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Francisco Franco | Biography, Nickname, Beliefs, & Facts

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Francisco Franco, in full Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde, byname El Caudillo (“The Leader”), (born December 4, 1892, El Ferrol, Spain—died November 20, 1975, Madrid), general and leader of the Nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish…

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Miners captured by General Franco's forces in 1936, before their execution in Seville. Credit... Photograph courtesy of ICAS-SAHP, Fototeca Municipal de Sevilla, Fondo Serrano

In "Homage to Catalonia," his memoir of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell remarks that Francisco Franco's military uprising against Spain's elected government "was an attempt not so much to impose fascism as to restore feudalism." Paul Preston's magisterial account of the bloodshed of that era bears this out. Fascism may belong to the 20th century, but Franco's grab for power evokes earlier times: the parading soldiers who flourished enemy ears and noses on their bayonets, the mass public executions carried out in bullrings or with band music and onlookers dancing in the victims' blood. One of Franco's top aides talked of democratically chosen politicians as "cloven-hoofed beasts," and anything that smacked of modernity - Rotary Clubs, Montessori schools - seemed to draw the regime's violent wrath. Echoing the Inquisition, Franco ordered particularly despised foes put to death with the garrote, in which the executioner tightens an iron collar around a person's neck.

There's also something medieval in the fierce class divisions of 1930s Spain, with its great latifundistas, whose estates were worked by landless peasants so hungry they stole acorns from pigs' troughs. Preston describes the "near racist" loathing Franco's officials had for the lower classes; one contemptuously referred to unionized farmworkers as being like "Rif tribesmen." Indeed, Franco's leading commanders were mostly, like him, Africanistas, veterans of Spain's bloody colonial wars in North Africa. As a young man, the generalissimo himself led troops on a raid that brought back the severed heads of 12 Moroccan tribesmen.

With Hitler and Mussolini supplying arms to Franco, and the Soviet Union to the embattled Spanish Republic, the death toll of the 1936-39 war was enormous. Some 200,000 soldiers died in battle, and a further large but unknown number of civilians were killed by Franco's bombing of Spanish cities and of vast columns of refugees in flight. But Preston's subject is something else: the approximately 200,000 men and women deliberately executed during the war, the 20,000 supporters of the Republic shot after it ended, and the additional tens of thousands of civilians and refugees who died in concentration camps and prisons.

An eminent and prolific British historian of modern Spain, Preston says this was "an extremely painful book to write." It is also, unlike several of his other works, a difficult book to read. The newcomer to Spanish history will nowhere learn the difference between the Assault Guard and the Civil Guard, or between a Carlist and an integrist. Chapters roll on for 40 or 50 pages without a break. A blizzard of names of thousands of perpetrators and the towns where they carried out their tortures and killings overwhelms the reader. "The Spanish Holocaust" is not really a narrative but a comprehensive prosecutor's brief. With its immense documentation - 120 pages of endnotes to both published and unpublished material in at least five languages, including corrections of errors in these sources - it is bound to be an essential reference for anything written on the subject for years to come.

In quashing democracy and timid agricultural reform, and in restoring the traditional hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, the army, big landowners and an authoritarian state, the Spanish version of fascism was very much a fundamentalist movement. And like so many political and religious fundamentalisms, it had a particular ferocity toward women. Franco's troops practiced gang rape to frighten newly captured towns into submission, and until media-savvy superiors silenced them, his officers even boasted about this to American and British correspondents. Tens of thousands of women had their heads shaved and were force-fed castor oil (a powerful laxative), then jeered as they were paraded through the streets soiling themselves. Many had their breasts branded with the Falangist symbol of yoke and arrows. In Toledo, a United Press correspondent reported, Franco's soldiers shot more than 20 pregnant women from a maternity hospital. Much larger all-female groups were executed elsewhere. Troops marched through one town waving rifles adorned with the underwear of women they had raped and murdered. "It is necessary to spread terror," one of Franco's senior generals declared. "We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do."

Although Preston's sympathies are clearly with the doomed Republic, to his credit he is equally thorough in exposing the killings committed under that government. Many supporters of the Republic had their own version of class hatred, murdering large numbers of captured army officers, other right-wingers and, most notoriously, nearly 7,000 members of the Catholic clergy and religious orders, who were seen as accomplices of the reactionary landowners. Among hundreds of other atrocities on the Republican side, Preston details the evasions of the longtime Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo regarding his involvement in the massacre of more than 2,200 rightist prisoners in Madrid; the operations of some Soviet "advisers" who, supposedly on hand to aid the Republican Army, devoted themselves to hunting down anti-Stalinists on the Spanish left; and the harshly sadistic prisons operated by the Republic's military intelligence service. Of the 200,000 estimated civilian wartime executions, more than 49,000 took place in Republican territory - a much smaller toll than that taken by the fascists, but still enormous.

There were crucial differences, however. Most, though by no means all, Republican killings were by mob violence, not deliberate policy, in the first six months of the war, as popular outrage welled up after air raids and news of fascist atrocities. But - sometimes effectively, sometimes not, and often at great personal risk - certain Republican officials managed to restrain and sometimes even prosecute killers of civilians. Unlike the tightly controlled press in Franco's territory, some newspapers condemned the killings. And the Republican government saved many lives by evacuating from the country more than 10,000 businessmen, priests and other right-wingers thought to be at particular risk. Nothing similar happened on the Falangist side.

Franco's rule became less murderous in later times, but in the early years he ranks morally with Hitler and Stalin. In such a regime, I always wonder, were there any decent people who tried to stop the slaughter? Yes, it turns out. Preston gives one brief but haunting example. Father Fernando Huidobro Polanco was a 34-year-old Jesuit who enthusiastically volunteered as a chaplain for Franco's troops. But he was dismayed to see them routinely shooting all their prisoners. He sent protests to high-level army officers and finally wrote to Franco himself that "many are dying who do not deserve such a fate and who could mend their ways." To Franco's adjutant, he protested in despair that "we are falling back into barbarism. . . . I do not want the new regime to be born with blood on its hands." He was wounded but then returned to the front, ever more vocal. In 1937, he was killed in battle, supposedly by shrapnel from one of the Republic's Soviet artillery shells. Ten years later the Jesuits began the lengthy process to have him canonized as a saint. But in the course of the investigation, it came out that he'd been shot in the back by a soldier from his own unit, "tired perhaps of the preaching of his chaplain," Preston writes. "When it was discovered that Huidobro had been killed by the Francoists and not by the Reds, the Vatican shelved his case."

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In "Homage to Catalonia," his memoir of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell remarks that Francisco Franco's military uprising against Spain's elected government "was an attempt not so much to impose fascism as to restore feudalism." Paul Preston's magisterial account of the bloodshed of that era bears this out.

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On 18 July 1936, a group of military officers attempted a coup to overthrow the leftwing Popular Front government that had come to power in February. That date marks the beginning of the Spanish civil war, which killed 500,000 people and resulted in 450,000 fleeing Spain

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Survivors of the Spanish civil war 80 years on - in pictures

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On 18 July 1936, a group of military officers attempted a coup to overthrow the leftwing Popular Front government that had come to power in February. That date marks the beginning of the Spanish civil war, which killed 500,000 people and resulted in 450,000 fleeing Spain

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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francisco-Franco

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While Francisco Franco was in

https://www.biography.com/dictator/francisco-franco

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https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/francisco-franco

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No, I'm not referring to actor James Franco. Instead, my attention was caught by a fresh dispute that has been triggered in Spain by the publication of its dictionary of national biography. Professor Luis Suarez, an admirer of Gen. Francisco Franco, has apparently written the entry for him. The eighty-six-year-old Suarez maintains that Franco was an authoritarian, not a totalitarian, leader. He also overlooks the fact that tens of thousands were murdered by his regime.

The professor has touched a neuralgic nerve. The Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936-39 and served as a rallying cry for the international left, was the dress rehearsal for World War II. Both Stalin and Hitler intervened in it. It's certainly possible that had the communists won the war, they would have instituted an even bloodier reign than that of Franco.

The distinction between totalitarian and authoritarian leaders was emphasized in a famous article in Commentary in 1979 by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who was herself an expert on Latin America. Franco did purge the Republicans who had fought against his Nationalists, just as the reverse would have occurred had the Republicans won. It's also the case that the Franco regime melted away with his death and a transition to a democracy took place. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, Kirkpatrick had to revise her original notion that while authoritarian regimes could become democracies, totalitarian ones never would. With the end of the cold war, the totalitarian versus authoritarian dispute largely went away, especially as China turns into some kind of weird capitalist hybrid regime.

In Spain, however, the Franco era remains a hot-button issue. Suarez seems to view Franco as a demigod. But it's more than a bit much to admire Franco. A certain kind of conservative-Patrick Buchanan comes to mind-appears to view Franco as a great figure, staring down the communist hordes. But this was a very slippery slope. It became an intellectually facile way of justifying a multitude of odious right-wing regimes that engaged in repression-the justification being that they were holding the Reds at bay.

Spain itself continues to come to terms with its past. Outrage over Suarez's old guard comments is fervent. He comes across as a dinosaur intent on rehabbing the past.

As the Guardian reports,

Suárez is an acquaintance of the Franco family and a senior figure in the Brotherhood of the Valley of the Fallen. The group, which takes its name from the controversial underground basilica where the dictator was buried in 1975, is actively opposed to the so-called "historical memory" movement in Spain, which has recently been searching for, and digging up, the mass graves of the victims of Francoist death squads.

For many years, Suárez was one of the few historians allowed by Franco's family to study the personal papers of the man most Spaniards recognise as having been the country's dictator for 36 years from 1939. In 2005, Suárez, after a career spent studying the 15th and 16th centuries, published a biography of the dictator.

"This is an objective study, with no value judgments," he told Spain's EFE news agency.

He claimed the term "dictator" was not used during Franco's lifetime. "An historian cannot use it," he said.

The problem with this kind of defense is obvious. It's defensive. If the best you can argue about your hero is on the lines of "he wasn't a dictator," or "he didn't really murder all that many people," then it's not very firm ground to stand on. This episode is no cause for concern. Instead, it suggests that Spain has moved on from Franco, while a few antediluvian admirers try to maintain him as their guidon and oriflamme.

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No, I'm not referring to actor James Franco. Instead, my attention was caught by a fresh dispute that has been triggered in Spain by the publication of its dictionary of national biography. Professor Luis Suarez, an admirer of Gen. Francisco Franco, has apparently written the entry for him.

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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https://www.biography.com/dictator/francisco-franco

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Although Franco had visions of restoring Spanish grandeur after the Civil War, in reality he was the leader of an exhausted country still divided internally and impoverished by a long and costly war. The stability of his government was made more precarious by the outbreak of World War II only five months later. Despite his sympathy for the Axis powers' "New Order," Franco at first declared Spanish neutrality in the conflict. His policy changed after the fall of France in June 1940, when he approached the German leader Hitler; Franco indicated his willingness to bring Spain into the war on Germany's side in exchange for extensive German military and economic assistance and the cession to Spain of most of France's territorial holdings in northwest Africa. Hitler was unable or unwilling to meet this price, and, after meeting with Franco at Hendaye, France, in October 1940, Hitler remarked that he would "as soon have three or four teeth pulled out" as go through another bargaining session like that again. Franco's government thenceforth remained relatively sympathetic to the Axis powers while carefully avoiding any direct diplomatic and military commitment to them. Spain's return to a state of complete neutrality in 1943 came too late to gain favourable treatment from the ascendant Allies. Nevertheless, Franco's wartime diplomacy, marked as it was by cold realism and careful timing, had kept his regime from being destroyed along with the Axis powers.

