Francisco Franco
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{{Infobox Officeholder
| name = Francisco Franco
| nationality = [[Spain|Spanish]]
| image = Franco0001.PNG <!-- Image placed only because readily available. Something better, e.g. official portrait should be found. -->
| imagesize = 200px
| order = [[List of Spanish monarchs|Spanish Head of State, Regent of the Kingdom]]
| term_start = [[April 1]], [[1939]]
| term_end = [[November 20]], [[1975]]
| vicepresident =
| deputy =
| predecessor = [[Manuel Azaña]] ''(as [[President of Spain|President]])''
| successor = [[Juan Carlos I]] ''(as [[List of Spanish monarchs|King]])''
| birth_date = {{birth date|1892|12|4|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ferrol, A Coruña|Ferrol]], [[Galicia (Iberia)|Galicia]], [[Spain]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1975|11|20|1892|12|4|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Madrid]], [[Spain]]
|height =[[5'4]]
constituency =
| party = [[Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista|FET y de las Jons]]
| spouse = [[Carmen Polo]]
| profession = [[Chief of the General Staff]], [[Spanish Army]]
| religion = [[Roman Catholic]]
| signature =
| footnotes =
| order2 = 68<sup>th</sup> [[List of Prime Ministers of Spain|President of the Government of Spain]] <br> <small> 1<sup>st</sup> of the [[Spain under Franco|Francoism]] (1939-1975) </small>
| term_start2 =[[February 5]], [[1939]]
| term_end2 =[[June 9]], [[1973]]
| predecessor2 =[[Juan Negrín]]
| successor2 =[[Luis Carrero Blanco]]
}}
'''Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde''' ([[Ferrol, Spain|El Ferrol]], [[December 4]] [[1892]] - [[November 20]], [[1975]] in [[Madrid]]), commonly known as '''Francisco Franco''' ({{pronounced |fɾanˈθisko ˈfɾaŋko}}) or '''Francisco Franco y Bahamonde''' was dictator of Spain from October 1936, as ''de facto'' [[regent]] of the nominally restored [[Kingdom of Spain]] from 1947 until his death in 1975. His rule was known for a focus on Spanish [[nationalism]], [[empire|imperial aspirations]], [[centralism]] and [[traditional values]].<ref>{{cite book
| last = Hakim
| first = Joy
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| title = A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| date = 1995
| location = New York
| pages =
| url =
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 0-19-509514-6 }}</ref>
Franco led a notable military career and reached the rank of [[General]]. He fought in [[Spanish Morocco|Morocco]] and suppressed a [[Anarchism in Spain#Asturias|strike in 1934]] to defend the stability of the Republican government. In February 1936, the left-wing [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] won the general election and formed a government. A period of severe instability and disarray followed the election, with escalating violence between left and right wing supporters. [[Anti-clericalism|Anti-clerical]] violence against the Church by leftist militants further raised tensions. After the assassination of a major opposition figure, [[José Calvo Sotelo]], by a commando unit of the [[Guardia de Asalto|Assault Guards]] in July 1936, Franco participated in a ''[[coup d'etat]]'' against the elected Popular Front government. The coup failed and evolved into the [[Spanish Civil War]] during which he emerged as the leader of the Nationalists against the Popular Front. After winning the civil war, he dissolved the Spanish Parliament, establishing an [[authoritarian]] regime that lasted until 1978, when a new constitution was drafted. During the Second World War, Franco maintained a policy of non-beligerency, although he did assist [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy]] on a small scale against the [[Soviet Union]], most famously by sending troops (known as the [[Blue Division]]) to aid Nazi Germany in fighting the [[Soviet Union]]. Before the invasion of the Soviet Union by the German Army, Franco and [[Hitler]] met in [[Hendaye]] on October 23, 1940. During the [[Cold War]], the [[United States]] established a diplomatic alliance with Franco, due to his strong anti-Communist policy. American President [[Richard Nixon]] toasted Franco, <ref>John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2693 Toasts of the President and General Francisco Franco of Spain at a State Dinner in Madrid], The American Presidency Project. Santa Barbara, California: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Accessed online 24 May 2008.</ref> and, after Franco's death, stated: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States<ref>New York Times. "Nixon Asserts Franco Won Respect for Spain." November 21, 1975, Friday, page 16.</ref>." After his death Spain began a [[Spanish transition to democracy|transition to democracy]].
==Early life==
Franco was born in the port city of [[Ferrol|El Ferrol]], Spain, on December 4, 1892 the son of Nicolás Franco y Salgado-Araújo, who was a [[Navy]] [[paymaster]], and his wife, María del Pilar Bahamonde y Pardo de Andrade. Franco's mother, through the 7th Conde de Lemos and his wife the 3rd Condessa de Villalva, was twice a descendant of Portuguese royalty and thus from other Portuguese kings.<ref>[http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=63980 Francisco Franco y Bahamonde], GeneAll.net. Accessed online 24 May 2008.</ref><ref>[http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/franco.html Franco], Paul Theroff's Royal Genealogy Site, Prodigy.net. Accessed online 24 May 2008.</ref>
Franco had two brothers [[Nicolás Franco|Nicolás]] ([[navy]] [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] and [[diplomat]]), and [[Ramón Franco|Ramón]], a pioneering [[aviator]], and two sisters María del Pilar and María de la Paz.
Francisco was to follow his father into the navy, but as a result of the [[Spanish-American War]] the country had lost much of its navy as well as most of its colonies. Not needing more officers, entry into the Naval Academy was closed from 1906 to 1913. To his father's chagrin, he decided to join the [[Spanish Army]]. In 1907, he entered the Infantry Academy in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], from which he graduated in 1910. He was commissioned as a lieutenant. Two years later, he obtained a commission to [[Morocco]]. Spanish efforts to physically occupy their new [[Africa]]n [[protectorate]] provoked the protracted [[Rif War (1920)|Rif War]] (from 1909 to 1927) with native Moroccans. Tactics at the time resulted in heavy losses among Spanish [[Officer (armed forces)|military officers]], but also gave the chance of earning promotion through merit. It was said that officers would get either ''la caja o la faja'' (a coffin or a general's sash). Franco soon gained a reputation as a good officer. He joined the newly formed ''[[regulares]]'', [[colonial]] native troops with Spanish officers, who acted as [[shock troops]].
In 1916, at the age of 23 and already a captain, he was badly wounded in a skirmish at ''El Biutz''. His survival marked him permanently in the eyes of the native troops as a man of ''[[baraka]]'' (good luck). He was also recommended unsuccessfully for Spain's highest honor for gallantry, the coveted ''Cruz Laureada de San Fernando''. Instead, he was promoted to [[major]] (''comandante''), becoming the youngest [[field grade officer]] in the Spanish Army.
From 1917 to 1920, he was posted on the Spanish mainland. That last year, Lieutenant Colonel [[José Millán Astray]], a [[wikt:histrionic|histrionic]] but charismatic officer, founded the [[Spanish Foreign Legion]], along similar lines to the [[French Foreign Legion]]. Franco became the Legion's second-in-command and returned to Africa.
On [[July 24]] [[1921]], the poorly commanded and overextended Spanish Army suffered [[Battle of Annual|a crushing defeat]] at [[Annual (Morocco)|Annual]] at the hands of the [[Rif]] tribes led by the [[Abd el-Krim]] brothers. The Legion symbolically, if not materially, saved the Spanish enclave of [[Melilla]] after a gruelling three-day forced march led by Franco. In 1923, already a [[lieutenant colonel]], he was made commander of the Legion.
The same year, he married [[Carmen Polo|María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdès]]; they had one child, a daughter, [[Carmen Franco y Polo|María del Carmen]], born in 1926.<ref>[http://www.thepeerage.com/p11214.htm#i112139 Carmen Franco y Polo, 1st Duquesa de Franco] on thePeerage.com. Accessed [[8 August]] [[2006]].</ref> As a special mark of honor, his [[best man]] (''padrino'') at the wedding was King [[Alfonso XIII of Spain|Alfonso XIII]], a fact that would mark him during the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republic]] as a monarchical officer.
