It was formed in November 1936 after the Spanish Republican government had fled to Valencia when General Francisco Franco's forces advanced on Madrid.

It was expected that the city would fall within a few days, but the arrival of the International Brigades halted the rebel advance, and the situation settled into a stalemate.

At the start of November 1936 the rebel armies led by General Francisco Franco approached Madrid, brushing aside the untrained and ill-equipped militias they encountered.

The government of the Second Spanish Republic under Francisco Largo Caballero had done nothing to prepare the capital's defenses for fear of alarming the population.

It is made up of all the organizations which form part of the Government and which contribute their effort to the struggle taking place at the gates of Madrid.

[7] Miaja, a conservative but also a republican loyalist, was very close to the Spanish Communist Party (Partido Comunista Español, PCE), whose propaganda made him a symbol of Madrid's resistance to Fascism.

[10] The PCE and the affiliated Unified Socialist Youth (JSU: Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas) were the best organized groups with the most effective propaganda, and dominated the council.

"[8] The anti-Stalinist POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, Workers' Party of Marxist Unification) was excluded from the council at the insistence of the communists.

"[13] According to a group of parliamentarians from Britain who visited Madrid early in the struggle, "The Civil Government seems to be largely in the hands of young men, sometimes barely of age.

[10] The communists gained prestige and influence from the contribution of the International Brigades and the supply of tanks, airplanes and advisers that began to be delivered from the Soviet Union.

[17] Due to the severity of his wounds, Yagüe was relieved as a member of the Council and replaced by Luis Nieto de la Fuente, his deputy.

[20] The council's posters stressed the importance of the primary goal of defending the "democratic republic" and defeating the rebels, and attacked revolutionaries who wanted radical social and political changes.

This was counter to the beliefs of some parts of the CNT and of the Trotskyist POUM, who demanded changes such as collective ownership of all means of production.

[21] On 29 January 1937 Isidoro Diéguez Dueñas proposed that the POUM radio station in Madrid and its newspaper El Combatiente Rojo should be seized, since he claimed they had been devoted "solely and exclusively to combating the government and the Popular Front."

[22] After the fall of Málaga in February 1937 the junta launched a campaign to purge the army of appointees by Largo Caballero who resisted its authority.