Analyse the reasons for the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War.

Many reasons have been given for Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, although Republican loss was by no means predictable. Some historians have focused on domestic factors, others international context, as the cause for victory or defeat. For instance, it is well acknowledged that Franco’s reorganised national troops were better co-ordinated than their opponents, the Republicans. The communist-anarchist alliance appeared more uneasy and thus less organisationally effective than the Falangist-Carlist nationalist groups under Franco. Indeed, it is argued that communism, the seemingly more ‘foreign’ ideology settled less successfully in Spain than Franco’s regime, which pandered to conservatives and supported centuries-old traditions of established schools, churches and magisterial structures, particularly amongst elites. That is to say established powers, hence networks of supplies and troops, more readily served the Nationalist side under Franco. Franco in turn was a general with more strategic cunning and unified forces than his Republican equivalent. Yet, that is not to credit the Nationalists with an inevitable victory in the Civil War. After all, the Republicans began the conflict in power and after the Nationalist coup failed, which precipitated war, they gained supporters for communism. Nationalist troops were successfully rebuffed from entering Madrid for three years, resulting in the loss of millions of lives in the same period. A series of Republican strategic failings and the more generous intervention by third parties on behalf of the Nationalists swung the result in their favour. Foreign intervention by Germany and Italy on the side of the Nationalists was critical to their success. It meant that the nationalists were better armed and supplied, receiving more foreign aid in total by the end of the war than their Republican antagonists. Where the USSR sent tanks and a motley brigade of international supporters, Germany and Italy sent organised and equipped soldiers. A combination of these internal and external factors, giving special importance to foreign intervention by Axis powers and the military acumen of Franco, were ultimately responsible for the victory of the Nationalists.