Key Events in 20th Century Spain and World War II

Posted on Apr 17, 2025 in History

Commonwealth of Catalonia: The four Catalan provincial councils pooled for administrative purposes. Formed in 1914 under Enric Prat de la Riba, leader of the Catalan nationalist party Lliga Regionalista.
Picasso File: General report by Picasso on the abandonment of Spanish military positions that led to the disaster of Annual, 1921.
Mixed Juries Law: Law passed in 1931 by the provisional government, stipulating that disputes should be decided by a mixed jury of equal numbers of employers and employees.
Estraperlo Case: Political scandal in Spain from 1935 involving a fraudulent roulette game. It involved the radical political party accepting bribes from casinos in San Sebastián and Mallorca.
Non-Intervention Committee: During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Thirteen Points of Negrín: Principles advocated in May 1938 by Juan Negrín, head of the Republican government, to negotiate with General Francisco Franco to end the Spanish Civil War.
FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica): Established in 1927, linked to the CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo), ensuring the union adhered to anarchist principles.

Asia: Japan sought to expand its territory to the Chinese coast, occupying Manchuria in 1931 and invading China in 1937.
Africa: Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 to expand its colonial empire.
Europe: Germany pursued territorial expansion, occupying Austria in 1938 and demanding the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. The Munich Conference (1938) aimed to curb Nazi expansionism. Hitler absorbed Czechoslovakia, and Bohemia and Moravia became German protectorates. Italy and Germany aided Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Germany signed the Pact of Steel with Italy in 1939.
Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936.
Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Russia in 1939, ensuring non-intervention.
Germany attacked Poland to regain the Danzig Corridor.

Afrikakorps: German military force during World War II, fighting alongside the Italians against the British. Commanded by Marshal Rommel, the “Desert Fox.”
Resistance: Movements fighting against Nazi occupation in their respective countries.
Yugoslavia and Greece were conquered in April 1941.
Germany attacked Russia in July 1941 (Operation Barbarossa).
The Japanese fleet was destroyed at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, leading to America’s entry into the war.
Germany colonized territories (Eastern Poland, Baltic countries) and established satellite states (France, Ukraine, Netherlands).
The USSR blockaded West Berlin, but the US supplied the city by air until May 1949.
The crisis accelerated the division of Germany into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and East Germany. Berlin was divided by a wall in 1961.