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Revision as of 18:28, 27 December 2007 by RedGav (talk | contribs) (Spelling corrections)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Battle of Bilbao | |||||
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| Part of the Spanish Civil War | |||||
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 Spanish Republic |
 Nationalist Spain | ||||
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The Battle of Bilbao was part of the War in the North, in the Spanish Civil War where the Nationalist Army conquered Bilbao and the part of the Basque Country still held by the Republic.
Bilbao was the capital of the autonomous Basque area established by the Republic after the war began. This establishment was in payment for Basque Nationalist support of the Republic. Not all Basques supported the Basque Nationalists, however.
The Basque people generally inhabit four provinces, Navarre, Alava, Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya. The Basque Nationalists were only dominant in the latter two provinces.
Navarre and Alava had rallied to the rising against the Republic.
The Nationalists gained Guipuzcoa early in the war with the fall of San Sebastián, September 13, 1936.
The Basque Nationalist forces were reduced to the province of Vizcaya and its capital, Bilbao. Bilbao was defended by a series of fortifications called the "Iron Ring." Unfortunately, the Iron Ring was poorly designed for defense. Invading troops were helped by the treason of the engineer Goicoechea, designer of the defensive ring. The city bridges were destroyed to stop the ennemy, but the city survived relatively intact.
Notes
- Gabriel Jackson, The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931-1939 (1965), p. 384
- Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, (2001), p. 397
- Gabriel Jackson, pp. 380-384.