VI.

Civil War, 1939

With the Republican army struggling, the Nationalists quickly reached Barcelona. On January 23 Negrín and his government fled Barcelona for the castle of Figueras, near the French border. Two days later, Nationalists troops occupied Barcelona. The collapse of the Catalan capital sparked a mass exodus of refugees. As the Nationalist army advanced, thousands of Republican refugees slowly made their way to the French border.

The move to Figueras allowed the crumbling Republican leadership a little time, but in February, Negrín, his cabinet, the PCE leadership, and the remaining deputies of the Cortes fled to safety across the Pyrenees Mountains into France. Early that month all of Catalonia fell to the Nationalists. With the fall of Catalonia, Madrid remained the last Republican stronghold, but it was surrounded by Nationalists. In addition, Madrid’s Republicans were short on ammunition, weapons, and food supplies.

A.

The Casado Coup

It was under these deteriorating conditions that Colonel Segismundo Casado led a group of socialists, anarchists, and republican military officers in opposition to the PCE. Just before midnight on March 6, the conspirators took over the chief government ministries and set up a provisional government called the National Council of Defense. The council was eager to put an end to what they saw as the senseless sacrifice of lives, and they believed that Franco would negotiate with them rather than with Negrín’s pro-Communist government.

News of the mutiny reached Negrín and his advisors in the small town of Elda, where the official government had been taking refuge since the fall of Catalonia. Stunned by the recent turn of events, the prime minister decided to leave Spain for good. He and his entourage went to Toulouse, France, later that day. Back in Madrid, PCE members were locked in fierce street battles with Council of Defense forces. The fighting continued until the 12th, when the council’s forces defeated the Communist resistance.

Although securing Republican control moved the council closer to negotiating a settlement with the Nationalists, Franco soon made it clear that he had no interest in accepting their conditions. He wanted nothing less than unconditional surrender and total victory. On March 27 Nationalist troops began to occupy Madrid’s desolate streets. Nationalist supporters and war-weary citizens of Madrid cheered the Nationalists’ entry, relieved the war was coming to an end. A few days later, on April 1, Franco proclaimed that his troops had 'achieved their objectives.' Spain's civil war was finally over.