Promoted to [[colonel]], Franco led the first wave of troops ashore at [[Alhucemas]] in 1925. This landing in the heartland of Abd el-Krim's tribe, combined with the French invasion from the south, spelled the beginning of the end for the shortlived [[Republic of the Rif]].
Becoming the youngest [[general]] in Spain in 1926, Franco was appointed in 1928 director of the newly created [[General Military Academy of Zaragoza|Joint Military Academy]] in [[Zaragoza]], a new college for all Army [[cadet]]s, replacing the former separate institutions for young men seeking to become officers in infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other branches of the army.
'''
==During the Second Spanish Republic==
With the fall of the monarchy in 1931, in keeping with his long-standing apolitical record, Franco did not take any notable stand. But the closing of the Academy, in June, by War Minister [[Manuel Azaña]], provoked his first clash with the Republic. Azaña found Franco's farewell speech to the cadets<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.generalisimofranco.com/discurso12.htm | title = Discurso de Franco a los cadetes de la academia militar de Zaragoza|date = [[1931-06-14]] | accessdate = 2006-07-21 | language = Spanish }}</ref> insulting. For six months, Franco was without a post and under surveillance.
On [[February 5]] [[1932]], he was given a command in [[La Coruña]]. Franco avoided involvement in [[José Sanjurjo]]'s attempted ''coup'' that year, and even wrote a hostile letter to Sanjurjo expressing his anger over the attempt. As a side result of Azaña's military reform, in January 1933, Franco was relegated from the first to the 24th in the list of Brigadiers; conversely, the same year ([[February 17]]), he was given the military command of the [[Balearic Islands]]: a post above his rank.
New elections held in October 1933 resulted in a center-right majority. In opposition to this government, a [[Anarchism in Spain#Prelude to Revolution|revolutionary movement]] broke out [[October 5]] [[1934]]. This uprising was rapidly quelled in most of the country, but gained a stronghold in [[Asturias]], with the support of the [[miner]]s' unions. Franco, already general of a Division and aide to the war minister, [[Diego Hidalgo]], was put in command of the operations directed to suppress the insurgency. The forces of the Army in Africa were to carry the brunt of this, with General [[Eduardo López Ochoa]] as commander in the field. After two weeks of heavy fighting (and a death toll estimated between 1,200 and 2,000), the rebellion was suppressed.
The insurgency in Asturias sharpened the antagonism between Left and Right. Franco and López Ochoa—who, prior to the campaign in Asturias, was seen as a left-leaning officer—were marked by the left as enemies. At the start of the Civil War, López Ochoa was assassinated. Some time after these events, Franco was briefly commander-in-chief of the Army of Africa (from [[February 15]] onwards), and from [[May 19]] [[1935]] on, [[Chief of the General Staff]].
===1936 general election===
After the ruling centre-right coalition collapsed amid the [[Straperlo]] corruption scandal, new elections were scheduled. Two wide coalitions formed: the [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] on the left, ranging from [[Republican Union Party]] to [[Communist Party of Spain|Communists]], and the [[Frente Nacional (1936)|''Frente Nacional'']] on the right, ranging from the center [[Radicalism (historical)|radicals]] to the conservative [[Carlism|Carlists]]. On [[February 16]] [[1936]], the left won by a narrow margin.<ref>"Riots Sweep Spain on Left's Victory; Jails Are Stormed", ''The New York Times'', February 18, 1936.</ref> Growing political bitterness surfaced again. The government and its supporters, the Popular Front, had launched a campaign against the Opposition whom they accused of plotting against the Republic. The Opposition parties, on the other hand, had reacted with increasing vigour. The latter claimed that the Popular Front had illegally obtained two hundred seats in a Parliament of 473 members. After the loss of 200 seats, the Opposition Parties claimed the government represented only a small minority, adding claims that the Popular Front's parliamentary majority was the result of large-scale electoral fraud, of Government-sponsored mob terror and intimidation, of the arbitrary annulment of all election certificates in many Right-wing constituencies, and of the expulsion, the arrest, or even the assassination, of many legally elected deputies of the Right. According to the Opposition, the real enemies of the Republic were not on the Right but on the Left; Spain was in imminent danger of falling under a Communist dictatorship, and therefore by fighting the Popular Front they, the Opposition, were merely doing their duty in defence of law and order and of the freedom and the fundamental rights of the Spanish people.<ref> [[Malcolm Muggeridge|Muggeridge, Malcolm]], editor, ''Ciano's Diplomatic Papers'', Odhams, London, 1948: 17-18</ref>
The days after the election were marked by near-chaotic circumstances. Franco lobbied unsuccessfully to have a state of emergency declared, with the stated purpose of quelling the disturbances and allowing an orderly vote recount.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Instead, on [[February 23]], Franco was sent to the distant [[Canary Islands]] to serve as the islands' military commander, a position in which he had few troops under his command.
Meanwhile, a conspiracy led by [[Emilio Mola]] was taking shape. In June, Franco was contacted and a secret meeting was held in [[Tenerife|Tenerife's]] [[La Esperanza Forest]] to discuss a military coup. (A commemorative obelisk commemorating this historic meeting can be found in a clearing at [[Las Raíces]].)
But outwardly Franco maintained an ambiguous attitude almost up until July. On [[June 23]] [[1936]], he wrote to the head of the government, [[Casares Quiroga]], offering to quell the discontent in the army, but was not answered. The other rebels were determined to go ahead, ''con Paquito o sin Paquito'' (with Franco or without him), as it was put by [[José Sanjurjo]], the honorary leader of the military uprising. After various postponements, [[July 18]] was fixed as the date of the uprising. The situation reached a point of no return and, as presented to Franco by Mola, the coup was unavoidable and he had to choose a side. He decided to join the rebels and was given the task of commanding the [[Army of Africa]]. A privately owned DH 89 [[De Havilland Dragon Rapide]], was chartered in [[England]] [[July 11]] to take Franco to [[Africa]].
The assassination of the right-wing opposition leader [[José Calvo Sotelo]] by government police troops, possibly acting on their own in retaliation for the murder of [[José Castillo (Spanish Civil War)|José Castillo]], precipitated the uprising. On [[July 17]], one day earlier than planned, the African Army rebelled, detaining their commanders. On [[July 18]], Franco published a manifesto<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.generalisimofranco.com/discurso11.htm | title = Manifesto de las palmas | language = Spanish | accessdate = 2006-07-21|date = [[1936-07-18]] }}</ref> and left for Africa, where he arrived the next day to take command.
A week later, the rebels, who soon called themselves the ''[[Nationalists]]'', controlled only a third of Spain, and most [[navy]] units remained under control of the Republican loyalist forces, which left Franco isolated. The coup had failed, but the [[Spanish Civil War]] had begun.
==From the Spanish Civil War to World War II==
{{main|Spanish Civil War|Spain in World War II}}
The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 and officially ended with Franco's victory in April 1939, leaving 190,000<ref>[[Santos Juliá]], coord. ''Víctimas de la guerra civil'', Madrid, 1999, ISBN 84-8460-333-4</ref> to 500,000<ref name = "oepcls">[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9379223/Spanish-Civil-War Spanish Civil War]</ref> dead. Despite the [[Non-Intervention Agreement]] of August 1936, the war was marked by [[Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War|foreign intervention]] on behalf of both sides, leading to international repercussions. The nationalist side was supported by [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)#Fascism|Fascist Italy]], which sent the ''[[Corpo Truppe Volontarie]]'' and later [[Nazi Germany]], which assisted with the [[Condor Legion]] infamous for their [[bombing of Guernica]] in April 1937. Britain and France strictly adhered to the arms embargo, provoking dissensions within the [[Popular Front (France)|French Popular Front]] coalition led by [[Léon Blum]], but the Republican side was nonetheless supported by volunteers fighting in the [[International Brigades]] and the [[Soviet Union]]. (See for example [[Ken Loach]]'s ''[[Land and Freedom]]''.)
