By examining the experience of rape in Spain in the 1930s and 1940s, this article explains how the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship dramatically increased the likelihood of women becoming victims of sexual assault. Contrary to what historians often assume, this phenomenon was not the result of rape being deliberately used as a ‘weapon of war’ or as a blunt method of political repression against women. The upsurge in sexual violence was a by-product of structural transformations in the wartime and dictatorial contexts, and it was the direct consequence, rather than the instrument, of the violent imposition of a fascist-inspired regime. Using archival evidence from numerous Spanish archives, the article historicizes rape in a wider cultural, legal, and social context and reveals the essential albeit ambiguous political nature of both wartime and post-war rape. The experience of rape was mostly shaped not by repression but structural factors such as ruralization and social hierarchization, demographic upheavals, exacerbation of violent masculinity models, the proliferation of weapons, and the influence of fascist and national-Catholic ideologies. Rape became an expression of the nature of power and social and gender relations in Franco's regime.

通过考察 1930 年代和 1940 年代西班牙的强奸经历，本文解释了西班牙内战和佛朗哥的独裁统治如何大大增加了女性成为性侵犯受害者的可能性。与历史学家通常的假设相反，这种现象并不是故意将强奸用作“战争武器”或作为对妇女进行政治镇压的一种生硬方法的结果。性暴力的激增是战时和独裁背景下结构转型的副产品，它是法西斯主义政权强加暴力的直接后果，而不是工具。该文章使用来自众多西班牙档案馆的档案证据，在更广泛的文化、法律、和社会背景，揭示了战时和战后强奸的基本政治性质，尽管其含糊不清。强奸的经历主要不是由镇压造成的，而是由结构性因素造成的，例如农村化和社会等级化、人口剧变、暴力男子气概模型的恶化、武器的扩散以及法西斯主义和民族天主教意识形态的影响。强奸成为佛朗哥政权中权力性质以及社会和性别关系的一种表达。