Rojos, Moros, y negros

Abstract

This work examines the attitudes regarding race of both the Nationalist and Republican during the Spanish Civil War in order to investigate what effects race had on the conflict’s course and outcome. Additionally, it explores the wartime influx of non-Spaniards to learn more about Spanish conceptions of their own racial identity during the Civil War. Nearly every conflict of the 1930s was imbued with a racial facet because of the prevalence of racial theory and the imperialist system that governed so much of the globe. This was the age of eugenics, colonies, and a deeply racial construction of national identity all over Europe and indeed the world. The Spanish Civil War must be understood within these cultural and ideological currents to truly comprehend what took place. With these factors in mind, this thesis undertakes to explicate the role of race both materially and mentally in the Spanish Civil War.