Term of Award
Spring 2019
Degree Name
Master of Arts in History (M.A.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of History
Committee Chair
Olavi Arens
Committee Member 1
Allison Belzer
Committee Member 2
James Todesca
Abstract
The Spanish Civil War took place in Spain from 1936-1939, when the conservative Spanish Army generals rebelled against the democratically-elected government. Dozens of countries signed a Non-Intervention Pact and the United States declared itself neutral. However, thousands of international volunteers from over fifty countries poured over the borders into Spain to help the government fight the rebels. In the 1930s, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini generated a general fear for European democracies like France and England, providing a motivation for European volunteers. This thesis focuses on the motivations of the American volunteers in the war. The objective is to examine the reasons why nearly 3,000 Americans from different backgrounds and experiences risked their lives to fight as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against General Franco’s forces. The paper will also investigate the volunteers’ emotions as they experienced the war to determine whether their convictions changed or not, and what the volunteers encountered upon their return to the United States.
OCLC Number
1103526798
Recommended Citation
Benavidez, Gina M., "Why Did They Go?: American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1902.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1902
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
