LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Francisco Franco: North Africa
built 182 days ago
By the spring of 1936 Franco had aligned himself with a group of right-wing military conspirators who were becoming increasingly anxious to overthrow the government. The new left-wing administration knew about Franco's political leanings and moved to isolate him from other conspirators. They transferred Franco to the distant Canary Islands, where he remained until the outbreak of the rebellion in July. Franco did not fully commit himself to the military rebellion until he was convinced of its success. Just days before it was scheduled to begin, he joined the conspirators. On July 19 he flew to Tétouan, Morocco, to command the Army of Africa, Spanish troops considered the most highly trained and best equipped of the rebel forces.
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[O]utwardly Franco maintained an ambiguous attitude almost up until July. On June 23, 1936, he wrote to the head of the government, Casares Quiroga, offering to quell the discontent in the army, but was not answered. The other rebels were determined to go ahead, con Paquito o sin Paquito (with Franco or without him), as it was put by José Sanjurjo, the honorary leader of the military uprising. After various postponements, July 18 was fixed as the date of the uprising. The situation reached a point of no return and, as presented to Franco by Mola, the coup was unavoidable and he had to choose a side. He decided to join the rebels and was given the task of commanding the Army of Africa.
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In 1923, Franco met a woman named Maria del Carmen Polo y Martinez Valdes, whom he married. His best man in the wedding was King Alfonso XIII, showing his close ties to the Spanish monarchy. After the marriage, he redeployed to Africa, leading a Spanish invasion force that landed at Alhucemas. This invasion, coinciding with a French invasion of southern Morocco, provided the final push needed to topple the Republic of the Rif and establish Spanish and French rule over Morocco.
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Following the July 18, 1936 pronunciamento, Franco assumed the leadership of the 30,000 soldiers of the Spanish Army of Africa. The first days of the insurgency were marked with a serious need to secure control over the Spanish Moroccan Protectorate. On one side, Franco managed to win the support of the natives and their (nominal) authorities, and, on the other, to ensure his control over the army. This led to the summary execution of some 200 senior officers loyal to the Republic (one of them his own first cousin).[11] Franco's first problem was how to move his troops to the Iberian Peninsula, since most units of the Navy had remained in control of the Republic and were blocking the Strait of Gibraltar. He requested help from Mussolini, who responded with an unconditional offer of arms and planes; Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr military intelligence, persuaded Hitler, as well, to support the Nationalists. From July 20 onward he was able, with a small group of 22 mainly German Junkers Ju 52 airplanes, to initiate an air bridge to Seville, where his troops helped to ensure the rebel control of the city.
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Franco's main foreign policy was to recover Gibraltar and to maintain Spain's colonies in Africa. He was unsuccessful in persuading Britain to give up Gibraltar and in 1956 he was forced to come to terms with the sultan of Morocco.
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