Eddie,

Yes, if Franco had lost, he would probably have been tried as a revolutionary. I believe a lot of his Generals, and even lower officers would have met the same fate. On that I agree.

As the winner, he had discretionary power, but he did not apply it through courts. It was done on what's referred to as "barrel-head" justice, where a person was brought before one of his army officers and the charges read. Then they were sentenced to death without any trial. in his memoirs, one of those officers, a mere Captain, had pronounced sentence on over 300 people in two days. He had them brought forward in groups, and the charges were read as being for all of them, and he'd pronounce them guilty, sentence them to death by firing squad, and order that it be carried out immediately. They weren't allowed to speak in their defense. About half of them were soldiers. He was instructed, by Franco, to execute "anyone" who survived their attack on the town, because they "might be the enemy." He also went on to indicate there wasn't time for any "nonsense" like a real trial. They had to move on.

Italian forces moved into Spain immediately with the air-lift. In the end, there were over 50,000 ground troops alone. They were sent north, and were the troops that united with the Army of Navarre, and Mola's troops from Burgos, to fight the Basques. They were the first troops to enter Guernica, and see the wanton destruction that took place. The earliest troops sent were "Black Shirts" who'd served in Ethiopia.

The Moors were not Spanish citizens. They were a colonial army. Most of them hated the Spanish. Spanish officers led them, not unlike the colonial armies the British had in India, and other nations. They received military benefits somewhat equal to the Spanish soldier, but weren't granted citizenship.

As shock troops, the Moors were fed into battles like cattle to a slaughter, and when they did win battles, they killed everyone, including men, women, and children, when they took a village. The Spanish officers would step aside, allowing it to happen. The Spanish Foreign Legion was made up of mercenaries from around the world, including the U.S. It was a place to hide from the law, just like the French Foreign Legion was. In fact, less than 20% of the foreign legion at that time, was Spanish. The majority of those that were was the Officer Corps. The rest were the dregs of the world.

As for the Republicans, they really weren't any better. A reign of terror began in 1931, and continued on until the Civil War. One of the targets were the Priests. They were blamed for the poor conditions visited on the peasants. It was true though. The Catholic Church owned much of the land, and peasants share cropped. The problem was, the Church took their share off the top, and left the peasants to starve, while Priests lived in luxury, and ate very well.

The only place that Priests weren't slaughtered was in Basque Country. The vast majority of Priests there supported the idea of a Republic.

When Franco's army marched through areas, they killed everyone who was farming the land. Their reason was that the land was "stolen" from the Catholic Church.

Wolf