The most difficult period of Franco's regime began in the aftermath of World War II, when his government was ostracized by the newly formed United Nations. He was labeled by hostile foreign opinion the "last surviving fascist dictator" and for a time appeared to be the most hated of Western heads of state; within his country, however, as many people supported him as opposed him. The period of ostracism finally came to an end with the worsening of relations between the Soviet world and the West at the height of the Cold War. Franco could now be viewed as one of the world's leading anticommunist statesmen, and relations with other countries began to be regularized in 1948. His international rehabilitation was advanced further in 1953, when Spain signed a 10-year military assistance pact with the United States, which was later renewed in more limited form.

Franco's domestic policies became somewhat more liberal during the 1950s and '60s, and the continuity of his regime, together with its capacity for creative evolution, won him at least a limited degree of respect from some of his critics. Franco said that he did not find the burden of government particularly heavy, and, in fact, his rule was marked by absolute self-confidence and relative indifference to criticism. He demonstrated marked political ability in gauging the psychology of the diverse elements, ranging from moderate liberals to extreme reactionaries, whose support was necessary for his regime's survival. He maintained a careful balance among them and largely left the execution of policy to his appointees, thereby placing himself as arbiter above the storm of ordinary political conflict. To a considerable degree, the opprobrium for unsuccessful or unpopular aspects of policy tended to fall on individual ministers rather than on Franco. The Falange state party, downgraded in the early 1940s, in later years became known merely as the "Movement" and lost much of its original quasi-fascist identity.

Death and legacy

Unlike most rulers of rightist authoritarian regimes, Franco provided for the continuity of his government after his death through an official referendum in 1947 that made the Spanish state a monarchy and ratified Franco's powers as a sort of regent for life. In 1967 he opened direct elections for a small minority of deputies to the parliament and in 1969 officially designated the then 32-year-old prince Juan Carlos, the eldest son of the nominal pretender to the Spanish throne, as his official successor upon his death. Franco resigned his position of premier in 1973 but retained his functions as head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and head of the "Movement."

Franco was never a popular ruler and rarely tried to mobilize mass support, but after 1947 there was little direct or organized opposition to his rule. With the liberalization of his government and relaxation of some police powers, together with the country's marked economic development during the 1960s, Franco's image changed from that of the rigorous generalissimo to a more benign civilian elder statesman. Franco's health declined markedly in the late 1960s, yet he professed to believe that he had left Spain's affairs "tied and well-tied" and that after his death Prince Juan Carlos would maintain at least the basic structure of his regime. After Franco's death in 1975 following a long illness, his body was interred in the Valley of the Fallen, a massive mausoleum northwest of Madrid that houses the remains of tens of thousands of casualties from both sides of the Spanish Civil War. Almost immediately, Juan Carlos moved to dismantle the authoritarian institutions of Franco's system and encouraged the revival of political parties. Spain had made great economic progress during the last two decades of Franco's rule, and within three years of his death the country had become a democratic constitutional monarchy, with a prosperous economy and democratic institutions similar to those of the rest of western Europe. In 2019 Franco's body was exhumed and reburied in a family crypt near El Pardo, the palace outside Madrid that had served as his official residence throughout his reign.
Stanley G. Payne

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Francisco Franco - Spanish Civil War, Dictatorship, Regime

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Francisco Franco - Spanish Civil War, Dictatorship, Regime: Although Franco had visions of restoring Spanish grandeur after the Civil War, in reality he was the leader of an exhausted country still divided internally and impoverished by a long and costly war.

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https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-spanish-civil-war

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On a sunny morning earlier this month, a small group gathered at the entrance to Barcelona's Fossar de la Pedrera, or Mass Grave of the Quarry. They were a mix of ages and types. An elderly woman, smartly dressed, clutched flowers as she stood next to her middle-aged son. A father and his young daughter waited patiently. Another visitor struggled to keep a restless chihuahua in check and hold on to her parasol.

The Fossar is relatively inaccessible from the city. Hidden by sheer walls of sandy rock, it rarely features in the tourist itineraries. Local people generally stay away but, once a month, small huddles can be seen making a dignified progress between the plaques and monuments, tactfully slowing down as members of the group linger over a particular name or a certain tribute.

This is a place of mourning. Following the end of the Spanish civil war in 1939, the bodies of 1,700 Republicans -soldiers, civilians, people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time - were carted through the centre of Barcelona and dumped here without dignity or ceremony, after summary execution by the fascist forces of General Francisco Franco. Their bullet-ridden corpses were covered in quicklime before being thrown into a pit, the better to ensure their rapid decomposition. In a grim example of fascist humour, the medical certificates of many of the dead reported the cause of death as "internal haemorrage".

A memorial was finally built in 1985 and for the past few years monthly tours have been conducted, in Catalan, by an Englishman, Nick Lloyd, who has lived in Barcelona for 28 years. More often than not, on days such as these, Lloyd ends up doing as much listening as talking. The Fossar de la Pedrera is full of untold stories.

The woman with flowers turns out to be the granddaughter of Eudald Coma Gironella, a Republican justice of the peace from the small town of Sant Vicenç de Torelló, an hour's drive from Barcelona. Until a few months ago his family had no idea where his remains were. Then friends spotted his name on one of the tall columns listing the dead. So here they are. Rosa Vaqué Coma tearfully says a prayer for the grandfather shot two years before she was born, and worries aloud over whether he was allowed to receive the last rites.

A few yards away, Alfons Vázquez Obiols is showing his 13-year-old daughter, Joanna, the name of Antonio Alcoverro Aliern, a municipal policeman in Barcelona when the Nationalist uprising took place. "He was my grand- mother's brother," says Vázquez. "He testified against someone who took part in the uprising. He was forced to testify; it was his job, he wasn't politically involved. When Barcelona fell to the fascists in '39, Antonio was arrested. My aunt went every day to the jail to bring him breakfast. One day she was told he was killed. The family were never given the body."

Against the will of his aunt, Vázquez has sought out the relevant files: "My aunt said, 'Don't do this. Just forget.' That generation is still a bit frightened. They said it happened a long time ago, we want to forget. So in the end I didn't tell them what I did."

Even some of Vázquez's friends are unsympathetic to his quest for documents. "I've got friends in Madrid who say, 'What's the point? Just leave it'," he says, but he has no intention of doing that, believing that Spain has a long way to go before its accounts with the civil war are settled.

He reserves particular ire for the memorial of the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen). It was claimed by Franco that this grandiose basilica, crypt and monument - built near Madrid, in part by Republican prisoners, and inaugurated in 1959 - would represent a "national act of atonement". Franco himself is buried there.

Dominated by a giant cross and built at the behest of the dictator, who devoted his life to cleansing Spain of godless Marxists, the Valle de los Caídos has never come close to being a site of national reconciliation. A few weeks ago, in a historic ruling, a judge ruled that the remains of two Republican victims of summary executions could be exhumed and reburied in "dignified" fashion somewhere else. "That place is a scandal," says Vázquez. "It is simply a fascist memorial. It's unacceptable."

Another father in the Fossar group has reluctantly come alone. Sergio Lobo wanted to bring his 12-year-old daughter, Candela, but she backed out. "She says they're not teaching her about this at school. She doesn't feel like she understands enough," he says. (Candela is not alone: a major survey a few years ago found that 69% of 14-to 17-year-old respondents said they had received little or no information about the civil war.)

The body of Lobo's grandfather has never been found, as remains the case with tens of thousands of other Republican casualties. His remains could be near Girona in north-east Catalonia, where he is believed to have fought, or perhaps closer to Barcelona. Who knows? "I have no idea where my grandfather is buried," he says. "I can't give you any details at all. Can you imagine!"

Two things torment Lobo: the disappearance without trace of his grandfather and the sense that his daughter's generation will grow up in ignorance of the bloody times that claimed his life. "Why haven't we done what other countries have done?" he asks. "Why haven't we done what Germany did and performed the hard work of remembering and debating? Why don't the schools do more? I try with Candela, but it's very difficult.

"The fact it is left to an Englishman to take guided tours of this place tells you something. We have just stuck a bandage on top of the wound and forgotten about it. It won't do. Here in Catalonia all the talk is about independence from Spain. Yes, that's all well and good. But first things first. I fear that my daughter will not be able to tell her daughter about what the civil war really was."

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Defeated Republicans march into exile in France. Photograph: STF/AFP/Getty Images

Eighty years after Franco's troops launched a military uprising against the elected Republican government of Santiago Casares Quiroga on 17 July 1936, there is still no museum dedicated to telling the full story of the civil war.

Around the Aragón battle sites, where George Orwell fought alongside the revolutionary Marxist militiamen of the Poum, small museums can be found chronicling the bitter fighting on that crucial front. In the southern port of Cartagena - the Republic's naval base - a former air-raid shelter now houses a series of galleries portraying local experiences of the conflict. In Guernica, the Basque town bombed by German and Italian planes in April 1937 and portrayed in its agony by Picasso, there is a permanent exhibition devoted to the theme of peace. But nowhere is there a museum that attempts to tell the unexpurgated, tragic tale of Spain's suffering between the summer of 1936 and April 1939.

"It is pretty astonishing," says Paul Preston, the eminent British historian of 20th-century Spain, "that there isn't a museum that tries to give the whole picture and represent all the sides to the civil war." Preston sits on the international board of the Association of the International Museum of the Civil War (Amigce) which has formally asked Barcelona's mayor, Ada Colau, to provide a suitable building for such a museum. The project, which would be self-funding and non-profit, has the support of the Orwell Society in Britain and the relatives of International Brigaders around the world. It has also received a remarkable letter of support from the National Socialism Documentation Centre in Cologne, the largest regional memorial site for the victims of Nazi Germany.

But Spain is not Germany. The legacy of the past is more contested and considerably more complicated. "It is still so Manichean in Spain," says Preston. "It's still very much 'those not with us are against us'. And there are still a lot of people who think Franco was wonderful."

Abroad the Spanish Republicans' doomed struggle against Franco and the fascist powers of Germany and Italy was commemorated in the work of writers such as Orwell, André Malraux, Ernest Hemingway and Victor Serge. The world remembers a noble fight to safeguard a fledgling democracy from the fascist menace of Franco, backed by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

But during the decades of the Franco dictatorship, a counter-version of history was prosecuted with ferocious energy, one in which Nationalist soldiers stepped in to save old Catholic Spain from the alien, hostile forces of atheism and communism. "Spain suffered 40 years of national brainwashing and terror," says Preston. "The aim of that war had been to destroy as many Republicans as possible. And under the Franco regime you saw the institutionalisation of his victory."

War memorials appeared across Spain, but only the Nationalist dead were named and remembered. Survivors such as Sergio Lobo's widowed grandmother, who eventually found work as a cleaner in a Madrid barracks, were warned to knuckle down, say nothing and forget. "When she asked questions about her husband, they told her, 'Listen, you have two children. Work, and keep quiet'," Lobo recalls.

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Civilians take shelter in a Madrid metro station in 1938. Photograph: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images

The savage repression of Republican Spain eventually ran out of steam. By the time of Franco's death, in 1975, the mood had altered. But the new impulse was not to rehabilitate the losers of the conflict, but to consign the country's bloodiest episode to history. The notion that, to use the phrase coined by another historian, Paloma Aguilar, a "collective insanity" had gripped Spain, became the founding spirit of Spain's new democracy. A general amnesty was granted for crimes committed during the war and for 30 years or so an unofficial pacto de olvido (pact of forgetting) held.

