Mobilizing the Rebel Army

As the graph shows, from the beginning of the coup, the rebels carried out a brutal repression in Galicia. The mobilization decree of 8 August 1936 also turned it into a source of men to serve in the army, primarily on the Asturias front, and this continued until 1939. The rapid creation of a regular army was a priority for winning the war as quickly as possible. However, this also served as a mechanism of social control, especially of the recruits who came from a variety of social, political and cultural contexts.

The graph also illustrates the relationship between the massacres perpetrated in Galicia and the mobilization decrees. At key moments in the conflict, such as the capture of Gijón, the start of the Aragón offensive, and the conquest of Catalonia, there are peaks in the number of deaths as well as increases in the number of court martials. There is a similar correlation between the start of trials and the mobilization of soldiers, which supports the idea that, beyond being a military necessity, forced recruitment was also used a a means of social control, as well as a way of ensuring that there was no opposition to mobilization, as happened with the first decrees. 

Facing the threat of punishment under the Code of Military Justice, thousands of men from Galicia were sent to fight and die in a conflict they had had not caused. They were called up under the law in place during the Second Republic and which was also used by the Republicans. Having declared a state of war brought the Code of Military Justice into force. It also brought the militarization of factories, public order and justice. It remained in place until 7 January 1939 and was crucial to the eventual revel victory. All told, the rebels called up fourteen classes of draftees, men who were between 16 and 30 years old when the war began.

It is noteworthy that if a person were declared to be a draft evader, a brother would be taken as a substitute and the family persecuted. As well as the political motivation, this could sometimes affect the draftees who did not report and decided to attack their family, usually when they had been politically active on the left.

FLC