Spanish coup of July 1936
Encyclopedia
The Spanish coup of July 1936 marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
. Following a period of troubles in the Second Spanish Republic
, a group of officers attempted to overthrow the democratic government in a military coup. Planning started in early 1936, and the coup was launched on 17 and 18 July. The coup failed to take complete control of the country and civil war ensued.
Control of the Spanish government switched radically over the three elections of 1931, 1933, and 1936. Rightists considered the leftist government elected in 1931
disastrous, and rolled back many of its changes after their electoral victory in 1933
. Both left-wing parties like the Socialist Party
and right-wing groups like Carlists, Alfonsist monarchists, and the Fascist Falange Española became more extreme, and open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities. Elections in 1936
were narrowly won by the leftist Popular Front
. The rightist Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right
(CEDA) turned its campaign chest over to army plotter Emilio Mola
, and the Falange expanded massively.
Several rightist generals began plotting a coup in the spring of 1936. General José Sanjurjo
became the coup's figurehead, supported by Generals Francisco Franco
, Manuel Goded, and Emilio Mola. The republican government attempted to remove generals of suspect loyalties and some were sent to less important areas; this did not prove as effective as hoped by the Republic. Prime Minister Casares Quiroga refused to believe warnings of an upcoming coup. On 12 July, members of the Falange
murdered the Socialist Lieutenant José Castillo
. Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo
, a leading Spanish monarchist, who was shot by the Guards without trial. The event provided a catalyst and convenient public justification for the coup. The men in Spanish Morocco
were to rise up early on 18 July, and those in Spain itself starting a day later. The rebels termed themselves Nacionales (normally translated "Nationalists"). After Prime Minister Quiroga refused offers of help from the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
(CNT) and Unión General de Trabajadores
(UGT), the groups proclaimed a general strike, in effect mobilising.
The rising was intended to be swift, but the government retained control of most of the country including Málaga
, Jaén
and Almería
. Cadiz
was taken for the rebels and General Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville
. In Madrid
, the rebels were hemmed into the Montaña barracks, which fell with much bloodshed. Prime Minister José Giral
ordered the distribution of weapons among the population, helping to defeat the rebels in Madrid, Barcelona
, and Valencia; however, it allowed the anarchists to take control of large parts of Aragon
and Catalonia
. Rebel General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later condemned to death. The rebels had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men, and all of the 35,000-strong Army of Africa. Commanded by the rebel General Franco, the Army of Africa was Spain's strongest military force. The government retained less than half the supply of rifles, heavy and light machine guns and artillery pieces. Both sides had few tanks and outdated aircraft, and naval capacity was fairly even. Officers' defections weakened Republican units of all types.
. José-María Gil-Robles
struggled to control the CEDA's youth wing, which copied Germany's and Italy's youth movements. Monarchists, however, turned their attention to the Fascist Falange Española, under the leadership of José Antonio Primo de Rivera
. Open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities. Gil-Robles' CEDA continued to mimic the German Nazi Party, staging a rally in March 1934. Gil Robles used an anti-strike law to successfully provoke and break up unions one at a time. Efforts to remove local councils from socialist control prompted a general strike, which was brutally put down, with the arrest of four deputies and other significant breaches of articles 55 and 56 of the constitution.
On 26 September, the CEDA announced it would no longer support the Radical Republican Party
's minority government; it was replaced by an RRP cabinet that included three members of the CEDA. A UGT general strike was unsuccessful in most of Spain. General Francisco Franco
was put in informal command of the military effort against the revolt in Asturias
, the only place it had succeeded. Around 30,000 workers had been called to arms in ten days. Franco's men, some brought in from Spain's Army of Africa, acted horrifically, killing men, women and children, and carrying out summary executions when the main cities of Asturias had been retaken. About 1,000 workers were killed, and about 250 government soldiers. In aligning the political right with the military, and the left with purely legal means, it marked the effective end of the republic. Months of retaliation and repression followed; torture was used on political prisoners. The two generals in charge of the campaign, Franco and Manuel Goded Llopis
, were seen as heroes. Gil-Robles once again prompted a cabinet collapse, and five members of Lerroux
's new government were conceded to CEDA. The military was purged of Republicanist members and reformed; those loyal to Gil-Robles were promoted – Franco was made Chief of Staff.
