The World In Protest, Revolution or Civil War? Part Twelve
This was first publish in February 2012
"Polarization of the Spanish Civil War" Part 7
The reactionary rightist government policies during the two years prior to the election (February 1936), and the crushing of the 1934 rebellion (mainly by miners) by the rightists, brought increasing numbers on the political left to advocate revolution. Others tried to work with the rightist government to some extent to moderate the rightist policies. The election brought all leftist elements together, however, due to their opposition to the rightist government. The electoral victory by the left, called the Popular Front, then brought the political right into a similar split, with more and more rightists convinced of the need to take down the republic and overthrow the new government by force,* but others on the right wanted to remain within the democratic process. More and more the center of the political spectrum was being squeezed.
Celebrations by the victorious Popular Front supporters brought large crowds into the streets across Spain. Rightists and rightist press stories depicted the country as descending into anarchy, and they demanded the implementation of martial law. Some rightists and some military leaders began to plot a coup to takeover the Spanish government. The existing rightist government resigned and the new leftist government took power early, but a significant part of the socialists refused to join the government, feeling they had been let down by the last leftist government. So, the leftists had united for the election, but they could not unite to govern the nation, leaving the government in a weakened condition against mounting rightist opposition. Playing into the hands of the right, some peasants and workers wanted revenge for the rightist policies of the previous two years, and some churches, large private estates, and rightist political facilities were vandalized. This only led the rightists to use such incidents as evidence of the country's plunge into anarchy, and rightists began to expand their paramilitary forces to go after the leftists. One group of Falangist** paramilitaries fired on some workers, which brought a severe crackdown from the now leftist government. Leftist groups further played into the hands of rightists by staging strikes, with some protests bringing attacks on Church and rightist properties. Some Spaniards began to look to the army to restore order, and several army leaders were already involved in planning an overthrow of the government. The government crackdown on the Falange only brought it recruits from hardcore rightists.
*The hardcore rightists saw the election loss as devastating, as they had enjoyed overwhelming financial advantages, had used threats and outright force against leftist voters, had had leftist officials arrested, and had stuffed ballot boxes with rightists votes, but they had still lost the election. While not completely unified during the election, a number of rightists groups formed the so called "National Front" to oppose the leftist "Popular Front."
** The Falange was the Spanish fascist party, founded in the early 1930s, and modeled greatly upon Mussolini's fascists in Italy. Members hated communism, socialism and democracy.
WORD HISTORY:
Hart-While not all that commonly used today, this noun now means a male deer after its fifth year, and it is used for family names and in place names. It traces back to Indo European "kher," which meant "horn." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "herutaz," meaning "male deer, stag, buck." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "heorot," with the same meaning. This later became "hert," before the modern version. Forms are common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Hirsch," some Low German dialects have "Hersch," while other dialects have "Hirsk," Dutch has "hert" (all of these forms mean "male deer, stag, buck"), Frisian has "hart," which means "deer," and Danish, Norwegian, Swedish "hjort" (all mean stag, buck). I could not find a form in Icelandic, where such a form apparently died out.
"Polarization of the Spanish Civil War" Part 7
The reactionary rightist government policies during the two years prior to the election (February 1936), and the crushing of the 1934 rebellion (mainly by miners) by the rightists, brought increasing numbers on the political left to advocate revolution. Others tried to work with the rightist government to some extent to moderate the rightist policies. The election brought all leftist elements together, however, due to their opposition to the rightist government. The electoral victory by the left, called the Popular Front, then brought the political right into a similar split, with more and more rightists convinced of the need to take down the republic and overthrow the new government by force,* but others on the right wanted to remain within the democratic process. More and more the center of the political spectrum was being squeezed.
Celebrations by the victorious Popular Front supporters brought large crowds into the streets across Spain. Rightists and rightist press stories depicted the country as descending into anarchy, and they demanded the implementation of martial law. Some rightists and some military leaders began to plot a coup to takeover the Spanish government. The existing rightist government resigned and the new leftist government took power early, but a significant part of the socialists refused to join the government, feeling they had been let down by the last leftist government. So, the leftists had united for the election, but they could not unite to govern the nation, leaving the government in a weakened condition against mounting rightist opposition. Playing into the hands of the right, some peasants and workers wanted revenge for the rightist policies of the previous two years, and some churches, large private estates, and rightist political facilities were vandalized. This only led the rightists to use such incidents as evidence of the country's plunge into anarchy, and rightists began to expand their paramilitary forces to go after the leftists. One group of Falangist** paramilitaries fired on some workers, which brought a severe crackdown from the now leftist government. Leftist groups further played into the hands of rightists by staging strikes, with some protests bringing attacks on Church and rightist properties. Some Spaniards began to look to the army to restore order, and several army leaders were already involved in planning an overthrow of the government. The government crackdown on the Falange only brought it recruits from hardcore rightists.
*The hardcore rightists saw the election loss as devastating, as they had enjoyed overwhelming financial advantages, had used threats and outright force against leftist voters, had had leftist officials arrested, and had stuffed ballot boxes with rightists votes, but they had still lost the election. While not completely unified during the election, a number of rightists groups formed the so called "National Front" to oppose the leftist "Popular Front."
** The Falange was the Spanish fascist party, founded in the early 1930s, and modeled greatly upon Mussolini's fascists in Italy. Members hated communism, socialism and democracy.
WORD HISTORY:
Hart-While not all that commonly used today, this noun now means a male deer after its fifth year, and it is used for family names and in place names. It traces back to Indo European "kher," which meant "horn." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "herutaz," meaning "male deer, stag, buck." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "heorot," with the same meaning. This later became "hert," before the modern version. Forms are common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Hirsch," some Low German dialects have "Hersch," while other dialects have "Hirsk," Dutch has "hert" (all of these forms mean "male deer, stag, buck"), Frisian has "hart," which means "deer," and Danish, Norwegian, Swedish "hjort" (all mean stag, buck). I could not find a form in Icelandic, where such a form apparently died out.
Labels: English, etymology, Falange, Germanic languages, National Front, Popular Front, Spain, Spanish Civil War, Spanish political right, Spanish Republic
posted by Randy at 1:46 AM
1 Comments:
Really don't know much about the Spanish war, so this is interesting. Also interesting about the word 'hart.'
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