Les violences de la guerre d'Espagne

International audienceViolence during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War presents all kinds of acts of war violence, starting with those that took place on the front where an industrial war broke out similar to that of the Great War. Violence also occurred at the “rear” if such a term is logical in the context of a civil war.During the first half of the 20th century, Spain was the scene of far-reaching violence that permeated the entire society and mobilized most of the citizens. This violence in almost all aspects resembled that of the two continental conflicts in which Spain did not participate. That is why it is difficult to apply to it the concept of “brutalization of European Societies” delineated by G. L. Mosse.Acts of individual savagery marked by series of mutilations and assaults on corpses, as well as the massacre of thousands of men identified as “enemies” by either camp were added to the war of trenches. Sexual violence was also engaged by troops (violations and clippings), violence against children and symbolic violence (churches set on fire and other iconoclastic acts). By the wide range of violence employed, this conflict that took place between the two World Wars has become a prototype of civil war.In order to analyze the acts of violence in the Spanish War, one has to move away from the history of the war itself and look at the particular formation of the Spanish state, the importance of the army and the militarization of public order, and to consider that this violence was often induced by policies of exclusion which always generated mass mobilizations