From August 14 to September 17, 1937, the Battle of Santander was fought in Cantabria, northern Spain, as Nationalist and Italian forces under General Fidel Dávila destroyed the Republican Army of the North. The fall of Santander on August 26 assured the Nationalist conquest of the province and marked the end of organized Republican resistance in northern Spain. The battle resulted in the capture of tens of thousands of Republican prisoners, who were subjected to brutal conditions in Nationalist prison camps.

The fall of Santander was mourned in Republican poetry, with writers lamenting the loss of the north and the suffering of the prisoners. The battle also inspired poetry among Basque and Catalan volunteers, who saw the defeat as a betrayal by the wider Republic. The poetry of the northern campaign often emphasized the isolation and abandonment felt by the Republican forces, as the international community failed to intervene.