We explain who Francisco Franco was and how he developed his military and political career. Also, his dictatorship and his death.
Francisco Franco was a dictator of Spain who ruled until his death in 1975.
Who was Francisco Franco?
Francisco Franco Bahamonde, nicknamed “el Caudillo”, He was a Spanish military man and politician linked to the values of conservatism that was established as dictator of Spain for almost forty years. He was part of the military leadership that staged a coup d’état against the Second Republic in July 1936, which began the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
In 1936 he assumed command of the rebellious nationalist forces, which obtained military support from fascism. Italian and German Nazism, and after defeating the Republicans in April 1939 He ruled as head of the Spanish state until his death in 1975.. This period, characterized by repression, the persecution of dissidence, the exile of opponents and censorship, is known as “Francoism.”
The birth of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco was born in Ferrol, Galicia, on December 4, 1892. He was baptized Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo. His father was Nicolás Franco, a Navy captain who became quartermaster general of the Navy. His mother was María del Pilar Bahamonde, who also came from a family with a military tradition.
Francisco was the second male child of the marriage. His younger brother, Ramón Franco, was an outstanding aviator who starred in the Plus Ultra feat, the first transatlantic flight from Spain to South America.
It has been suggested that the Franco family home was not exactly a happy one, due to the father’s gambling habits and the fact that he behaved in an authoritarian manner in the house.
The military career of Francisco Franco
Franco was assigned at his own request to the Spanish detachment in Africa.
Franco followed in the family footsteps and He entered a naval training school at the age of twelve, but he did not manage to enter the Navy and ended up enrolling with a cousin in the Toledo Military Infantry Academy. He was not a standout student and graduated 251st out of 312 in his class.
Subsequently He was assigned at his own request to the Spanish detachment in Africa, in the midst of the colonial struggle in the Maghreb (known as the Rif War). There he rose rapidly to the rank of general in 1926. This made him the youngest general in Europewhich gave him prestige within the army and the Spanish bourgeoisie.
In 1917, still without the rank of general, he returned to Oviedo, where he met his wife since 1923, Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés. In the three years that he remained in Spain, Franco was in Asturias at the time of the repression of the strikers in August 1917 and became friends with José Millán-Astray, a soldier and creator of the Spanish Legion, a military force. elite within the army.
After forging his military career in the African war, Franco was appointed director of the Military Academy of Zaragoza in 1928. In 1926, his only daughter, Carmen Franco y Polo, was born.
When the Second Republic was proclaimed In Spain in 1931, Franco was a supporter of the overthrown monarchy but remained in the army under Republican authority. In February 1933, the president of the Council of Ministers, Manuel Azaña, assigned him to the Balearic Islands.
The Asturian revolution of 1934
The repression left around 1,500 dead and tens of thousands detained.
At the end of 1933 there were general elections in Spain and a right-wing coalition triumphed, which annulled the reforms that the republican-socialist government had implemented in the 1931-1933 biennium.
Due, strikes became frequent and clashes between organized workers and law enforcement.
A workers’ uprising took place in Asturiasthe “Asturias revolution”, organised by the unions UGT (socialist) and CNT (anarchist). As part of the insurrection, acts of violence were carried out which were used by the government of Alejandro Lerroux (leader of the Radical Republican Party and President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic) to justify severe repression. Lerroux’s government had the support of the CEDA (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights).
The repression was led by the Legion, coordinated from Madrid by Francoand the balance was around 1500 deaths. In 1935, Franco was awarded the Grand Cross of Military Merit and the position of commander in chief of the troops in Morocco. A few months later, Franco was proclaimed head of the Army’s Central Staff.
The coup d’état of July 1936
The Lerroux government entered into crisis due to corruption scandals at the end of 1935 that forced him to call new elections for the beginning of 1936. The fear that the left would return to power radicalized right-wing groups and generated strong social polarization.
When the Popular Front (a coalition of left-wing parties) won the elections in February 1936, Franco had to leave the leadership of the General Staff and was sent to the Canary Islands. A military conspiracy then began against the republican government led by General Emilio Mola.
Franco joined the conspiracy and, on July 17, 1936, a few days after the assassination of José Calvo Sotelo (political leader of the Spanish right), the uprising in North Africa began which on July 18 extended to the peninsula.
