Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola | |
---|---|
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Nickname(s) | El Director (The Director) |
Born | Placetas,Cuba,Kingdom of Spain | 9 July 1887
Died | 3 June 1937 Alcocero,Burgos,Nationalist Spain | (aged 49)
Buried | 42°29′00″N1°22′50″W/ 42.48328°N 1.38050°W |
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Service/ | Spanish Army |
Years of service | 1904–1932 1933–1937 |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Commands | Military Governor of Navarre Commander of the Army of the North |
Battles/wars | Rif War Spanish Civil War |
Awards |
Emilio Mola y Vidal(9 July 1887 – 3 June 1937) was one of the three leaders of theNationalist coup of July 1936that started theSpanish Civil War.
After the death ofSanjurjoon 20 July 1936, Mola commanded theNationalistsin the north of Spain, whileFrancooperated in the south. Attempting to takeMadridwith hisfour columns,Mola praised local Nationalist sympathizers within the city as a "fifth column",possibly the first use of that phrase. He died in an air crash in bad weather, leaving Franco as the pre-eminent Nationalist leader for the rest of the war. Sabotage, though suspected, has never been proven.
Early life and career
[edit]Mola was born inPlacetas,Cuba,at that time an overseas Spanish province, where his father, an army officer, was stationed. TheCuban War of Independencesplit his family; while his father served in the Spanish forces, his maternal uncleLeoncio Vidalwas a leading revolutionary fighter. In Spain, he enrolled in the Infantry Academy ofToledoin 1907. He served in Spain's colonial war inMoroccowhere he received theMilitary Medal,and became an authority on military affairs. He was wounded in action during theKert campaignin May 1912 in thethighand thus he was promoted to Captain.[1]By 1927 he was a Brigadier-general.
Mola was made Director-General of Security in 1930, the last man to hold this post underAlfonso XIII.[2]This was a political post and his conservative[citation needed]views made him unpopular with oppositionliberalandsocialistpoliticians. When the left-wingPopular Frontgovernment was elected in February 1936 Mola was made commander of thePamplonagarrison, since the government regardedNavarreas a backwater region. In reality, the area was a center ofCarlistactivity, and Mola himself secretlycollaborated with the movement.He worked with elements of the right-wingSpanish Military Unionand by the end of April 1936 was acknowledged as its leader in north-central Spain.[3]
July Rebellion and Civil War
[edit]Mola emerged as the chief planner among the plotters. While GeneralJosé Sanjurjo,in exile in Portugal, remained the recognized leader, Mola was delegated the authority within the organization to plan operations in Spain.[4]Known as "the Director," Mola sent secret instructions to the various military units to be involved in the uprising and worked out a detailed plan for a post-coup government. In a memorandum dated 5 June 1936, Mola envisioned a "republican dictatorship" based on the Portuguese model. The initial government would consist of a "directory" that would oversee a semi-pluralist but authoritarian state. According to Mola: "The Directory will guarantee no change in the republican regime during its administration, with no change in any worker claims that have been legally obtained" but would "create a strong and disciplined state".[4]The 1931 constitution would be suspended and new elections would be held. Certain liberal elements, such as separation of church and state and freedom of worship, were to be maintained. Agrarian issues were to be resolved by regional commissions with the aim of developing small holdings, but allowing for collective cultivation in some circumstances.[5]
Despite extensive planning, Mola apparently doubted the chances for the coup's success. His dim view of the capabilities of monarchist militias and the conservative Catholic partySpanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right(CEDA), as well as only limited support from theFalange,led him as late as 9 July to consider the possibility of having to flee to France if it failed.[6]
After several delays, 18 July 1936 was chosen as the date of the coup.Francisco Franco's participation was not confirmed until early July.[7]Although events ran ahead of schedule in theSpanish Protectorate of Morocco,Mola waited until 19 July to proclaim the revolt.[8]When Mola's brother was captured by the Republicans in Barcelona, the government threatened his life. Mola replied: "No, he knows how to die as an officer. I can neither take back my word to my followers and probably you cannot either from yours." The brother ended up committing suicide. Mola then ordered systematic executions in captured cities to instill fear.[9][page needed]He famously declared:
... "we must extend the terror; we must impose the impression of dominion while eliminating without scruples everyone who does not think as we do(eliminando sin escrupulos a todos los que no piensen como nosotros) ".[10]
TheNationalist coupfailed to gain control of Madrid or other urban areas, albeit most of the armed forces had supported it. As the situation devolved into civil war, Sanjurjo was killed in an air crash on 20 July. Mola then became Nationalist commander in the north, while Franco became commander in the south. With the death of Sanjurjo, Mola established a multi-member governing body for the so-called "Nationalist zone" (zona nacional) called theNational Defense Junta.Based in Burgos, it was nominally headed byMiguel Cabanellas,the most senior participating general.[11]
On 5 September aNationalist offensivesent by General Mola under ColonelAlfonso BeorleguitookIrúnand closed the French border. Mola's forces went on to secure the whole of the province ofGuipúzcoa,isolating the remaining Republican provinces in the north.
