Army of Africa (Spain) in the context of "History of Morocco"

The Spanish coup of July 1936 was a military uprising that was intended to overthrow the Spanish Second Republic, but precipitated the Spanish Civil War, in which Nationalists fought against Republicans for control of Spain. The coup was organized for 18 July 1936, although it started the previous day in Spanish Morocco. Instead of resulting in a prompt transfer of power, the coup split control of the Spanish military and territory roughly in half. The resulting civil war ultimately led to the establishment of a fascist regime under Francisco Franco, who became ruler of Spain as caudillo.

The rising was intended to be swift, but the government retained control of most of the country including Málaga, Jaén and Almería. Cádiz was taken by the rebels, and General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville. In Madrid, the rebels were hemmed into the Montaña barracks, which fell with much bloodshed. On 19 July, the cabinet, headed by the newly appointed prime minister José Giral, ordered the distribution of weapons to the unions. With the defeat of the rebels in Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, anarchists took control of large parts of Aragon and Catalonia. The rebel General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later sentenced to death and executed. The rebels secured the support of around half of the Spanish Army, which totalled about 66,000 men, including large numbers who were on leave, as well as the 30,000-strong army of Africa. The army of Africa was Spain's most professional and capable military force. The government retained less than half the supply of rifles, heavy and light machine guns, and artillery pieces. Both sides had few tanks and outdated aircraft, while naval capacity was reasonably even. The defection of many regular officers weakened Republican units of all types.

For centuries, Spain recruited foreign soldiers to its army, forming the foreign regiments (Infantería de línea extranjera) such as the Regiment of Hibernia (formed in 1709 from Irishmen who fled their own country in the wake of the Flight of the Earls and the penal laws). However, the specific unit of the Spanish Army and Spain's Rapid Reaction Force, now known as the Spanish Legion (Legión Española, La Legión), and informally known as the Tercio or the Tercios, is a 20th-century creation. It was raised in the 1920s to serve as part of Spain's Army of Africa. The unit, which was established in January 1920 as the Spanish equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, was initially known as the Tercio de Extranjeros ("Tercio of foreigners"), the name under which it began fighting in the Rif War of 1921–1926.

Over the years, the force's name has changed from Tercio de Extranjeros to Tercio de Marruecos (when the field of operations targeted Morocco), and by the end of the Rif War it became the "Spanish Legion", with several "tercios" as sub-units.