Following the July 1936 coup d'etat in Spain, the acting military commander in Toledo, José Moscardó, refused to provide weapons to Madrid and hid instead in the alcázar with a garrison of about 1,000 rebels, food, ammunition and some hostages. After 21 July, they became subject to an unsuccessful siege by forces loyal to the Republic during the early stages of the Spanish Civil War. Leading rebel general (and soon-to-be "caudillo") Francisco Franco and his Army of Africa took a detour from their advance towards Madrid (that gave time to the Republicans to build up the defenses in Madrid and receive early foreign support) and lifted the siege of the alcázar in late September 1936. The two months of resistance of the garrisoned rebel military would become a core symbolical feature of the mythology built around the Francoist regime and its ideology.