Elections in 1936
were narrowly won by the Popular Front
. The right began to conspire as to how to best overthrow the republic, rather than taking control of it. The government was weak, and Azaña led a minority government. Pacification and reconciliation would have been a huge task. Acts of violence and reprisals spiralled. In April, parliament replaced Zamora with Azaña as president. However, Azaña was increasingly isolated from everyday politics; his replacement, Casares Quiroga, was weak. This was a watershed event which inspired conservatives to give up on parliamentary politics. CEDA turned its campaign chest over to army plotter Emilio Mola
. Monarchist José Calvo Sotelo
replaced CEDA's Gil-Robles as the right's leading spokesman in Parliament. Prieto did his best to avoid revolution, promoting a series of public works and civil order reforms, including parts of the military and civil guard. Communists quickly took over the ranks of socialist organisations, scaring the middle classes. Several generals decided that the government had to be replaced if the dissolution of Spain was to be prevented. They held a contempt for professional politicians.
The republican government had been attempting to remove suspect generals from their posts, and so Franco was sacked as chief of staff
and transferred to command of the Canary islands
. Goded was sacked as Inspector General
and made general of the Balearic islands
; Emilio Mola
was moved from head of the Army of Africa to be military commander of Pamplona
in Navarre
. However, this allowed Mola to direct the mainland uprising, although the relationship between him and Carlist leaders was problematic. General José Sanjurjo
became the figurehead of the operation, and helped to come to an agreement with the Carlists. Mola
was chief planner and second in command. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put in prison in mid-March in order to restrict the Falange
. However, government actions were not as thorough as they might have been: warnings by the Director of Security and other figures were not acted upon.
On 12 June, Prime Minister Casares Quiroga met General Juan Yagüe
, who was rightly accused of masterminding the growing conspiracy in North Africa, but Yagüe managed to convince Casares of his loyalty to the republic. Mola held a meeting between garrison commanders in the north of Spain on 15 June, and local authorities, on hearing of the meeting, surrounded it with Civil Guards. However, Casares ordered their removal, saying he trusted Mola. Mola began serious planning in the spring, but General Francisco Franco hesitated until early July, inspiring other plotters to refer to him as "Miss Canary Islands 1936". Franco was a key player because of his prestige as a former director of the military academy and as the man who suppressed the Socialist uprising of 1934. He was well respected in the Spanish Moroccan Army, Spain's strongest military force. He wrote a cryptic letter to Casares on 23 June, suggesting that the military was disloyal, but could be restrained if he were put in charge. Casares did nothing, failing to arrest or buy off Franco, even if placing him in overall command was impossible. Franco was to be assigned control of Morocco in the new regime, and largely sidelined. On July 5, an aircraft was chartered to take Franco from the Canary Islands to Morocco. It arrived on July 14.
of the Assault Guards police force. Castillo was a member of the Socialist party. The next day, members of the Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo
, a leading Spanish monarchist and a prominent parliamentary conservative; the original target was Gil Robles but he could not be found. Calvo Sotelo had protested against agricultural reforms, expropriations, and restrictions on the authority of the Catholic Church, which he considered Bolshevist and anarchist. He instead advocated the creation of a corporative state
. Calvo Sotelo was shot by the Guards without trial.
The killing of Sotelo, a prominent member of Parliament, with involvement of the police, aroused suspicions and strong reactions among the government's opponents on the right.Thomas (2001). pp. 196–198, 309: Condés was a close personal friend of Castillo. His squad had originally sought to arrest Gil Robles as a reprisal for Castillo's murder, but Robles was not at home, so they went to the house of Calvo Sotelo. Thomas concluded that the intention of Condés was to arrest Calvo Sotelo and that Cuenca acted on his own initiative, although he acknowledges other sources that dispute this finding. Massive reprisals followed. Although the conservative Nationalist generals were already in advanced stages of a planned uprising, the event provided a catalyst and convenient public justification for their coup, and in particular that Spain would have to be saved from anarchy by military rather than democratic means. The Socialists and Communists (lead by Prieto) demanded that arms be distributed to the people, before the military took over. The Prime Minister was hesitant.
