Foreign intervention sometimes played a crucial role in the outcome of theEuropean civil wars of the early twentieth century. The Baltic states couldnever have beaten back the Bolsheviks without the assistance of the British andGermans. In Hungary, Rumanian invasion, not counterrevolution, overthrew theBela Kun regime. In Finland, the Whites substantially defeated the Reds, butGerman assistance sealed the victory. Later, Soviet invasion guaranteed thefinal triumph of Tito's Yugoslav Partisans. British and American assistance wasdecisive in the outcome of the Greek civil war of 1944–49.

The Russian civil war seems to have been the exception. Limited intervention byBritain, France, Japan, and the United States failed to prevent the triumph ofBolshevism. The crucial intervention in Russia, however, was that of Germany,whose cooperation made possible the initial consolidation of the Bolshevikregime.

Spain had been absent from great power politics for a century and more, and hadno allies, but then, except in 1898, it had not recently had need of them. Onthe other hand, Salvador de Madariaga, as acting representative of the Republicat the League of Nations in Geneva, had undertaken a new role virtually on hisown, assuming the leadership of the lesser powers in opposition to Japanese andItalian aggression. This was the most significant new Spanish diplomaticinitiative in more than a century, though it all went for naught.