Franco leads a military revolt against the leftist Spanish government

July 17, 1936 – Spain - General Francisco Franco launched his revolt against the Spanish government from the Canary Islands, where he was stationed at the time. This military uprising quickly spread from Spanish Morocco to mainland Spain, marking the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

Franco's rebellion was part of a broader coup by conservative military officers who opposed the leftist Popular Front government which had recently been elected. Within days, Franco emerged as the leading figure among the Nationalists and was formally declared head of state on October 1, 1936.

The Popular Front included avowed communists, socialists, anarchists, separatists, and groups intensely opposed to the Catholic Church. Conservatives blamed the Popular Front for rising street violence, strikes, and assassinations. By July 1936, hundreds of political killings had occurred, fueling fears of a societal collapse or the rise of a Stalinist style communist government. Spanish communists openly talked of a forced collectivization modeled on USSR dictator Joseph Stalin's policies – which at that time were killing millions of Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Moldovans, etc. in what had been the Russian Empire.

The Popular Front included parties that promoted secular policies and reduced the influence of the Catholic Church. Conservatives, especially monarchists and religious groups, saw this as a direct threat to Spain's traditional values. Tens of thousands of priests had been killed in Russia by Lenin and Stalin and Spanish conservatives predicted the same would happen in their country.

The Popular Front supported land redistribution and policies that undermined the power of large landowners. This alarmed both the aristocracy and landowning farmers alike who formed a key base of conservative support.

A key trigger to the revolt was purges of the military. The government reassigned or demoted conservative military officers, including General Franco. This was seen as a hostile move against the army's traditional role in Spanish politics and an effort to replace the officer core with left leaning officers who would implement the Popular Front's radical policies. Conservatives in the military, probably with some justification, felt that the Popular Front intended to weaken their role in the military.

Spanish nationalist opposed the Popular Front because it supported autonomy for regions like Catalonia and the Basque Country. Conservatives viewed this as a threat to national unity.

The coup launched the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republican government was supported by the USSR as well as many leftists in the USA and Great Britain; while Adolph Hitler's Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy supported Franco's conservative Nationalists.