Worksheet by RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.

uk / 1
The Causes of the Spanish Civil War: Causation Exercise

Political
▪

Regional Socio-Economic
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▪ ▪

▪ ▪

Military Religious
▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪

Tasks
▪ Write three bullet points of essential information for each of the factors.
▪ Connect two factors together by writing a "connecting statement" in a yellow box and
adding an arrow head at one end of the line it appears over to illustrate the connection
between cause and effect.
▪ Repeat the process until the factors are connected in a chain of some sort.
 Worksheet by RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.uk / 2

Extension / Detailed approach for Advanced Level

1. Linkage
Write the opening sentence of each paragraph of your essay. When these are
read in turn, it should be easy for anyone else in the class to recreate the
diagram you produced on the previous page.

2. Depth
▪ For each of the six factors, you should not simply write a series of factual
points, but rather use it as an opportunity to express your opinion on each of the
following statements:

Political "Political instability in Spain in the years before the Civil War
was caused more by the Left than by the Right"

Regional "Concessions to Catalonia and the Basque country ironically

increased rather than lessened their demands for full
independence"
Social and "The root cause of social and economic instability in Spain in
Economic the years before the civil war lay in the cities rather than in the
countryside"
Military "The military were motivated by self-interest rather than
patriotism in the years leading up to the civil war"

Religious "The conservatism of the Spanish Church was a positive and

moderating influence which delayed rather than accelerated
the drift towards civil war"

▪ To do this, your teacher may wish to ask each person in the class to argue
either in favour or against a particular statement, and for the rest of the class to
record the points made. The random name picker at www.classtools.net could be
used to allocate out each statement to two opposing speakers.