The Badajoz massacre occurred in the days after the Battle of Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War. Between 500 and 4,000 civilian and military supporters of the Second Spanish Republic were killed by the Nationalist forces after the seizure of the town of Badajoz on August 14, 1936. Background The situation in Extremadura had been extremely tense for several months before the civil war commenced on July 17, 1936. The Republican government had passed the Agrarian Reform Law, which gave peasant farmers, who were more than 50% of the active population, the right to become owners of the land that they worked. That resulted in major confrontations between the farmers and the region's major landowners. In March 1936, labourers in the Badajoz region attempted to accelerate the implementation of the law by invading and occupying the farmlands in question. In the aftermath of the Nationalist military rebellion, several bloody events in the region were perpetrated by Republicans, which were described as the "Republican repression" or the Spanish Red Terror. Queipo de Llano and Juan Yagüe would later justify the massacre at Badajoz as punishment for the Republican massacre of Nationalist supporters. After the outbreak of war, on the night of July 18–19 in Fuente de Cantos, 56 people were forced into a church, which was then set ablaze from outside. Twelve victims died, with eight of them burned. On August 17 in Almendralejo, 28 Nationalist supporters, who had been held in prison, were executed. Eleven Nationalist supporters were executed in Badajoz itself. In all, some 243 people were executed in the west of the Province of Badajoz by Republican forces. The Nationalists committed atrocities on Republican supporters during the advance of General Yagüe's column on Badajoz from Seville. In every city taken by Yagüe's troops, dozens to thousands of people were killed. After the occupation of Fuente de Cantos by Yagüe's column, some 325 Republicans were executed. Another 403 Republicans were executed after the fall of Almendralejo. Between 6,610 and 12,000 persons were killed by Nationalist forces in the western part of the Province of Badajoz, including the city of Badajoz itself. Most of the victims were journeymen and farmers. The massacres were part of the Spanish "White Terror". Taking of Badajoz The occupation of Badajoz occurred during the advance of the Nationalist Army from Andalucía to the north of the Iberian Peninsula. The assault on the city was vital