Spain under Franco

Francism redirects here. For the French movement, see Mouvement Franciste.

The Spanish Civil War officially ended on 1 April 1939, the day Francisco Franco announced the end of hostilities. The Republican regime had been defeated and Franco was now undisputed leader of Spain. He died on November 20, 1975.

Genesis of the government during the Civil War (1936-1939)

The Nationalist senior generals held an informal meeting in September 1936, where they elected Francisco Franco as leader of the Nationalists, with the rank of Generalísimo (sometimes written in English as Generalissimo, after the Italian fashion). He was originally supposed to be only commander-in-chief, but after some discussion became head of state as well with nearly unlimited and absolute powers.

This provisional government ruled over the territories controlled by the Nationalists during the Civil War. Its main political action during the war was the consolidation of the heterogeneous political forces into a single party, the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS. During and after the war, the Nationalist government harshly repressed Republican militants and sympathizers, as retaliation for the equally harsh repression of clergy and Nationalist militants on the opposite side. Killings were widespread on both sides during the whole war.

The retaliation continued after the war, allegedly to punish war crimes committed under the Republican government, under a process called Causa General. They executed, jailed, or subjected to forced labour thousands of republicans (the official tally of executions was 40,000); thousands more exiled themselves to France and Latin America. Some of those who fled to France joined the French Maquis; some, such as Lluís Companys, president of the Catalan Government, were caught up in the Nazi repression during World War II. Exiled to France in 1939, Companys was arrested and extradited to Spain in September 1940, and put to death after a military trial.

Franco's regime

Lacking any strong ideology, Franco initially sought support from National syndicalism (nacionalsindicalismo) and the Roman Catholic Church (nacionalcatolicismo). The Falange soon transformed into the Movimiento Nacional and became so heterogeneous as to barely qualify as a party at all. It was certainly not an ideological monolith like the Fascio di Combattimento (Fascist Party) or the ruling block of Antonio Salazar.

Franco is often characterized as a fascist, and certainly had the consistent support of fascists in Spain and abroad, even though some may say he was a mere reactionary who sought shelter in fascism as he was unable to find himself an original ideology to confront the ones of Communism, Socialism or Anarchism, all three present in different numbers in Spain and vigorously supported from abroad. His regime has also been described as a conservative even traditionalist rightist regime. The emphasis was on order and stability, rather than a definite political vision like fascism.

In 1940, the Vertical Syndicate was created. Following the ideas of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, this syndicate would end class struggle, as it grouped together workers and owners according to corporative principles. It was the only legal syndicate, and was under government control. Other syndicates and political parties were forbidden and strongly repressed.

All cultural activities were subject to censorship, and many were plainly forbidden on various, many times spurious, grounds (political or moral). In accordance with Franco's nationalist principles, only Spanish was recognized as official language. Although millions of the country's citizens had other native languages (Catalan, Basque and Galician being the most numerous minority languages), use of these languages was discouraged, and most public uses were forbidden. This cultural policy was initially very strict, but relaxed with time, most notably after 1960. Still, even after 1960, all government, notarial, legal and commercial documents were drawn up exclusively in Spanish and any written in other languages were deemed null and void. (See Languages of Spain, Language politics in Francoist Spain.)

Although a self-proclaimed monarchist, Franco had no particular desire for a king, due to his strained relation with the legitimate heir of the Crown, Don Juan de Borbón y Battemberg. Therefore, he left the throne vacant, with himself as de facto regent. In 1947 Franco proclaimed Spain a monarchy, through the Ley de Sucesión en la Jefatura del Estado act, but did not designate a monarch. Instead, he set the basis for his succession. This gesture was largely done to appease monarchist factions within the Movimiento. He wore the uniform of a captain general (a rank traditionally reserved for the King), resided in the Pardo Palace, appropriated the kingly privilege of walking beneath a canopy, and his portrait appeared on most Spanish coins. Indeed, although his formal titles were Jefe del Estado (Head of State) and Generalísimo de los Ejércitos Españoles (Highest General of the Spanish Armed Forces), he was referred to as Caudillo de España por la gracia de Dios, (by the grace of God, the Leader of Spain) (by the grace of God is a technical, legal phrase which indicates sovereign dignity in absolute monarchies, and is only used by monarchs).

World War II years (1939-1945)

In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe, and although Adolf Hitler met Franco in Hendaye, France (October 23, 1940), to discuss Spanish entry on the side of the Axis, Franco's demands (food, military equipment, Gibraltar, French North Africa, etc.) proved too much and no agreement was reached. 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 simply had nothing to offer the Germans. After the collapse of France in June 1940, Spain adopted 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 Germany. Franco sent troops (División Azul, or Blue Division, after the Falange's party colour, whose members were known as 'blueshirts') to fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. They were all volunteers. At the same time, Spanish diplomats in the Axis countries actively protected Jews and Spain itself became a safe haven for Jewish refugees, as Franco refused to implement anti-Semitic laws, as demanded by the Axis.

Isolation (1945-1953)

After the war, the Allies used Spain's sympathy for Mussolini and Hitler to keep it out of the United Nations. He was seen, especially by Soviet countries but also by Great Britain, to be a remnant of the central European fascist regimes. Under the circumstances, a resolution condemning the Franco government was inevitable. It encouraged countries to remove their ambassadors in Spain, and established the basis for measures against Spain if the government remained authoritarian. Only Portugal and a few Latin-American countries refused to comply with this advice.

