What were the key effects of the Spanish Civil War?

1.      Introduction

-        General opening sentence about the outcome of the war

-        Explain the facts of the outcome

§ Who?

§ What?

§ Where?

§ When?

§ Why?

-        Thesis

§ The Spanish Civil War had both domestic and international effects, ranging in the areas of economic, political, and human costs.

§ Mention some international stuff too

Part 1: Domestic

2.      Human costs

-        Topic sentence: the massive targeting of civilians and heavy fighting nature of the war left Spain with a significantly lower population that was split in two.

-        The background (from the nature of the Spanish civil war)

-        The results

§ 100,000 republicans killed

§ 70,000 nationalists killed

-        Effects of nationalist win and the inhumane fighting

§ The ‘White Terror’

·         40,000 to 200,000 killed

§ Republicans and sympathizers were held in concentration camps

§ Republican children were placed with nationalists families or orphanages

-        Concluding sentence:

3.      Economic costs

-        Topic sentence: the war had immense effects on the Spanish economy that was to struggle for years to come under the effects of the destructive war.

-        The facts:

§ 28 percent lower income per capita in 1939 compared to 1935

§ 10-15% of Spanish wealth lost

§ Spain was in debt

§ Inflation raged

4.      Political effects:

-        The victory of nationalists enabled Franco to run the country as the fascist state that he had envisioned prior to the war.

-        The facts:

§ Preston: ‘as if it were a country occupied by a victorious foreign army.’

§ Republican sympathizers fled the country

·         Many teachers, lawyers, researchers, doctors, and celebrities

§ Law of Political Responsibility (1939) made the punishment of Republicans legal – even the death penalty

§ The CNT and UGT were destroyed

§ The church gained significant power (Frances Lannon, historian)

Part 2: International

1.      International effects

-        Topic sentence: the heavy foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War spread the effects its end to nearly all participating parties.

-        USSR

§ Lost intellectual sympathy in the West

§ Pushed USSR away from an alliance with the Western powers

·         The NIC had convinced Stalin of the British and French inability to face Hitler

§ Stalin turned to Germany for alliance instead

-        Germany and Italy

§ Hitler gained military lessons in the war

·         Importance of air power

·         Effectiveness of Blitzkrieg

§ The war brought Germany and Italy closer

§ Germany was principal country ‘defending the world from communism’

-        Britain and France

§ Appeasement had yet again failed

-        The USA

§ Strengthened the isolationistic sentiment

§ Spain was not on the list for Marshall Aid after WWII

§ Cold War enabled Spain to get on good terms with the US due to anti-communist beliefs.

·         Granted Spain membership in the UN and became an ally of the US