What Killed the Spanish Revolution?

by John Spritzler

July 22, 2025

Elsewhere (here) I discuss the Spanish Revolution 1936-9 emphasizing how inspirational an event it was, while touching on its mistakes that help explain why it was defeated by the fascist, General Franco, in 1939.

In my "Lessons for Today from the Spanish Revolution 1936-9" I discuss what the Spanish anarchist revolutionaries and workers and peasants did for many decades prior to the 1936 outbreak of the Spanish Revolution, how they conducted a huge discussion of what they called The Idea: the idea of what society OUGHT to be like. This massive revolutionary discussion is what made the actual revolution possible.

In this article I will look more closely at the mistakes made by working class people at the time, not only in Spain, that largely account for the revolution's defeat in 1939.

The obvious reason for the defeat of the egalitarian revolutionaries (who called themselves anarchists) is that General Franco had a military force that was stronger than the military force the anarchists had. The question, however, is Why was Franco able to acquire such a stronger military force?

Any answer to this question must start with recognition of the fact that the vast majority of people in the world want to live in what I call an egalitarian world, a world in which the rich are removed from power and there is real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor. Very few people, in contrast, want to live in the kind of world that fascists create, in which the rich are in power and there is fake, not real, democracy with some rich and some poor.

To know why Franco was able to defeat the anarchists requires knowing why the vast majority of people in the world were defeated by a small minority, why the small minority of pro-fascists were able to mount a stronger military force than the vast majority of pro-egalitarians.

The reason the role of people outside of Spain is an important factor is because Franco's military force was composed to a large extent of non-Spaniards. In particular, besides Spanish soldiers it was composed of Moroccan and Italian soldiers and it was supported by German (Nazi) aircraft as well as some German soldiers on the ground. We must examine why it is that Franco was able to recruit Moroccans and Italians and Germans to fight the egalitarian revolutionaries despite the fact that most Moroccans and Italians and Germans wanted an egalitarian revolution, not a fascist capitalist world.

Franco also relied on Spanish soldiers, some of whom were in the regular Spanish army before Franco launched his rebellion against the liberal pro-capitalist but anti-fascist Republic of Spain--its official government. These soldiers went over to the side of Franco and fought to overthrow the official government of Spain. Additionally Franco conscripted more Spanish soldiers during the years 1936-9.

The defeat of the egalitarians in Spain in 1939 can be blamed on a) fatal mistakes made by the Spanish anarchists, and b) fatal mistakes made by the working class and its supposed leaders outside of Spain, especially in Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.

Inside Spain, the anarchists' fatal mistake was allowing the liberal anti-fascist capitalists to hold onto power when the anarchists did in fact have the power to remove these capitalists from power (as I discuss here.) The reason the anarchists made this fatal mistake is because they failed to distinguish between power used to oppress versus power used to prevent oppression. The anarchists always spoke of "the state" as being nothing except an instrument of oppression. Therefore the anarchists thought it was wrong for oppressed people to create a state (a government) for the purpose of preventing people from being oppressors.

When, in 1936 in Barcelona where the anarchists defeated the fascist military force and found themselves to be the real power in the province of Catalonia, they knew they could have created an egalitarian government that would have outlawed capitalist oppression by the liberal anti-fascist capitalists. They knew they had the power, for example, to outlaw wage labor and mandate that the workers in economic enterprises, as equals, democratically manage the enterprises and prevent the supposed capitalist owners from having any power. But the anarchist leaders said, "No! Power is evil and therefore we should not take power."

The refusal of the anarchists to take power created a vacuum of power that the liberal capitalists filled. The liberal capitalists formed a government in Catalonia and, because the anarchists were so overwhelmingly the real power "on the street," they invited the anarchist leaders to be part of their government, a kind of coalition government. In their confusion the anarchists accepted a role inside the capitalist government.

The same kind of thing played out with respect to the liberal pro-capitalist and anti-fascist government of all of Spain headquartered in the capital city of Madrid. The anarchists, in their confusion, agreed to be part of the pro-capitalism government in Madrid.

The anarchists proceeded with their independent egalitarian militias to drive out the big landowners in about half of Spain, which enabled the peasants and workers to create a real egalitarian society there. Please read about this here and in the articles it links to.

But because anti-fascist liberal capitalists remained in control of the Spanish government in Madrid and provincial governments such as in Catalonia, capitalists used their power to prevent the anarchists from gaining the support of the Moroccans and Spaniards who became soldiers in Franco's army. The liberal capitalists feared egalitarianism more than they feared fascism. Egalitarianism meant that capitalists would no longer be in power, whereas fascism meant they would remain in power. For this reason, the liberal capitalists did everything they could to prevent the growth of an explicitly egalitarian movement in Spain. They tried to make the egalitarian movement be merely an anti-fascism but still pro-capitalism movement.

