History 12-1: Spanish Civil War

Today we took a look at the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).  We read Falk pp.79-81 and then took some board notes.  It is important 1) as an indicator of the style of war that was about to befall the world; and, 2) as an indication of the ineffectiveness of British and French appeasement/indifference.

Next, we jigsawed some primary source reports from the Spartacus website.  We reminded ourselves how to check for tone, bias, publication date, and so on.  In this case we noted how the Nationalists tried to say that the explosions at Guernica were the result of Republican terrorists, not German aerial bombardment.  I wonder how they would explain the machine guns that reportedly fired for fifteen minutes?  Here is  a link to the website: Spartacus.

For homework, please read Chapter 10 in DeMarco and choose any three exercises to be completed prior to tomorrow's class.