The Insurgents (or Nationalists) succeeded in seizing power in Morocco, Navarre, Galicia, Old Castile and Seville, but were thwarted in the key cities of Barcelona and Madrid.

Santiago Casares Quiroga (of the Left Republican Party) resigned from the post of Prime Minister of the Republic. President Manuel Azana asked Diego Martinez Barrio (a member of the Republican Union Party) to form a moderate government that could negotiate with the rebels. When Barrio was unable to form a government that enjoyed any real support he resigned. Professor Jose Giral (of the Republican Party) replaced him and ordered that arms be distributed to the workers.

General Francisco Franco flew from Tenerife to Tetuan to take over command of the Army of Africa.

Prime Minister Giral appealed to the French Socialist Government (whose Prime Minister was Leon Blum) for arms supplies.

General Francisco Franco sent emissaries to Hitler and Mussolini to ask for military aid and technical assistance.

The nominal leader of the Rising, General Jose Sanjurjo, was killed when the aircraft bringing him from Portugal to Burgos crashed on take-off.

THE SIEGE OF THE ALCAZAR

When it became apparent that the Rising in Madrid had failed, the Nationalist supporters in Toledo, which is 40 miles to the Southwest of the capital, occupied the Military Academy in the Alcazar fortress. The garrison was mainly drawn from the local Guardia Civil and Falange, and was commanded by the Commandant of the Academy, Colonel Jose Moscardo. For two months the defenders held out against the Republican Militia units besieging them; they were finally relieved when troops from the Army of Africa, led by Colonel Jose Varela, stormed Toledo. The raising of the siege of the Alcazar did much to enhance General Franco's reputation, but the diversion of Varela's troops from the advance on Madrid gave the capital's defenders further time to prepare their defences.

El Ferrol, the main naval base in the Northwest of Spain, surrendered to the Nationalists. As a result the Nationalists acquired a battleship, Espana, two cruisers, Republica and Almirante Cervera (with another two, Baleares and Canarias, under construction), and a destroyer, Velasco.

The COMINTERN agreed to send volunteers and funds to aid the Republic.

Adolf Hitler agreed to send military aid to the Nationalists after negotiating with representatives sent to Berlin by General Franco.

REPUBLICAN INVASION OF MAJORCA

On 9th August a Republican expeditionary force of Catalan and Valencian troops, commanded by Air Force Captain Alberto Bayo and Guardia Civil Captain Manuel Uribarri, landed on Ibiza. With the help of local people the expeditionary force quickly overcame the Nationalist garrison, and the island returned to Republican control. Seven days later, at dawn on 16th August, the Catalan troops, led by Captain Bayo, landed on Majorca, and by the evening they had advanced eight miles inland from their landing place at Porto Cristo. The Nationalist garrison on Majorca was commanded by Colonel Garcia Ruiz and proved to be much stronger than that on Ibiza. With the help of Italian fighter aircraft and bombers the Nationalists were able to contain any further Republican advance, and on 3rd September they mounted a counter-attack on the Republican bridgehead. The Catalan troops rapidly withdrew to the beaches and re-embarked aboard the ships that had brought them whilst under cover of the guns of the battleship Jaime I.

General Franco was proclaimed Commander-in-Chief (Generalissimo) and Head of State in Burgos.

The Republican Government approved the Statute giving autonomy to the Basque Provinces. Jose Antonio Aguirre became the first President of the new Basque State, Euzkadi

The first Soviet aid for the Republic arrived.

The Republican submarine B5 was sunk by Nationalist aircraft off the coast near Malaga

Soviet tanks and aircraft appeared in the front-line for the first time.

German and Italian bombers began a series of raids on Madrid in the hope of destroying civilian resistance.

The Nationalists captured Getafe.

Soviet fighter aircraft appeared for the first time in the skies over Madrid

THE BATTLE FOR MADRID

The Nationalists were now poised to make an all-out attack on Madrid in the hope of capturing the Spanish capital and thus ending the war. The forces at their disposal were led by General Emilio Mola and the majority of them were units of the Army of Africa. Mola ordered Colonel Jose Varela to attack the north-west flank of Madrid's defences, and by 16th November Varela's troops had forced a bridgehead over the River Manzanares. During the following week almost three-quarters of the University City fell to the Nationalists, but the poorly armed militia units that comprised the Popular Army, led by General Jose Miaja and aided by Soviet tanks and aircraft, stemmed the Nationalist advance. Further assistance to the Republican cause came from the first International Brigade units to reach the front-line. It is worth noting that the XIth Brigade, which was mostly composed of German, Polish and French volunteers, arrived after the front-line had stabilised. By 23rd November both sides were exhausted by the fighting and began digging in. Varela had failed to achieve the desired break-through. Although the Nationalists held the areas to the North and West of the city, it was obvious that all further frontal attacks upon Madrid would be costly and likely to fail.

THE BATTLE FOR THE CORUNNA ROAD

As the frontal attack upon Madrid had failed, the Nationalists now tried to tighten the siege and to cut off the capital from the rest of Republican Spain. On 13th December General Jose Varela launched an offensive towards the Corunna Road, which runs 25 miles to the North of Madrid. Between 3rd and 15th January his forces held a 7 mile stretch of the road against fierce attacks by Republican troops but, as casualties mounted on both sides, it became apparent that the situation had become a stalemate.

The POUM (Partido Obrero de Unification Marxista [Revolutionary (i.e. anti-Stalinist) Communists]) was ousted from the Generalitat (Catalan Government) by the Communists.

The first Italian "volunteers" arrived in Cadiz to aid the Nationalists.

The Council of Aragon, which was dominated by the CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo [the Anarcho-Syndicalist Trades Union]), was recognised by the Republican government.