Not any more. One book - a novel - sums up a generational shift that has now led Spaniards such as Vázquez and Lobo to ignore the advice of ageing relatives and seek to shine a light on the country's unhappiest secrets.

The Soldiers of Salamis, published in 2001, follows a middle-aged journalist's attempt to unravel the truth of a famous incident towards the end of the civil war, when a prominent Falangist escapes a Republican firing squad. The recently bereaved narrator, a fictionalised version of the book's author, Javier Cercas, interviews a member of the battalion charged with performing the execution. The civil war veteran is now in his 80s. Explaining the motives for stirring up old enmities, Cercas tells the old man: "I just want to talk to you for a while, so I can tell what really happened, or your version of what happened. It's not a question of settling scores, it's about trying to understand."

Cercas's meditation on memory struck an extraordinary chord with the Spanish public, shooting to the top of the bestseller lists and staying there. A film of the book came out in 2003, to similar acclaim.

"The significance of Soldiers of Salamis was that it spoke to the notion of filial duty," says Sebastiaan Faber, a US-based academic who is about to publish a book entitled The Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War. "It spoke to a middle-aged generation whose parents had died, or would soon pass away, and who began to feel they owed it to their parents and grandparents to know fully what happened, and to transmit it to the next generation. So you are seeing this generational shift in Spain, the feeling that past suffering creates a duty to tell."

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The Basque town of Guernica after its devastation by German bombs in 1937. Photograph: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images

Over the past decade or so, the new spirit of inquiry has generated an outpouring of books, films and documentaries about the civil war. In the former battlefields of Aragón, Catalonia and Castile, searches conducted by Emilio Silva's Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, founded in 2000, have led to the recovery of the remains of nearly 2,000 victims of Francoist killings. Like the fictional narrator of Soldiers of Salamis, Silva went looking for the past, beginning with the location and exhumation of the remains of his own grandfather from a ditch in north-west Spain. His work helped to launch a memory movement, focused on reclaiming the lives erased from the history books during the Franco era.

Then, in 2007, the Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, went far beyond what his predecessors were willing to risk in the 80s and 90s. Though opposed by the conservative Popular party, Zapatero passed a Law of Historical Memory - a kind of legislative riposte to the pacto de olvido. The new law formally condemned the Franco regime, gave recognition to victims on both sides and offered support to their relatives. It also decreed that overtly Francoist symbols were to be removed from public buildings and spaces.

Nearly 10 years on, that last injunction is still the source of bitter controversy. In December, Manuela Carmena, the new mayor of Madrid and the first leftwing incumbent of that post for 24 years, announced that 30 street names in the capital with a connection to Franco were to be changed. Amid fierce resistance, it still hasn't happened. There are still, it seems, two Spains when it comes to re-examining the civil war.

Nevertheless, according to Faber, something fundamental has changed. "The old argument that Spain is different from other countries in how it deals with issues like the mass graves no longer holds. Even rightwing parties no longer feel they can be on the wrong side of history. I talked to Silva recently and he said he feels that the 'commonsense' view has shifted. Before, the feedback over exhumations would be about misgivings over stirring up the past. That kind of blowback isn't happening any more."

So has common sense shifted to the extent that the previously unthinkable was now possible: a comprehensive museum of the Spanish civil war? "Maybe Barcelona would be freer to do this than Madrid," says Faber. "It would be a less divisive issue there. And part of Catalonian identity is that it sees itself as more forward-thinking than Madrid."

Outside the Rosa de Foc bookshop in Barcelona's university district, a faded banner proudly celebrates the spirit of the tumultuous summer of 1936: "Neither wars nor frontiers: CNT Catalunya".

The Rose of Fire is run on a voluntary basis by the CNT union, once the mightiest force in Republican Barcelona. During the first summer of the civil war, its members defeated the Nationalist insurgency, took over the city's factories and turned the Ritz hotel into a workers' canteen. For a shortlived period, they ran the entire city.

Now there is just a bookshop, albeit one with treasures such as The Golden Book of the Spanish Revolution, produced by anarchist exiles in 1946 to mark the 10th anniversary of the war. The introduction still packs an emotional punch as it declaims: "Those of us who lived those unique and unforgettable days, days destined to light up the history of the world, will never lose the memory of them."

Behind the counter, Carmen is the current custodian of those memories. "This is a unique place," she says. "We are keeping the story alive. And if the story is not kept alive in Barcelona, where will it be kept alive? This is the place where the anarchist revolution really happened. It is a unique place in the world."

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Anarchist fighters in Barcelona in July 1936. Image shot 1936. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

In 2016, the politics of Barcelona and Catalonia are dominated by the dream of independence from Spain. But along with the Fossar de la Pedrera, throughout the city there are plentiful reminders of the traumatic history it shared with Madrid, Seville, Valladolid and Burgos. At the entrance to a bar named La Llibertaria, a lifesize model of a 1930s paper boy selling a revolutionary paper greets the visitor. Upstairs, a blue-overalled female Republican militiawoman stares out from a recruitment poster. This was the image, some say, that inspired Orwell to create the character of Julia in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Las Ramblas, a plaque marks the spot where the Poum leader, Andreu Nin, was arrested by Republican police, "assisted" by Soviet agents. And during the week foreign tour groups led by Lloyd and other expatriate guides crisscross Barcelona, retracing Orwell's steps. But, as in the rest of Spain, there is no central place where the whole story of 1936-39 is told.

"It's the question I am always asked," says Lloyd. "Why is there no museum of the civil war?"

Dr Pelai Pagès, professor of contemporary history at the University of Barcelona, is one of Spain's foremost historians of the conflict and a prime backer of the museum project. "With its enormous cultural tradition, the Barcelona of today can offer an international museum of the civil war which would help Catalans and Spaniards alike, as well as the foreigners who live in the city or visit, to understand what the civil war has meant to our history," he said.

If Ada Colau agrees, there is little doubt that Sergio Lobo and his daughter would be among the first visitors, as would Alfons Vázquez. "It would be great if this could happen," says Vázquez. But he also sounds a note of caution. "It's going to be difficult. When the subject of the civil war is talked about, the two sides of Spain divide immediately."

Can that division be contained and accommodated within the walls of one building? "There will never be a consensus on what happened between 1936 and 1939," says Faber, "and even if that were possible, there will never be a consensus about how to narrate what happened. But in a democracy there should be a higher kind of agreement, an agreement that it is good to collectively discuss the past as a society."

Or as Pagès puts it, a museum dedicated to the country's darkest hours can help to safeguard its future: "The civil war was the most important event in the history of 20th-century Spain. It was the prologue of the second world war; it generated a dictatorship that lasted almost 40 years and its effects continue into our times. Creating a museum is a means to preserve the historical memory of an event that should never be repeated."

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: A BRIEF HISTORY

REBELLION

On 17 July 1936 General Francisco Franco launched a military uprising against the Republican government elected that spring. Mobilising troops from Spanish Morocco - the so-called Army of Africa - the Nationalist forces quickly took control of Seville and other areas in the south. The plotters claimed to be acting in defence of traditional Catholic Spain and to restore order to the country. Their treatment of the opposition was brutal.

REPUBLICAN MILITIAS MOBILISE
Civilians join militias and prepare to fight to defend the Republic. In Barcelona, anarchist workers put down the Nationalist insurgency and launch a social revolution of their own. Factories are collectivised, and in some parts of Catalonia money is abolished. The Ritz hotel in Barcelona is renamed Hotel Gastronómico No 1 and serves as a workers' canteen. A short-lived euphoria sweeps the left as the belief takes hold that Franco's uprising could be the catalyst for a socialist revolution. In Madrid, the Republican government, which hopes to build a popular front including moderates and liberals to combat the Nationalist threat, will become increasingly concerned at the growing radicalism.

GEORGE ORWELL JOINS UP
On Boxing Day 1936, the writer arrives in Barcelona and joins up with the Poum, a revolutionary socialist party. Orwell goes to the Zaragoza front to fight and will subsequently write the classic war memoir Homage to Catalonia about his experiences. In May 1937, as tensions mount between communist, socialist and anarchist forces behind the Republican lines, Orwell becomes involved in street battles in Barcelona. His experiences will inform his indictment of Stalinism in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four.

GUERNICA
Bombed in April 1937, the fate of the ancient Basque town of Guernica was to become a symbol of the devastation caused by war. Raids by aircraft from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy constituted one of the first systematic aerial bombing campaigns to be conducted against civilians. In January that year, the Republican government had commissioned Pablo Picasso to create a mural for the World's Fair. After the bombings, that mural became the one depicting the horror and suffering of the town. The artwork remains the most famous ever produced on the subject of war. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died during the civil war as a result of bombings and executions. There is now a museum dedicated to peace in Guernica.

BATTLE FOR MADRID
The Spanish capital endured what amounted to a two-and-a-half-year siege during the civil war. After invading from the south in the summer of 1936, Franco's forces, assisted by German and Italian air power, came close to taking Madrid towards the end of the year. A heroic resistance saw the Nationalist forces beaten back. But the government eventually decamped first to Valencia, then to Barcelona. By the winter of 1938 Madrid was freezing, starving, and more or less out of arms and ammunition.

On 26 March 1939 Franco ordered his troops to advance on Madrid after fighting there between Republican factions. Two days later the city had fallen. Thousands of its defenders were executed.

EXILE
For hundreds of thousands of Spaniards, Franco's victory meant exile. As the Nationalist forces advanced through Catalonia, a steady flow of refugees headed to France. In the winter of 1939 more than 450,000 are estimated to have crossed the border. Some Republicans went on to fight for the French Resistance against the Nazis. The refugees hoped to be welcomed by the French, but they were treated with suspicion and hostility.

THE DICTATORSHIP
From the end of the civil war in 1939 to his death in 1975, Franco ruled Spain. His regime, particularly in the early years, was cruel, repressive and vengeful towards the defeated enemy. Near Madrid a huge monument to the Nationalist dead, the Valley of the Fallen, was erected. Meanwhile the executions of Republican sympathisers continued well into the 1950s, and thousands languished in prison for years.
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Eighty years on, Spain may at last be able to confront the ghosts of civil war

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On a sunny morning earlier this month, a small group gathered at the entrance to Barcelona's Fossar de la Pedrera, or Mass Grave of the Quarry. They were a mix of ages and types. An elderly woman, smartly dressed, clutched flowers as she stood next to her middle-aged son.

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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Miners captured by General Franco's forces in 1936, before their execution in Seville. Credit... Photograph courtesy of ICAS-SAHP, Fototeca Municipal de Sevilla, Fondo Serrano

In "Homage to Catalonia," his memoir of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell remarks that Francisco Franco's military uprising against Spain's elected government "was an attempt not so much to impose fascism as to restore feudalism." Paul Preston's magisterial account of the bloodshed of that era bears this out. Fascism may belong to the 20th century, but Franco's grab for power evokes earlier times: the parading soldiers who flourished enemy ears and noses on their bayonets, the mass public executions carried out in bullrings or with band music and onlookers dancing in the victims' blood. One of Franco's top aides talked of democratically chosen politicians as "cloven-hoofed beasts," and anything that smacked of modernity - Rotary Clubs, Montessori schools - seemed to draw the regime's violent wrath. Echoing the Inquisition, Franco ordered particularly despised foes put to death with the garrote, in which the executioner tightens an iron collar around a person's neck.

