[Fascism is, arguably, the application of colonial violence to the
imperial core. Franco implemented what he had learnt during the
colonial conflict in the civil war.]
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FROM COLONIALISM TO FASCISM: A HISTORY OF SPAIN’S ELITE FORCES  
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Uma Arruga i López
May 21, 2023
Red Pepper
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_ Fascism is, arguably, the application of colonial violence to the
imperial core. Franco implemented what he had learnt during the
colonial conflict in the civil war. _

Militas of the Falange in Zaragoza, 1936.,

 

The Spanish Civil War was, in many ways, the first war against fascism
fought on European soil. Hundreds of thousands died at the hands of
fascists, many of them civilians. Systematic killing and extra-lethal
violence [[link removed]] were no strangers to
Francisco Franco’s side. Inflicting terror to subdue the population
and win the war was their goal, just like it had been in the colonial
wars of the North of Africa during the 1920s. While it is incorrect to
call the Spanish Civil War a colonial conflict, it cannot be ignored
how Franco, and some of his most loyal followers, first learnt how to
command men in this colonial setting, where the enemy was
dehumanised. 

Fascism is, arguably, the application of colonial violence to the
imperial core. Franco implemented what he had learnt during the
colonial conflict in the civil war. In his own words
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_My years in Africa live in me with an incredible force. There was
born the possibility of rescuing a great Spain. There was formed the
ideal that redeems us today._

It was Africa, a colonial setting, that taught him how to react to a
threat. It taught him how to dominate with fear and violence, and how
to implement it in other conflicts, thus importing the colonial
warfare to the Spanish peninsula. 

Colonial combat

Of course, he was not alone. He had La Legión, officially known as
the Tercio de Extranjeros. Created on 28 January 1920 by order of a
royal decree, the sole purpose of this new military force was to
combat the Berber tribes in the Rif and to aid Spain in its colonial
endeavours. The force would be composed of Spanish and European
volunteers and would fight alongside the Regulares, the Spanish
colonial army troops made up of native moors. Lieutenant Coronel
(colonel) José Millán-Astray became the Legion’s commander and
official founder, while Commander (later Coronel) Franco served as
Millán-Astray’s lieutenant.

Besides being their commanding officer, Millán-Astray was also the
ideologist of the Tercio and the reason why they became known as an
elite and ruthless force. With the help of Catholicism and his own
religious fervour, Millán-Astray shaped a military force that was not
afraid of death. By fighting and dying for Spain they had won their
place in heaven. ‘You’re here to die! Whoever does not want to die
for Spain, make up an excuse and go!’ he screamed in front of new
volunteers of the Tercio in 1920 (ABC Madrid, June 1934). Their
official motto became ‘Legionnaires to victory, Legionnaires to
death’.

Encouraged to dehumanise their enemy, the Tercio quickly became a
violent colonial force. Rape, burning villages to the ground and
beheadings became normal in the daily life of the legionnaires. They
began proudly displaying heads of Moorish prisoners in their camps.
The Duchess of la Victoria, who had organised and sent a group of
nurses to the battlefield, was thanked with
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basket of flowers and two Berber heads. 

Franco’s fascism

The coup d’état against the Frente Popular, the leftist government
of the Second Spanish Republic, actually started on 17 July 1936 in
the Spanish protectorates of Morocco. Franco, who was part of the
conspiracy to overthrow the Frente Popular, quickly took the city of
Melilla with the legionnaires and the Regulares. Their ruthlessness
and professionalism elevated them to elite forces, which contrasted
greatly against the forces of the Second Spanish Republic. Franco
was subsequently named
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General of the Moroccan Forces’.

On 1 October 1936, General Francisco Franco was named sole Head of
State of the occupied parts of the peninsula. Although he had not been
the ideologist of the conspiracy that had triggered the civil war, he
had established himself as the leader of the rebel forces through
leading the colonial troops. Once head of state and official leader of
the fascists, Franco sought to carry out a slow war, a war of
annihilation, which would completely eradicate the enemy, just as his
army had done in Africa. Speeches where the Republicans were compared
to the Berbers were given, and the same process of ‘othering’ the
enemy was adopted. Meanwhile, La Legión became the protagonist of
several massacres during the Spanish Civil War, the most famous one
being the taking of Badajoz [[link removed]], where
thousands of civilians were executed with no previous trial. 

La Legión today

To this day, La Legión still exists and is praised as Spain’s elite
forces. In 2019, during an event celebrating its 99th anniversary,
Margarita Robles, ex-Minister of Defence and member of the People’s
Socialist Party of Spain, claimed that
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Legión ‘represents the best of Spain’s history’. She also
claimed that ‘_if_ there are any past mistakes [carried out by la
Legión]’ then they can ‘learn from them’. By labelling the
Tercio’s crimes as ‘mistakes’, Robles purposely ignored the
events and conflicts that these forces were involved in, especially by
adding the word ‘if’ as if there were no evidence of these
crimes. 

From torturing two Iraqis during the Iraq War
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sexist chants during training
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the Legión seems to follow the same ideology as when they were
created and trained by Millán-Astray and Franco. This comes as no
surprise in a country that continuously denies its colonial past, from
the genocide perpetrated in the American continent, to the atrocities
committed during the Rif Wars. Spain hasn’t come to terms with its
past, colonial or not. To this day, 4,265 mass graves with 57,911
victims
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most of them unidentified, remain in Spain. 

La Legión is praised because Spain ignores and tries to forget its
history, and politicians tell us not to
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old wounds’. By forgetting our history, we are forgetting the
victims who, years after the death of Franco, have still not been
granted justice.

_Uma Arruga i López [[link removed]] is a graduate war
historian focusing on the Spanish Civil War._

_Red Pepper is a quarterly magazine and website of left politics and
culture. We’re a socialist publication drawing on feminist, green
and anti-racist politics. We seek to be a space for debate on the
left, a resource for movements for social justice, and a home for
open-minded anti-capitalists.  _

_We’re a non-profit magazine and we operate on a shoestring. We
think the left needs publications which are non-sectarian yet unafraid
to take a stand, radical yet non-dogmatic, and thoughtful yet
orientated on real-world activism. If you think so too, please
consider becoming a subscriber.  Subscribe to Red Pepper – you
choose how much to pay. [[link removed]]_

* Spanish Civil War
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* Spain
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* Fascism
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* colonialism
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* Franco
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