Miaja was later transferred to Melilla where he served in the Moroccan War of 1900, achieving the rank of major comandante in 1911, and rising to General in 1932.

Despite Miaja's membership of the right-wing Unión Militar Española, in 1935 conservative minister of War, José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones, sent him to Lérida, a relatively obscure posting far from the capital, an indication that he did not have the full confidence of the government.

[2] As a Spanish Republican Army commander of the Central Zone, he directed the battles of the Jarama, Guadalajara and Brunete.

[3][4] He later supported the rebellion led by Segismundo Casado against the government of prime minister Juan Negrín in March 1939, serving as President of the National Defence Council (Consejo Nacional de Defensa).

[6] After the end of the Civil War, he went to Gandia, where he boarded a plane to Oran that took him into exile, first to French Algeria and France, then to Mexico,[7] where he died on 14 January 1958.