There's also something medieval in the fierce class divisions of 1930s Spain, with its great latifundistas, whose estates were worked by landless peasants so hungry they stole acorns from pigs' troughs. Preston describes the "near racist" loathing Franco's officials had for the lower classes; one contemptuously referred to unionized farmworkers as being like "Rif tribesmen." Indeed, Franco's leading commanders were mostly, like him, Africanistas, veterans of Spain's bloody colonial wars in North Africa. As a young man, the generalissimo himself led troops on a raid that brought back the severed heads of 12 Moroccan tribesmen.

With Hitler and Mussolini supplying arms to Franco, and the Soviet Union to the embattled Spanish Republic, the death toll of the 1936-39 war was enormous. Some 200,000 soldiers died in battle, and a further large but unknown number of civilians were killed by Franco's bombing of Spanish cities and of vast columns of refugees in flight. But Preston's subject is something else: the approximately 200,000 men and women deliberately executed during the war, the 20,000 supporters of the Republic shot after it ended, and the additional tens of thousands of civilians and refugees who died in concentration camps and prisons.

An eminent and prolific British historian of modern Spain, Preston says this was "an extremely painful book to write." It is also, unlike several of his other works, a difficult book to read. The newcomer to Spanish history will nowhere learn the difference between the Assault Guard and the Civil Guard, or between a Carlist and an integrist. Chapters roll on for 40 or 50 pages without a break. A blizzard of names of thousands of perpetrators and the towns where they carried out their tortures and killings overwhelms the reader. "The Spanish Holocaust" is not really a narrative but a comprehensive prosecutor's brief. With its immense documentation - 120 pages of endnotes to both published and unpublished material in at least five languages, including corrections of errors in these sources - it is bound to be an essential reference for anything written on the subject for years to come.

In quashing democracy and timid agricultural reform, and in restoring the traditional hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, the army, big landowners and an authoritarian state, the Spanish version of fascism was very much a fundamentalist movement. And like so many political and religious fundamentalisms, it had a particular ferocity toward women. Franco's troops practiced gang rape to frighten newly captured towns into submission, and until media-savvy superiors silenced them, his officers even boasted about this to American and British correspondents. Tens of thousands of women had their heads shaved and were force-fed castor oil (a powerful laxative), then jeered as they were paraded through the streets soiling themselves. Many had their breasts branded with the Falangist symbol of yoke and arrows. In Toledo, a United Press correspondent reported, Franco's soldiers shot more than 20 pregnant women from a maternity hospital. Much larger all-female groups were executed elsewhere. Troops marched through one town waving rifles adorned with the underwear of women they had raped and murdered. "It is necessary to spread terror," one of Franco's senior generals declared. "We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do."

Although Preston's sympathies are clearly with the doomed Republic, to his credit he is equally thorough in exposing the killings committed under that government. Many supporters of the Republic had their own version of class hatred, murdering large numbers of captured army officers, other right-wingers and, most notoriously, nearly 7,000 members of the Catholic clergy and religious orders, who were seen as accomplices of the reactionary landowners. Among hundreds of other atrocities on the Republican side, Preston details the evasions of the longtime Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo regarding his involvement in the massacre of more than 2,200 rightist prisoners in Madrid; the operations of some Soviet "advisers" who, supposedly on hand to aid the Republican Army, devoted themselves to hunting down anti-Stalinists on the Spanish left; and the harshly sadistic prisons operated by the Republic's military intelligence service. Of the 200,000 estimated civilian wartime executions, more than 49,000 took place in Republican territory - a much smaller toll than that taken by the fascists, but still enormous.

There were crucial differences, however. Most, though by no means all, Republican killings were by mob violence, not deliberate policy, in the first six months of the war, as popular outrage welled up after air raids and news of fascist atrocities. But - sometimes effectively, sometimes not, and often at great personal risk - certain Republican officials managed to restrain and sometimes even prosecute killers of civilians. Unlike the tightly controlled press in Franco's territory, some newspapers condemned the killings. And the Republican government saved many lives by evacuating from the country more than 10,000 businessmen, priests and other right-wingers thought to be at particular risk. Nothing similar happened on the Falangist side.

Franco's rule became less murderous in later times, but in the early years he ranks morally with Hitler and Stalin. In such a regime, I always wonder, were there any decent people who tried to stop the slaughter? Yes, it turns out. Preston gives one brief but haunting example. Father Fernando Huidobro Polanco was a 34-year-old Jesuit who enthusiastically volunteered as a chaplain for Franco's troops. But he was dismayed to see them routinely shooting all their prisoners. He sent protests to high-level army officers and finally wrote to Franco himself that "many are dying who do not deserve such a fate and who could mend their ways." To Franco's adjutant, he protested in despair that "we are falling back into barbarism. . . . I do not want the new regime to be born with blood on its hands." He was wounded but then returned to the front, ever more vocal. In 1937, he was killed in battle, supposedly by shrapnel from one of the Republic's Soviet artillery shells. Ten years later the Jesuits began the lengthy process to have him canonized as a saint. But in the course of the investigation, it came out that he'd been shot in the back by a soldier from his own unit, "tired perhaps of the preaching of his chaplain," Preston writes. "When it was discovered that Huidobro had been killed by the Francoists and not by the Reds, the Vatican shelved his case."

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In "Homage to Catalonia," his memoir of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell remarks that Francisco Franco's military uprising against Spain's elected government "was an attempt not so much to impose fascism as to restore feudalism." Paul Preston's magisterial account of the bloodshed of that era bears this out.

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1. The rebels expected to take control quickly.

A cadre of rebel army officers began plotting to overthrow the government as soon as a leftist coalition won Spanish elections in February 1936. Gaining the support of General Franco at the final hour, they called for a July 18 uprising in Spanish Morocco, followed by a general uprising a day later, that they envisioned as a rapid coup d'état. But although they captured Spanish Morocco and the conservative heartland with barely a struggle, the Republican government retained about two-thirds of Spain, including most major cities. As civil war subsequently erupted, Franco ferried his battle-hardened troops from Morocco to the mainland-using planes and boats provided by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler-and began marching northward toward Madrid.

2. Franco benefited from the untimely deaths of his rivals.

Though a key contributor to the coup, Franco didn't originate the plot and was never supposed to lead the country. However, the rebels' purported first choice for head of state, General José Sanjurjo, died in a plane crash just days after the uprising began while returning from exile in Portugal. Around the same time, Republican forces took out several of Franco's other potential rivals, including monarchist politician José Calvo Sotelo, fascist politician José Antonio Primo de Rivera, and generals Joaquín Fanjul and Manuel Goded. By October 1936, Franco had been named commander in chief of the armed forces and head of the rebel Nationalist government. His final near-equal, General Emilio Mola, the technical mastermind of the coup plot, then died in a June 1937 plane crash, leaving him firmly and solely in charge.

3. The Republicans suffered from severe infighting.

While the Nationalists largely united behind Franco, the various Republican factions were constantly at each other's throats. Tensions came to a boiling point in May 1937, when a police raid on the anarchist-controlled central telephone exchange in Barcelona sparked days of street fighting that left hundreds dead. This so-called civil war within the civil war, which pitted anarchists and anti-Stalin Marxists against Soviet-backed communists and the regional government, resulted in the communists-and hence Moscow-increasing their control over the war effort. Anarchist and anti-Stalin Marxist organizations were suppressed, and the revolutionary egalitarian fervor that had once gripped Barcelona died out.

4. Both sides committed widespread atrocities.

From the very beginning, Franco's Nationalist troops initiated a campaign of terror in which they killed, tortured and shamed perceived political opponents. In August 1936, for example, they gunned down up to 4,000 alleged Republicans in the town of Badajoz and then burned the bodies at a local cemetery. Similar massacres occurred in Málaga, Toledo and elsewhere, each time with the tacit approval of the rebellion's top leaders, such as Mola, who declared at one point, "We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do." (Another Nationalist general was quoted saying, "I authorize you to kill like a dog anyone who dares oppose you.") Though less systematic, Republicans committed their own share of atrocities, including the slaying of thousands of Catholic priests, monks and nuns, as well as a mass execution of alleged fascists just outside Madrid. In total, it's estimated that the Nationalists murdered about 150,000 prisoners of war and civilians over the course of the conflict-plus another 20,000 following their victory-compared to about 49,000 murders at the hands of the Republicans.

5. Thousands of Americans signed up to fight.

Although the U.S. government stayed neutral in the Spanish Civil War, about 2,800 Americans-many of whom had never before fired a gun-volunteered for the Republican cause. A diverse bunch, their unit, the so-called Abraham Lincoln Battalion, included a vaudeville acrobat, a rabbi and the first African-American ever to lead white troops into battle. Morale quickly deteriorated, however, after they were forced into several ill-advised charges against entrenched opposition. "We are shock troops," a wounded American reportedly said from his hospital bed. "The Republic had to push some meat out there in front, and we were elected." By the time the Lincolns departed Spain in October 1938, more than a quarter of them had perished. The roughly 40,000 international volunteers from other countries didn't fare much better, suffering casualties at a far greater rate than the Spanish members of the Republican army.

6. Texaco's CEO personally assisted Franco.

No more than a handful of Americans fought with the Nationalists. But Franco did gain the vital support of Texaco chief executive Torkild Rieber, a Norwegian-born American who admired Hitler and allegedly preferred doing business with autocrats. From his office high atop New York City's Chrysler Building, Rieber illegally sold the Nationalists discounted oil on credit and illegally transported the fuel in his company's own tankers. His worldwide network of employees passed along the whereabouts of Republican-bound oil shipments, thereby leaving them open to attack. For these blatant violations of U.S. neutrality acts, Texaco (now part of Chevron Corp.) received only a small fine.

7. A cornucopia of famous writers and artists covered the conflict.

Despite the danger, writers flocked to Spain during the civil war, with some fighting on the front lines and others filing articles from such places as the Hotel Florida in Madrid, a famed literary hotspot. "The Little Prince" author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry even flew his own plane to report on the conflict, whereas George Orwell survived a bullet wound to the neck while serving with a Republican militia. The poet Federico García Lorca, meanwhile, was assassinated by a Nationalist death squad. Other well-known literary figures in Spain at that time included Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda, John Dos Passos, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, André Malraux and Arthur Koestler. Artists likewise produced numerous memorable works about the war, most notably Pablo Picasso, whose painting "Guernica" depicts the bombing of a defenseless town by Hitler's Condor Legion.

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7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War | HISTORY

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Explore seven fascinating facts about this bloody prelude to World War II.

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The Outbreak of the Conflict

The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936, when generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The Nationalist rebels' initial efforts to instigate military revolts throughout Spain only partially succeeded. In rural areas with a strong right-wing political presence, Franco's confederates generally won out. They quickly seized political power and instituted martial law. In other areas, particularly cities with strong leftist political traditions, the revolts met with stiff opposition and were often quelled. Some Spanish officers remained loyal to the Republic and refused to join the uprising.

Outside Aid and Non-Intervention

Within days of the uprising, both the Republic and the Nationalists called for foreign military aid. Initially, France pledged to support the Spanish Republic, but soon reneged on its offer to pursue an official policy of non-intervention in the civil war. Great Britain immediately rejected the Republic's call for support.

Faced with potential defeat, Franco called upon Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for aid. Thanks to their military assistance, he was able to airlift troops from Spanish Morocco across to the mainland to continue his assault on Madrid. Throughout the three years of the conflict, Hitler and Mussolini provided the Spanish Nationalist Army with crucial military support.