Franco's plane landed in Gran Canaria
on July 14, but, based in Tenerife
, he would have been unable to make the plane without the death of General Amado Balmes, military commander in Gran Canaria, who was killed in a shooting accident on July 16. Whether his death was an accident, suicide, or murder is unknown.
. However, the timing was changed: the men in Spanish Morocco were to rise up at 5:00 a.m. and those in Spain itself starting exactly a day later, so control of Spanish Morocco could be achieved and forces sent to Iberia from Morocco to coincide with the risings there. The rising was intended to be a swift coup d'état
, but the government retained control of most of the country.
Control in Spanish Morocco was all but certain; many of the soldiers acted as mercenaries and the vast majority of officers backed the rebel cause. Those recruited form the local populace were predominantly Muslim
and were told that the Republic wished to abolish Allah
. The plan was discovered in Morocco during 17 July, which prompted it to be enacted immediately. By the scheduled time, Spanish Morocco had already been secured as legionnaires moved in working-class areas and shot unionists and loyalist generals. Little resistance was encountered; in total, 189 people were shot by the rebels. Goded and Franco immediately took control of the islands to which they were assigned. Warned that a coup was imminent, leftists barricaded the roads on 17 July, but Franco avoided capture by taking a tugboat to the airport.
On 18 July, Casares Quiroga refused an offer of help from the CNT and UGT, proclaiming that nowhere outside Spanish Morocco had joined the rebels and that the populace should trust legal methods to deal with the uprising. Handing out weapons would be illegal. The CNT and UGT proclaimed a general strike, in effect mobilising. They open weapons caches, some buried since the 1934 risings. The paramilitary forces, better trained than the army, often waited to see the outcome of militia action before either joining or suppressing the rebellion. Quick action by either the rebels or anarchist militias was often enough to decide the fate of a town. General Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville for the rebels, arresting a number of other officers.
which provided a landing point for Franco’s African troops. The primarily conservative and Catholic areas of Old Castile
and León
fell quickly, and in Pamplona
they celebrated the uprising as if it were a festival. The government retained control of Málaga
, Jaén
and Almería
. Cadiz
was taken for the rebels with the help of the first troops from the Army of Africa. In Madrid
they were hemmed into the Montaña barracks. The barracks fell the next day, with much bloodshed. Republican leader Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by José Giral
who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population. This facilitated the defeat of the army insurrection in the main industrial centres, including Madrid, Barcelona
, Valencia and other main cities in the Mediterranean area, but it allowed the anarchists to arm themselves and take control of Barcelona and large swathes of Aragon
and Catalonia
. In Barcelona, the official government lost control of security, essential services and welfare. However, the anarchists held back from demanding too much political power, which could have had even more serious consequences. General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later condemned to death, despite broadcasting a message explaining his captivity over the radio at the request of the authorities.
Meanwhile the Army of Africa crossed the Gibraltar Strait and met General Queipo de Llano's forces in Seville. Their quick movement allowed them to meet General Mola's Northern Army and secure most of northern and northwestern Spain, as well as central and western Andalusia
. The Republican Government ended up with controlling almost all of the Eastern Spanish coast and central area around Madrid, as well as Asturias
, Cantabria
and part of the Basque Country
in the north. Mola was keen to create a sense of fear within Nationalist-controlled areas. There was a massive purge of freemasons, and a wide part of the left, including some moderate socialists. The rebels termed themselves "Nacionales", normally translated as "Nationalists", although the former implies "true Spaniards" rather than a pure nationalistic
cause.
