1936 in the Spanish Civil War

By the summer, important tendencies of the war become clear, both in terms of atrocities on both sides and in the contrast between the Soviet Union's intermittent help to the Republican government and the committed support of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany for the Nationalists.

Any hope of a quick ending to the war was dashed on July 21, the fifth day of the rebellion, when the Nationalists captured the main Spanish naval base at Ferrol in northwestern Spain.

On September 13 the Basques surrendered San Sebastián to the Nationalists, who then advanced toward their capital, Bilbao, but were stopped at the border of the province.

Nationalist forces under Franco won a great symbolic victory on September 27 when they relieved the besieged Alcázar at Toledo.

Two days after relieving the siege, Franco proclaimed himself Generalísimo and Caudillo ("chieftain"); he would forcibly unify the various Falangist and Royalist elements of the Nationalist cause.