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had plagued the first three decades of the 20th century. A relatively
moderate opening phase reassured conservative elements whose natu-
ral allegiance to the king had been worn thin by his vacillating and
unproductive policies. Even the military, traditional bulwark of national
order and restorer of the Bourbons in 1875, remained quiet. Their con-
cept of honor seemingly did not require them to act until their own
interests were affected. But within two years the illusion of stability had
been shattered. Voices of moderation were drowned out by strident
demands from the Left, lamentations from the establishment arose, and
plans to reduce the numbers and prerogatives of the officer corps pre-
cipitated a revolt that failed without exhausting the army's capacity for
mischief. A shift toward the Right precipitated widespread strikes that
were put down with severity and bred a spirit of class rage that would
guarantee revenge seeking in later days. By 1935 the pendulum had
swung back toward radicalism, and anticlerical, anticapitalist legislation
had roused the deepest fears of the old elite. The first half of 1936
seethed with conspiracies, groupings and regroupings of factions and
assassinations. Rhetorical accusations of “communism” and “fascism”
provided new labels for bitter enmities whose origins lay far back in
Spanish history.
The man and the hour had met. Francisco Franco, born in El Ferrol
to a Galician dynasty of naval officers, had changed his career path after
the Disaster of 1898 had swept Spain from the seas. As a young soldier
in Morocco, he had distinguished himself by personal bravery and a
capacity for quick thinking. One of the principal organizers of the hard-
fighting Foreign Legion (modeled on the famous French unit), he had
become by the late 1920s the youngest general in Europe and a national
hero. Intensely ambitious and a skillful manipulator of favorable pub-
licity, he masked his lust for power under a facade of modesty and
honesty. During the escalating troubles that beset the Second Republic,
he avoided entanglements, intrigued adroitly, and bided his time.
On July 17, 1936, army leaders, including Franco, began a revolt
against the leftist government that had gained power in the February
elections. Their aim was to halt the extremism of social revolutionaries
who threatened the three pillars of the state: the military, the church,
and the men of property. Initial successes in various cities were rein-
forced by the arrival of Franco's troops (including Foreign Legion and
Moorish units) from Morocco on board transport planes lent by his
German and Italian friends. Much of the west and and northwest came
under their control. The rebels (generally designated as the National-
ists) included most of the army, air force, and Civil Guard, as well as
volunteers raised by conservative groups. Among the latter were
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