Deadly Embrace
Subtitle: Morocco and the Road to the Spanish Civil War
By: Sebastian Balfour
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 349
Subjects: Morocco -- History -- 1912-1956; Spain -- History, Military -- 20th century; Spain -- History -- 20th century
Description: Combining military, political, cultural, social, and oral history, Sebastian Balfour narrates for the first time the development of a brutalized, interventionist army that played a crucial role in the victory of the Francoists in the Spanish Civil War. Spain's new colonial venture in Morocco in the early twentieth-century turned into a bloody war against the tribes resisting the Spanish invasion of their lands. After suffering a succession of heavy military disasters against some of the most accomplished guerrillas in the world, the Spanish army turned to chemical warfare and dropped massive quantities of mustard gas on civilians.

Sebastian Balfour exposes this previously closely guarded secret using evidence from Spanish military archives and from survivors in Morocco. He also narrates the daily life of soldiers in the war as well as the self-images and tensions among the colonial officers. After looking at the motives that drove Moroccans to resist or cooperate with Spain, the author describes the contradictory pictures among Spaniards of Moroccan collaborators and foes. Finally, he examines the Spanish colonial army's response to the Second Republic of 1931-1936 and its brutal march through Spain in the Civil War.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [320]-341) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: PART I. THE COLONIAL EMBRACE; title: 1. The Invasion of Morocco; title: 2. Calm Sea and Furious Wind; title: 3. A Disaster Foretold? The Spanish Defeat at Anual; title: 4. The Forging of a Colonial Army, 1921-1930; title: PART II. THE BRUTALIZATION OF COLONIAL WAR; title: 5. The Secret History of Chemical Warfare Against Moroccans; title: 6. A Divided Army: Military Castes and Factions; title: 7. The Moorish Other; title: 8. Cultures, Conditions, and Corruption; title: PART III. THE COLONIAL ARMY FROM REPUBLIC TO CIVIL WAR,; title: I931-I939; title: 9. Repression and Conspiracy; title: 10. The Reconquest of Spain; title: Appendix; title: Sources; title: Index.