Francisco Franco

I

Introduction

Francisco Franco (1892-1975), Spanish military leader who rose to power during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and went on to rule Spain as dictator from 1939 until 1975. Franco has inspired highly contradictory opinions about his role in history. His defenders have viewed him as modern Spain's most distinguished statesman, arguing that he was responsible not only for saving Spain during a bitter civil war but also for steering the country towards peace and prosperity. His critics have painted a much darker portrait of him—as an opponent of democracy, as a comrade of German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during World War II (1939-1945), and as a despotic ruler of Spain for nearly 40 years.

II

Early Life and Military Career

Born in the northwestern Iberian coastal town of El Ferrol, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde was the second son of a father who was a naval paymaster and a mother who was a devout Catholic. Due to her husband’s long absences, Franco’s mother took on many of the duties of rearing Francisco, his two brothers, and his sister. Her influence over the young Francisco was particularly profound, especially as a moral and intellectual guide.

Franco wanted to follow a family tradition by pursuing a career in the navy, but government cutbacks in the size of the naval officer corps pushed him in another direction. At age 14, he gained admission to Spain's premier military institution, the Infantry Academy at Toledo. For the next three years Franco acquired the skills then considered essential to a Spanish officer; apart from fencing, riding, and shooting, he spent long hours in the classroom absorbing the lessons of war theorists such as Prussian Karl von Clausewitz. Upon graduating in 1910, the 17-year-old Franco received his commission as a second lieutenant.

Franco grew up during a time when his country was experiencing a series of major crises. Foremost among them was Spain’s humiliating defeat in the Spanish-American War (1898). As a result, Spain lost the remnants of its once-global empire, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Such a profound blow to national pride prompted many Spaniards to blame the government for Spain’s rapid decline in world prestige.

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Spurred on by the desire to recover its prestige, the government began to expand its involvement in Morocco. Spain had maintained a colonial presence in North Africa since the end of the 15th century. Due to indigenous rebellions and intrusions by foreign powers in the early 20th century, Spain’s government increased its military force in Morocco to protect its meager land holdings.

As part of this military buildup, Franco was assigned to a post in Morocco in 1912. At that time, Spain’s army was fighting to subdue the local Rif tribespeople. This gave Franco military experience. During his first tour of duty, which lasted until 1916, Franco quickly established himself as a brave and effective combat officer. In 1913 he won his first prestigious decoration, the Military Cross, and by 1917 his bravery and notable successes on the battlefield had earned him the rank of major.

Franco quickly rose through the military’s ranks, developing a lifelong reputation as an invincible fighter. After sustaining a near-fatal wound to the abdomen in 1916, for example, he defied the odds by making a fast recovery and returning to active duty. A posting back on the Spanish mainland interrupted his assignment in Morocco. From 1917 until 1920 Franco was stationed in Asturias in northern Spain, where he commanded the infantry battalion at the garrison in the region’s capital, Oviedo. There he began courting the daughter of a wealthy Asturian family, Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, whom he married in 1923.

Franco’s opportunity to return to combat came in late 1920, when he was reassigned to Morocco to help organize and command a new elite fighting force, the Tercio de Extranjeros (Spanish Foreign Legion). Over the next five years Franco once again distinguished himself as a military leader. By the time he left Morocco in 1926, Franco had become a brigadier general. At age 34, he was Europe's youngest general since French emperor Napoleon I.

During the years Franco was in Morocco, Spanish society had experienced major economic and political upheavals. Movements for regional autonomy had emerged in the Basque Country and Catalonia, and were seriously undermining the authority of the central government in Madrid. Spain's uneven progress in industrialization and the development of a capitalist economy had unleashed a variety of economic and social problems. In the cities, an increasingly restless working class had begun rebelling against harsh living conditions and exploitation by factory owners and businesspeople. In the countryside, the peasantry had begun struggling against an oppressive, semifeudal economic system that locked most peasants into a system of extreme poverty.

The stresses and strains brought on by these developments eventually overwhelmed the constitutional monarchy headed by King Alfonso XIII. The liberal government collapsed in September 1923 and was replaced by a military dictatorship headed by General Miguel Primo de Rivera. The early phase of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship brought an atmosphere of peace and prosperity. However, that atmosphere began to dissipate under the pressures being exerted by the social and political forces opposed to the regime. The onset of the worldwide economic depression of the late 1920s further eroded Primo de Rivera’s hold on power, and his rule came to an abrupt end early in 1930. In 1931 Alfonso XIII went into exile, and Spain’s Second Republic (the first had existed between 1873 and 1874) was established.

