July 1936 military uprising in Seville

July 1936 military uprising in Seville
Part of the Spanish Civil War

barricade in Macarena district
Date18–22 July 1936
Location
Result Nationalist victory
Belligerents
Spain Spanish Republic Francoist Spain Nationalist Spain
Commanders and leaders
José Fernández Villa-Abrille
José M. Varela
Gonzalo Queipo de Llano
José Cuesta Moreneo
Strength
few hundred[1] few hundred[2]
Casualties and losses
unknown[3] 10-20[4]

The July 1936 military uprising in Seville was part of a nationwide coup d'état in Spain, launched by part of the Spanish army. It was supposed to topple local Republican administrations in Seville and western Andalusia. The uprising commenced on 18 July 1936, led by general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano. The rebels overpowered regional military command and some key units without a shot being fired, but were offered resistance by Guardia de Asalto, subordinated to the civil governor José María Varela; it was overcome later in the day. The days of 19–22 July were mostly about seizing the districts of Triana, Macarena and San Julián; they were controlled by revolutionary trade unions and radical left-wing militias. On 23 July Queipo was fully in control. The successful coup in Seville proved of vital importance for the rebels nationwide; the insurgent pocket in south-western Andalusia enabled the shift of the Army of Africa to the peninsula, and then its rapid advance towards Madrid.

  1. ^ it was initially claimed that there were 600 Guardia de Asalto troops opposing the rebels (ABC [Seville] 27.07.1936). Present-day scholar maintains that only some of them, probably amounting to few hundred, were involved in the shootout (Rúben Emanuel Leitão Prazeres Serém, Conspiracy, coup d’état and civil war in Seville (1936-1939): History and myth in Francoist Spain [PhD thesis London School of Economics], London 2012, pp. 76-108). The number of civilians who actively opposed the army was stated by the Francoist historiography as 7,000 (Guzmán de Alfarache, ¡18 de julio en Sevilla! Historia del alzamiento glorioso en Sevilla, Sevilla 1937, p. 69), but how many indeed were involved in combat in quarters engulfed by the revolution is anybody’s guess.
  2. ^ Queipo claimed that he conquered Seville with 130 men (Leitão Prazeres 2012, p. 93), the figure which was maintained until the mid-1970s (Joaquín Arrarás, Historia de la Cruzada Española, vol. 3, Madrid 1959, p. 185). Contemporary scholar maintains that there were at least "a few hundred" rebels actively involved in fightings of 18 July. Once Queipo assumed command of the garrison, he was heading some 6,000 soldiers and paramilitary (Leitão Prazeres 2012, p. 3), though only a fraction took part in later fightings in Triana, Macarena and San Julián
  3. ^ no source provides total figures. Contemporary scholar claims that during combat in revolutionary districts many surrendering or wounded loyalists were executed, see Leitão Prazeres 2012, which suggests the figure of few hundred dead. These who perished due to later repression are counted as victims of Nationalist terror, not casualties suffered during the coup
  4. ^ no source provides total figures. Numbers quoted for combat in specific quarters on specific days are in single digits and comprise KIA and WIA, compare Leitão Prazeres 2012, pp. 88, 91, 152, 155