Some 5,000 German air force personnel served in the Condor Legion, which provided air support for coordinated ground attacks against Republican positions and carried out aerial bombings on Republican cities. The most notorious of these attacks came on April 26, 1937, when German and Italian aircraft leveled the Basque town of Gernike (Guernica in Spanish) in a three-hour campaign that killed 200 civilians or more. Fascist Italy supplied some 75,000 troops in addition to its pilots and planes. Spain became a military laboratory to test the latest weaponry under battlefield conditions.

The Spanish conflict quickly generated worldwide fears that it could explode into a full-fledged European war. In August 1936, more than two dozen nations, including France, Great Britain, Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, signed a Non-Intervention Agreement on Spain. The latter three signatories openly violated the policy. Italy and Germany continued to supply Franco's forces, while the Soviet Union provided military advisors, tanks, aircraft, and other war materiel to the Republic. Some scholars argue that the Non-Intervention Agreement benefited Franco, who could acquire armaments on credit from his allies, while the Republic had to pay hard currency to arms dealers to obtain often outdated weapons and find ways to transport these goods into the embargoed country.

In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration chose not to intervene officially in the conflict, although the President sought to clandestinely provide some aid to the besieged Republic after 1937. The Spanish Civil War divided American public opinion between those who supported the Republic and those who condemned the Republican forces for carrying out attacks on the Catholic Church. Isolationism too proved to be an effective motivation for non-intervention. Fears of war and foreign entanglements helped to shape American politics in the 1930s.

For many liberals and leftists throughout the world, the Spanish Civil War represented a dress rehearsal for World War II, a pending conflict between the forces of democracy and fascism. By the mid-1930s, fascism and authoritarianism seemed to be on the rise in Europe. In 1936, when Franco launched his rebellion, right-wing regimes were in power in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Finland, Austria, and Greece. And openly pro-Fascist and pro-Nazi political parties existed in many other countries, including France, Great Britain, and the United States.

Some 35,000 to 40,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries rushed to join the International Brigades to defend the Republic. A smaller number of foreign recruits joined Franco's forces.

Mass Violence

The Spanish Civil War engendered massive political violence, carried out by both sides on the battlefield and on city streets. The Nationalists included ultra-reactionary monarchists (Carlists), fascists (Falangists) as well as traditional conservatives, who viewed the Republic's supporters as "godless Bolsheviks" (Communists) who needed to be eradicated in order to create a new Spain. Franco's army also included Moorish troops from Morocco. The rebels portrayed the fighting as a "crusade," a "holy war," against a "Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevist" conspiracy. Antisemitic propaganda, including the notorious fictional work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, circulated throughout the Nationalist-held territories. The Nationalists also tried to combat Basque and Catalan nationalism, which was perceived as a threat to national unity.

The Republican forces (Loyalists) too included a broad spectrum of political positions from moderate democrats, liberals, and socialists to more radical Leftists, such as Communists (both of the Stalinist and Trotskyist varieties) and Anarchists. On occasions, this coalition broke down into internecine violence.

The Spanish Civil War proved to be a breeding ground for mass atrocities, carried out by belligerents eager to eradicate their ideological opponents. About 500,000 people lost their lives in the conflict. Of these, about 200,000 died as the result of systematic killings, mob violence, torture, or other brutalities. Anarchists and other radicals often took out their anger against the Catholic clergy, whom they saw as an obstacle to major reform. Almost 7,000 Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were killed, primarily in the first months of the revolt. By May 1937, most of the mass killings of priests by Leftist radicals subsided. Francoist forces too killed liberal-minded or Loyalist clergy.

The Nationalists waged a brutal war against the Republic's supporters. Republican women were raped or were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved. By 1940, more than 500,000 individuals were rounded up and sent to about 60 concentration camps. Large numbers of prisoners were conscripted for forced labor or to fight in Franco's army or tried by military courts.

During the war itself, 100,000 persons were executed by the Nationalists; after the war ended in spring 1939, another 50,000 were put to death. Martial law remained in place in Franco's Spain until 1948, and former Republicans were subjected to various forms of discrimination and punishment.

Internal Displacement and Spanish Refugees

The fighting and persecution resulted in several million Spaniards being displaced. Many fled areas of violence for safe refuge elsewhere. Only a few countries, such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic, opened their doors to Spanish refugees. When the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, with Franco's victory, some 500,000 Spanish Republicans escaped to France, where many were placed in internment camps in the south, such as Gurs, St. Cyprien, and Les Milles. Following the German defeat of France in spring 1940, Nazi authorities conscripted Spanish Republicans for forced labor and deported more than 30,000 to Germany, where about half of them ended up in concentration camps. Some 7,000 of these became prisoners in Mauthausen; more than half of them died in the camp.

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The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936, when generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The Nationalist rebels' initial efforts to instigate military revolts throughout Spain only partially succeeded. In rural areas with a strong right-wing political presence, Franco's confederates generally won out.

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Jackson Brown

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La Guerra Civil Española comenzó el 17 de julio de 1936, cuando los generales Emilio Mola y Francisco Franco iniciaron una sublevación para derrocar a la República elegida democráticamente. Los esfuerzos iniciales de los rebeldes Nacionalistas por instigar revueltas militares en toda España solo se lograron parcialmente. En áreas rurales con una fuerte presencia política derechista, los confederados de Franco generalmente ganaron. Ellos asumieron rápidamente el poder político e instituyeron la ley marcial. En otras áreas, particularmente en ciudades con sólidas tradiciones políticas izquierdistas, las revueltas se toparon con una fuerte oposición y a menudo fueron mitigadas. Algunos oficiales españoles siguieron leales a la República y se negaron a unirse a la sublevación.

Ayuda externa y no intervención

Dentro los primeros días de la sublevación, la República y los Nacionalistas pidieron ayuda militar extranjera. Inicialmente, Francia se comprometió a apoyar la República española, pero pronto se retractó de su oferta para perseguir una política oficial de no intervención en la guerra civil. Gran Bretaña rechazó inmediatamente el llamado de ayuda de la República.

Enfrentando una posible derrota, Franco pidió ayuda a la Alemania nazi y a la Italia fascista. Gracias a su apoyo militar, Franco pudo transportar por aire a las tropas de Marruecos español a tierra firme para continuar su ataque a Madrid. Durante los tres años que duró el conflicto, Hitler y Mussolini proporcionaron apoyo militar crucial al Ejército Nacionalista Español.

Aproximadamente 5,000 efectivos de la fuerza aérea alemana sirvieron en la Legión Cóndor, que proporcionó apoyo aéreo para los ataques coordinados a tierra contra posiciones Republicanas y llevó a cabo bombardeos aéreos en las ciudades republicanas. El más infame de estos ataques fue el 26 de abril de 1937, cuando aviones alemanes e italianos arrasaron la ciudad vasca Guernica en un ataque que duró tres horas y que mató a más de 200 civiles. La Italia fascista suministró 75,000 tropas además de sus pilotos y aviones. España se convirtió en un laboratorio militar para probar el armamento más nuevo en condiciones de batalla.

El conflicto español generó rápidamente un terror mundial de que podría explotar una guerra por toda Europa. En agosto de 1936, más de dos docenas de naciones, incluyendo Francia, Gran Bretaña, Italia, la Alemania nazi y la Unión Soviética, firmaron un Acuerdo de no intervención en España. Los últimos tres signatarios violaron abiertamente el acuerdo. Italia y Alemania siguieron aprovisionando a las fuerzas de Franco, mientras la Unión Soviética proporcionó asesores militares, tanques, aviones y otros pertrechos de guerra a la República. Algunos eruditos argumentan que el Acuerdo de no intervención benefició a Franco, que compraba armamento a crédito a sus aliados mientras la República tenía que pagar moneda fuerte a los traficantes de armas para obtener, con frecuencia, armas anticuadas y buscar maneras de transportarlas al país embargado.

En Estados Unidos, la administración de Roosevelt decidió no intervenir oficialmente en el conflicto, aunque el Presidente intentó proporcionar clandestinamente alguna ayuda a la República sitiada después de 1937. La Guerra Civil Española dividió la opinión pública americana entre quienes apoyaban a la República y quienes condenaban a las fuerzas de la República por atacar a la Iglesia Católica. El aislacionismo también demostró ser una motivación efectiva de no intervención. Los temores de guerra y los conflictos extranjeros ayudaron a dar forma a la política estadounidense en la década de 1930.

Para muchos liberales e izquierdistas en todo el mundo, la Guerra Civil Española representaba un ensayo con vestuario de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, un conflicto sin resolver entre las fuerzas de la democracia y el fascismo. A mediados de los 1930, el fascismo y el autoritarismo parecían estar aumentando en Europa. En 1936, cuando Franco inició su rebelión, los regímenes derechistas tenían el poder en Alemania, Italia, Hungría, Rumania, Polonia, Portugal, Finlandia, Austria y Grecia. Había partidos políticos abiertamente pro fascistas y pro nazis en muchos otros países, incluso Francia, Gran Bretaña y Estados Unidos.

Entre 35,000 y 40,000 voluntarios de más de 50 países se apresuraron a unirse a las Brigadas Internacionales para defender a la República. Un número menor de reclutas extranjeros se unió a las fuerzas de Franco.

Violencia masiva

La Guerra Civil Española provocó violencia política masiva de ambos lados, en el campo de batalla y en las calles de la ciudad. Los nacionalistas incluyeron monarquistas ultra reaccionarios (carlistas), fascistas (falangistas), así como conservadores tradicionales, que consideraban a los partidarios de la República "ateos bolcheviques" (comunistas) que debían ser erradicados con el fin de crear una nueva España. El ejército franquista también incluyó tropas árabes de Marruecos. Los rebeldes describían la lucha como una "cruzada", "guerra santa", contra una conspiración "judeo-masónica-bolchevique". La propaganda antisemita, incluyendo la célebre obra de ficción, los Protocolos de los Sabios de Sión, circulaba en todo el territorio retenido por los Nacionalistas. Los Nacionalistas también intentaron combatir el nacionalismo vasco y catalán, considerados una amenaza a la unidad nacional.

Las fuerzas republicanas (lealistas) también incluían un amplio espectro de posiciones políticas desde demócratas moderados, liberales y socialistas hasta izquierdistas más radicales, como comunistas (tanto estalinistas como trotskistas) y anarquistas. En ocasiones, esta coalición degeneró en violencia mutuamente destructiva.

La Guerra Civil demostró ser un caldo de cultivo para cometer atrocidades en masa, llevadas a cabo por beligerantes ansiosos por erradicar a sus oponentes ideológicos. Aproximadamente 500,000 personas perdieron la vida en este conflicto. De ellos, aproximadamente 200,000 murieron como resultado de asesinatos sistemáticos, violencia de las turbas, tortura u otras brutalidades. Los anarquistas y otros radicales con frecuencia ventilaban su ira contra el clero católico, a quien consideraban un obstáculo para las reformas importantes. Casi 7,000 sacerdotes, frailes y monjas fueron asesinados, principalmente durante los primeros meses de la revuelta. Para mayo de 1937, la mayoría de los asesinatos en masa de sacerdotes, perpetrados por izquierdistas radicales, había disminuido. Las fuerzas franquistas también asesinaron a integrantes del clero de pensamiento liberal o lealistas.

