Peter Anderson

So there were lots of people who wanted to reform the Spanish army, reduce the number of officers, curtail its activities in Morocco.

Land redistribution was a big issue.

empower workers more to improve their wages, carry out reforms to the church.

It's about creating a proper democracy.

It's about tackling the reforms that have been needed in Spain for many years.

And it's about challenging the power of really important groups like members of the army, members of the church, and members of capitalist industrial groups, if you like.

He wasn't able to join the Navy Cadets, but he does go to the Toledo Military Academy at the age of 14.

So he's training to join the army.

He's not a particularly brilliant student, but he's able to go to Morocco.

He's able to join the Army of Africa.

And he has a kind of meteoric rise, largely because he was very, very brave and determined and didn't flinch on the battlefield.

And he wins a series of promotions.

And eventually, at the age of 33 in 1926, he becomes a brigadier general.

Everything was thrown at this election and the right lose.

So what happens after that is the right decide that parliamentary politics doesn't really work for them.

So people are really turning their backs on democratic politics and they're turning their attention to the politics of violence.

What they know, these civilians, is that alone they're not strong enough to overthrow the elected government of the Popular Front.

So what they do is they start courting army officers who they know are unhappy with all the reforms and so on, and encouraging them to carry out a military coup.

Spain does have an interesting history of military intervention in politics.

And in the 19th century, the way that worked was generals would make a declaration saying they no longer supported one prime minister and they were going to replace them either with themselves or with somebody else.