The result of the coup was a Nationalist area of control containing 11 million of Spain's population of 25 million. The Nationalists had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men. In Republican units, however, as much as 90% of officers either rebelled, defected or merely disappeared; some would later turn up in Nationalist ranks. This considerably reduced the units' effectiveness as a new command structure had to be fashioned. No such problem occurred in Nationalist units. The Army of Africa, however, was entirely under Nationalist control, and was made of 35,000 men considered Spain's top fighting force. The rebels were also joined by 30,000 members of Spain's militaristic police forces, the Assault Guards, the Civil Guards, and the Carabineers. 50,000 members of the latter stayed loyal to the government. Of 500,000 rifles, around 200,000 were retained by the government. 65,000 were issued to the Madrid populace in the days following the uprising – of these, only 7,000 were usable. 70,000 or so were lost following early Nationalist advances in the war. Republicans controlled about a third of both heavy and light machine guns; of 1,007 artillery pieces, 387 were in Republican hands. The Spanish Army had, before the coup, just 18 tanks of a sufficiently modern design, and the Republicans retained 10. In terms of numbers, the Nationalists had seized control of 17 warships, leaving the Republicans with 27. However, the two most modern (both cruiser
s of the Canarias class
) were in Nationalist hands; although not ready for service when the war broke out, when launched they compensated for the lack in numbers. The Republican navy suffered from the same problems as the army: many officers had defected or had been killed after trying to do so. Due to the concerns of a Republican officer that such a coup was imminent, two-thirds of air capability were retained by the government – however, the whole of the air service was very outdated and vulnerable both during flight and to mechanical problems.
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. Following a period of troubles in the Second Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
, a group of officers attempted to overthrow the democratic government in a military coup. Planning started in early 1936, and the coup was launched on 17 and 18 July. The coup failed to take complete control of the country and civil war ensued.
Control of the Spanish government switched radically over the three elections of 1931, 1933, and 1936. Rightists considered the leftist government elected in 1931
Spanish general election, 1931
-Background:General Primo de Rivera, who had run a military dictatorship in Spain since 1923, resigned as head of government in January 1930. There was little support for a return to the pre-1923 system, and the monarchy had lost credibility by backing the military government...
disastrous, and rolled back many of its changes after their electoral victory in 1933
Spanish general election, 1933
Elections to Spain’s legislature, the Cortes Generales, were held on 19 November 1933 for all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes of the Second Spanish Republic. Since the previous elections of 1931, a new constitution had been ratified, and the franchise extended to more than six million women...
. Both left-wing parties like the Socialist Party
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
and right-wing groups like Carlists, Alfonsist monarchists, and the Fascist Falange Española became more extreme, and open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities. Elections in 1936
Spanish general election, 1936
Legislative elections were held in Spain on February 16, 1936. At stake were all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes Generales. The winners of the 1936 elections were the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party , Republican Left , Esquerra Republicana de...
were narrowly won by the leftist Popular Front
Popular Front (Spain)
The Popular Front in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election....
. The rightist Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right
Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right
The Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right was a Spanish political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Angel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in terms of the 'affirmation and defence of the principles of Christian...
(CEDA) turned its campaign chest over to army plotter Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He is best-known for having coined the term "fifth column".-Early life:...
, and the Falange expanded massively.
Several rightist generals began plotting a coup in the spring of 1936. General José Sanjurjo
José Sanjurjo
General José Sanjurjo y Sacanell, 1st Marquis of the Rif was a General in the Spanish Army who was one of the chief conspirators in the military uprising that led to the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:...
became the coup's figurehead, supported by Generals Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, Manuel Goded, and Emilio Mola. The republican government attempted to remove generals of suspect loyalties and some were sent to less important areas; this did not prove as effective as hoped by the Republic. Prime Minister Casares Quiroga refused to believe warnings of an upcoming coup. On 12 July, members of the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
murdered the Socialist Lieutenant José Castillo
José Castillo (Spanish Civil War)
José del Castillo Sáez de Tejada or José Castillo was a Spanish Police Guardia de Asalto lieutenant during the Second Spanish Republic...
. Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo was a Spanish politician prior to and during the Second Spanish Republic...
