 Complete the following phrase:  After the breakout of the 1936 civil war in Spain, the Catalan government looked to create its own army, independent of the organic structures of the Republican army which operated in the rest of the Republican territory. On 6 December 1936, the Catalan Ministry of Defence declared the creation of the Peoples Army of Catalonia. However, this army existed far more on paper than it did in reality, as the anarchist militias continued to have a great degree of autonomy, and in many cases did not become part of the new army. After the 