Unionist involvement in the Spanish Civil War
Involvement of the Union of American States in the Spanish Civil War formally began in July 1936 following the outbreak of the war with the Landonist government of the American Union providing diplomatic, medical and (informally) military and logistical support to the Second Spanish Republic and the Republican faction throughout the duration of the war. President Adrian Fisher had declared the Nationalists to be terrorists and pledged the Union's support to the Republican government ever since the Second Republic was established in 1931 and also recognized Luis Guido as Prime Minister of Spain.
Throughout the war, the American Union supported the Republicans and deployed the Union Merchant Marine to send weapons and supplies to the People's Republican Army and other republican militias which included various small arms, ammunition, artillery and even trucks and aircraft. The American Medical Bureau was formed in 1936 and was made up of Unionist volunteers who served as doctors and medics for the republican cause in Spain and thousands were promted to enlist in the Lincoln Brigade of the International Brigades during the war. Once the Spanish People's Republic was established and was the main Spanish state after the war, the American Union continued to support it well after the civil war until both nations' Landonist governments collapsed.
The war provided the American Union to test out new tactics and military technology and used volunteers and the war as a front to test them out in Spain while it was fighting in a civil war, but had limited the scale of sending military hardware in order to not provoke Sierra due to tensions between both nations that had emerged due to Unionist support to Landonist insurgents in the Little Civil War and support for the Crimson Spring in the Northeast Union, Quebec and the Maritime Republic. Nonetheless the Union was successful and helped establish a new Landonist state in Spain which remained a strong ally even as Spain remained neutral in Great War I.
Prelude
Following the Continental Revolution of 1920, a Landonist state had been established in the American Union and this put it at odds with most of its neighbors, especially the Kingdom of Sierra and Brazoria. In the 1930s, the American Union supported Landonist rebellions that broke out across North America ending with independent Landonist states in Quebec and the Maritime Republic, the Northeast Union to become the Congregationalist States, and other insurrections in both Superior and the remnants of Canada which were eventually supressed. This was part of the Union's foreign policy known as revolutionary diplomacy which was meant to export the Continental revolution to other countries and help create friendly regimes in Anglo-America.
The revolution served as a major inspiration for many in Spain with some forming the Spanish Landonist Workers' Party in the 1920s and in 1931 had established the Second Spanish Republic. The American Union had recognized the new nation and signed the Union–Spanish Friendship Agreement in 1932 to cement ties with Republican Spain. The Landonist International had also recognized the new republic and supported the Landonist Party, though officially supported other left-wing parties as well.
1936 general election
During the 1936 Spanish general election, the Landonist Workers' Party had receieved support from the American Union who supported them in the election. The party was part of the Popular Front, a coalition of various left-wing political parties who ran against the right-wing monarchist parties who sought to re-establish the monarchy. The election ended in a Popular Front victory, but they had won by a close plurality and the conflict between the Popular Front, CEDA/Nationalist parties, and the Centre Party was still present and grew ever more. The Centrists agreed to work with some parties of the front, but CEDA refused and the Unionist government would pressure the new Spanish government into banning CEDA citing the openly authoritarian rhetoric of its leadership and how it would take up arms against the republican government the moment they could.