, a leading Spanish monarchist, who was shot by the Guards without trial. The event provided a catalyst and convenient public justification for the coup. The men in Spanish Morocco
Spanish Morocco
The Spanish protectorate of Morocco was the area of Morocco under colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, established by the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and ending in 1956, when both France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence.-Territorial borders:...
were to rise up early on 18 July, and those in Spain itself starting a day later. The rebels termed themselves Nacionales (normally translated "Nationalists"). After Prime Minister Quiroga refused offers of help from the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
(CNT) and Unión General de Trabajadores
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party .-History:...
(UGT), the groups proclaimed a general strike, in effect mobilising.
The rising was intended to be swift, but the government retained control of most of the country including Málaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
, Jaén
Jaén, Spain
Jaén is a city in south-central Spain, the name is derived from the Arabic word Jayyan, . It is the capital of the province of Jaén. It is located in the autonomous community of Andalusia....
and Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...
. Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
was taken for the rebels and General Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
. In Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, the rebels were hemmed into the Montaña barracks, which fell with much bloodshed. Prime Minister José Giral
José Giral
José Giral y Pereira was a Spanish politician during the Second Spanish Republic.He had degrees in Chemistry and Pharmacy from the University of Madrid. In 1905 he became professor of chemistry in the University of Salamanca. He founded Acción Republicana with Manuel Azaña...
ordered the distribution of weapons among the population, helping to defeat the rebels in Madrid, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, and Valencia; however, it allowed the anarchists to take control of large parts of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
and Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. Rebel General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later condemned to death. The rebels had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men, and all of the 35,000-strong Army of Africa. Commanded by the rebel General Franco, the Army of Africa was Spain's strongest military force. The government retained less than half the supply of rifles, heavy and light machine guns and artillery pieces. Both sides had few tanks and outdated aircraft, and naval capacity was fairly even. Officers' defections weakened Republican units of all types.
Prelude
Following the elections of November 1933, Spain entered a period called the "black two years" . Both Carlists and Alfonsist monarchists continued to prepare, receiving the backing of Italian Prime Minister Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. José-María Gil-Robles
José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones
José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones was a prominent Spanish politician in the period leading up to the Spanish Civil War....
struggled to control the CEDA's youth wing, which copied Germany's and Italy's youth movements. Monarchists, however, turned their attention to the Fascist Falange Española, under the leadership of José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...
. Open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities. Gil-Robles' CEDA continued to mimic the German Nazi Party, staging a rally in March 1934. Gil Robles used an anti-strike law to successfully provoke and break up unions one at a time. Efforts to remove local councils from socialist control prompted a general strike, which was brutally put down, with the arrest of four deputies and other significant breaches of articles 55 and 56 of the constitution.
On 26 September, the CEDA announced it would no longer support the Radical Republican Party
Radical Republican Party
The Radical Republican Party , sometimes shortened to the Radical Party was a Spanish political party founded in 1908 by Alejandro Lerroux in Santander, Cantabria by a split from the historical Republican Union party led by Nicolás Salmerón....
's minority government; it was replaced by an RRP cabinet that included three members of the CEDA. A UGT general strike was unsuccessful in most of Spain. General Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
was put in informal command of the military effort against the revolt in Asturias
Asturian miners' strike of 1934
The Asturian miners' strike of 1934 was a major strike action which took place in Asturias in northern Spain soon developing into armed insurrection against the Spanish government.-Background:...
, the only place it had succeeded. Around 30,000 workers had been called to arms in ten days. Franco's men, some brought in from Spain's Army of Africa, acted horrifically, killing men, women and children, and carrying out summary executions when the main cities of Asturias had been retaken. About 1,000 workers were killed, and about 250 government soldiers. In aligning the political right with the military, and the left with purely legal means, it marked the effective end of the republic. Months of retaliation and repression followed; torture was used on political prisoners. The two generals in charge of the campaign, Franco and Manuel Goded Llopis
Manuel Goded Llopis
Manuel Goded Llopis was a Spanish Army general who was one of the key figures in the July 1936 revolt against the Second Spanish Republic. Having unsuccessfully led an attempted insurrection in Barcelona, he was captured and executed by the Republican government...
, were seen as heroes. Gil-Robles once again prompted a cabinet collapse, and five members of Lerroux
Alejandro Lerroux
Alejandro Lerroux y García was a Spanish politician who was the leader of the Radical Republican Party during the Second Spanish Republic...