Los Nacionalistas libraron una guerra brutal contra los partidarios de la República. Las mujeres de la República fueron violadas o humilladas públicamente al afeitarles las cabezas. Para 1940, más de 500,000 personas fueron reunidas y enviadas a casi 60 campos de concentración. Grandes números de prisioneros fueron reclutados para realizar trabajos forzados o para combatir en el ejército de Franco o fueron juzgados por tribunales militares.

Durante la guerra, 100,000 personas fueron ejecutadas por los Nacionalistas; después de que la guerra terminó en la primavera de 1939, otras 50,000 fueron asesinadas. La Ley marcial siguió vigente en la España franquista hasta 1948 y los exrepublicanos fueron sometidos a diversas formas de discriminación y castigo.

El desplazamiento interno y los refugiados españoles

La guerra y la persecución dieron como resultado varios millones de españoles desplazados. Muchos huyeron de las áreas de violencia para buscar refugio en otros lugares. Solo algunos países, como México y la República Dominicana abrieron sus puertas a los refugiados españoles. Cuando la Guerra Civil terminó en 1939 con la victoria de Franco, aproximadamente 500,000 Republicanos españoles escaparon a Francia, donde muchos fueron colocados en campos de prisioneros en el sur, como Gurs, St. Cyprien y Les Milles. Después de la derrota alemana de Francia en la primavera de 1940, las autoridades nazis reclutaron a los Republicanos españoles para realizar trabajos forzados y deportaron a más de 30,000 a Alemania, donde aproximadamente la mitad de ellos terminó en campos de concentración. Aproximadamente 7,000 de ellos fueron encarcelados en Mauthausen; más de la mitad de ellos murió en el campo.

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La Guerra Civil Española comenzó el 17 de julio de 1936, cuando los generales Emilio Mola y Francisco Franco iniciaron una sublevación para derrocar a la República elegida democráticamente. Los esfuerzos iniciales de los rebeldes Nacionalistas por instigar revueltas militares en toda España solo se lograron parcialmente.

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Tyler Folkmann

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.

The war was an outcome of a polarization of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades. On one side, the Nationalist, were most Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, most landowners, and many businessmen. On the other side, the Republican, were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, and many of the educated middle class. Politically, their differences often found extreme and vehement expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to socialism, including a small communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival, Leon Trotsky. In 1934 there was widespread labour conflict and a bloody uprising by miners in Asturias that was suppressed by troops led by General Francisco Franco. A succession of governmental crises culminated in the elections of February 16, 1936, which brought to power a Popular Front government supported by most of the parties of the left and opposed by the parties of the right and what remained of the centre.

A well-planned military uprising began on July 17, 1936, in garrison towns throughout Spain. By July 21 the rebels had achieved control in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) and in the part of Spain north of the Guadarrama mountains and the Ebro River, except for Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces along the north coast and the region of Catalonia in the northeast. The Republican forces had put down the uprising in other areas, except for some of the larger Andalusian cities, including Sevilla (Seville), Granada, and Córdoba. The Nationalists and Republicans proceeded to organize their respective territories and to repress opposition or suspected opposition. Republican violence occurred primarily during the early stages of the war before the rule of law was restored, but the Nationalist violence was part of a conscious policy of terror. The matter of how many were killed remains highly contentious; however, it is generally believed that the toll of Nationalist violence was higher. In any event, the proliferation of executions, murders, and assassinations on both sides reflects the great passions that the Civil War unleashed.

The captaincy of the Nationalists was gradually assumed by General Franco, leading forces he had brought from Morocco. On October 1, 1936, he was named head of state and set up a government in Burgos. The Republican government, beginning in September 1936, was headed by the socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero. He was followed in May 1937 by Juan Negrín, also a socialist, who remained premier throughout the remainder of the war and served as premier in exile until 1945. The president of the Spanish Republic until nearly the end of the war was Manuel Azaña, an anticlerical liberal. Internecine conflict compromised the Republican effort from the outset. On one side were the anarchists and militant socialists, who viewed the war as a revolutionary struggle and spearheaded widespread collectivization of agriculture, industry, and services; on the other were the more moderate socialists and republicans, whose objective was the preservation of the Republic. Seeking allies against the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had embraced a Popular Front strategy, and, as a result, the Comintern directed Spanish communists to support the Republicans.

Both the Nationalist and Republican sides, seeing themselves as too weak to win a quick victory, turned abroad for help. Germany and Italy sent troops, tanks, and planes to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union contributed equipment and supplies to the Republicans, who also received help from the Mexican government. During the first weeks of the war, the Popular Front government of France also supported the Republicans, but internal opposition forced a change of policy. In August 1936, France joined Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy in signing a nonintervention agreement that would be ignored by the Germans, Italians, and Soviets. About 40,000 foreigners fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades largely under the command of the Comintern, and 20,000 others served in medical or auxiliary units.

By November 1936 the Nationalists had advanced to the outskirts of Madrid. They laid siege to it but were unable to get beyond the University City area. They captured the Basque northern provinces in the summer of 1937 and then Asturias, so that by October they held the whole northern coast. A war of attrition began. The Nationalists drove a salient eastward through Teruel, reaching the Mediterranean and splitting the republic in two in April 1938. In December 1938 they moved upon Catalonia in the northeast, forcing the Republican armies there northward toward France. By February 1939, 250,000 Republican soldiers, together with an equal number of civilians, had fled across the border into France. On March 5 the Republican government flew to exile in France. On March 7 a civil war broke out in Madrid between communist and anticommunist factions. By March 28 all of the Republican armies had begun to disband and surrender, and Nationalist forces entered Madrid on that day.

The number of persons killed in the Spanish Civil War can be only roughly estimated. Nationalist forces put the figure at 1,000,000, including not only those killed in battle but also the victims of bombardment, execution, and assassination. More recent estimates have been closer to 500,000 or less. This does not include all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease.

The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between-depending on their point of view-tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization. For Germany and Italy, Spain was a testing ground for new methods of tank and air warfare. For Britain and France, the conflict represented a new threat to the international equilibrium that they were struggling to preserve, which in 1939 collapsed into World War II. The war also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to take up arms. Among the most notable artistic responses to the war were the novels Man's Hope (1938) by André Malraux, Adventures of a Young Man (1939) by John Dos Passos, and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway; George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica (1937); and Robert Capa's photograph Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain (1936).

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Spanish Civil War | Definition, Causes, Summary, & Facts

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides.

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Juanito

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Early Life and Military Bloodlines

Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps. However, the economic and territorial aftermath of the Spanish-American War led to a reduction in the navy, and after completing his primary education at a Catholic school, Franco was forced to enlist at the Infantry Academy at Toledo instead. He graduated three years later with below-average marks.

Ruthless Rise

After an initial posting to El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to serve in Spain's recently acquired protectorate Morocco, where the country's native population was staging a resistance to occupation. Stationed there from 1912 to 1926, Franco distinguished himself with his fearlessness, professionalism and ruthlessness, and was frequently promoted. By 1920, he had been named second in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and three years later took full command. During this period he also wed Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdéz. The couple had one daughter.

In 1926, Franco's role in suppressing the Moroccan rebellion earned him an appointment as general, which, at age 33, made him the youngest man in Europe to hold that post. Two years later, he was also named director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, a position he would hold until three years later when political changes in Spain would temporarily halt Franco's steady rise.

Major Unrest and Power Shifts

In April 1931, general elections led to the ousting of King Alfonso XIII, whose military dictatorship had been in place since the early 1920s. The moderate government of the Second Republic that replaced it led to a reduction in the power of the military, which resulted in the closing of Franco's military academy. However, the country was also wracked by a deepening, often violent social and political unrest, and when new elections were held in 1933, the Second Republic was replaced by a more right-leaning government. As a result, Franco returned to a position of power, which he wielded the following year in a ruthless suppression of a leftist revolt in northwestern Spain.

But like the Second Republic before it, the new government could do little to quell the growing divide between left- and right-leaning factions. When elections that were held in February 1936 led to a shift in power to the left, Spain slipped further into chaos. For his part, Franco was once again marginalized, with a new posting to the Canary Islands. Though Franco accepted what amounted to banishment with the professionalism for which he was known, other high-ranking members of the military began to discuss a coup.

The Spanish Civil War

Though he initially kept his distance from the plot, on July 18, 1936, Franco announced the Nationalist manifesto in a broadcast from the Canary Islands as the uprising began in the northwest of Spain. The next day, he flew to Morocco to take control of the troops, and shortly thereafter gained the support of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, whose planes were used to shuttle Franco and his forces to Spain. Establishing his base of operations in Seville the following month, Franco began his military campaign, advancing north toward the seat of the Republican government in Madrid. Anticipating a swift victory, on October 1, 1936, the Nationalist forces declared Franco head of the government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, when their initial assault on Madrid was repelled, the military coup evolved into the protracted conflict known as the Spanish Civil War.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Over the next three years, the Nationalist forces - led by Franco and backed by right-wing militias, the Catholic Church. Germany and Italy - battled the left-wing Republicans, who received aid from the Soviet Union as well as brigades of foreign volunteers. Though the Republicans were able to resist the Nationalist advance for a time, with far-superior military strength, Franco and his forces were able to systematically defeat them, eliminating their opposition region by region.

By the end of 1937, Franco had conquered the Basque lands and the Asturias and had also combined the fascist and monarchist political parties to form his Falange Española Tradicionalista while dissolving all others. In January 1939, the Republican stronghold of Barcelona fell to the Nationalists, followed two months later by Madrid. On April 1, 1939, after receiving an unconditional surrender, Franco announced the end of the Spanish Civil War. Sources vary, but many estimate the number of casualties resulting from the war as high as 500,000, with perhaps as many as 200,000 the result of executions perpetrated by Franco and his forces.

El Caudillo

For nearly four decades following the conflict, Franco - who became known as "El Caudillo" (the Leader) - would rule Spain through a repressive dictatorship. Immediately following the war, military tribunals were held that led to tens of thousands more being executed or imprisoned. Franco also outlawed unions and all religions except for Catholicism, as well as banning the Catalan and Basque languages. To enforce his power over Spain, he established a vast network of secret police.

However, five months after taking control of the country, Franco's rule and Spain's position in the international community were further complicated by the start of World War II. Initially declaring Spain's neutrality, Franco was ideologically sympathetic to the Axis powers and met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the possibility of Spain joining them. Though Hitler ultimately rejected Franco's conditions - which he deemed far too high - Franco would later send some 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front as well as open Spain's ports to German ships and submarines.

When the tide of the war began to turn against the Axis powers in 1943, Franco once more declared Spain's neutrality, but in the aftermath of the conflict, his former allegiances were not forgotten. As a result, Spain was ostracized by the United Nations, placing a significant economic strain on the country. However, circumstances changed with the advent of the Cold War; Franco's status as a staunch anti-communist led to economic and military assistance from the United States in exchange for the establishment of military bases in Spain.

Later Years and Death

Over time, Franco began to relax his control of Spain, removing some of the restraints of censorship, instituting economic reforms and promoting international tourism while maintaining his position as head of state. In 1969, amidst a period of declining health, he named his successor, Prince Juan Carlos, whom he believed would maintain the political structure that Franco had established and rule as a king. However, two days after Franco's death on November 20, 1975, Juan Carlos I set about dismantling Spain's authoritarian apparatus and reintroduced political parties. In June 1977, the first elections were held since 1936. Spain has remained a democracy ever since.

Valley of the Fallen

Franco was buried in a massive mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, constructed by the dictator - with the use of forced labor - as a monument to the dead of the Spanish Civil War. In the decades since Franco's rule, it has been the subject of frequent controversy, with many advocating for the removal of his remains. But amidst the often-fractured political environment in post-Franco Spain, the site remains more or less unchanged.

