Crusading Ideology and the Spanish Civil War: The Persistence of an Idea (original) (raw)
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Journal of Contemporary History, 1998
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on 17 July 1936 heralded a unique period in the modern history of Spanish Catholicism. Among the rebels, the military coup would take the form of a religious 'crusade'. Behind the Republican lines, the Church would suffer appalling persecution. But whereas the reality of the 'Crusade' is universally accepted, the occurrence of religious persecution in the loyalist rearguard has so far met not only with the embarrassing partiality of ecclesiastical scholars, but also with the embarrassed silence or attempts at justification of a large number of historians and memoirists.
Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe , 2011
Images of saints, especially that of Guadalupe, have become indelibly associated with the warfare that broke out in 1810 in Spanish America, and religion certainly played a role on the battlefields of the peninsula. In an age of secularization and nationalization, in which the architects of new states built upon Enlightenment tenets of science and rationality, why did revolutionaries on both sides of the Hispanic Atlantic retain religious elements within a burgeoning patriotic script? In terms of nationalist development, was the Spanish Monarchy truly different? During a crucial period of identification formation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Hispanic nationalists did in fact instrumentally draw upon a religious leitmotif in order to legitimate a new form of politics. Liberal nationalism became a popular idiom expressed in a multiplicity of forms throughout the long nineteenth century, from sermons to plays, poetry, novels and song. A vibrant public sphere allowed for the transmission and circulation of these new ideas within a culture that advocated freedom of expression and debate. This essay will examine the convergence between Catholic iconography and liberal discourse and the ways in which religious imagery was deployed from pulpits and by priests at the fronts. A pantheon of nationalist heroes emerged from the epic stories of these battles, and myths and narratives first used to mobilize troops contributed to the formation of new identities. As historians have insisted upon “bringing the state back in” in order to assess institutions as well as identities, this essay will focus upon a factor too often overlooked in studies of nationalism: religion.
Catholicism has occupied a central place in debates concerning the nature of Francoism. Conventionally, scholars have suggested that the traditional, archaic elements of the Franco Dictatorship made it markedly different from other fascist regimes. This article explores the crucial role that Catholicism played in the popular mobilization, unification, and nationalization of rebel supporters during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Instead of focusing on an analysis of the discourse of the Catholic Church and its interactions with the politics and institutions of the 'New State', this study concentrates on Catholicism's role in generating social support for the regime. First, it examines the celebrations and religious practices that occurred on the battlefronts. It then deals with events on the rebel home front. It argues that during the Spanish Civil War, Catholicism became a force that united, mobilized, and forged both individual and national Francoist identities. * This article is part of the research project: " Movilización colectiva, conflictividad y actitudes democráticas entre la población rural andaluza durante el tardofranquismo y la transición política, 1962-1982 " , funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.
European History Quarterly, 2018
Catholicism has occupied a central place in debates concerning the nature of Francoism. Conventionally, scholars have suggested that the traditional, archaic elements of the Franco Dictatorship made it markedly different from other fascist regimes. This article explores the crucial role that Catholicism played in the popular mobilization, unification, and nationalization of rebel supporters during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Instead of focusing on an analysis of the discourse of the Catholic Church and its interactions with the politics and institutions of the ‘New State’, this study concentrates on Catholicism's role in generating social support for the regime. First, it examines the religious services and practices that occurred on the battlefronts. It then deals with events on the rebel home front. It argues that during the Spanish Civil War, Catholicism became a force that united, mobilized, and forged both individual and national Francoist identities.
‘Must God Go Fascist?’: English Catholic Opinion and the Spanish Civil War
Church History, 1987
Those individuals who seek to apply moral principles to their consideration of the affairs of nations of which they lack direct knowledge may expect to encounter certain difficulties. They may have no means of obtaining indisputable answers to questions even of a factual nature, and they may find it impossible adequately to weigh the contradictory claims of various factions. Moreover, if a religious or other close bond exists with one of the parties to a conflict, it might be tempting to subscribe to the justice of that group's struggle.
Los actos de violencia anticlerical e iconoclasta después de julio de 1936 reconfiguraron radicalmente las relaciones sociales y el paisaje físico en la zona republicana. Usando la destrucción del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús como enfoque analítico, este texto examina la conexión entre la lucha llevada a cabo por los obreros anticlericales entre abril de 1931 y julio de 1936 contra la presencia pública de la Iglesia católica, y la severidad y las formas de destrucción anticlerical durante la guerra civil.
Her research focuses on the history of religion-related protest, violence, and blasphemy. Other research interests include remembrance cultures and monument-making, mainly in the nineteenth century. This book analyzes violence involving Catholics in the nineteenth-century world-revealing the motives for violence, showing the link between religious and secular grievances, and illuminating Catholic pluralism. Catholics and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Global World is the first study to systematically analyze the link between faith and violent action in modern history. Focusing on incidents involving members of the Roman Catholic Church across the globe, the book offers a kaleidoscopic overview of situations in which physical or symbolic violence attended inner-Catholic, Catholic-secular, and interreligious conflicts. Focusing especially on the role of agency, the authors explore the motives behind, perceptions of, and legitimation strategies for religion-related violence, as well as evaluating debates about conflict and discussing the role of religious leadership in violent incidents. Additionally, they illuminate the complex ways in which religious grievances interacted with secular differences and highlight the plurality of Catholic standpoints. In doing so, the book brings to light the variety of ways in which religion and violence have interacted historically. Showing that the link between faith and violence was more nuanced than theoreticians of 'religious violence' suggest, the book will appeal to historians, social scientists, and religious scholars.
This article aims to contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between war and culture in the twentieth century by reconstructing the accounts of the so-called Red Terror that circulated with profusion in the Nationalist zone of Spain during the Civil War of 1936–39 and the early 1940s. Contrary to the thesis that regards this literature as an appendix of the rebel leadership's official propaganda, this article argues that it was an original literary genre, born of the experiences of the real and potential victims of Republican repression and popularized by recognized authors of the period, although its political utility was immediate. The dramatization of the testimonies about the terror realized by authors such as Jacinto Miquelarena, Concha Espina and Agustín de Foxá, often inspired by classic works such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, explains the popularity that they enjoyed during the early Franco era.