Because [[Hitler]] and [[Stalin]] used the war as a testing ground for modern warfare, some historians, such as [[Ernst Nolte]], have considered the Spanish Civil War, along with the [[Second World War]], part of a "[[European Civil War]]" lasting from 1936 to 1945 and characterized mainly as a Left/Right ideological conflict. However, this interpretation has not found acceptance among most historians, who consider the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War two distinct conflicts. Among other things, they point to the political heterogeneity on both sides (''See [[Spanish Civil War#Other factions in the war|Spanish Civil War: Other Factions in the War]]'') and criticize a monolithic interpretation which overlooks the local nuances of [[History of Spain|Spanish history]]. It has to be considered, nevertheless, that the politics that allowed Mussolini and Hitler to establish themselves in Europe and the territorial claims for power and resources for which WWII was triggered worked for Franco as well, regardless of the different origins of the militant Spanish sides. One might as well underline that the fate of Austria and Czechoslovakia was bargained alongside the end of the Spanish Republic on the same negotiation table with Hitler, and the end of the Spanish Civil War (Spring 1939) coincided with the war planning of the two dictators. To that extent the two wars are strongly linked although the Spanish political situation had developed on a different basis.
===The first months===
Despite Franco having no money, while the state treasury was in Madrid with the government, there was an organized economic lobby in London looking after his financial needs with [[Lisbon]] as their operational base. Eventually, he was to receive important help from his economic and diplomatic boosters abroad.
Following the July 18, 1936 ''[[pronunciamento]]'', Franco assumed the leadership of the 30,000 soldiers of the [[Spanish Army of Africa]]. The first days of the insurgency were marked with a serious need to secure control over the [[Spanish Morocco|Spanish Moroccan Protectorate]]. On one side, Franco managed to win the support of the natives and their (nominal) authorities, and, on the other, to ensure his control over the army. This led to the summary execution of some 200 senior officers loyal to the Republic (one of them his own first cousin). Also his loyal bodyguard was shot by a man known as Manuel Blanco. <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.memoriahistorica.org/alojados/periquete/paginas/noticias1.html | title = La Memoria de los Nuestros | language = Spanish|accessdate = 2006-07-21 }}</ref> Franco's first problem was how to move his troops to the [[Iberian Peninsula]], since most units of the Navy had remained in control of the Republic and were blocking the [[Strait of Gibraltar]]. He requested help from [[Mussolini]], who responded with an unconditional offer of arms and planes; [[Wilhelm Canaris]], the head of the ''[[Abwehr]]'' military intelligence, persuaded [[Hitler]], as well, to support the Nationalists. From [[July 20]] onward he was able, with a small group of 22 mainly German [[Junkers Ju 52]] airplanes, to initiate an [[air bridge]] to [[Seville]], where his troops helped to ensure the rebel control of the city. Through representatives, Franco started to negotiate with the [[United Kingdom]], [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)#Fascism|Fascist Italy]] for more military support, and above all for more airplanes. Negotiations were successful with the last two on [[July 25]], and airplanes began to arrive in [[Tetouan]] on [[August 2]]. On [[August 5]], Franco was able to break the blockade with the newly arrived air support, successfully deploying a ship convoy with some 2,000 soldiers.
In early August, the situation in western [[Andalusia]] was stable enough to allow him to organize a column (some 15,000 men at its height), under the command of then Lieutenant-Colonel [[Juan Yagüe]], which would march through [[Extremadura]] towards Madrid. On [[August 11]], [[Battle of Mérida|Mérida was taken]], and on [[August 15]] [[Battle of Badajoz (1936)|Badajoz]], thus joining both nationalist-controlled areas. Additionally, Mussolini ordered a voluntary army, the ''[[Corpo Truppe Volontarie]]'' (CTV) of some 12,000 Italians of fully motorized units to Seville and Hitler added to them a professional squadron from the [[Luftwaffe]] (2JG/88) with about 24 planes. All these planes had the Nationalist Spanish insignia painted on them, but were flown by Italian and German troops. The backbone of Franco's aviation in those days were the Italian [[SM.79]] and [[SM.81]] bombers, the biplane Fiat [[CR.32]] fighter and the German [[Junkers Ju 52]] cargo-bomber and the [[Heinkel He 51]] biplane fighter.
On [[September 21]], with the head of the column at the town of [[Maqueda]] (some 80 km away from Madrid), Franco ordered a detour to free the [[Siege of the Alcázar|besieged garrison at the Alcázar]] of [[Toledo (Spain)|Toledo]], which was achieved [[September 27]]. This controversial decision gave the [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] time to strengthen its defenses in Madrid and hold the city that year but was an important morale and propaganda success.
===Rise to power===
The designated leader of the uprising, Gen. [[José Sanjurjo]] died on [[July 20]], [[1936]] in an air crash. Therefore, in the nationalist zone, "Political life ceased."<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''The Spanish Civil War'', revised and enlarged edition (1977), New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-014278-2. p. 258</ref> Initially, only military command mattered; this was divided into regional commands: ([[Emilio Mola]] in the North, [[Gonzalo Queipo de Llano]] in [[Seville]] commanding [[Andalusia]], Franco with an independent command and [[Miguel Cabanellas]] in [[Zaragoza]] commanding [[Aragon]]). The Spanish Army of Morocco itself was split into two columns, one commanded by [[General]] [[Juan Yagüe]] and the other commanded by [[Colonel]] [[José Varela]].
From [[July 24]], a coordinating ''[[Military junta|junta]]'' was established, based at [[Burgos]]. Nominally led by Cabanellas, as the most senior general,<ref>Thomas writes, "to pacify, rather than to dignify, him." ''op. cit.'', p. 282.</ref> it initially included Mola, three other generals, and two colonels; Franco was added in early August.<ref>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', p. 282.</ref> On [[September 21]], it was decided that Franco was to be commander-in-chief (this unified command was opposed only by Cabanellas),<ref>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', p. 421.</ref> and, after some discussion, with no more than a lukewarm agreement from Queipo de Llano and from Mola, also head of government.<ref>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', pp 423–424.</ref> He was doubtless helped to this primacy by the fact that, in late July, Hitler had decided that all of Germany's aid to the nationalists would go to Franco.<ref>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', p. 356.</ref>
Mola considered Franco as unfit and not part of the initial rebel group.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} But Mola himself had been somewhat discredited as the main planner of the attempted coup that had now degenerated into a civil war, and was strongly identified with the [[Carlism|Carlists]] monarchists and not at all with the [[Falange]], a party with Fascist leanings and connections, nor did he have good relations with Germans; Queipo de Llano and Cabanellas had both previously rebelled against the dictatorship of [[Miguel Primo de Rivera]] and were therefore discredited in some nationalist circles; and Falangist leader [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]] was in prison in Madrid (he would be executed a few months later) and the desire to keep a place open for him prevented any other falangist leader from emerging as a possible head of state. Franco's previous aloofness from politics meant that he had few active enemies in any of the factions that needed to be placated, and had cooperated in recent months with both Germany and Italy.<ref>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', pp 420–422.</ref>
On [[October 1]] [[1936]], in Burgos, Franco was publicly proclaimed as ''[[Generalísimo]]'' of the National army and ''Jefe del Estado'' ([[Head of State]]).<ref name=Thomas424>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', p. 424.</ref> Mola was furious and Cabanellas intervened to calm the spirits down.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} When Mola was killed in another air accident a year later (which some believe was an assassination) ([[June 2]] [[1937]]), no military leader was left from those who organized the conspiracy against the Republic between 1933 and 1935.<ref>Thomas, ''op. cit.'', pp 689–690.</ref>
===Military command===
From that time until the end of the war, Franco personally guided military operations. After the [[Siege of Madrid|failed assault on Madrid]] in November 1936, Franco settled to a piecemeal approach to winning the war, rather than bold maneuvering. As with his decision to [[Siege of the Alcázar|relieve the garrison]] at Toledo, this approach has been subject of some debate; some of his decisions, such as, in June 1938, when he preferred to head for [[Valencia (autonomous community)|Valencia]] instead of [[Catalonia]], remain particularly controversial from a military viewpoint.
