Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chronology of Major Events
- Glossary
- Preface
- Introduction Civil War in Twentieth-Century Europe
- 1 Modernization and Conflict in Spain
- 2 From Revolutionary Insurrection to Popular Front
- 3 The Breakdown of Democracy
- 4 The Military Insurrection of the Eighteenth of July
- 5 The Battle of Madrid – the First Turning Point
- 6 Revolution
- 7 Terror
- 8 A War of Religion
- 9 Franco's Counterrevolution
- 10 Foreign Intervention and Nonintervention
- 11 Soviet Policy in Spain, 1936–1939
- 12 The Propaganda and Culture War
- 13 A Second Counterrevolution? The Power Struggle in the Republican Zone
- 14 The Decisive Northern Campaigns of 1937–1938
- 15 The War at Sea and in the Air
- 16 Civil Wars within a Civil War
- 17 The War in Perspective
- Conclusion Costs and Consequences
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
10 - Foreign Intervention and Nonintervention
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chronology of Major Events
- Glossary
- Preface
- Introduction Civil War in Twentieth-Century Europe
- 1 Modernization and Conflict in Spain
- 2 From Revolutionary Insurrection to Popular Front
- 3 The Breakdown of Democracy
- 4 The Military Insurrection of the Eighteenth of July
- 5 The Battle of Madrid – the First Turning Point
- 6 Revolution
- 7 Terror
- 8 A War of Religion
- 9 Franco's Counterrevolution
- 10 Foreign Intervention and Nonintervention
- 11 Soviet Policy in Spain, 1936–1939
- 12 The Propaganda and Culture War
- 13 A Second Counterrevolution? The Power Struggle in the Republican Zone
- 14 The Decisive Northern Campaigns of 1937–1938
- 15 The War at Sea and in the Air
- 16 Civil Wars within a Civil War
- 17 The War in Perspective
- Conclusion Costs and Consequences
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Foreign intervention sometimes played a crucial role in the outcome of the European civil wars of the early twentieth century. The Baltic states could never have beaten back the Bolsheviks without the assistance of the British and Germans. In Hungary, Rumanian invasion, not counterrevolution, overthrew the Bela Kun regime. In Finland, the Whites substantially defeated the Reds, but German assistance sealed the victory. Later, Soviet invasion guaranteed the final triumph of Tito's Yugoslav Partisans. British and American assistance was decisive in the outcome of the Greek civil war of 1944–49.
The Russian civil war seems to have been the exception. Limited intervention by Britain, France, Japan, and the United States failed to prevent the triumph of Bolshevism. The crucial intervention in Russia, however, was that of Germany, whose cooperation made possible the initial consolidation of the Bolshevik regime.
Spain had been absent from great power politics for a century and more, and had no allies, but then, except in 1898, it had not recently had need of them. On the other hand, Salvador de Madariaga, as acting representative of the Republic at the League of Nations in Geneva, had undertaken a new role virtually on his own, assuming the leadership of the lesser powers in opposition to Japanese and Italian aggression. This was the most significant new Spanish diplomatic initiative in more than a century, though it all went for naught.
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- Information
- The Spanish Civil War , pp. 131 - 148Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012