners to them and Franco knew that Britain could threaten Spain’s colonies. America and Britain essentially could force Spain to stay out of the war and they did very effectively by cutting of their oil supplies and their grain. Even if they wanted to join the war, it would have likely brought the entire country to a halt. Therefore, they were considered non-belligerent. This means that they did not take place in the fighting but does not mean that they were unbiased. In the end, they were convicted of allying themselves with the Axis powers and forced into isolation. While FDR claimed there would be no sanctions for their actions, Truman did not. So when FDR died and Truman assumed the office, he was not as kind.
It was interesting to read about a country that did not play a huge role in these wars. I did not even question why Spain was not involved in the wars. I think that it is important to understand what else is going on in the world at a specific time that we don't often think about.
ReplyDeleteI had always wondered what had happened to Spain and why they weren't major players in the world wars because in the past they had been such a powerful country to be reckoned with. I only wonder why General Franco make such big demands of the axis powers who had helped put him in power and if he actually intended on ever getting Spain involved in the war or if he just offered because of the help the axis powers had provided him.
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