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This article examines how the war, as early as the summer of 1936, was used to legitimise Spain’s “New State”. The war was framed as a bellum justum (just war) and provided a causa justa (just cause) for the military rebellion led by its caudillo, the charismatic Francisco Franco, and defended by the blood of its “martyrs” and those fallen (caídos) in battle. Once it took root, this war was designed to end with the total destruction, moral devalorisation and dehumanisation of the enemy. The spread of these forms of representation created a culture of war used to construct the collective identity of a “national” Spain, in opposition to the “anti-Spain”. The institutionalisation of a death cult, as well as the transfer of dogmatic, liturgical and ritual elements from the Christian to the political repertoire, were essential for the construction of this culture of war.