A trying moment in its history, Spain needed to modernise and change its way of life, if it wanted to join its neighbours in the 20th century. The reforms needed to achieve this and their fallout, historians Wolfson & Laver (2001) and Blinkhorn (1988) state, were the principle origins of the Spanish Civil War.

Wolfson & Laver point to the Republic’s failure to manage the collateral damage of their reforms onto traditionalist strata (Church, Army, Nobility). The Republic tackled agricultural and industrial crises with the nationalisation of Latifundia (property of nobility), separation of Church and State (cutting state funds to Church), and cuts in the Army officer-corps. The Republic gravely underestimated the power and influence of these traditionalists, whom until the 1930s were unwilling to ally their rural and historical influence with Far Right (Carlist and Fascist) causes (Blinkhorn, 1988). These alienating reforms and the threat of regionalism lit the tinderbox that would bring traditionalists and far-right factions together in-arms after Sotelo’s assassination in July 1936.

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