After the fall of the monarchy, the Second Spanish Republic was established. The Republican government and its supporters, a combined force of communists, socialists and anarchists, was particularly antagonistic towards the nobility, the land owners, and the Catholic Church. In 1936, a coup d'etat staged by rebel forces (Nacionalistas) attempted to overthrow the communist republicans, leading to a three-year political unrest characterized by extreme brutality and violence resulting to countless deaths among the government and rebel forces, as well as ordinary citizens caught in the war.