The consequence of all of this was the establishment of an embargo against the Francoist regime in 1946 -including the closure of the French border- with very little success, as it boosted support for the regime. Ostracism was presented as a modern version of the Black Legend, a machination of Freemasons against Catholic Spain, and helped to rally massive popular support for the regime like the massive demonstration in 1946.

In 1947, Juan Perón ignored the UN embargo and sent his wife Eva Duarte de Perón with much needed food supplies. The Spaniards, and Franco himself, heartily welcomed Evita.

After World War II, the Spanish economy was still in disarray. Rationing cards were still used as late as 1952. War and economical isolation forced the introduction a regime of autarchy, warmly welcomed by Falangists. The tenets of the economy were: reduction of imports, self-sufficiency, state-controlled production and commercialization of first order goods, state-funded industry and construction of infrastructure - heavily damaged during the Civil War- through the use of precarious means.

The End of Isolation (1953-1957)

The increased tensions between America and the USSR in the 1950s, forced the American government to search for new allies in Europe. Franco was a proclaimed anti-Communist, which made him a very reliable key ally in the Cold War.

Isolation was finally broken in 1953 when President Dwight Eisenhower visited Spain, warmly embraced Franco, and when the Spanish government signed the Concordato (Spanish for Concordat) agreement with the Vatican. Several treaties allowing opening of military bases in Spain were signed in 1953. The American government in return gave Spain economic aid, part of it as donation, part of it to be returned. This series of agreements between the US and Spain were known as the Pact of Madrid.

In 1955 Spanish wealth approached the pre-Civil War levels of 1935, leaving behind the disasters of the war and the struggle of isolation. Spain even joined the UN in 1955. Other Western European countries, including Italy, were from that point eager to restore good contacts with Francoist Spain.

The Desarrollo, the Spanish Miracle (1957-1973)

The Spanish Miracle (Desarrollo) was the name given to the Spanish economic boom between 1959 and 1973 and it is the most remarkable phenomenon and the most important legacy left by Francoist Spain, as Spain largely surpassed the per capita income that differentiates developed from underdeveloped countries and induced the development of a dominant middle class which was instrumental to the future establishment of democracy.

The boom was bolstered by economic reforms promoted by the so-called technocrats, appointed by Franco, who put in place neo-liberal development policies from the IMF. The technocrats were a new breed of economists linked to Opus Dei, who replaced the old, prone to isolationism, Falangist guard.

The implementation of these policies took the form of development plans (planes de Desarrollo) and it was largely a success: Spain enjoyed the second highest growth rate in the world, just after Japan, and became the ninth largest economy in the world, just after Canada. Spain joined the industrialized world, leaving behind the poverty and endemic underdevelopment it had experienced since the loss of the Spanish Empire at the beginning of the 19th century.

Albeit the economic growth produced noticeable improvements in Spanish living standards and the development of a middle class, Spain remained less economically advanced relative to the rest of Western Europe (with the exception of Portugal, Greece and Ireland). At the heyday of the Miracle, 1974, Spanish income per capita peaked at 79% of the Western European average, only to be reached again 25 years later, in 1999.

The recovery led to an increase in (often unplanned) building on the periphery of the main Spanish cities to accommodate the new class of industrial workers brought by rural exodus, much similar to the French banlieue.

The icon of the Desarrollo was the SEAT 600, the first car for many Spanish working class families, produced by the Spanish SEAT under FIAT licence.

Franco's last years (1973-1975)

The 1973 oil shock severely affected oil-dependent Spain, and brought the economic growth to a halt in 1975. This caused a new sprawl of strikes (nominally illegal at the time).

Franco's declining health gave more power to Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, but he was assassinated by ETA in 1973. Carlos Arias Navarro took over as President of the Spanish Government, and tried to introduce some reforms to the decaying regime, but he struggled between the two factions of the regime, the bunker (far-right) and the aperturists who promoted transition to Democracy.

But there was no way back to the old regime: Spain was not the same as in post-Civil War times and the model for the now wealthy Spaniards was the prosperous Western Europe, not the impoverished post-war Falangist Spain. Wealthy West Germany became a role model with which Spaniards identified themselves, as West Germans increasingly went on vacations to the Spanish beaches. Besides this a considerable number of Spanish men had worked in Western Europe in the previous years as cheap labour forces, thereby encountering the economical growth and wealth of western Europeans.

The size of the Spanish army and police was significantly smaller than pre-war times and the important Roman Catholic clergy were at the time deeply transformed, and sometimes deeply worried, by the reforms of the Vatican Council II.

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 agony, Franco died on November 20, 1975, at the age of 82—the same date as 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 that symbolic date. The historian, Ricardo de la Cierva, says that on the 19th around 6 p.m. he was told that Franco had already died.

After Franco's death, the interim government took decision to bury him at Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, a colossal memorial to all casualties during Spanish Civil War, although it was conceived by Franco and has a distinctly nationalist tone.

References

Payne, S. (1987). The Franco regime. 1st ed. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

External links

[Text of Franco's Fundamental Laws], the Spanish "Constitutions" under Franco.

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