AjuntainBurgosproved unable to set overall strategy; thus, Franco was chosen commander-in-chief at a meeting of ranking generals on 21 September. Mola continued to command the Army of the North and led an unsuccessful effort to takeMadridin October. In a radio address, he described Nationalist sympathizers in the city as a "fifth column"that supplemented his four military columns.[12]The Republican government then proceeded to carry out the mass execution of as many as 2,000 suspected civilian and military supporters of the Nationalists. What was later known as theParacuellos massacrescrushed any potential fifth column.[13][14]
Death
[edit]Mola died on 3 June 1937, when theAirspeed Envoytwin-engined aircraft in which he was travelling flew into the side of a mountain in bad weather while returning toVitoria.The deaths of Sanjurjo, Mola, andGodedleft Franco as the pre-eminent leader of the Nationalist cause. In the assessment of historian Stanley Payne, Mola had been "the only subordinate capable of talking back to Franco."[15]Although there have always been accusations that Franco arranged the deaths of his two rivals, so far no evidence has been produced.[8]
In 1947, Franco, asCaudilloof the recently re-established Kingdom of Spain, posthumously granted Mola the title of Duke of Mola andGrandee of Spain.The title was immediately assumed by his son, Don Emilio Mola y Bascón. It was abolished in October 2022, under the purview of the Law of Democratic Memory.[16]
See also
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
[edit]- ^Atienza Peñarrocha, Antonio (2012)."Africanistas y junteros: el ejército español en África y el oficial José Enrique Varela Iglesias"(PDF).Valencia. p. 238. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2021-11-05.Retrieved2020-08-27.
- ^Payne, S.The Spanish Civil War.Cambridge University Press, 2012. p 66.
- ^Payne 2012,p. 66-67.
- ^abPayne 2012,p. 67.
- ^Payne 2012,p. 67-68.
- ^Payne 2012,p. 68.
- ^Preston, Paul,"From Rebel to Caudillo: Franco's path to power",History Today,July 1986, pp. 24-2936(7)
- ^abJackson, Gabriel,The Spanish Republic and the Civil War 1931-39,New Jersey, 1967.
- ^Preston, Paul. 2012.The Spanish Holocaust.Harper Press. London.
- ^Unearthing Franco's Legacy,p. 175
- ^Payne 2012,p. 82.
- ^An early usage of the phrase: "Police last night began a house-to-house search for Rebels in Madrid... Orders for these raids... apparently were instigated by a recent broadcast over the Rebel radio station by General Emilio Mola. He stated he was counting on four columns of troops outside Madrid and another column of persons hiding within the city who would join the invaders as soon as they entered the capital."New York TimesOctober 16, 1936.
- ^VIDAL, Cesar. Paracuellos-Katyn: un ensayo sobre el genocidio de la izquierda. Madrid, 2005. p.2164
- ^Helen Graham (2002).The Spanish Republic at War 1936-1939.Cambridge University Press. p. 190.ISBN9780521459327.
- ^Payne 2012,p. 191.
- ^Jefatura del Estado:"Ley 20/2022, de 19 de octubre, de Memoria Democrática"(PDF).Boletín Oficial del Estado.Madrid: Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado: 33–34. 20 October 2022.ISSN0212-033X.
Sources
[edit]- Payne, Stanley G.(2012).The Spanish Civil War.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-17470-1.
- Payne, Stanley G.;Palacios, Jesús(2018).Franco: A Personal and Political Biography(4th ed.).University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-0-299-30214-6.
- 1887 births
- 1937 deaths
- People from Placetas
- Spanish generals
- Spanish military personnel of the Rif War
- Spanish military personnel killed in the Spanish Civil War (National faction)
- Dukes of Mola
- Cuban nobility
- Grandees of Spain
- Spanish anti-communists
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1937
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Spain
- Spanish military personnel of the Kert campaign
- Perpetrators of political repression in Francoist Spain