Franco's army was supported by [[Nazi Germany]] in the form of the [[Condor Legion]], infamous for the [[bombing of Guernica]] on [[April 26]], [[1937]]. These German forces also provided maintenance personnel and trainers, and some 22,000 Germans and 91,000 Italians served over the entire war period in Spain. Principal assistance was received from [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)#Fascism|Fascist Italy]] (''[[Corpo Truppe Volontarie]]''), but the degree of influence of both powers on Franco's direction of the war seems to have been very limited. Nevertheless, the Italian troops, despite [[Battle of Guadalajara|not being always effective]], were present in most of the large operations in big numbers, while the CTV helped the Nationalist airforce dominate the skies for most of the war. [[António de Oliveira Salazar]]'s [[Portugal]] also openly assisted the Nationalists from the start, contributing some 20,000 troops.
It is said that Franco's direction of the Nazi and Fascist forces was limited, particularly in the direction of the [[Condor Legion]], however, he was officially, by default, their supreme commander and they rarely made decisions on their own. For reasons of prestige, it was decided to continue assisting Franco until the end of the war, and Italian and German troops paraded on the day of the final victory in Madrid.<ref>''The Spanish Republic and the civil war 1931-39'', by Gabriel Jackson, New Jersey, 1967</ref>
=== Political command ===
In April 1937, Franco managed to fuse the [[ideologically]] incompatible national-syndicalist [[Falange]] ("phalanx", a [[far-right]] Spanish [[political party]] founded by [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]]) and the [[Carlism|Carlist]] monarchist parties under a [[single-party system|single-party]] under his rule, dubbed ''[[Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista]]'' (FET y de las JONS), which became the only legal party in 1939. The Falangists' hymn, ''[[Cara al Sol]]'', became the semi-national anthem of Franco's not yet established regime.
This new political formation appeased the pro-Nazi Falangists while tempering them with the anti-German, pro-Spain Carlists. Franco's brother-in-law [[Ramón Serrano Súñer]], who was his main political advisor, was able to turn the various parties under Franco against each other to absorb a series of political confrontations against Franco himself. At a certain moment he even expelled the original leading members of both the Carlists ([[Manuel Fal Conde]]) and the Falangists ([[Manuel Hedilla]]) to secure Franco's political future. Franco also appeased the Carlists by exploiting the Republicans' [[anti-clericalism]] in his propaganda, in particular concerning the "[[Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War|Martyrs of the war]]". While the loyalist forces presented the war as a struggle to defend the Republic against Fascism, Franco depicted himself as the defender of "Christian Europe" against "atheist Communism."
From early 1937, every [[Capital punishment in Spain|death sentence]] had to be signed (or acknowledged) by Franco. From the beginning of the revolt, all the Junta generals ordered massive public and summary executions to spread [[morale|fear]] and reduce resistance among the [[civilian]]s.
During World War II, the head of the ''[[Abwehr]]'', [[Wilhelm Canaris]], had regular meetings with Franco and informed Franco of Hitler's attitude and plans for Spain. This information prompted Franco to surreptitiously reposition his best and most experienced troops to camps near the [[Pyrenees]] and to reshape the terrain to be unfriendly to tanks and other military vehicles {{Fact|date=September 2007}} <!-- citation and further explanations; did he use bulldozers or what? was that in the intent of not becoming a protectorate of Nazi Germany?-->.
=== The end of the Civil War ===
Before the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, the Prime Minister of Spain [[Juan Negrín]] unsuccessfully proposed, in the meeting of the [[Cortes]] in [[Figueres]], [[capitulation]] with the sole condition of respecting the lives of the vanquished. Negrín was ultimately deposed by Colonel [[Segismundo Casado]], later joined by [[José Miaja]].
Thereafter, only Madrid (see [[History of Madrid]]) and a few other areas remained under control of the government forces. On February 27, [[Neville Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] and [[Edouard Daladier|Daladier]]'s governments recognized the Franco regime, before the official end of the war. The PCE attempted a mutiny in Madrid with the aim of re-establishing Negrín's leadership, but José Miaja retained control. Finally, on [[March 28]], [[1939]], with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city (the "[[fifth column]]" General Mola had mentioned in [[propaganda]] broadcasts in 1936), Madrid fell to the Nationalists. The next day, [[Valencia, Spain|Valencia]], which had held out under the guns of the Nationalists for close to two years, also surrendered. Victory was proclaimed on [[April 1]], [[1939]], when the last of the Republican forces surrendered. On this very date, Franco placed his sword upon the altar in a church and in a vow, promised that he would never again take up his sword unless Spain itself was threatened with invasion.
At least 50,000 people were executed during the civil war.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1096841,00.html Spain torn on tribute to victims of Franco]</ref><ref name = "oepcls"/><ref>[http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPcasualties.htm Spanish Civil War: Casualties]</ref> Franco's victory was followed by thousands of [[summary execution]]s (from 15,000 to 25,000 people <ref>Recent searches conducted with parallel excavations of mass graves in Spain (in particular by the [[Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory]], ARMH) estimate that the total of people executed after the war may arrive at a number between 15,000 to 35,000. See for example [http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2002/351/1026114970.html Fosas Comunes - Los desaparecidos de Franco. La Guerra Civil no ha terminado], ''[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]]'', 7 July 2002 {{es icon}}</ref>) and imprisonments, while many were put to [[forced labour]], building railways, drying out swamps, digging canals (''La Corchuela'', the Canal of the [[Guadalquivir|Bajo Guadalquivir]]), construction of the [[Valle de los Caídos]] monument, etc. The 1940 shooting of the president of the [[Generalitat de Catalunya|Catalan government]], [[Lluís Companys]], was one of the most notable cases of this early repression.
Although leftists suffered from an important death-toll, the Spanish [[intelligentsia]], [[atheist]]s and military and government figures who had remained loyal to the Madrid government during the war were also targeted by the repression.
In his recent, updated history of the Spanish Civil War, [[Antony Beevor]] "reckons Franco's ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives. The '[[Red Terror (Spain)|red terror]]' had already killed 38,000."<ref>[http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7081116 "Men of La Mancha"]. Rev. of Antony Beevor, ''The Battle for Spain''. ''The Economist'' (June 22, 2006).</ref> Julius Ruiz concludes that "although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including 50,000 after the war) in [[Spain under Franco|Nationalist Spain]]."<ref>Julius Ruiz, [http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/42/1/97 "Defending the Republic: The García Atadell Brigade in Madrid, 1936"]. ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 42.1 (2007):97.</ref>
In ''Checas de Madrid'', César Vidal comes to a nationwide total of 110,965 victims of Republican repression; 11,705 people being killed in Madrid alone.<ref>[http://www.firmaspress.com/285.htm International justice begins at home] by [[Carlos Alberto Montaner]], [[Miami Herald]], August 4, 2003</ref>
Despite the official end of the war, [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla resistance]] to Franco (known as "the ''[[maquis]]''") was widespread in many mountainous regions, and continued well into the 1950s. In 1944, a group of republican veterans, which also fought in the [[French resistance]] against the [[Nazi]]s, invaded the [[Val d'Aran]] in northwest [[Catalonia]], but they were quickly defeated.