Though some have chosen not to look closely at the years of Franco's ascension and rule, many Spanish citizens have continued to push for the exhumation of mass graves, with the U.N. calling for an investigation into the whereabouts of those who went missing during the years of the conflict as well. Archaeologists have tried for some time to locate the remains of poet/playwright Federico García Lorca, who was executed by Granada-based right-wing forces in 1936.

In September 2019, his body was moved to Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo.

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Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps.

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The Consequences and Effects of the Spanish Civil War

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Francisco Franco | Biography, Nickname, Beliefs, & Facts

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Francisco Franco, in full Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde, byname El Caudillo (“The Leader”), (born December 4, 1892, El Ferrol, Spain—died November 20, 1975, Madrid), general and leader of the Nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish…

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Early Life and Military Bloodlines

Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps. However, the economic and territorial aftermath of the Spanish-American War led to a reduction in the navy, and after completing his primary education at a Catholic school, Franco was forced to enlist at the Infantry Academy at Toledo instead. He graduated three years later with below-average marks.

Ruthless Rise

After an initial posting to El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to serve in Spain's recently acquired protectorate Morocco, where the country's native population was staging a resistance to occupation. Stationed there from 1912 to 1926, Franco distinguished himself with his fearlessness, professionalism and ruthlessness, and was frequently promoted. By 1920, he had been named second in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and three years later took full command. During this period he also wed Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdéz. The couple had one daughter.

In 1926, Franco's role in suppressing the Moroccan rebellion earned him an appointment as general, which, at age 33, made him the youngest man in Europe to hold that post. Two years later, he was also named director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, a position he would hold until three years later when political changes in Spain would temporarily halt Franco's steady rise.

Major Unrest and Power Shifts

In April 1931, general elections led to the ousting of King Alfonso XIII, whose military dictatorship had been in place since the early 1920s. The moderate government of the Second Republic that replaced it led to a reduction in the power of the military, which resulted in the closing of Franco's military academy. However, the country was also wracked by a deepening, often violent social and political unrest, and when new elections were held in 1933, the Second Republic was replaced by a more right-leaning government. As a result, Franco returned to a position of power, which he wielded the following year in a ruthless suppression of a leftist revolt in northwestern Spain.

But like the Second Republic before it, the new government could do little to quell the growing divide between left- and right-leaning factions. When elections that were held in February 1936 led to a shift in power to the left, Spain slipped further into chaos. For his part, Franco was once again marginalized, with a new posting to the Canary Islands. Though Franco accepted what amounted to banishment with the professionalism for which he was known, other high-ranking members of the military began to discuss a coup.

The Spanish Civil War

Though he initially kept his distance from the plot, on July 18, 1936, Franco announced the Nationalist manifesto in a broadcast from the Canary Islands as the uprising began in the northwest of Spain. The next day, he flew to Morocco to take control of the troops, and shortly thereafter gained the support of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, whose planes were used to shuttle Franco and his forces to Spain. Establishing his base of operations in Seville the following month, Franco began his military campaign, advancing north toward the seat of the Republican government in Madrid. Anticipating a swift victory, on October 1, 1936, the Nationalist forces declared Franco head of the government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, when their initial assault on Madrid was repelled, the military coup evolved into the protracted conflict known as the Spanish Civil War.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Over the next three years, the Nationalist forces - led by Franco and backed by right-wing militias, the Catholic Church. Germany and Italy - battled the left-wing Republicans, who received aid from the Soviet Union as well as brigades of foreign volunteers. Though the Republicans were able to resist the Nationalist advance for a time, with far-superior military strength, Franco and his forces were able to systematically defeat them, eliminating their opposition region by region.

By the end of 1937, Franco had conquered the Basque lands and the Asturias and had also combined the fascist and monarchist political parties to form his Falange Española Tradicionalista while dissolving all others. In January 1939, the Republican stronghold of Barcelona fell to the Nationalists, followed two months later by Madrid. On April 1, 1939, after receiving an unconditional surrender, Franco announced the end of the Spanish Civil War. Sources vary, but many estimate the number of casualties resulting from the war as high as 500,000, with perhaps as many as 200,000 the result of executions perpetrated by Franco and his forces.

El Caudillo

For nearly four decades following the conflict, Franco - who became known as "El Caudillo" (the Leader) - would rule Spain through a repressive dictatorship. Immediately following the war, military tribunals were held that led to tens of thousands more being executed or imprisoned. Franco also outlawed unions and all religions except for Catholicism, as well as banning the Catalan and Basque languages. To enforce his power over Spain, he established a vast network of secret police.

However, five months after taking control of the country, Franco's rule and Spain's position in the international community were further complicated by the start of World War II. Initially declaring Spain's neutrality, Franco was ideologically sympathetic to the Axis powers and met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the possibility of Spain joining them. Though Hitler ultimately rejected Franco's conditions - which he deemed far too high - Franco would later send some 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front as well as open Spain's ports to German ships and submarines.

When the tide of the war began to turn against the Axis powers in 1943, Franco once more declared Spain's neutrality, but in the aftermath of the conflict, his former allegiances were not forgotten. As a result, Spain was ostracized by the United Nations, placing a significant economic strain on the country. However, circumstances changed with the advent of the Cold War; Franco's status as a staunch anti-communist led to economic and military assistance from the United States in exchange for the establishment of military bases in Spain.

Later Years and Death

Over time, Franco began to relax his control of Spain, removing some of the restraints of censorship, instituting economic reforms and promoting international tourism while maintaining his position as head of state. In 1969, amidst a period of declining health, he named his successor, Prince Juan Carlos, whom he believed would maintain the political structure that Franco had established and rule as a king. However, two days after Franco's death on November 20, 1975, Juan Carlos I set about dismantling Spain's authoritarian apparatus and reintroduced political parties. In June 1977, the first elections were held since 1936. Spain has remained a democracy ever since.

Valley of the Fallen

Franco was buried in a massive mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, constructed by the dictator - with the use of forced labor - as a monument to the dead of the Spanish Civil War. In the decades since Franco's rule, it has been the subject of frequent controversy, with many advocating for the removal of his remains. But amidst the often-fractured political environment in post-Franco Spain, the site remains more or less unchanged.

Though some have chosen not to look closely at the years of Franco's ascension and rule, many Spanish citizens have continued to push for the exhumation of mass graves, with the U.N. calling for an investigation into the whereabouts of those who went missing during the years of the conflict as well. Archaeologists have tried for some time to locate the remains of poet/playwright Federico García Lorca, who was executed by Granada-based right-wing forces in 1936.

In September 2019, his body was moved to Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo.

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Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps.

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Francisco Franco was authoritarian, supported the nazi's in Germany and supported Fascist Italy in WWII, but generally stayed out of the war

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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Early Life and Military Bloodlines

Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps. However, the economic and territorial aftermath of the Spanish-American War led to a reduction in the navy, and after completing his primary education at a Catholic school, Franco was forced to enlist at the Infantry Academy at Toledo instead. He graduated three years later with below-average marks.

Ruthless Rise

After an initial posting to El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to serve in Spain's recently acquired protectorate Morocco, where the country's native population was staging a resistance to occupation. Stationed there from 1912 to 1926, Franco distinguished himself with his fearlessness, professionalism and ruthlessness, and was frequently promoted. By 1920, he had been named second in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and three years later took full command. During this period he also wed Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdéz. The couple had one daughter.

In 1926, Franco's role in suppressing the Moroccan rebellion earned him an appointment as general, which, at age 33, made him the youngest man in Europe to hold that post. Two years later, he was also named director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, a position he would hold until three years later when political changes in Spain would temporarily halt Franco's steady rise.

Major Unrest and Power Shifts

In April 1931, general elections led to the ousting of King Alfonso XIII, whose military dictatorship had been in place since the early 1920s. The moderate government of the Second Republic that replaced it led to a reduction in the power of the military, which resulted in the closing of Franco's military academy. However, the country was also wracked by a deepening, often violent social and political unrest, and when new elections were held in 1933, the Second Republic was replaced by a more right-leaning government. As a result, Franco returned to a position of power, which he wielded the following year in a ruthless suppression of a leftist revolt in northwestern Spain.

But like the Second Republic before it, the new government could do little to quell the growing divide between left- and right-leaning factions. When elections that were held in February 1936 led to a shift in power to the left, Spain slipped further into chaos. For his part, Franco was once again marginalized, with a new posting to the Canary Islands. Though Franco accepted what amounted to banishment with the professionalism for which he was known, other high-ranking members of the military began to discuss a coup.

The Spanish Civil War

Though he initially kept his distance from the plot, on July 18, 1936, Franco announced the Nationalist manifesto in a broadcast from the Canary Islands as the uprising began in the northwest of Spain. The next day, he flew to Morocco to take control of the troops, and shortly thereafter gained the support of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, whose planes were used to shuttle Franco and his forces to Spain. Establishing his base of operations in Seville the following month, Franco began his military campaign, advancing north toward the seat of the Republican government in Madrid. Anticipating a swift victory, on October 1, 1936, the Nationalist forces declared Franco head of the government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, when their initial assault on Madrid was repelled, the military coup evolved into the protracted conflict known as the Spanish Civil War.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Over the next three years, the Nationalist forces - led by Franco and backed by right-wing militias, the Catholic Church. Germany and Italy - battled the left-wing Republicans, who received aid from the Soviet Union as well as brigades of foreign volunteers. Though the Republicans were able to resist the Nationalist advance for a time, with far-superior military strength, Franco and his forces were able to systematically defeat them, eliminating their opposition region by region.

By the end of 1937, Franco had conquered the Basque lands and the Asturias and had also combined the fascist and monarchist political parties to form his Falange Española Tradicionalista while dissolving all others. In January 1939, the Republican stronghold of Barcelona fell to the Nationalists, followed two months later by Madrid. On April 1, 1939, after receiving an unconditional surrender, Franco announced the end of the Spanish Civil War. Sources vary, but many estimate the number of casualties resulting from the war as high as 500,000, with perhaps as many as 200,000 the result of executions perpetrated by Franco and his forces.

El Caudillo

For nearly four decades following the conflict, Franco - who became known as "El Caudillo" (the Leader) - would rule Spain through a repressive dictatorship. Immediately following the war, military tribunals were held that led to tens of thousands more being executed or imprisoned. Franco also outlawed unions and all religions except for Catholicism, as well as banning the Catalan and Basque languages. To enforce his power over Spain, he established a vast network of secret police.

However, five months after taking control of the country, Franco's rule and Spain's position in the international community were further complicated by the start of World War II. Initially declaring Spain's neutrality, Franco was ideologically sympathetic to the Axis powers and met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the possibility of Spain joining them. Though Hitler ultimately rejected Franco's conditions - which he deemed far too high - Franco would later send some 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front as well as open Spain's ports to German ships and submarines.

When the tide of the war began to turn against the Axis powers in 1943, Franco once more declared Spain's neutrality, but in the aftermath of the conflict, his former allegiances were not forgotten. As a result, Spain was ostracized by the United Nations, placing a significant economic strain on the country. However, circumstances changed with the advent of the Cold War; Franco's status as a staunch anti-communist led to economic and military assistance from the United States in exchange for the establishment of military bases in Spain.

