François Godicheau's Conference "New Perspectives on the Spanish Civil War"

As part of the first series of conferences Agora des Savoirs 2026-2027.

Spain, July 1936. A coup attempts to overthrow the Republic. The assassination of democracy by military, monarchists, and fascists was long premeditated. The intensity of the popular reaction and the regime's resistance, less expected, transforms this conflict into a bloody war lasting nearly three years. A war that is both political and social, civil and international: Mussolini and Hitler support General Franco's troops, while the USSR sides with the Republicans, and liberal democracies abstain.

The world watches Spain and mobilizes for this war that results in over 500,000 deaths and just as many exiles. Today, numerous research and archives, as well as testimonies, allow for a new history of the Spanish Civil War to be written. This history reveals the long-term undermining of democracy by reactionary forces and the Spanish far-right, well before 1936. It shows the deep mechanisms of Franco's dictatorship and finally examines the day-to-day experiences of the actors in this major episode of 20th-century Europe.

Free entry, subject to availability.

Author Biography

François Godicheau is a history professor at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès. He has published around fifteen works, including several books on the Spanish Civil War.

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