Spanish Coup of July 1936

The Spanish coup of July 1936 fractured the Spanish Republican Armed Forces and 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 left-wing Popular Front government, elected five months previously, 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.

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. On 19 July the cabinet headed by the newly appointed prime minister José Giral ordered the distribution of weapons to the unions, helping to defeat the rebels in Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, which led to anarchists taking 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 Peninsular army, which allowing for large numbers on extended leave totaled about 66,000 men, and all of the 30,000-strong Army of Africa. The Army of Africa was Spain's most professional and effective 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 Both sides had few tanks and outdated aircraft, and naval capacity was fairly even.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.

Following the elections of November 1933, Spain entered a period called the "black two years" (Spanish: bienio negro). Both Carlists and Alfonsist monarchists continued to prepare, receiving the backing of Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. 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.

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