1936 coup in Spain: false flag operation?

The 1936 uprising: a coup against the Popular Front or a monarchist false flag?

On 18 July 1936, the rebel generals claimed to be acting to save the Republic. The paradox is that the leader of the coup, Emilio Mola, was openly republican and the operation was launched under the republican flag. What lies behind that gesture? Historical interpretations are divided between those who see a defensive reaction against the Popular Front and those who argue it was an operation by elites to restore the monarchy or establish an authoritarian regime.

The March 1936 meeting

In March 1936, Generals Mola, Franco, Villegas, Saliquet and others met in Madrid to discuss the illegitimacy of the Popular Front government. According to El Debate's analysis, the uprising was against that government, not against the Republic itself. But the distribution of arms to the militias on 19 July dismantled the republican order and turned the coup into a civil war.

The false flag thesis

Another school of thought holds that the uprising was a false flag operation: a manoeuvre by elites to reorganise the country and prepare its integration into a future Europe, as argued by the vision of World War II as an orchestrated conflict. The deliberate prolongation of the war, attributed to Franco, would have served to purge the country and restore the monarchy, although the Law of Succession of 1947 turned Spain into a kingdom without restoring the crown.

Was it a preventive coup against a government sliding towards revolution or an operation designed to reshape the European political map? The available documentation does not settle it. The question remains open.