Deep Field Media / The Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War
Sixty years to load the gun, three to fire it, ninety to count the dead.
A rigged democracy, an army in the habit of toppling governments, a countryside kept hungry, two lefts at war with each other — the story of how Spain built the catastrophe of 1936, beam by beam, from 1868.
1868–Now · 50 Episodes · Seven Parts
1 of 50 released
Deep FieldNo. I
1868
–Now
The Spanish Civil War
EpisodesIn order · 1868 → Now
Part 0Introduction1 episode
012 min
The Open Case
Why this story starts in 1868 — and why Spain is still digging
Part IThe Machine1868–1898 · 7 episodes
1Up next
Spain with Honor
A queen deposed, six years of chaos, and an idea steps off the train
2Coming
The Peace of the Tired
Cánovas builds a system to end coups — by making politics fake
3Coming
How to Win an Election Before It Happens
The grid, the bosses, and the manufactured majority
4Coming
The South
Land without work, work without land, and a constabulary to keep it so
5Coming
The Schoolmaster in a Cassock
Two school systems teach two Spains
6Coming
Factories and Fueros
Two rich regions invent two nations
7Coming
Two Answers
The ballot, the bomb, and the tortures that chose between them
Part IIThe Drift1898–1923 · 8 episodes
8Coming
More Was Lost in Cuba
An empire ends in one summer; every faction draws its own moral
9Coming
The King Who Liked to Govern
Thirty-three governments, and a new war in Morocco
10Coming
The Tragic Week
A call-up, a burning city, and an execution the world protested
11Coming
One Big Union
The two lefts finalize their divorce
12Coming
The Rehearsal Nobody Recognized
Army, parliament and street strike at once — and lose separately
13Coming
Gun Law in Barcelona
The state outsources order to gunmen
14Coming
Annual
Ten thousand conscripts die in days; the inquiry points at the throne
15Coming
The Coup That Buried a Report
A pronunciamiento arrives one week before the findings
Part IIIThe Dictator's Decade1923–1931 · 4 episodes
16Coming
The Surgeon with an Iron Hand
The dictatorship that worked — just well enough to prove politics unnecessary
17Coming
The Props Withdraw
A dictator polls his generals; a king inherits the bill
18Coming
The Republic by Default
A monarchy nobody would die for loses an election and leaves
19Coming
The Inheritance
An audit of everything the Republic owed on day one
Part IVThe Republic1931–1936 · 8 episodes
20Coming
The Refounding
Eight months, every reform at once, and a permanent enemy
21Coming
The Speed of Hunger
Land through law — and law is slower than hunger
22Coming
Casas Viejas
One village rising, one burned hut, and a government's authority
23Coming
October
The insurrection that armed both sides' convictions
24Coming
The Rot of the Center
A crooked roulette wheel finishes the hinge of Spanish politics
25Coming
February
A narrow victory, a bonus-law landslide, and generals posted to the periphery
26Coming
The Two Murders
A lieutenant, a tribune, and a plane already chartered
27Coming
Seventeenth of July
Four days, hour by hour, to the rising
Part VThe War1936–1939 · 16 episodes
28Coming
The Coup That Half-Worked
The rising wins a third of Spain and loses the weekend
29Coming
Revolution in the Ruins of the State
The coup kills the state it meant to capture
30Coming
The Column of Death
The airlift, the road north, and terror in writing
31Coming
The Telephone and the Crown
A siege, a legend, and a temporary post kept for thirty-nine years
32Coming
The Manufacture of History
The most famous words of the war were written five years later
33Coming
Gold and Paper
An embargo that ran one way, and 510 tonnes shipped east
34Coming
Madrid
The city that held, and the ditches at Paracuellos
35Coming
The Road
A hundred and fifty thousand people on one coastal road
36Coming
Market Day
Three hours over Gernika, and the making of a symbol
37Coming
The War Inside
One May week: allies at the barricades, a purge behind them
38Coming
The North Dies
Four months that decided the war's arithmetic
39Coming
The Freezing Year
Teruel at minus eighteen, and a country cut in two
40Coming
The Wager on the Ebro
Eighty thousand men bet on Europe's calendar; Munich folds the hand
41Coming
The Blue Days
Half a million people walk into France; a poet stops at Collioure
42Coming
The Second Coup
The Republic ends as it began
43Coming
The War Is Over
Thirty-odd handwritten words, and the first lie of the peace
Part VIThe Long Silence1939–Now · 6 episodes
44Coming
The Victory Machine
The bureaucracy of victory, and two dawns
45Coming
The Survivor
A price Hitler would not pay, and one Washington would
46Coming
Peace, of a Kind
Growth, tourism, and a basilica carved by prisoners
47Coming
The Pact
Democracy returns — in exchange for amnesia
48Coming
The Man with the Shovel
October 2000: thirteen skeletons by a roadside in León
49Coming
May My Name Not Be Erased
The graves open, the tombs empty, and the argument continues
The Open Case
The Spanish Civil War