Why control of the cruisers mattered to the Army of Africa

The class became strategically important because Nationalist power depended on moving troops from North Africa into Spain. Republican warships could have contested that movement, making control of the unfinished heavy cruisers a priority. Instead, the Republican Navy failed to secure them and suffered from poor leadership. In this account, that failure forms part of the political miscalculation, arrogance, and ineptitude that launched the war on both sides. Geography made even incomplete ships important because troops had to cross from North Africa.