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The Spanish Civil War – Prelude to a Global Struggle In July 1936, a military coup against Spain’s democratically elected Second Republic sparked a brutal civil war that became a microcosm of Europe’s ideological battles. On one side stood the Spanish Republic’s defenders – an uneasy coalition of liberals, socialists, communists, anarchists and regionalists determined to uphold democratic reform. On the other side rallied General Francisco Franco’s Nationalists – conservative army officers, monarchists, fascist Falangists and the Catholic hierarchy, intent on crushing the Republic and rolling back its liberal reforms. The conflict soon drew international intervention: Nazi Germany and Fascist…