The end of the war led to hundreds of thousands of [[exile]]es, [[Immigration in France|mostly to France]] (but also [[Mexico]], [[Chile]], etc.).<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2809025.stm Spanish Civil War fighters look back]</ref> On the other side of the [[Pyrenees]], [[refugee]]s were confined in [[Concentration camps in France|internment camps]] of the [[French Third Republic]], such as [[Camp Gurs]] or [[Camp Vernet]], where 12,000 Republicans were housed in squalid conditions (mostly soldiers from the [[Durruti Division]] <ref name="ariege.fr">[http://cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/page/afficheLieu.php?idLang=fr&idLieu=2311 {{fr icon}} ''Camp Vernet'' Website]</ref>). The 17,000 refugees housed in Gurs were divided into four categories ([[Brigadist]]s, pilots, ''[[Gudari]]s'' and ordinary 'Spaniards'). The ''Gudaris'' (Basques) and the pilots easily found local backers and jobs, and were allowed to quit the camp, but the farmers and ordinary people, who could not find relations in France, were encouraged by the Third Republic, in agreement with the Francoist government, to return to Spain. The great majority did so and were turned over to the Francoist authorities in [[Irún]]. From there they were transferred to the [[Miranda de Ebro]] camp for "purification" according to the [[Law of Political Responsibilities]].
After the proclamation by [[Marshall Pétain]] of the [[Vichy regime]], the refugees became political prisoners, and the [[French police]] attempted to round-up those who had been liberated from the camp. Along with other "undesirables", they were sent to the [[Drancy internment camp]] before being deported to [[Nazi Germany]]. 5,000 Spaniards thus died in [[Mauthausen concentration camp]] <ref name=Cite> [http://www.histoire-immigration.fr/index.php?lg=fr&nav=20&flash=0 Film documentary] on the website of the ''[[Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration]]'' {{fr icon}}</ref>. The Chilean poet [[Pablo Neruda]], who had been named by the Chilean President [[Pedro Aguirre Cerda]] special consul for immigration in Paris, was given responsibility for what he called "the noblest mission I have ever undertaken": shipping more than 2,000 Spanish refugees, who had been housed by the French in squalid camps, to Chile on an old cargo ship, the ''[[Winnipeg (boat)|Winnipeg]]''.
===World War II===
{{details|Spain in World War II}}
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Franco y Hitler.jpg|thumb|right|Franco and [[Hitler]] meeting in [[Hendaye]] in 1940.]] -->
[[Image:Hitler and Franco.JPG|thumb|right|150px|Hitler and Franco]]
Franco's tactics received important support from [[Hitler]] and [[Mussolini]] during the civil war. He remained emphatically neutral in the [[Second World War]], but nonetheless offered various kinds of support to Italy and Germany. He allowed Spanish soldiers to volunteer to fight in the German Army against [[Stalin]] (the [[Blue Division]]), but forbade Spaniards to fight in the West against the liberal democracies. Franco's common ground with [[Hitler]] was particularly weakened by Hitler's propagation of a [[Nazi mysticism|pseudo-pagan mysticism]] and his attempts to [[Positive Christianity|manipulate Christianity]], which went against Franco's deep commitment to defending Christianity and Catholicism. {{Fact|date=June 2007}}
In September 1939, [[World War II]] broke out in Europe, and although [[Adolf Hitler]] met Franco once in [[Hendaye]], France ([[October 23]] [[1940]]), to discuss Spanish entry on the side of the [[Axis Powers|Axis]], Franco's demands (food, military equipment, [[Gibraltar]], [[French North Africa]], Portugal, etc.) proved too much and no agreement was reached. (An oft-cited remark attributed to Hitler is that the German leader would rather have some teeth extracted than to have to deal further with Franco.) Contributing to the disagreement was an ongoing dispute over German mining rights in Spain. Some historians argue that Franco made demands that he knew Hitler would not accede to in order to stay out of the war. Other historians argue that he, as leader of a destroyed country in chaos, simply had nothing to offer the Germans and their military. Yet, after the collapse of France in June 1940, Spain did adopt a pro-Axis non-belligerency stance (for example, he offered Spanish naval facilities to German ships) until returning to complete neutrality in 1943 when the tide of the war had turned decisively against [[Axis Powers|Germany and its allies]]. Some volunteer Spanish troops (the ''[[Blue Division|División Azul]]'', or "Blue Division")—not given official state sanction by Franco—went to fight on the [[Eastern Front (WWII)|Eastern Front]] under German command from 1941-1943. Some historians have argued that not all of the Blue Division were true volunteers and that Franco expended relatively small but significant resources to aid the Axis powers' battle against the [[Soviet Union]].
During the entire war, especially after 1942, the Spanish borders were more or less kept open for Jewish refugees from [[Vichy France]] and Nazi-occupied territories in Europe. Franco's diplomats extended their diplomatic protection over Sephardic Jews in [[Hungary]], [[Slovakia]] and the [[Balkans]]. Spain was a safe haven for all Jewish refugees and [[antisemitism]] was not official policy under the Franco regime.
On [[June 14]], 1940, the Spanish forces in Morocco occupied [[Tangier]] (a city under the rule of the [[League of Nations]]) and did not leave it until 1945.
According to author Richard Bassett, Franco's neutrality was bought dearly with a sum paid by Churchill into Swiss bank accounts for him and his generals<ref>{{cite book
| last = Bassett
| first = Richard
| title = Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery
| publisher = Weidenfeld and Nicolson
| date = June 2005
| pages = 352
| isbn = 0297846876}}</ref>. Franco thus waited quite a long time after WWII to pressure the United Kingdom regarding Spanish claims on Gibraltar.
==Spain under Franco ==
{{main|Spain under Franco}}
[[Image:Franco eisenhower 1959 madrid.jpg|thumb|300px|Francisco Franco and US President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in Madrid in 1959]]
Franco was recognized as the Spanish head of state by Britain and France in February 1939, two months before the war officially ended. Already proclaimed ''[[Generalísimo]]'' of the Nationalists and ''Jefe del Estado'' ([[Head of State]]) in October 1936 <ref name=Thomas424/>, he thereafter assumed the official [[title]]s of "''Su Excelencia el Jefe de Estado''" ("His Excellency the Head of State"). However, he was also referred to in state and official documents as "''[[Caudillo]] de España''" ("the Leader of Spain"), and sometimes called "''el Caudillo de la Última Cruzada y de la Hispanidad''" ("the Leader of the Last [[Crusade]] and of the Hispanic World") and "''el Caudillo de la Guerra de Liberación contra el Comunismo y sus Cómplices''" ("the Leader of the War of Liberation Against Communism and Its Accomplices").
In 1947, Franco proclaimed Spain a [[monarchy]], but did not designate a monarch. This gesture was largely done to appease the ''[[Movimiento Nacional]]'' ([[Carlism|Carlists]] and [[Legitimism|Alfonsists]]). Although a self-proclaimed monarchist himself, Franco had no particular desire for a King yet, and as such, he left the throne vacant, with himself as ''de facto'' [[regent]]. He wore the uniform of a [[Captain General]] (a rank traditionally reserved for the King) and resided in the [[El Pardo|El Pardo Palace]]. In addition, he appropriated the royal privilege of walking beneath a [[baldachin|canopy]], and his portrait appeared on most [[Spanish coins]]. He also added "[[by the grace of God]]," a phrase usually part of the styles of monarchs, to his style.
Lacking any strong ideology, Franco initially sought support from various groups. He initially garnered support from the fascist elements of the [[Falange]], but distanced himself from fascist ideology after the defeat of the Axis in [[World War II]]. Franco's administration marginalized fascist ideologues in favor of [[Technocracy (bureaucratic)|technocrats]], many of whom were linked with [[Opus Dei]], who promoted the economic modernization under Franco and afterward the liberalization of politics and government<ref>"The Franco Years: Policies, Programs, and Growing Popular Unrest." ''A Country Study: Spain'' <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html#es0034></ref>.
