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The National Defence Council ((スペイン語:Consejo Nacional de Defensa)) was the governing body in Republican Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The council seized power with Colonel Segismundo Casado’s coup on 5 March 1939 when it was clear that the Republicans had lost the war. The leaders hoped to negotiate an end to hostilities with the rebel forces led by General Francisco Franco. Franco insisted on unconditional surrender, and on 26 March 1939 launched the final offensive of the Spanish Civil War. By the end of the month he controlled the whole country. Most of the council members escaped into exile on British warships. ==Background== As early as May 1937, when Julián Besteiro of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party went to London to represent the Spanish Republic at the coronation of King George VI, president Manuel Azaña asked him to inquire if the British government would mediate in the civil war. Besteiro met Anthony Eden on 11 May 1937, but did not get any positive assurances. With the news of the fall of Barcelona on 26 January 1939, and Azaña's resignation as president, Besteiro decided to seek peace. Besteiro wanted to dissolve the Popular Front and replace it with a government that excluded communists, since he thought the policy of the Western democracies towards the civil war was determined by anti-communism rather than appeasement of Hitler and Mussolini. Besteiro contacted Colonel Segismundo Casado, commander of the Republican Army of the Center to discuss a coup. The ''Federación Anarquista Ibérica'' (FAI, Iberian Anarchist Federation) tried to persuade President Manuel Azaña to dismiss the government of Juan Negrín at the start of December 1939, before the Nationalist campaign in Catalonia. They asked him to form "a Government of Spanish significance, which doesn't have in fact and law, as the present one does, the hallmark of dependence on Russia, composed of men free of responsibility for all the disastrous and irresponsible behaviors which characterize the present Government." The fall of Catalonia in February 1939 virtually ensured that the rebels would win the war. The Negrín government temporarily took refuge in France, where 400,000 civilian and military refugees had fled. General José Miaja, who had supreme command of the Republican forces, communicated with Negrin, who was in Toulouse, on 9 February 1939. Miaja wanted permission to negotiate a peace given the extreme weakness of his remaining forces. Negrin returned to Spain on 10 February 1939 and met Segismundo Casado two days later. Casado reported that with the loss of Catalonia, production of war material had dropped by 50%. There was an alarming shortage of raw materials. He said that "Under the circumstances we cannot produce the indispensable minimum for continuing the struggle." By contrast, the enemy had "high morale of victory ... In such conditions, the fall of Madrid is inevitable causing enormous loss of lives, which will be sacrificed in vain." Negrin agreed that the situation was extremely grave, but said "circumstances demand that we continue fighting." Cipriano Mera, commander of the IV Army Corps of the Center, was also convinced that the Republicans would be defeated. When President Negrín refused to surrender to Francisco Franco, Mera decided to support Casado and Besteiro in their coup. On 2 March 1939 the Ministry of Defense decreed a major set of changes to the military command. Miaja was moved from Commander in Chief of Land Forces to the symbolic Inspector General of Air, Sea and Land Forces. Various communists were promoted and assigned to important positions of command, while opponents of communists were moved to insignificant posts. Enemies of Negrín would use the decree as evidence that he was preparing a communist coup. It was the trigger for Casado's preemptive coup. On 4 March 1939 there was a meeting in Casado's residence between Casado, Cipriano Mera and his chief of staff Antonio Verardini, and the CNT central zone defense committee leaders Eduardo Val and Manuel Salgado Moreira. They had learned that the communists were planning a coup for 6–7 March, so had to act fast. At this meeting they decided on the names of most of the men who would form the Council of National Defense. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「National Defence Council (Spain)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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