Patrol boat, Nervion river, Bilbao.

The Guardia Civil is a Spanish police force with both military and civilian functions. It was founded in 1844 by Queen Isabel II of Spain after the First Carlist War to assure the occupation in the newly created border zone at the Pyrenees. They are primarily responsible for security at border areas, rural areas, and, in some cases, traffic zones. It is similar to the Italian Carabinieri and French Gendarmerie. Prior to 1835, similar policing was carried out by the Holy Hermandad. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2224x1348, 1205 KB) Summary Patrullera Río Nervión de la Guardia Civil española en la ría del río Nervión a su paso por Bilbao. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2224x1348, 1205 KB) Summary Patrullera Río Nervión de la Guardia Civil española en la ría del río Nervión a su paso por Bilbao. ... Location of Bilbao in Spain Cityscape of Bilbao, with the Guggenheim Museum on the bottom right Bilbao from satellite (NASA World Wind Landsat) Bilbao (Basque: Bilbo) in the North of Spain, is the largest city in the Pais Vasco and the capital of the province of Vizcaya (Basque: Bizkaia). ... 1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Isabella II (October 10, 1830 – 1904), Isabel II in Spanish, was queen of Spain. ... // Background Main article: Carlism At the beginning of the 18th century, King Philip V of Spain promulgated the Salic Law, thus declaring illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women. ... Central Pyrenees The Pyrenees (French: Pyrénées; Spanish: Pirineos; Occitan: Pirenèus or Pirenèas; Catalan Pirineus; Aragonese: Perinés; Basque: Pirinioak) are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. ... The Carabinieri is the shortened (and common) name for the Arma dei Carabinieri, an Italian military corps of the gendarmerie type with police functions, which also serves as the Italian military police. ... Gendarmes Gendarmes guarding the Paris Hall of Justice Gendarmerie motorcyclists police the roads and autoroutes of rural France. ... 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Hermandad literally brotherhood in Spanish, was a peacekeeping association of armed individuals, a characteristic of municipal life in medieval Spain, especially in Castile. ...

Name

It is also known as el instituto armado ("the armed institution"), la benemérita ("the good-deserving"). Its patrollers are known as números ("numbers").

One of their targets were vagrant Gitanos (gypsies), thought to be thieves. In the end of the nineteenth century, the Guardia Civil conducted a campaign against Andalusian anarchists, accusing them of being member of the secret society La Mano Negra. The Gitanos are Roma people living in Spain. ... Anarchism (the political philosophy advocating a libertarian society without hierarchy, based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation) historically gained the most support and influence in Spain, especially in the seventy or so years before Francisco Francos victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. ...

The Guardia Civil was accused of war crimes, torture and atrocities during the Spanish Civil War and the long rule of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The death of Federico Garcia Lorca, for example, is attributed to the Guardia Civil, although his body was never found. Today, however, the Guardia Civil is generally considered to have been well-reformed in order to fulfil its police duties in Spain's contemporary democratic society. The Spanish Civil War (July 1936–April 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist insurrection led by General Francisco Franco, who eventually succeeded in ousting the Republican government and establishing a dictatorship. ... A generalissimo is a commissioned officer of the highest rank; the word is often translated as Supreme Commander or Commander in Chief. It is an Italian superlative substantive, which grammatically would actually be disallowed in Italian (superlatives can be made with adjectives only). ... Francisco Franco Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (December 4, 1892 – November 20 (or possibly November 19 ) 1975), abbreviated Francisco Franco Bahamonde and sometimes known as Generalisimo Francisco Franco, was the dictator and Head of State of Spain (in parts of the country from 1936, totally from 1939... Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca (June 5, 1898 - August 19, 1936) was a Spanish poet and dramatist, also remembered as a painter, pianist, and composer. ...

Characteristics

They typically patrol in pairs. Their traditional hat is the tricornio, originally three-beaked. Many of their members were drawn from poor regions of Spain such as Galicia. The spoken languages are Galician (Galician: Galego or Gallego), the local national language derived from Latin and Spanish (castellano or español), in common with the rest of Spain. ...

Since its membership is considered military, they are not permitted to join trade unions, unlike the parallel National Police. Members of the Guardia Civil very often live in garrisons (casa-cuartel) with their families. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... ...

The symbol for the Guardia Civil consists of a crown, a sword and a fasces. Roman fasces. ...

On February 23, 1981, Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero Molina, along with a few other members of the Civil Guard, attempted a coup d'etat by holding hostage the lower house of the Cortes during its vote of investiture of Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo as Prime Minister of Spain. Antonio Tejero with a gun in his hand, breaking into the Congress of Deputies February 23, 1981, attempting a coup. ... A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ... The Cortes Generales (English: General Courts) is the Spanish legislature. ... Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo y Bustelo (born in 1926, Madrid) was a Spanish political figure and Prime Minister of the Spanish government during Spains period of transition after the end of Francisco Francos regime. ...

Guardia Civil is one of the targets of ETA attacks. Look up Eta in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Eta means: Eta (letter), from the Greek alphabet (Η, η) eta (glider), A very high performance German glider Eta is an old name for Burakumin, a Japanese social minority group, or, nowadays, an extremely inflammatory Japanese swearword Eta reduction in mathematics, see lambda calculus...

Reference

• Teach Yourself: Spanish Language, Life and Culture. Mike Zollo & Phil Turk (2000).

External link

• Official web page