III

Political Change

The founding of the Second Republic represented a radical departure from previous regimes. Above all, it ended the monarchy, an institution that had long been identified with the Spanish state. The republic’s coalition of left-wing parties enraged conservatives, including Franco, who was a staunch traditionalist and loyal defender of the Spanish crown. Soon after they came into power, the Republicans (supporters of the Second Republic) launched an ambitious campaign to reform Spain's military. One of their first measures was to shut down the Academia General Militar (General Military Academy) in Zaragoza, which Franco had headed since it opened in 1928. Many officers were defensive, if not overtly hostile, toward the new regime’s efforts to reorganize the military. As early as the fall of 1931, a group of officers began plotting to overthrow the republic.

At first Franco refused to involve himself in any antigovernment conspiracies. His strict military training had taught him to respect authority as long as it was legitimate, and, at least for the time being, he chose to follow the orders of his superiors. Just six months after he was relieved of his command at Zaragoza, Franco accepted a less prestigious reassignment that placed him in charge of the infantry garrison at La Coruña, in his home province of Galicia.

For the next five years Spain suffered economic downturns, revolutionary insurrections, and government scandals. Throughout this period Franco managed to negotiate the twists and turns of the uncertain political landscape. In 1933 he was given command of the Balearic Islands district. A newly installed conservative government, which had gained a parliamentary majority in the 1933 elections, elevated him to a position in the Ministry of War in 1934.

Up until this point, Franco never allowed personal beliefs to interfere significantly with his military career. From 1934 on this was no longer the case. Franco became frustrated with the growing strength of the Spanish left and felt that Communism posed the greatest threat to the world, and particularly to Spain. In October 1934 Franco helped to suppress a left-wing miners’ revolt in Asturias.

In 1935 the conservative government appointed Franco as chief of staff, one of the highest positions in the Spanish army. However, the conservative government lost its parliamentary majority in the elections in February 1936, and the government shifted back toward the left. Franco grew even more frustrated by the liberal direction of the republic, as well as the growing strength of Communists, unions, and other left-wing groups in Spain.

By the spring of 1936 Franco had aligned himself with a group of right-wing military conspirators who were becoming increasingly anxious to overthrow the government. The new left-wing administration knew about Franco's political leanings and moved to isolate him from other conspirators. They transferred Franco to the distant Canary Islands, where he remained until the outbreak of the rebellion in July. Franco did not fully commit himself to the military rebellion until he was convinced of its success. Just days before it was scheduled to begin, he joined the conspirators. On July 19 he flew to Tétouan, Morocco, to command the Army of Africa, Spanish troops considered the most highly trained and best equipped of the rebel forces.

IV

Spanish Civil War

From the beginning, Franco assumed a central role in the uprising. When it became apparent toward the end of July that the Spanish navy, which remained loyal to the government, would not transport his troops across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Spanish mainland, Franco enlisted the support of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini supplied transport planes that were used to airlift the troops to the mainland. By taking this initiative, Franco not only placed himself at the forefront of the rebellion but he also irrevocably widened the dimensions of Spain's civil war. In addition, General José Sanjurjo, whom the chief conspirators had designated as their leader, died in an airplane crash in late July. His death, as well as a series of swift and resounding military triumphs led by Franco (particularly the taking of the Alcázar fortress in Toledo), opened the way for Franco’s rise as leader of the rebel movement.

The rebellion divided Spain into two hostile camps. On one side stood a collection of anti-republican military and civilian groups, which soon became known as the Nationalists. The Nationalist groups were united in the belief that the traditionally defined Spanish society they supported was being threatened by the policies of the Second Republic. They were also convinced that the military should take the lead in overthrowing the republic and replacing it with a strong authoritarian government. The Nationalists were opposed by the Republicans, some of whom were loyal defenders of the republic while others were left-wing revolutionaries. Although the revolutionaries were in many respects at odds with the other Republican groups, they supported them in the struggle against the rebellion.

At the end of September 1936 a provisional ruling military junta chose Franco as the Generalísimo (commander in chief) of the Nationalists. Even more important was Franco’s appointment as el Caudillo (the leader), the new head of the Spanish state. In this way, Franco became not only the leader of the army's command structure, but also supreme ruler of Nationalist Spain.

During the remainder of 1936, Franco advanced his military objectives, with swift victories in the south and southwest. The Nationalists were unable to take Madrid in late 1936, however, so Franco shifted his focus to the north. During the spring of 1937 the Nationalists launched a massive offensive in the Basque Country and Spain’s other northern provinces.

It was during this campaign that Franco faced one of the great controversies of his career. On April 26, 1937, German aircraft under Franco's command bombed the small Basque market town of Guernica. The international press widely reported the town’s destruction and the death of much of its civilian population. Franco's government was immediately blamed for the tragedy. In response, Franco's press corps vehemently denied Nationalist involvement in the incident, insisting instead that what they called Republican 'red revolutionaries' were responsible. Nevertheless, Franco's culpability in the event continued to haunt him.

After capturing the north and splitting the Republican territory, the Nationalists secured their victory in Spain’s civil war by taking Madrid at the end of March. On April 1, 1939, Franco formally proclaimed his triumph.