The Conservatives were, however, only able to keep themselves in power for about the same length of time that the leftists had. In this election, the rightists were returned to power with a large majority. The Communist-Socialist coalition which ruled Spain during the first two years of the republic was, like its predecessors, plagued by strikes, and a general election was called for November 1933. On April 13, 1931, the republic was proclaimed.

In view of this, and in the hope of avoiding civil war, King Alfonso XIII decided on voluntary exile. The parliamentary seats won in this election were divided between the leftists and rightists in such a way that an extremely dangerous situation was created. In the spring of 1931, after several years of civil strife and strikes, municipal elections were held in Spain. Since that war has tended to slip into the dimness of the shadow cast by World War II, the following review of historical and biographical background should clarify a number of things pertinent to the novel. Many young men from the United States and other countries joined the Spanish Loyalist forces in defense of democratic ideals in a war that was won by the dictator, Francisco Franco. In reality, the Spanish Civil War was the first battleground for World War II, testing the forces of Nazism, Communism, and Fascism against either the republican or royal form of government. Later, in 1937, he went to Spain to cover the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. He predicted the civil war would begin in 1935, and when it erupted in 1936, Hemingway began writing and making speeches to raise funds for the Loyalist cause. He had visited Spain again during the summer of 1931 after the overthrow of the monarchy. While still a foreign correspondent in Paris, Hemingway had watched the Spanish political situation developing under the reign of Alfonso XIII. For Whom the Bell Tolls, published in 1940, grew out of Hemingway's personal interest in the Spanish Civil War of the thirties.

For whom the bell tolls 1940