Danza de la Muerte: Greek Arms Dealing in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

In September 1936, both General Ioannis Metaxas and King George II declared it illegal for Greeks to intervene in the ongoing Spanish Civil War. This declaration included a prohibition on the exportation and re-exportation of munitions. Nonetheless, members of the Greek Government permitted Prodomos Bodosakis Athanasiadis, a close friend of Metaxas, and the Greek Powder and Cartridge Company (GPCC) to ship and supply weapons to both sides in the Spanish conflict on a large scale. The objective of this thesis is to examine Greece’s weapons and ammunition sales to the Nationalists and the Republic during the Spanish Civil War as well as Greece’s internal and foreign policies that allowed for these dealings to occur. This thesis will contend that high-ranking members of the Greek Government permitted Bodosakis and the GPCC to sell munitions to both sides of the conflict as an economic expedient despite the ideology of the Metaxas dictatorship.