The resulting civil war ultimately led to the establishment of a nationalist regime under Francisco Franco, who became ruler of Spain as caudillo.

On 19 July, the cabinet headed by the newly appointed prime minister José Giral ordered the distribution of weapons to the unions.

[7] 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.

[10] General Francisco Franco was put in informal command of the military effort against the Asturian miners' revolt of 1934 during which striking labourers had occupied several towns and the provincial capital.

[29] Following the election of 18 January 1936, the Republican government in the winter and spring that year faced numerous challenges, not least of which was balancing itself between the threat posed by leftist unions, the counter for which might prove to be the continued support of the right-leaning military.

[34] On 12 June, Prime Minister Casares Quiroga met General Juan Yagüe, who was accused of masterminding the growing conspiracy in North Africa.

[36] Mola began serious planning in the spring, but Franco hesitated until early July, which inspired other plotters to refer to him as "Miss Canary Islands 1936".

[38] On 12 July 1936 in Madrid, a member of the Falange, Jorge Bardina, murdered lieutenant José Castillo of the assault guards police force.

The next day, members of the assault guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo, a leading Spanish monarchist and a prominent parliamentary conservative; the original target had been Gil Robles, but he could not be found.

[39] Calvo Sotelo had protested against agricultural reforms, expropriations and restrictions on the authority of the Catholic Church, which he considered to be Bolshevist and anarchist.

[39] The killing of Calvo Sotelo, a prominent member of Parliament, and the involvement of the police aroused suspicions and strong reactions among the government's opponents on the right.

[39] Although the conservative Nationalist generals had already been in the advanced stages of a planned uprising, the event provided a catalyst and a convenient public justification for their coup, particularly that Spain had to be saved from anarchy by military, rather than democratic, means.

Warned that a coup was imminent, leftists barricaded the roads on the Canary Islands on 17 July, but Franco avoided capture by taking a tugboat to the airport.

[33] On 18 July, Casares Quiroga refused an offer of help from the CNT and UGT and proclaimed that only Spanish Morocco had joined the rebels and that the populace should trust legal methods to deal with the uprising.

[51] The conspiracy relied mostly on mid-range staff and line officers; they were expected to take control of the garrisons and either overpower their seniors or persuade them to join.

The rebel scheme was managed by other Madrid-based generals, especially Rafael Villegas who featured as head of the rebellious Madrid troops, and Joaquín Fanjul.

The key man of Mola's in Barcelona was Francisco Mut Ramón, a top member of the divisional staff who was supported by some local commanders.

Llano de la Encomienda actively worked to suppress the coup, until he was detained by units loyal to Goded; his captivity lasted only a few hours.

Though the conspiracy network was not extensive, the fact that both key military men were involved in the plot led to almost all troops in the district obeying the orders of the rebellious command.

His network was so extensive that Mola, formally Batet's subordinate as commander of the Pamplona military region, was confident the 6th Division would be firmly with the rebels.

The key person among the conspirators was the chief of staff, Anselmo López-Maristany, but in June he was posted to Madrid, and he kept co-ordinating the plot in Valladolid from the capital.

On the evening of 18 July a group of senior officers from Madrid, including Saliquet, Uzquiano, López-Maristany and Martín-Montalvo, led the takeover of the military structures, which involved a shootout with men of Molero, who was eventually detained.

The chief of staff, Luis Tovar Figueras, maintained sporadic and loose contacts with UME, but he neither took part in the conspiracy nor took any action against it.

[66] Despite the ruthlessness and determination of the supporters of the coup, the rebels failed to take any major cities, with the critical exception of Seville, which provided a landing point for Franco's African troops.

Republican leader Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by José Giral, who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population.

[71] Meanwhile, the Army of Africa crossed the Gibraltar Strait, using Junkers Ju 52 transport planes provided by Nazi Germany, without any loyalist Air Force interference owing to the confusion on the Spanish Republican side.

The Republican Government was left controlling almost all of the Eastern Spanish coast and the central area around Madrid, as well as Asturias, Cantabria and part of the Basque Country in the north.

[73] When proclaiming martial law in Pamplona, Mola declared: "Re-establishing the principle of authority demands unavoidably that punishments be exemplary in terms of both their severity and the speed with which they will be carried out, without doubt or hesitation.

Acts of spontaneous revenge flared up in Loyalist areas with the random murders of perceived fascists, conservatives and Nationalists by excited mobs.

[77] In terms of raw numbers, the Army of Africa, which was entirely under Nationalist control, had 30,000 men and was considered Spain's top fighting force.