's new government were conceded to CEDA. The military was purged of Republicanist members and reformed; those loyal to Gil-Robles were promoted – Franco was made Chief of Staff.
Elections in 1936
Spanish general election, 1936
Legislative elections were held in Spain on February 16, 1936. At stake were all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes Generales. The winners of the 1936 elections were the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party , Republican Left , Esquerra Republicana de...
were narrowly won by the Popular Front
Popular Front (Spain)
The Popular Front in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election....
. The right began to conspire as to how to best overthrow the republic, rather than taking control of it. The government was weak, and Azaña led a minority government. Pacification and reconciliation would have been a huge task. Acts of violence and reprisals spiralled. In April, parliament replaced Zamora with Azaña as president. However, Azaña was increasingly isolated from everyday politics; his replacement, Casares Quiroga, was weak. This was a watershed event which inspired conservatives to give up on parliamentary politics. CEDA turned its campaign chest over to army plotter Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He is best-known for having coined the term "fifth column".-Early life:...
. Monarchist José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo was a Spanish politician prior to and during the Second Spanish Republic...
replaced CEDA's Gil-Robles as the right's leading spokesman in Parliament. Prieto did his best to avoid revolution, promoting a series of public works and civil order reforms, including parts of the military and civil guard. Communists quickly took over the ranks of socialist organisations, scaring the middle classes. Several generals decided that the government had to be replaced if the dissolution of Spain was to be prevented. They held a contempt for professional politicians.
Preparations
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
and transferred to command of the Canary islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
. Goded was sacked as Inspector General
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
and made general of the Balearic islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
; Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He is best-known for having coined the term "fifth column".-Early life:...
was moved from head of the Army of Africa to be military commander of Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...
in Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
. However, this allowed Mola to direct the mainland uprising, although the relationship between him and Carlist leaders was problematic. General José Sanjurjo
José Sanjurjo
General José Sanjurjo y Sacanell, 1st Marquis of the Rif was a General in the Spanish Army who was one of the chief conspirators in the military uprising that led to the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:...
became the figurehead of the operation, and helped to come to an agreement with the Carlists. Mola
Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish Nationalist commander during the Spanish Civil War. He is best-known for having coined the term "fifth column".-Early life:...
was chief planner and second in command. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put in prison in mid-March in order to restrict the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
. However, government actions were not as thorough as they might have been: warnings by the Director of Security and other figures were not acted upon.
On 12 June, Prime Minister Casares Quiroga met General Juan Yagüe
Juan Yagüe
Juan Yagüe y Blanco, 1st Marquis of San Leonardo de Yagüe was a Spanish army officer during the Spanish Civil War, one of the most important in the National side.-Early life:...
, who was rightly accused of masterminding the growing conspiracy in North Africa, but Yagüe managed to convince Casares of his loyalty to the republic. Mola held a meeting between garrison commanders in the north of Spain on 15 June, and local authorities, on hearing of the meeting, surrounded it with Civil Guards. However, Casares ordered their removal, saying he trusted Mola. Mola began serious planning in the spring, but General Francisco Franco hesitated until early July, inspiring other plotters to refer to him as "Miss Canary Islands 1936". Franco was a key player because of his prestige as a former director of the military academy and as the man who suppressed the Socialist uprising of 1934. He was well respected in the Spanish Moroccan Army, Spain's strongest military force. He wrote a cryptic letter to Casares on 23 June, suggesting that the military was disloyal, but could be restrained if he were put in charge. Casares did nothing, failing to arrest or buy off Franco, even if placing him in overall command was impossible. Franco was to be assigned control of Morocco in the new regime, and largely sidelined. On July 5, an aircraft was chartered to take Franco from the Canary Islands to Morocco. It arrived on July 14.
Murder of Calvo Sotelo
On 12 July 1936, in Madrid, members of the Falange murdered Lieutenant José CastilloJosé Castillo (Spanish Civil War)
José del Castillo Sáez de Tejada or José Castillo was a Spanish Police Guardia de Asalto lieutenant during the Second Spanish Republic...
of the Assault Guards police force. Castillo was a member of the Socialist party. The next day, members of the Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo was a Spanish politician prior to and during the Second Spanish Republic...