For example, the liberal capitalists in Madrid could have told the Moroccans that when Franco was defeated Spain would (in accordance with egalitarian principles) no longer rule over Moroccans as a kind of colony ("protectorate") of Spain. This would have made it very difficult for Franco to have recruited Moroccans (who wanted independence from Spain) to fight in his army against the Madrid government of Spain. But instead, the Madrid government insisted that when Franco was defeated it would continue to rule over Moroccans. This anti-egalitarian policy of Madrid gave Franco thousands of Moroccan soldiers he would not otherwise have had.

Likewise, the Madrid government tried, and eventually succeeded, in transforming the Spanish egalitarian militias (described here; read it to understand the point that follows) into mere military units incorporated into the pro-capitalism military force commanded by the Madrid government. As a result, the Spaniards in the parts of Spain where Franco was in power never heard about the inspiring egalitarian nature of the anarchist militias, and never heard about the inspiring egalitarian society that they were fighting to defend. Instead, these Spaniards only heard that there was a war between some capitalists (anti-fascists) and other capitalists (fascists) and hence had no particular reason to take one side or the other and may even have been persuaded by fascist propaganda that they should fight on the fascist side.

This is what enabled Franco to recruit or conscript many Spanish men into his army. Had the anarchists, from the beginning, when they had the real power, used that power to prevent even liberal capitalists from forming a government, then they would not have had so many Moroccans and Spaniards frighting against them in Franco's army.

The Madrid government relied heavily on military and economic support from Stalin's Soviet Union. Stalin, for bad reasons of his own, did not want a movement explicitly for egalitarianism to develop in Spain. Not only did Stalin fear the growth of egalitarianism (as opposed to anti-democratic Bolshevism) in the Soviet Union, he also feared doing anything that would make it harder for him to be in an alliance with capitalist nations in Europe (sometimes Germany and sometimes France and Britain.) Stalin together with the Madrid government worked to weaken the egalitarian movement and prevent it from being an independent force that would inspire working class people inside and outside of Spain to rally in support of the egalitarians in Spain.

How did Franco get German soldiers to fight for him against the egalitarians?

The short and obvious answer to this question is: Franco asked Hitler to use German soldiers to help him defeat the egalitarians in Spain, and Hitler said, "Sure."

But the real question is, How come Hitler was in power in Germany in 1936? The short answer to this question is that even though the great majority of working class (including peasants) people in Germany wanted to live in an egalitarian society, the only organizations providing anti-capitalist leadership were also anti-egalitarian.

Specifically, the anti-capitalist organizations in Germany were the Socialists and the Communists. The Socialists were part of the capitalist status quo set up by the very rich after World War I ended with the traditional aristocratic regime thoroughly disgraced and forced to abdicate power. (For background go here and here and here.)

The Communists declared their goal to be what existed in Stalin's Soviet Union, which was widely known to be thoroughly anti-democratic and oppressive.

Furthermore, in contrast to Hitler's Nazis, the Socialist and Communists failed to win over peasants (a majority of the people in Germany were peasants), in large part because, as Marxists, they had contempt for the peasantry. Karl Marx famously expressed this contempt in the Communist Manifesto where it refers to the "idiocy of rural life."

The Nazis gained power because the German upper class in 1933 prevailed upon President Hindenburg (who had just defeated Hitler in the election to the presidency) to appoint Hitler Chancellor (as the constitution gave him the right to do.) While the Nazis were never able to gain more votes for the parliament (Reichstag) than the combined votes for the Socialists and Communists, they nonetheless had enough support from the peasantry to enable Hitler's appointment as Chancellor to be made. (Read in my book here why the upper class wanted Hitler to be Chancellor.) In short, there was no egalitarian revolutionary movement in Germany that came even close to being large and determined enough (as I discuss here) to persuade the soldiers in the German military to refuse orders to attack the German revolutionary movement or the egalitarian revolution in Spain.

The reason, in other words, why Franco was able to obtain German soldiers, is that there was no egalitarian revolutionary leadership in Germany, and Hitler was hence able to gain and remain in power during the years 1936-9.

A similar story can be told about how Franco was able to get Italian soldiers, but I am not going to pursue that here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what killed the Spanish Revolution was a combination of a) anarchist confusion about what to do when liberal anti-fascist capitalists opposed them, and b) the absence of egalitarian revolutionary leadership outside of Spain.

Clearly what egalitarians today need to do is to build an international egalitarian revolutionary movement. The Spanish Revolution of 1936-9 is both an inspiration for what it accomplished, and also a cautionary tale for how it was defeated.

