American Catholoic Periodical Coverage of the Spanish Civil War
After three centuries of relative unimportance internationally, Spain in 1936 became the center of European and world attention. The Spanish nation had become fertile soil for the growing ideologies of the twentieth century; the Spanish battlefield had become a testing ground for the world's newest military tactics and equipment; the Spanish Civil War had become a rehearsal for World War II. Communism and Fascism met in open conflict for the first time and in this conflict the passions of the world were aroused. This internal struggle within the Spanish state reflected a political division within the Western World. This division had been developing since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles seventeen years earlier and was to culminate in the declaration of World War II three years later. As the ideas being tested in Spain exerted influence throughout the Occident, it is natural that world opinion was abundant. In the heated atmosphere of war it is also natural that such opinion was biased to some degree. One historian wrote at the time of the war looked back nine years later upon his own prejudice, declaring: Those who remember the intense passions aroused by this conflict will understand how difficult it was to see Spanish affairs.
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