Massacre of Badajoz

The massacre of Badajoz occurred in the days after the Battle of Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War. Between 1,341 and 4,000 civilian and military supporters of the Second Spanish Republic, were killed by the Nationalist forces following the seizure of the town of Badajoz on August 14, 1936.

Background

The situation in Extremadura had been extremely tense for several months before the civil war commenced on July 17, 1936. The Republican government had passed an Agrarian Reform Law, which gave peasant farmers (who were more than 50% of the active population) the right to become owners of the land they worked. The act resulted in major confrontations between the farmers and the region's major landowners. In March 1936, labourers in the Badajoz region attempted to accelerate implementation of the law by invading and occupying the farmlands in question.

In the aftermath of the Nationalist military rebellion, several bloody events in the region were perpetrated by Republicans; these acts were described as the "republican repression" or the Spanish Red Terror. Queipo de Llano and Juan Yagüe would later justify the massacre at Badajoz as punishment for the republican massacre of Nationalist supporters.

Badajoz

Badajoz (Spanish pronunciation: [baðaˈxoθ], formerly written Badajos in English; is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The population in 2011 was 151,565.

Conquered by the Moors in the 8th century, Badajoz became a Moorish kingdom, the Taifa of Badajoz. After the reconquista, the area was disputed between Spain and Portugal for several centuries with alternating control resulting in several wars including the Spanish War of Succession (1705), the Peninsular War (1808–1811), the Storming of Badajoz (1812), and the Spanish Civil War (1936). Spanish history is largely reflected in the town.

Badajoz is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mérida-Badajoz. Prior to the merger of the Diocese of Mérida and the Diocese of Badajoz, Badajoz was the see of the Diocese of Badajoz from the bishopric's inception in 1255. The city has a degree of eminence, crowned as it is by the ruins of a Moorish castle and overlooking the Guadiana river, which flows between the castle-hill and the powerfully armed fort of San Cristobal. The architecture of Badajoz is indicative of its tempestuous history; even the Badajoz Cathedral, built in 1238, resembles a fortress, with its massive walls. Badajoz is home to the CD Badajoz and AD Cerro de Reyes football clubs and the AB Pacense basketball club. It is served by Badajoz Railway Station and Badajoz Airport.

Badajoz (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Coordinates: 38°40′N 6°10′W / 38.667°N 6.167°W / 38.667; -6.167 Badajoz is one of the 52 electoral districts (Spanish: circunscripciones) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. The method of election is the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation, with a minimum threshold of 3%.

Located in Extremadura in south west Spain, it is the largest electoral district in Congress in terms of geographical area. Badajoz is the largest town with a population of 150,000. Mérida, with over 50,000, and Don Benito and Almendralejo with over 30,000, are the next largest municipalities.

Results

General elections

2011

Vote share

2008

Vote share

Notes

Province of Badajoz

The province of Badajoz (pronounced: [baðaˈxoθ]) is a province of western Spain located in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It was formed in 1833. It is bordered by the provinces of Cáceres in the north, Toledo, Ciudad Real in the east, Córdoba in the south-east, Seville, and Huelva in the south and Portugal in the west.

With its area of 21,766 km², it is the largest province in Spain. The other province of Extremadura, Cáceres, is the second largest with 19,868 km² area. The province has a relatively lower population density in comparison to other provinces in Spain.

As of 2010, the province has a population of 692,137. Its capital is the city of Badajoz.

History and Topography

The province enjoyed great prominence during the Roman empire when Mérida was made one of the capital cities. When the Visigod period ended and the Moors had invaded Spain; the Ibn-al-Aftas dynasty established a great cultural and scientific centre in the province. Many of the explorers who set out to conquer the New World under Alfonso IX were from this province. Although in many districts there are low ranges of hills, the surface is more often a desolate and monotonous plain, flat or slightly undulating. Its one large river is the Guadiana, which traverses the north of the province from east to west, fed by many tributaries; but it is only at certain seasons that the river-beds fill with any considerable volume of water, and the Guadiana may frequently be forded without difficulty. The climate is continental with great extremes of heat in summer and of cold in winter, when fierce north and north-west winds blow across the plains. Mountains, pastures and Mediterranean forests are important geographical features of this province.