Although Franco and Spain under his rule adopted some trappings of fascism, he, and Spain under his rule, are not generally considered to be fascist; among the distinctions, fascism entails a revolutionary aim to transform society, where Franco and Franco's Spain did not seek to do so, and, to the contrary, although authoritarian, were conservative and traditional.<ref>Laqueur, Walter [http://books.google.com/books?id=fWggQTqioXcC&dq Fascism: Past, Present, Future] p. 13 1996 Oxford University Press]</ref> <ref> De Menses, Filipe Ribeiro [http://books.google.com/books?id=InPG_1wKfCIC&dq Franco and the Spanish Civil War], p. 87, Routledge</ref> <ref>Gilmour, David, [http://books.google.com/books?id=O-SEAAAAIAAJ&q=&pgis=1 The Transformation of Spain: From Franco to the Constitutional Monarchy], p. 7 1985 Quartet Books</ref> <ref>Payne, Stanley [http://books.google.com/books?id=NiD3UeOCSGsC&dq Fascism in Spain, 1923-1977], p. 476 1999 Univ. of Wisconsin Press</ref> <ref>Payne, Stanley [http://books.google.com/books?id=NiD3UeOCSGsC&dq Fascism in Spain, 1923-1977], p. 347, 476 1999 Univ. of Wisconsin Press</ref> [[Stanley Payne]], the preeminent scholar on fascism and Spain notes: "scarcely any of the serious historians and analysts of Franco consider the generalissimo to be a core fascist". <ref>Payne, Stanley [http://books.google.com/books?id=NiD3UeOCSGsC&dq Fascism in Spain, 1923-1977], p. 476 1999 Univ. of Wisconsin Press</ref><ref>Laqueur, Walter [http://books.google.com/books?id=fWggQTqioXcC&dq Fascism: Past, Present, Future], p. 13, 1997 Oxford University Press US</ref> The consistent points in Franco's long rule included above all authoritarianism, nationalism, the defence of Catholicism and the family, anti-[[Freemasonry]], and anti-Communism.
With the end of World War II, Spain suffered from the economic consequences of its isolation from the international community. This situation ended in part when, due to Spain's strategic location in light of [[Cold War]] tensions, the [[United States]] entered into a trade and military alliance with Spain. This historic alliance commenced with [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]'s visit in 1953 which resulted in the [[Pact of Madrid]]. Spain was then admitted to the [[United Nations]] in 1955.
=== Political repression ===
{{Cleanup-section|date=November 2007}}
Following the initial repression immediately after Franco's military victory, and the failure of the guerrilla attempts against his regime in the 1950s, Franco's regime enjoyed better stability. Imprisonment and abuse of political opponents continued, however, throughout Franco's period in power. Those artists of the [[Generation of '27]] who remained in Spain entered interior exile or even practised with the new regime.
During Franco's rule, non-government [[trade union]]s and all political opponents across the [[political spectrum]], from [[communism|communist]] and [[anarchism|anarchist]] organizations to [[liberal democracy|liberal democrats]] and [[Catalan nationalism|Catalan]] or [[Basque nationalism|Basque]] separatists, were either suppressed or tightly controlled by all means, up to and including violent police repression. The ''[[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo]]'' (CNT) and the ''[[Unión General de Trabajadores]]'' (UGT) trade-unions were outlawed, and replaced in 1940 by the corporatist ''[[Sindicato Vertical]]''. The [[PSOE]] Socialist party and the ''[[Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya]]'' (ERC) were banned in 1939, while the [[Communist Party of Spain]] (PCE) went underground. The [[Basque Nationalist Party]] (PNV) went into exile, and in 1959, the [[ETA]] armed group was created to wage a [[low-intensity warfare|low-intensity war]] against Franco.
Franco's Spanish nationalism promoted a unitary national identity by repressing Spain's cultural diversity. [[Bullfighting]] and [[flamenco]]<ref>Roman, Mar. "Spain frets over future of flamenco." 27 October, 2007. Associated Press. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071027/ap_en_mu/flamenco_for_foreigners]</ref> were promoted as national traditions while those traditions not considered "Spanish" were suppressed. Franco's view of Spanish tradition was somewhat artificial and arbitrary: while some regional traditions were suppressed, Flamenco, an [[Andalusia]]n tradition, was considered part of a larger, national identity. All cultural activities were subject to [[censorship]], and many were plainly forbidden (often in an erratic manner). This cultural policy relaxed with time, most notably in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Franco also used [[Language politics in Spain under Franco|language politics]] in an attempt to establish national homogeneity. He promoted the use of [[Spanish language|Castillian Spanish]] and repressed other languages such as [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Galician language|Galician]] and [[Basque language|Basque]]. The legal usage of languages other than Castillian Spanish was forbidden. All government, notarial, legal and commercial documents were to be drawn up exclusively in Spanish and any written in other languages were deemed null and void. The usage of any other language was forbidden in schools, in advertising, and on road and shop signs. Publications in other languages were generally forbidden. Citizens continued to speak these languages in private. This was the situation throughout the [[forties]] and, to a lesser extent, during the [[fifties]], but after 1960 the non-Castillian Spanish languages were freely spoken and written and reached bookshops and stages, although they never received official status.
Civil marriages which had taken place under Republican Spain were declared null and void and had to be reconfirmed by the Catholic Church of Spain. The enforcement by public authorities of [[Roman Catholic]] social [[mores]] was a stated intent of the regime, mainly by using a law (the ''Ley de Vagos y Maleantes'', Vagrancy Act) enacted by [[Manuel Azaña|Azaña]]<ref>http://search.boe.es/g/es/bases_datos/tifs.php?coleccion=gazeta&anyo=1933&nbo=217&lim=A&pub=BOE&pco=874&pfi=877</ref>. The remaining nomads of Spain ([[Gitano]]s and [[Merchero]]s like [[Eleuterio Sánchez|El Lute]]) were especially affected. In 1954, [[homosexuality]], [[pedophilia]], and [[prostitution]] were, through this law, made criminal offenses
<ref>http://search.boe.es/datos/imagenes/BOE/1954/198/A04862.tif</ref>, although its application was seldom consistent.
Most towns were patrolled by pairs of ''[[Guardia Civil (Spain)|Guardia Civil]]'', a military police for civilians, which functioned as his chief means of social control. Franco, like others at the time{{Who|date=July 2007}}, evidenced a concern about a possible [[Freemasonry|Masonic]] conspiracy against his regime. Some non-Spanish authors{{Who|date=July 2007}} have described it as being an "obsession".
Student revolts at universities in the late '60s and early '70s were violently repressed by the heavily-armed ''Policía Armada'' (Armed Police), also known as "los grises" because of their grey uniforms.
Franco continued to personally sign all death warrants until just months before he died, despite international campaigns requesting him to desist.
[[Image:Standard of Francisco Franco.PNG|thumb|right|180px|[[Royal Bend of Castile|Standard of Francisco Franco]]]]
=== Spanish colonial empire and decolonization ===
{{see|Spanish Empire}}
Spain attempted to retain control of its colonial empire throughout Franco's rule. During the [[Algerian War]] (1954-62), Madrid became the base of the ''[[Organisation de l'armée secrète]]'' (OAS) right-wing French Army group which sought to preserve [[French rule in Algeria|French Algeria]]. Despite this, Franco was forced to make some concessions. Henceforth, when [[French Morocco]] became independent in 1956, he surrendered [[Spanish Morocco]] to [[Mohammed V of Morocco|Mohammed V]], retaining only a few enclaves (the ''[[Plazas de soberanía]]''). The year after, Mohammed V invaded [[Spanish Sahara]] during the [[Ifni War]] (known as the "Forgotten War" in Spain). Only in 1975, with the [[Green March]], did Morocco take control of all of the former Spanish territories in the Sahara.
In 1968, due to United Nations' pressure, Franco granted Spain's colony of [[Equatorial Guinea]] its independence, and the next year, ceded the [[exclave]] of [[Ifni]] to [[Morocco]]. Under Franco, Spain also pursued a campaign to gain sovereignty of the [[British overseas territory]] of [[Gibraltar]], and [[Disputed status of Gibraltar|closed its border with Gibraltar]] in 1969. The border would not be fully reopened until 1985.
