The Spanish Civil War had begun between the left-leaning Republicans (or "Loyalists") and the right-leaning Nationalists on 17 July 1936, but by January 1939, it had decisively turned to favour the Nationalists, with major Republican defeats at the Battle of the Ebro in November 1938 and the Catalonia Offensive of 1938–1939 causing the fall of Barcelona. In the meantime, Nazi Germany advanced its foreign policy goals on France's other flank by achieving the Remilitarization of the Rhineland and the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936 and the Anschluss of Austria and the Munich Agreement in 1938.