Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)

The Nationalist faction (Spanish: Bando nacional), also called the Rebel faction (Spanish: Bando sublevado) and Francoist faction (Spanish: Bando franquista), was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-wing political groups that supported the Spanish Coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic and Republican faction and sought to depose Manuel Azaña. It included the Falange, the CEDA, and two rival monarchist claimants: the AlfonsistRenovación Española and the CarlistTraditionalist Communion. In 1937, all the groups were merged into the FET y de las JONS. In the course of the war, the Nationalist groups, which exhibited certain "fascisant" and "pre-fascist" tendencies, became unified around a new emerging ideological project marked by modern ultranationalism and the goal of purifying and reviving the nation in the "bonfire" of the war to achieve a Spanish "New Man" similarly to Fascism. After the death of the faction's early leaders, General Francisco Franco, one of the members of the 1936 coup, headed the Nationalists throughout most of the war, and emerged as the dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.

The term Nationalists or Nationals (nacionales) was coined by Joseph Goebbels following the visit of the clandestine Spanish delegation led by Captain requesting war materiel on 24 July 1936, in order to give a cloak of legitimacy to Nazi Germany's help to the Spanish rebel military. The leaders of the rebel faction, who had already been denominated as 'Crusaders' by Bishop of SalamancaEnrique Pla y Deniel – and also used the term Cruzada for their campaign – immediately took a liking to it.

The term Bando nacional or Blancos (Whites) – much as the term rojos (Reds) to refer to the loyalists – is considered by some authors as a term linked with the propaganda of that faction. Throughout the civil war the term 'National' was mainly used by the members and supporters of the rebel faction, while its opponents used the terms fascistas (fascists) or facciosos (sectarians) to refer to this faction.