===Economic policy===
''See also: [[Economic history of Spain#The Franco Era.2C 1939-75|Economic history of Spain: Economy under Franco]]''
[[Image:Spanish peseta coin with Franco 1963.gif|thumb|left|200px|[[1963]] [[Spanish peseta]] coin with the image of Franco saying: ''Francisco Franco, Leader of Spain, by the grace of God'']]
The Civil War had ravaged the Spanish economy. Infrastructure had been damaged, workers killed, and daily business severely hampered. For more than a decade after Franco's victory, the economy improved little. Franco initially pursued a policy of [[autarky]], cutting off almost all international trade. The policy had devastating effects, and the economy stagnated. Economic growth picked up in 1959 after Franco took authority away from ideologues and gave more power to apolitical technocrats. The country implemented several development policies and growth took off creating the "[[Spanish Miracle]]". During the 1960s, the wealthy classes of Francoist Spain's population experienced further increases in wealth. It had the second-fastest growing economy in the world (the fastest being [[Japan]]). At the time of Franco's death, Spain still lagged behind most of Western Europe, but the gap between its GDP per capita and that of Western Europe had narrowed. After periods of rapid growth during the late 1980s and late 1990s, Spain now only lags slightly behind the economies of [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[Ireland]],[[France]] and [[Germany]], and has now overtaken [[Italy]] on some measures.
===Regions===
Franco was reluctant to enact any form of administrative and legislative decentralisation and kept a fully centralised form of government with a similar administrative structure to that established by the [[House of Bourbon]] and General [[Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja]]. Such structures were both based in the model of the French centralised State.
Franco's legacy is still particularly poorly perceived in [[Catalonia]] and the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]]. The Basque Country and Catalonia were among the regions that offered the strongest resistance to Franco in the Civil War, but one of the strongest to his support during this regime. Franco dissolved the autonomy granted by the [[Spanish Republic]] to these two regions and to [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]]. Franco abolished the centuries-old fiscal privileges and autonomy in two of the three Basque provinces: [[Guipuzcoa]] and [[Biscay]], but kept them for [[Alava]].
Among Franco's greatest area of support during the civil war was [[Navarre]], also a Basque speaking region in its north half. Navarre remained a separated region from the Basque Country and Franco decided to preserve its also centuries' old fiscal privileges and autonomy, the so-called [[Fueros of Navarre]].
Franco abolished the official statute and recognition for the [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Galician language|Galician]], and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] languages that the [[Spanish Republic]] had granted for the first time in the history of Spain. He returned to [[Spanish language|Spanish]] as the only official language of the State and education. The Franco era corresponded with the popularisation of the compulsory national educational system and the development of modern mass media, both controlled by the State and in Spanish language, and heavily reduced the number of speakers of Basque, Catalan and Galician, as it happened during the second half of the twentieth century with other European minority languages which were not officially protected like [[Scottish Gaelic]] or French [[Breton language|Breton]]. By the 1970s the majority of the population in the urban areas could not speak in the [[minority language]] or, as in some Catalan towns, their use had been abandoned. The most endangered case was the Basque language. By the 1970s Basque had reached the point where any further reduction in the number of Basque speakers would have not guaranteed the necessary generational renewal and it is now recognised that the language would have disappeared in only a few more decades. This was the main reason that drove the franquist provincial government of [[Alava]] to create a network of Basque medium schools ([[Ikastola]]) in 1973 which were State financed.
== Franco's death and funerals ==
[[Image:Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Franco is entombed in the monument of [[Valle de los Caídos|Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos]].]]
In 1969, he designated Prince [[Juan Carlos I of Spain|Juan Carlos de Borbón]], with the new title of King of Spain, as his successor. This came as a surprise for the [[Carlism|Carlist]] pretender to the throne, as well as for Juan Carlos's father, [[Juan de Borbón|Don Juan, the Count of Barcelona]], who technically had a superior right to the throne. By 1973, Franco had surrendered the function of [[prime minister]] (''Presidente del Gobierno''), remaining only as head of state and commander in chief of the military. As his final years progressed, tension within the various factions of the Movimiento would consume Spanish political life, as varying groups jockeyed for position to control the country's future. In 1974 Franco fell ill, and Juan Carlos took over as Head of State. Franco soon recovered, but one year later fell ill once again, and after a long illness, Franco died on [[November 20]], [[1975]], at the age of 82—the same date as the death of [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]], founder of the Falange. It is suspected that the doctors were ordered to keep him barely alive by artificial means until this symbolic date of the far-right{{Fact|date=August 2007}}. The historian Ricardo de la Cierva says{{Fact|date=August 2007}} that on the 19th around 6 p.m. he was told that Franco had already died.
After Franco's death, the interim government decided to bury him at [[Valle de los Caídos|Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos]], a colossal memorial officially dedicated to all casualties during Spanish Civil War. The monument, conceived personally by Franco, however has a distinctly nationalist tone.
In popular imagination, he is often remembered as in the black and white images of ''[[No-Do]]'' [[newsreel]]s, inaugurating a [[reservoir (water)|reservoir]], hence his nickname ''Paco Ranas'' (Paco – a familiar form of Francisco – "frogs"), or catching huge fish from the Azor yacht during his holidays.
==Franco's legacy==
{{see|Spanish transition to democracy}}
In Spain and abroad, the legacy of Franco remains controversial. Symbols of the Franco regime (such as the national flag with the Imperial Eagle) are now banned by law, while the national anthem of Spain, the ''[[Marcha Real]]'', is no longer accompanied by the lyrics introduced by Franco.
In Germany, a squadron named after [[Werner Mölders]] has been renamed because as a pilot he led the escorting units of the [[bombing of Guernica]]. In 2006, the [[BBC]] reported that [[Maciej Giertych]], a [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]] of the far-right [[League of Polish Families]], had expressed admiration for Franco, stating that he "guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe" <ref> [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5151504.stm Europe diary: Franco and Finland], [[BBC News]], 6 July 2006 {{en icon}}</ref>.
Many Spaniards, particularly those who suffered under the Franco's rule, have sought to remove official recognition of his regime. Several statues of Franco and other public Francoist symbols have been removed, with the last statue in Madrid having been removed in 2005 <ref name=Statue> [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4357373.stm Madrid removes last Franco statue], [[BBC News]], 17 March 2005 {{en icon}}</ref>. In 2002, [[José Maria Aznar]]'s conservative government had voted against proposals to remove street names, statues and other symbols of the Franco era <ref name=Statue/>.
In March 2006, the Permanent Commission of the [[European Parliament]] unanimously adopted a resolution "firmly" condemning the "multiple and serious violations" of [[human rights]] committed in Spain under the Francoist regime from 1939 to 1975 <ref name=EP> [http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/03/17/espana/1142617936.html Primera condena al régimen de Franco en un recinto internacional], [[EFE]], ''[[El Mundo]]'', 17 March 2006 {{es icon}}</ref><ref> Von Martyna Czarnowska, [http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4399&Alias=Dossiers&cob=189475&DosCob=164869 Almunia, Joaquin: EU-Kommission (4): Ein halbes Jahr Vorsprung], ''Weiner Zeitung'', 17 February 2005 (article in German language). Accessed 26 August 2006.</ref>. The resolution was at the initiative of the MEP [[Leo Brincat]] and of the historian [[Luis María de Puig]], and is the first international official condemnation of the repression enacted by Franco's regime <ref name=EP/>. The resolution also urged to provide public access to historians (professional and amateurs) to the various [[archive]]s of the Francoist regime, including those of the private ''[[Fundación Francisco Franco]]'' which, as well as other Francoist archives, remain as of 2006 inaccessible to the public <ref name=EP/>. The ''Fundación Francisco Franco'' received various archives from the [[El Pardo Palace]], and is alleged to have sold some of them to private individuals<ref>Luis Gomez and Mabel Galaz, [http://www.elpais.com/articulo/reportajes/cosecha/dictador/elpepusocdmg/20070909elpdmgrep_1/Tes La cosecha del dictador], ''[[El Pais]]'', 9 September 2007 {{es icon}}</ref>. Furthermore, it urged the Spanish authorities to set up an underground [[exhibition]] in the Valle de los Caidos monument, in order to explain the "terrible" conditions in which it was built <ref name=EP/>. Finally, it proposes the construction of monuments to commemorate Franco's victims in Madrid and other important cities <ref name=EP/>.