, a leading Spanish monarchist and a prominent parliamentary conservative; the original target was Gil Robles but he could not be found. Calvo Sotelo had protested against agricultural reforms, expropriations, and restrictions on the authority of the Catholic Church, which he considered Bolshevist and anarchist. He instead advocated the creation of a corporative state
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
. Calvo Sotelo was shot by the Guards without trial.
The killing of Sotelo, a prominent member of Parliament, with involvement of the police, aroused suspicions and strong reactions among the government's opponents on the right.Thomas (2001). pp. 196–198, 309: Condés was a close personal friend of Castillo. His squad had originally sought to arrest Gil Robles as a reprisal for Castillo's murder, but Robles was not at home, so they went to the house of Calvo Sotelo. Thomas concluded that the intention of Condés was to arrest Calvo Sotelo and that Cuenca acted on his own initiative, although he acknowledges other sources that dispute this finding. Massive reprisals followed. Although the conservative Nationalist generals were already in advanced stages of a planned uprising, the event provided a catalyst and convenient public justification for their coup, and in particular that Spain would have to be saved from anarchy by military rather than democratic means. The Socialists and Communists (lead by Prieto) demanded that arms be distributed to the people, before the military took over. The Prime Minister was hesitant.
Franco's plane landed in Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago...
on July 14, but, based in Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
, he would have been unable to make the plane without the death of General Amado Balmes, military commander in Gran Canaria, who was killed in a shooting accident on July 16. Whether his death was an accident, suicide, or murder is unknown.
Beginning of the coup
The uprising's timing was fixed at 17 July, at 5:00 p.m.; this was agreed to by the leader of the Carlists, Manuel Fal CondeManuel Fal Condé
Manuel José Fal Condé, Duke of Quintillo, Grandee of Spain was the political leader of the Carlist movement in Spain in the 1930s and during the Spanish Civil War. Condé was born in Seville, Spain and was a lawyer by profession...
. However, the timing was changed: the men in Spanish Morocco were to rise up at 5:00 a.m. and those in Spain itself starting exactly a day later, so control of Spanish Morocco could be achieved and forces sent to Iberia from Morocco to coincide with the risings there. The rising was intended to be a swift coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, but the government retained control of most of the country.
Control in Spanish Morocco was all but certain; many of the soldiers acted as mercenaries and the vast majority of officers backed the rebel cause. Those recruited form the local populace were predominantly Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
and were told that the Republic wished to abolish Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
. The plan was discovered in Morocco during 17 July, which prompted it to be enacted immediately. By the scheduled time, Spanish Morocco had already been secured as legionnaires moved in working-class areas and shot unionists and loyalist generals. Little resistance was encountered; in total, 189 people were shot by the rebels. Goded and Franco immediately took control of the islands to which they were assigned. Warned that a coup was imminent, leftists barricaded the roads on 17 July, but Franco avoided capture by taking a tugboat to the airport.
On 18 July, Casares Quiroga refused an offer of help from the CNT and UGT, proclaiming that nowhere outside Spanish Morocco had joined the rebels and that the populace should trust legal methods to deal with the uprising. Handing out weapons would be illegal. The CNT and UGT proclaimed a general strike, in effect mobilising. They open weapons caches, some buried since the 1934 risings. The paramilitary forces, better trained than the army, often waited to see the outcome of militia action before either joining or suppressing the rebellion. Quick action by either the rebels or anarchist militias was often enough to decide the fate of a town. General Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville for the rebels, arresting a number of other officers.
