20 March 1936

To my surprise, I actually left France; I never thought I would leave.  I am now in Spain.  The 1936 Spain election was underway and I new some important and historic events would come of it, so I decided to pack my bags and travel to my final country destination before my trip home, Spain.  A coalition government, The Popular Front Party, was elected into power.  The coalition consisted of all left wing movement groups in Spain – Communists, socialists and anarchists.  However, each group has a slightly different agenda.  The communists want to put institutions in place and have state owned infrastructure.  The anarchists want to abolish all institutions and everyone is for their selves.  The differences between the groups started to manifest themselves and the coalition starts to breakdown.  And to add to these problems, the Spanish population is not supporting the newly elected political party; they do not feel that the Popular Front Party can run the country.  A domino effect starts to occur; one event leads to another.  The Spanish Nationalists, a ring wing party, start to rebel against the Popular Front Party.  The Nationalists strongly believe in the military, therefore they are gaining support from the Spanish army.  General Franco, the leader of the Spanish army, wants to settle the unrest within the country.  The right wing (Nationalists) and the left wing (Popular Front Party) set up military camps against each other to decide who is going to control Spain.  And the Spanish Civil War begins.

As a tourist, being in Spain is not the best place to be right now.  I wish I could seek refuge in France, but France is unstable due to Spain’s War so unfortunately I will not be traveling back to France.  I will travel back to Britain until my final voyage home.  I really liked being in Britain, so what better way to spend my last few weeks in Europe?! I am packing my bags this evening; one more day here will not do me any good. 

Pray for safety for the people of Spain!