Spanish Civil War dates

from the fall of the monarchy

Municipal elections revealed that the Spanish public was alienated from the monarchy

12 April 1931

King Alfonso XIII abdicated the throne and left Spain due to a ‘velvet revolution’

16 April 1931

Left wing coalition government in the Second Spanish Republic

June 1931 to November 1933

Right wing coalition government in the Second Spanish Republic

November 1933 to February 1936

Popular Front government in the Second Spanish Republic

February 1936 to July 1936

Right wing coalition government repealed the Law of Municipal Boundaries

May 1934

CEDA began to dominate the government when its leader Gil Robles was made War Minister

October 1934

Right wing coalition suppressed an uprising by miners in Asturia

October 1934

President Alcala-Zamora dissolved the parliament and called for a general election to take place in…

February 1936

Left wing parties worked together in the elections by not running candidates against each other

February 1936

The CNT called for a general strike

May 1936

Several strikes took place and Prime Minister Quiroga underestimated the seriousness of this

June 1936

Popular Front government assassinated right-wing monarchist Jose Calvo Sotelo

13 July 1936

Planned date for the coup led by the Spanish Military Union

18 July 1936

Coup by the Spanish Military Union, with aid from the British Royal Navy and Hitler

17 July 1936

Franco’s forces were airlifted from Morocco to southern Spain

July 1936

Britain and France began a policy of non-intervention

August 1936

Largo Caballero formed a new Republican government

4 September 1936

San Sebastian was taken from the Nationalists

13 September 1936

The Republic combined militias to make a new Popular Army

October 1936

Franco became leader of the Nationalist government and supreme military commander

1 October 1936

Soviet intervention began

29 October 1936

German and Italian planes bombed Madrid

29 October 1936

Republican government left Madrid, went to Valencia

6 November 1936

Nationalists abandoned their attempts to take Madrid

23 November 1936

Nationalist offensive failed to cut the links between Madrid and Valencia at the Battle of Jarama where Russian tanks and planes played a crucial role

February 1937

Malaga fell to the Nationalists

8 February 1937

Nationalist offensive to pressure Madrid from the North failed at the Battle of Guadalajara

Major defeat for the Italian army, enabled by Soviet equipment

March 1937

Franco united Carlists, Fascists and Monarchists into one movement

April 1937

German Condor Legion bombed and destroyed Guernica

26 April 1937

Fall of Largo Caballero

15 May 1937

Juan Negrin formed a new government

17 May 1937

Bilbao fell to the Nationalists, end of Basque independence

19 June 1937

Republican offensive to break the siege of Madrid coming from the west failed at Brunete

July 1937

Republican offensive to break out from Madrid to the north-east failed at Belchite

August 1937

Nationalists captured the rest of northern Spain

September to October 1937

Republican Popular Army captured Tereul in central Spain

December 1937

Nationalists retook Tereul and began an advance to the Mediterranean to cut Catalonia off from the rest of Spain

February 1938

Nationalists reached the Mediterranean at Vinaroz so succeeded in geographically splitting Republican Spain into two

April 1938

Republican offensive on the River Ebro failed

July 1938

Nationalists marched on Barcelona

November 1938

Barcelona fell to the Nationalists

February 1939

Nationalists entered Madrid

28 March 1939

Franco announced the end of the war

1 April 1939

The last Republican fighters surrendered

2 April 1939

An estimated 500,000 people died

Between July 1936 and April 1939

Franco became a dictator, was in power until his death in…

1975

The Law of Political Responsibility made Republican supporters liable to punishment including land confiscation, fines and the death sentence

1939

Per capita income was 28% lower

in 1939 than in 1935

Industrial production was 25% of its value in

1929 in 1939

Repayments to Italy continued

Until the 1960s