In Spain, a Commission to repair the dignity and restore the memory of the victims of Francoism (''Comisión para reparar la dignidad y restituir la memoria de las víctimas del franquismo'') was approved in the summer of 2004, and is directed by the vice-president [[María Teresa Fernández de la Vega]] <ref name=EP/>.
Recently the [[Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory]] (ARHM) initiated a systematic search for mass graves of people executed during Franco's regime, which has been supported since the [[PSOE]]'s victory during the [[Spanish general election, 2004|2004 elections]] by [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero]]'s government. A ''[[Ley de la memoria histórica de España]]'' (Law on the Historical Memory of Spain) has been approved on 28 July, 2006 by the [[Council of Ministers of Spain (8th Legislature)|Council of Ministers]], but is still to be voted. Among other things, the draft law is supposed to enforce an official recognition of the crimes committed against civilians during the Francoist rule and organize under state supervision the search for mass graves.
The accumulated wealth of Franco's family (including much [[real estate]] inherited from Franco, including the ''[[Pazo de Meirás]]'', the ''[[Canto del Pico]]'' in [[Torrelodones]] or the [[Cornide Palace]] in the [[Coruña]] <ref name=Cosecha/>) has also been discussed. Estimates of the family's wealth have ranged from 350 million to 600 million [[euros]] <ref name=Cosecha/>. When Franco was sick, the [[Cortes]] voted a pension for his wife, [[Carmen Polo]]. At her death in 1988, Carmen Polo received more than 12.5 million [[pesetas]] (four million more than [[Felipe González]], then head of the government) <ref name=Cosecha> Luis Gomez and Mabel Galaz, [http://www.elpais.com/articulo/reportajes/cosecha/dictador/elpepusocdmg/20070909elpdmgrep_1/Tes La cosecha del dictador], ''[[El Pais]]'', 9 September 2007 {{es icon}}</ref>.
In late 2007, Spain banned all public references to the Franco regime and remove any statues, street names and symbols associated with the dictator. The government is also considering cutting off state aid to churches which retain plaques commemorating Franco and the victims of his republican opponents.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,2194235,00.html</ref>
== Franco in popular media==
===Serious and documentary portrayals===
* ''[[Raza (film)|Raza]]'' or ''[[Espíritu de una Raza]]'' (''Spirit of a Race'') (1941), based on a script by "Jaime de Andrade" (Franco himself), is the semi-autobiographical story of a military officer played by [[Alfredo Mayo]]. ''[[Franco, ese hombre]]'' (''That man, Franco'') (1964) is a pro-Franco documentary film directed by [[José Luis Sáenz de Heredia]], and the film version of ''[[Evita (musical)|Evita]]'' (1996) includes archive footage of Franco. The role of Franco himself was interpreted on film by [[José Soriano]] in ''[[Espérame en el cielo]]'' (''Wait for Me in Heaven'') (1988) and by [[Ramon Fontserè]] in ''[[¡Buen Viaje, Excelencia!]]'' (''Bon Voyage, Your Excellency!) (2003).
===Comic references===
* In 1937 [[Pablo Picasso]] produced [[The Dream and Lie of Franco]], a series of satirical etchings and a poem denouncing Franco.
* In his satirical song ''The Folk Song Army'', [[Tom Lehrer]] mocked the popularity of folk songs supporting the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War: ''"Remember the war against Franco / The one where each of us belongs / While he may have won all the battles / We had all the good songs."''
* The weekly announcement "[[Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead]]" became a [[catchphrase|recurring joke]] on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', spoken by [[Chevy Chase]] during the "[[Weekend Update]]" [[fake news|news satire]] segment during the show's first season.
* [[Fawlty Towers]] also made several references. In "The Builders", Manuel is puzzled when someone looking for the boss of the hotel asks where the "generalisimo" is. In "The Anniversary", the chef Terry claims that his repertoire of Spanish cuisine includes "Franco Fritters". In "Basil the Rat", Basil Fawlty is moved to ask Manuel: "You have rats in Spain, don't you - or did Franco have them all shot?"
* In the movie ''[[You've Got Mail]]'', Socialist Frank Navasky ([[Greg Kinnear]]) is shocked to discover that his girlfriend's employee Birdie ([[Jean Stapleton]]) had dated Franco.
==Literature==
* [[Paul Preston]]: ''Franco: A Biography'', [[Harper Collins]], London, 1993, ISBN 0-00-215863-9. Updated with later editions.
== References ==
{{reflist|3}}
==See also==
{{CommonsCat|Francisco Franco}}
* [[History of Spain]]
* [[Spain under Franco]]
* [[Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead]]
* [[Ramón Serrano Súñer]]
* [[Luis Carrero Blanco]]
* [[Emilio Mola]]
* [[Spanish Legion]]
* [[Language politics in Francoist Spain]]
* [[Movimiento Nacional]]
* [[Frente Revolucionario Antifascista y Patriótico]]
{{wikisourcepar|Relations of Members of the United Nations with Spain}}
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<div style="margin-left: 60px;">[[Wikisource]] has original text related to this article:
<div style="margin-left: 10px;">'''''[[wikisource:es:Condecoraciones otorgadas por Francisco Franco a Benito Mussolini y a Adolf Hitler|Condecoraciones otorgadas por Francisco Franco a Benito Mussolini y a Adolf Hitler]]'''''</div>
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==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://www.daylife.com/topic/Francisco_Franco Death of dictator,Landmark Law Condemns Dictatorship: Spain Confronts Past under Franco]
*[http://www.fnff.org]National Foundation Francisco Franco.
*[http://www.fuenterrebollo.com/Gobiernos/general-franco.html Biographical page in Spanish about "Francisco Franco"]
* {{imdb name|id=0290542|name=Francisco Franco}}. He wrote the script for ''Raza'' under the name "Jaime de Andrade".
*[http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWfranco.htm Franco Biography] From Spartacus Educational.
*[http://www.libcom.org/history/articles/armed-resistance-to-franco/index.php 1939-1952: Armed resistance to Franco] - a history of the marxist guerrilla resistance movement to his regime
*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1552 Francisco Franco Gravesite]
;Video
*[http://www.documen.tv/asset/When_Franco_Died.html Documentary 52': When Franco died we were 30]
* Audio Interview: Sid Low on the Juventud de Accion Popular and the Outbreak of Civil War in Spain [http://www.history3313.com/iWeb/History3313.com/New%20Podcasts/BB632F7F-C0C8-46A7-8CB0-9EFE5F540F77.html]
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{{succession box|title=[[President of the Government of Spain (list)|President of the Government of Spain]]|before=[[Juan Negrín]]|after=[[Luis Carrero Blanco]]|years=1939–1973}}
{{succession box one to two|title2=[[List of Spanish monarchs|Spanish Head of State]]|title1=[[President of Spain]]|before=[[Manuel Azaña]]|after2=[[Juan Carlos I of Spain|Juan Carlos I]]|after1=Monarchy reinstated with vacant throne;<br>Franco acts as ''de facto'' [[regent]]|years2=1939–1975|years1=1939–1947}}
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{{Persondata
|NAME=Franco, Francisco
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo (full name); Franco Bahamonde, Francisco (standard name)
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Dictator and head of state of Spain
|DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|1892|12|4|df=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Ferrol, A Coruña]], [[Spain]]
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1975|11|19|df=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Madrid]], [[Spain]]
}}
[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:Cold War leaders]]
[[Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease]]
[[Category:Falangism]]
[[Category:Francoist Spain]]
[[Category:Galician politicians]]
[[Category:Generalissimos]]
[[Category:Heads of state of Spain]]
[[Category:Leaders who took power by coup]]
[[Category:Spanish anti-communists]]
[[Category:Spanish generals]]
[[Category:Spanish fascists]]
[[Category:Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War]]
[[Category:Spanish Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:World War II political leaders]]
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