Facts from Wikipedia and Google about the constitution of General Franco's fascist army:

From Wikipedia: we learn the following about Franco's reliance on Moroccans, Italians and Germans:

Moroccans:

The Army of Africa was a field army garrisoned in Spanish Morocco – a legacy of the Rif War – under the command of General Francisco Franco. It consisted of the Spanish Foreign Legion and the Regulares, infantry and cavalry units recruited from the population of Spanish Morocco and with Spanish officers as commanders.

The Regulares operated as the shock troops of the National forces in exchange for a substantial pay. More than 13,000 Moroccan troops were airlifted on 20 Junkers Ju 52 planes supplied by Hitler between the beginning of the conflict in July and October 1936. Their proverbial cruelty and reckless behaviour were not random, but were part of a calculated plan of the Francoist military leaders in order to instill terror in the Republican defence lines.[36]

The Army of Africa would be the most decorated unit in the May 1939 victory brigade by the Nationalists; it has been estimated that one in five of its members were killed during the war, a casualty rate twice as high as that of the peninsular forces within the Spanish Nationalist faction. For several years after the war, Franco would have a squadron of Moorish troops act as his escort at public ceremonies as a reminder of the Army's importance in the Nationalist victory.[37]

Italians:

Italy under the Fascist leadership of Benito Mussolini supported the overthrow of the republic and the establishment of a regime that would serve as a client state to Italy. Italy distrusted the Spanish Republic due to its pro-French leanings and prior to the war had made contact with Spanish right-wing groups.[40] Italy justified its intervention as an action intended to prevent the rise of Bolshevism in Spain.[41] Italy's Fascist regime considered the threat of Bolshevism a real risk with the arrival of volunteers from the Soviet Union who were fighting for the Republicans.[42] Mussolini provided financial support as well as training to the Alfonsists, Carlists, and Falange.[25] Mussolini met Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1933 but did not have much enthusiasm in the establishment of fascism in Spain at that time.[12]

By January 1937, an expeditionary force of 35,000 Italians, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie, were in Spain under the command of General Mario Roatta.[27] The contingent was made up of four divisions: Littorio, Dio lo Vuole ("God Wills it"), Fiamme Nere ("Black Flames") and Penne Nere ("Black Feathers"). The first of these divisions was made up of soldiers; the other three of Blackshirt volunteers.[43] Italy provided the National forces with fighter and bomber aircraft which played a significant part in the war.[27] In March 1937, Italy intervened in the political affairs of the Nationals by sending Roberto Farinacci to Spain to urge Franco to unite the various political movements of the Nationalist faction into one fascist "Spanish National Party".[44]

Germans:

Nazi Germany provided the Nationals with material, specialists, and a powerful air force contingent, the Condor Legion German expeditionary forces that provided airlift of soldiers and material from Spanish Africa to Peninsular Spain and provided offensive operations against Republican forces.[27] Nationalist forces were supplied with tanks and aircraft, including the Panzer I, Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Heinkel He 111.[45] The Spanish Civil War would provide an ideal testing ground for the proficiency of the new weapons produced during the German re-armament. Many aeronautical bombing techniques were tested by the Condor Legion against the Republican Government on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Franco. Hitler insisted, however, that his long-term designs were peaceful, a strategy labelled as "Blumenkrieg" (Flower War).[46]

Germany had important economic interests at stake in Spain, as Germany imported large amounts of mineral ore from Spanish Morocco.[47] The Nazi regime sent retired General Wilhelm Faupel as ambassador to Franco's regime, Faupel supported Franco and the Falange in the hope that they would create a Nazi-like regime in Spain.[48] Debt owed by Franco and the Nationals to Germany rose quickly upon purchasing German material, and required financial assistance from Germany as the Republicans had access to Spain's gold reserve.[48]

Spaniards:

From this AI Google search:

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), General Franco's Nationalist army grew to approximately 600,000 soldiers, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia and The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. This number represents the peak strength of the Nationalist forces, which included regular army units, foreign volunteers (like the Condor Legion), and various paramilitary groups.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Initial Strength:

The Nationalist uprising, led by Franco, involved a relatively small number of soldiers and officers who were part of the regular army.
Growth:

As the war progressed, the Nationalist forces expanded significantly through conscription, mobilization of nationalist militias, and the arrival of foreign volunteers.
Peak Strength:

By the end of the war, the Nationalist army had grown to around 600,000 soldiers.
Composition:

This force was not solely made up of Spanish soldiers; it included German and Italian units, as well as a significant number of foreign volunteers who fought on the Nationalist side, according to The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

From this AI Google search:

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), General Franco's Nationalist army grew to approximately 1,000,000 soldiers, according to historians. Initially, the Nationalist forces were smaller, composed of rebel troops and some regular army units that joined the uprising. However, as the war progressed, Franco's army swelled with recruits, including conscripts and volunteers, as well as foreign aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.