February: General election in Spain won by Popular Front
July: Military uprising in Morocco (Spanish North Africa) spreads to mainland Spain, but rebels quickly defeated in Madrid and Barcelona; Start of airlift of Army of Africa (under Franco’s command) from North Africa to Seville; Hitler and Mussolini send military aid to rebels
August: Execution of Federico García Lorca; March on Madrid begins, followed by aerial bombardment of capital; Britain and France announce arms embargo
September: Non-Intervention Committee meets in London for first time (27 countries eventually sign the agreement, including Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, Portugal and Sweden); Soviet Union agrees to send arms to the Spanish Republic; Franco is appointed supreme commander of rebel Nationalist Army
October: International Brigade volunteers start arriving in Spain
November: Republican government retreats to Valencia; Battle for Madrid begins; Hitler sends Condor Legion to Spain; Germany and Italy recognise Franco
February: Republican forces stem rebel offensive at Battle of Jarama; Málaga falls to Nationalists with Italy’s help, and refugees are bombed
April: Saturation bombing of Basque capital Guernica
May: Barcelona ‘May Days’: civil violence between Republican factions
July: Battle of Brunete, Republican offensive west of Madrid
October: Rebels capture all Northern Spain
January – February: Battle of Teruel – city captured by Republicans, then re-taken by Nationalist forces
March: Hitler invades Austria; Bombing of Barcelona by Italian planes; France re-opens border with Spain
April: Republic physically divided as Franco reaches the Mediterranean; Nationalists attack Valencia
May: Vatican recognises Franco as head of state
July: Plan to withdraw foreign combatants from Spain approved by Non-Intervention Committee, but then ignored by Germany and Italy; Republican Army launches the Ebro offensive, hoping to save Valencia and reverse the direction of international diplomacy
August: Franco rejects all peace initiatives
September: France and Britain agree to Hitler’s annexation of Czech Sudetenland at Munich conference
October: As Battle of the Ebro continues, non-Spanish volunteers for the Republic are withdrawn from active service; International Brigades’ Farewell Parade in Barcelona
November: Republican Army forced into retreat back across the Ebro river; Barcelona and Valencia bombarded; Kristallnacht: anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany, Austria and Sudetenland
January: Franco captures Barcelona; Mass exodus of refugees towards France
February: First concentration camp for Republican refugees opens in France; Republican parliament meets in Spain for the last time; Nationalists take Catalonia; Britain and France recognise Franco’s regime
March: Republicans surrender in Madrid; Refugees attempt to flee Spain in huge numbers; Hitler enters Prague, Czechoslovakia
April: Franco announces the end of the war; USA recognises Franco