Description

The Francoist command in the Spanish Civil War carried out a programme of mass violence from the start of the conflict. Through a combination of death squads and the use of military trials around 150,000 Spaniards met their deaths. Others perished in concentration camps and prisons. The terror took other forms, such as mass rape, extortion, 'appropriation' of children and forced exile. The planned nature of this violence meant that the Francoists decided when the violence would begin, the way it would be carried out and when it would come to an end. This is a primary reason why the judicial concept of genocidal practice, alongside the use of comparative history, can furnish insights. The July 1936 uprising was not only aimed at ending the Republican regime, but had ideological goals: preventing the supposed Bolshevik Revolution, defending the 'unity of Spain' and reversing centre-left social and cultural reforms. An over-arching objective was the elimination of a social group identified as 'an enemy