Outcome
The rebels failed to take any major cities with the critical exception of SevilleSeville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
which provided a landing point for Franco’s African troops. The primarily conservative and Catholic areas of Old Castile
Old Castile
Old Castile is a historic region of Spain, which included territory that later corresponded to the provinces of Santander , Burgos, Logroño , Soria, Segovia, Ávila, Valladolid, Palencia....
and León
León (historical region)
The region of León or Leonese region is a hitoric territory defined by the 1833 Spanish administrative organisation. The Leonese region encompassed the provinces of Salamanca, Zamora, and León, now part of the modern Spanish autonomous community of Castile and León.-Leonese History:Until 1833, the...
fell quickly, and in Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...
they celebrated the uprising as if it were a festival. The government retained control of Málaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
, Jaén
Jaén, Spain
Jaén is a city in south-central Spain, the name is derived from the Arabic word Jayyan, . It is the capital of the province of Jaén. It is located in the autonomous community of Andalusia....
and Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...
. Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
was taken for the rebels with the help of the first troops from the Army of Africa. In Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
they were hemmed into the Montaña barracks. The barracks fell the next day, with much bloodshed. Republican leader Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by José Giral
José Giral
José Giral y Pereira was a Spanish politician during the Second Spanish Republic.He had degrees in Chemistry and Pharmacy from the University of Madrid. In 1905 he became professor of chemistry in the University of Salamanca. He founded Acción Republicana with Manuel Azaña...
who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population. This facilitated the defeat of the army insurrection in the main industrial centres, including Madrid, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Valencia and other main cities in the Mediterranean area, but it allowed the anarchists to arm themselves and take control of Barcelona and large swathes of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
and Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. In Barcelona, the official government lost control of security, essential services and welfare. However, the anarchists held back from demanding too much political power, which could have had even more serious consequences. General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later condemned to death, despite broadcasting a message explaining his captivity over the radio at the request of the authorities.
Meanwhile the Army of Africa crossed the Gibraltar Strait and met General Queipo de Llano's forces in Seville. Their quick movement allowed them to meet General Mola's Northern Army and secure most of northern and northwestern Spain, as well as central and western Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
. The Republican Government ended up with controlling almost all of the Eastern Spanish coast and central area around Madrid, as well as Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
, Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
and part of the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
in the north. Mola was keen to create a sense of fear within Nationalist-controlled areas. There was a massive purge of freemasons, and a wide part of the left, including some moderate socialists. The rebels termed themselves "Nacionales", normally translated as "Nationalists", although the former implies "true Spaniards" rather than a pure nationalistic
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
cause.
The result of the coup was a Nationalist area of control containing 11 million of Spain's population of 25 million. The Nationalists had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men. In Republican units, however, as much as 90% of officers either rebelled, defected or merely disappeared; some would later turn up in Nationalist ranks. This considerably reduced the units' effectiveness as a new command structure had to be fashioned. No such problem occurred in Nationalist units. The Army of Africa, however, was entirely under Nationalist control, and was made of 35,000 men considered Spain's top fighting force. The rebels were also joined by 30,000 members of Spain's militaristic police forces, the Assault Guards, the Civil Guards, and the Carabineers. 50,000 members of the latter stayed loyal to the government. Of 500,000 rifles, around 200,000 were retained by the government. 65,000 were issued to the Madrid populace in the days following the uprising – of these, only 7,000 were usable. 70,000 or so were lost following early Nationalist advances in the war. Republicans controlled about a third of both heavy and light machine guns; of 1,007 artillery pieces, 387 were in Republican hands. The Spanish Army had, before the coup, just 18 tanks of a sufficiently modern design, and the Republicans retained 10. In terms of numbers, the Nationalists had seized control of 17 warships, leaving the Republicans with 27. However, the two most modern (both cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
s of the Canarias class
Canarias class Cruiser
The Canarias class was a class of heavy cruiser of the Spanish Navy. Two ships of the class were completed in the 1930s. They were designed in the United Kingdom and were modified versions of the Royal Navy's County class cruiser. They were built in Spain by the Vickers-Armstrongs subsidiary...
) were in Nationalist hands; although not ready for service when the war broke out, when launched they compensated for the lack in numbers. The Republican navy suffered from the same problems as the army: many officers had defected or had been killed after trying to do so. Due to the concerns of a Republican officer that such a coup was imminent, two-thirds of air capability were retained by the government – however, the whole of the air service was very outdated and vulnerable both during flight and to mechanical problems.