The call to rebellion was irregularly heededespecially in the main cities where the workers’ movement and socialist and anarchist organisations were strongest. Immediately, Spain was divided into two zones: the one that was loyal to the Republic and the one that was loyal to the rebels..
The spanish civil war
The Civil War culminated in 1939 with the victory of Franco’s rebellious side.
Spain divided by the coup d’état of 1936 was the scene of the Spanish civil war that, for three years, He confronted the Republicans with the rebels or “nationals”.
The republican side brought together very varied sectors, such as left-wing republicans, socialists, communists, anarchists, democrats and peripheral nationalists. Nationalist, conservative, Catholic, traditionalist, monarchist (Carlist and Alfonsino) and Falangist (fascist ideology) military and politicians joined the rebellious side.
The numerical and weapon superiority of the rebels was notorious.especially due to the fact that They had the well-trained and equipped Army of Africa at their disposal. This superiority soon became greater due to the military support that Franco received from Benito Mussolini (leader of fascist Italy) and Adolf Hitler (leader of Nazi Germany).
In September 1936, shortly after the war began, Franco was proclaimed “Generalissimo” (head of all the armies) by the other rebel generals, and also head of the government during the war. In a ceremony in Burgos on 1 October 1936 he was sworn in as head of state, a position he held until his death.
The Civil War ended on April 1, 1939 with the victory of Franco’s troops. and the end of the Second Republic. During the war 400,000 Spaniards were forced into exile and between 500,000 and 1,000,000 were killed in combat or summary executions.
Franco’s links with Nazism
The Italian and German air forces destroyed the republican town of Guernica.
During the Civil War, Franco’s troops had the military support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italyideological allies of Francoist Spain.
In this context, The bombing of the Basque town of Guernica is famouswhich supported the Republic, perpetrated on April 26, 1937 by the Italian Legionary Aviation and the German Condor Legion. This episode led to the almost total destruction of the town and the death of more than 120 people.
When World War II began in September 1939, Franco declared himself neutralHis open sympathies for the Axis were counterbalanced by the situation in Spain, fresh from the Civil War, and by his desire not to alienate the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States.
The French defeat seemed for a moment to prompt Spain’s entry into the war alongside the Axis: Spain declared itself “non-belligerent” On June 12, 1940, that is, he remained out of the war but recognized his preferences for the Axis. Franco held an interview with Hitler in Hendaye (France) on October 23, 1940 and with Mussolini in Bordighera (Italy) on February 12, 1941. but Spain’s entry into the war never materialized..
On the one hand, Spain wanted the territories of the French colonial empire. On the other hand, Hitler was careful not to openly antagonize Vichy France. Added to this was Hitler’s lack of interest in Mediterranean affairs and Spain’s lack of military preparation after the devastation of the Civil War. These reasons motivated Spain not to enter the war.
However, Following the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Franco approved the sending of a volunteer military corps to fight alongside the Germans on the Eastern Front: the so-called Blue Division.
The Allied victories made Franco change the status of “non-belligerency” to neutrality on October 1, 1943, which meant abandoning his preferences for the Axis. In November of that year, he repatriated to the Blue Division. Despite Franco’s continuous attempts to approach the Anglo-Saxon Allies, his The regime was officially condemned by the UN (United Nations) in 1946. and Spain suffered political isolation.
The dictatorship of Francisco Franco
After the Civil War ended in April 1939, Franco retained the powers he had acquired and proceeded to design the Spanish State to suit himself. Firstly, He launched a harsh crackdown on political opponents and approved a Law of Succession in the Head of State (1947) that He reestablished Spain as a kingdom but left the power in his hands as head of state for life.
The international community was initially harsh with his government., well denied entry to the UN and the brutalities of the regime were denounced. However, the outbreak of the Cold War benefited him since, being a staunch anti-communist ally, in 1948 the United States gave up trying to remove him from power and on September 23, 1953 the Spanish-American bilateral agreements were signed, which meant the end of Spain’s international isolation and a certain amount of economic aid. In 1955, Spain joined the UN.
Beginning in the late 1950s There was an economic improvement that was known as the “Spanish miracle.”. With it also came a certain social modernization, even though the political regime continued to be based on the lack…