Sanjurjada

Sanjurjada () was a military coup staged in Spain on August 10, 1932. It was aimed at toppling the government but not necessarily at toppling the Spanish Republic. Following brief clashes it was easily suppressed in Madrid. Hardly any action was recorded elsewhere except Seville, where local rebel commander general José Sanjurjo took control for some 24 hours but acknowledged defeat when faced with resolute governmental response. Due to his brief success and attention given during following trials, the entire coup was later named after him.

==Background== thumb|left|Second Spanish Republic|Republic declared, 1931 The Spanish military greeted the advent of the Republic with ambivalence. The officer corps was generally made up of conservative monarchists, but following the tumultuous last years of Primo de Rivera’s military dictatorship, which had compromised and discredited the army, most military men preferred to stay clear of politics. It was only when the new regime was set on a firmly leftward course and started to target the army for serious reform that voices of dissent started to be heard. A series of reforms, introduced since 1931 by the Prime Minister and the minister of war at the same time, Manuel Azaña, was aimed at scaling down an overgrown officer corps, structural reform and bringing the armed forces firmly under the civilian control. This, combined with Azaña's patronising, if not contemptuous, rhetoric, proved fertile soil for growth of corporative disenchantment. The government confronted the dissent with few arrests, a number of personal reassignments and a handful of new regulations, which tightened its grip on the army further on.