Later Years and Death

Over time, Franco began to relax his control of Spain, removing some of the restraints of censorship, instituting economic reforms and promoting international tourism while maintaining his position as head of state. In 1969, amidst a period of declining health, he named his successor, Prince Juan Carlos, whom he believed would maintain the political structure that Franco had established and rule as a king. However, two days after Franco's death on November 20, 1975, Juan Carlos I set about dismantling Spain's authoritarian apparatus and reintroduced political parties. In June 1977, the first elections were held since 1936. Spain has remained a democracy ever since.

Valley of the Fallen

Franco was buried in a massive mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, constructed by the dictator - with the use of forced labor - as a monument to the dead of the Spanish Civil War. In the decades since Franco's rule, it has been the subject of frequent controversy, with many advocating for the removal of his remains. But amidst the often-fractured political environment in post-Franco Spain, the site remains more or less unchanged.

Though some have chosen not to look closely at the years of Franco's ascension and rule, many Spanish citizens have continued to push for the exhumation of mass graves, with the U.N. calling for an investigation into the whereabouts of those who went missing during the years of the conflict as well. Archaeologists have tried for some time to locate the remains of poet/playwright Federico García Lorca, who was executed by Granada-based right-wing forces in 1936.

In September 2019, his body was moved to Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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The Outbreak of the Conflict

The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936, when generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The Nationalist rebels' initial efforts to instigate military revolts throughout Spain only partially succeeded. In rural areas with a strong right-wing political presence, Franco's confederates generally won out. They quickly seized political power and instituted martial law. In other areas, particularly cities with strong leftist political traditions, the revolts met with stiff opposition and were often quelled. Some Spanish officers remained loyal to the Republic and refused to join the uprising.

Outside Aid and Non-Intervention

Within days of the uprising, both the Republic and the Nationalists called for foreign military aid. Initially, France pledged to support the Spanish Republic, but soon reneged on its offer to pursue an official policy of non-intervention in the civil war. Great Britain immediately rejected the Republic's call for support.

Faced with potential defeat, Franco called upon Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for aid. Thanks to their military assistance, he was able to airlift troops from Spanish Morocco across to the mainland to continue his assault on Madrid. Throughout the three years of the conflict, Hitler and Mussolini provided the Spanish Nationalist Army with crucial military support.

Some 5,000 German air force personnel served in the Condor Legion, which provided air support for coordinated ground attacks against Republican positions and carried out aerial bombings on Republican cities. The most notorious of these attacks came on April 26, 1937, when German and Italian aircraft leveled the Basque town of Gernike (Guernica in Spanish) in a three-hour campaign that killed 200 civilians or more. Fascist Italy supplied some 75,000 troops in addition to its pilots and planes. Spain became a military laboratory to test the latest weaponry under battlefield conditions.

The Spanish conflict quickly generated worldwide fears that it could explode into a full-fledged European war. In August 1936, more than two dozen nations, including France, Great Britain, Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, signed a Non-Intervention Agreement on Spain. The latter three signatories openly violated the policy. Italy and Germany continued to supply Franco's forces, while the Soviet Union provided military advisors, tanks, aircraft, and other war materiel to the Republic. Some scholars argue that the Non-Intervention Agreement benefited Franco, who could acquire armaments on credit from his allies, while the Republic had to pay hard currency to arms dealers to obtain often outdated weapons and find ways to transport these goods into the embargoed country.

In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration chose not to intervene officially in the conflict, although the President sought to clandestinely provide some aid to the besieged Republic after 1937. The Spanish Civil War divided American public opinion between those who supported the Republic and those who condemned the Republican forces for carrying out attacks on the Catholic Church. Isolationism too proved to be an effective motivation for non-intervention. Fears of war and foreign entanglements helped to shape American politics in the 1930s.

For many liberals and leftists throughout the world, the Spanish Civil War represented a dress rehearsal for World War II, a pending conflict between the forces of democracy and fascism. By the mid-1930s, fascism and authoritarianism seemed to be on the rise in Europe. In 1936, when Franco launched his rebellion, right-wing regimes were in power in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Finland, Austria, and Greece. And openly pro-Fascist and pro-Nazi political parties existed in many other countries, including France, Great Britain, and the United States.

Some 35,000 to 40,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries rushed to join the International Brigades to defend the Republic. A smaller number of foreign recruits joined Franco's forces.

Mass Violence

The Spanish Civil War engendered massive political violence, carried out by both sides on the battlefield and on city streets. The Nationalists included ultra-reactionary monarchists (Carlists), fascists (Falangists) as well as traditional conservatives, who viewed the Republic's supporters as "godless Bolsheviks" (Communists) who needed to be eradicated in order to create a new Spain. Franco's army also included Moorish troops from Morocco. The rebels portrayed the fighting as a "crusade," a "holy war," against a "Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevist" conspiracy. Antisemitic propaganda, including the notorious fictional work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, circulated throughout the Nationalist-held territories. The Nationalists also tried to combat Basque and Catalan nationalism, which was perceived as a threat to national unity.

The Republican forces (Loyalists) too included a broad spectrum of political positions from moderate democrats, liberals, and socialists to more radical Leftists, such as Communists (both of the Stalinist and Trotskyist varieties) and Anarchists. On occasions, this coalition broke down into internecine violence.

The Spanish Civil War proved to be a breeding ground for mass atrocities, carried out by belligerents eager to eradicate their ideological opponents. About 500,000 people lost their lives in the conflict. Of these, about 200,000 died as the result of systematic killings, mob violence, torture, or other brutalities. Anarchists and other radicals often took out their anger against the Catholic clergy, whom they saw as an obstacle to major reform. Almost 7,000 Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were killed, primarily in the first months of the revolt. By May 1937, most of the mass killings of priests by Leftist radicals subsided. Francoist forces too killed liberal-minded or Loyalist clergy.

The Nationalists waged a brutal war against the Republic's supporters. Republican women were raped or were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved. By 1940, more than 500,000 individuals were rounded up and sent to about 60 concentration camps. Large numbers of prisoners were conscripted for forced labor or to fight in Franco's army or tried by military courts.

During the war itself, 100,000 persons were executed by the Nationalists; after the war ended in spring 1939, another 50,000 were put to death. Martial law remained in place in Franco's Spain until 1948, and former Republicans were subjected to various forms of discrimination and punishment.

Internal Displacement and Spanish Refugees

The fighting and persecution resulted in several million Spaniards being displaced. Many fled areas of violence for safe refuge elsewhere. Only a few countries, such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic, opened their doors to Spanish refugees. When the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, with Franco's victory, some 500,000 Spanish Republicans escaped to France, where many were placed in internment camps in the south, such as Gurs, St. Cyprien, and Les Milles. Following the German defeat of France in spring 1940, Nazi authorities conscripted Spanish Republicans for forced labor and deported more than 30,000 to Germany, where about half of them ended up in concentration camps. Some 7,000 of these became prisoners in Mauthausen; more than half of them died in the camp.

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The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936, when generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The Nationalist rebels' initial efforts to instigate military revolts throughout Spain only partially succeeded. In rural areas with a strong right-wing political presence, Franco's confederates generally won out.

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Abel Gomez

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With his country torn between left and right, Francisco Franco devoted his life to a deeply conservative vision of Spain. Trained in colonial warfare, he was prepared to fight for that vision with deadly force. He joined a military coup, fought ruthlessly in the Spanish Civil War, and emerged as the dictator of Spain.

For almost 40 years, Franco worked to transform the country into a bastion of tradition. Siding with the Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy, he saw liberals and socialists as enemies to be suppressed at any cost. As his forces gained ground during the Civil War, they executed tens of thousands of Spaniards suspected of loyalty to the other side. Even after winning the war, Franco continued this campaign, murdering and imprisoning thousands more.

The Road to Dictatorship

As a young army officer, Franco was sent to fight a colonial war in Morocco, where he learned the brutal style of warfare that would mark his career.

At 33, Franco was the youngest general in all of Europe. During the Civil War he built his image as a military leader; before long, he was named "Generalissimo"-a general among generals.

During the Civil War and later, as the ruler of Spain, Franco was single-minded in his drive to decimate the Spanish left. Under his regime, if a leftist woman had a baby while imprisoned, the child was taken and raised in a "properly Spanish" home.

Dig Deeper: Succession

Like many dictators, Franco faced a problem towards the end of his life: who would take over when he died? He wanted a successor who would carry on his vision of Spain as a deeply conservative Catholic country, and thought he had found that person in Juan Carlos I, a member of the Spanish royal family. In 1969, he named Juan Carlos as his successor, certain that the future king would keep Spain on its authoritarian path. But Franco badly misjudged his chosen successor. After the dictator's death, Juan Carlos turned out to be a reformer. The constitution was rewritten, Spain transitioned to a democratic system, and elections were held soon after.

Spain's nearly seamless transition to representative democracy was extraordinary. But in the effort to ensure a peaceful process, the crimes committed by Franco's regime were largely swept under the rug. In 2007, the Law of Historical Memory was passed to bring justice to the families of those killed under Franco. And today, at sites across the country, the bodies of his victims are still being exhumed.

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Francisco Franco | The Dictator's Playbook

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With his country torn between left and right, Francisco Franco devoted his life to a deeply conservative vision of Spain. Trained in colonial warfare, he was prepared to fight for that vision with deadly force. He joined a military coup, fought ruthlessly in the Spanish Civil War, and emerged as the dictator of Spain.

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Francisco Franco

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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Guerra Civil Española (1936-1939) - Historia de España | don Quijote

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La guerra civil española (1936-1939) fue un conflicto bélico entre el bando republicano y el bando nacional dirigido por el general Francisco Franco.

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Meghan Webster

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The Outbreak of the Conflict

The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936, when generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The Nationalist rebels' initial efforts to instigate military revolts throughout Spain only partially succeeded. In rural areas with a strong right-wing political presence, Franco's confederates generally won out. They quickly seized political power and instituted martial law. In other areas, particularly cities with strong leftist political traditions, the revolts met with stiff opposition and were often quelled. Some Spanish officers remained loyal to the Republic and refused to join the uprising.

Outside Aid and Non-Intervention

Within days of the uprising, both the Republic and the Nationalists called for foreign military aid. Initially, France pledged to support the Spanish Republic, but soon reneged on its offer to pursue an official policy of non-intervention in the civil war. Great Britain immediately rejected the Republic's call for support.

Faced with potential defeat, Franco called upon Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for aid. Thanks to their military assistance, he was able to airlift troops from Spanish Morocco across to the mainland to continue his assault on Madrid. Throughout the three years of the conflict, Hitler and Mussolini provided the Spanish Nationalist Army with crucial military support.

Some 5,000 German air force personnel served in the Condor Legion, which provided air support for coordinated ground attacks against Republican positions and carried out aerial bombings on Republican cities. The most notorious of these attacks came on April 26, 1937, when German and Italian aircraft leveled the Basque town of Gernike (Guernica in Spanish) in a three-hour campaign that killed 200 civilians or more. Fascist Italy supplied some 75,000 troops in addition to its pilots and planes. Spain became a military laboratory to test the latest weaponry under battlefield conditions.

The Spanish conflict quickly generated worldwide fears that it could explode into a full-fledged European war. In August 1936, more than two dozen nations, including France, Great Britain, Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, signed a Non-Intervention Agreement on Spain. The latter three signatories openly violated the policy. Italy and Germany continued to supply Franco's forces, while the Soviet Union provided military advisors, tanks, aircraft, and other war materiel to the Republic. Some scholars argue that the Non-Intervention Agreement benefited Franco, who could acquire armaments on credit from his allies, while the Republic had to pay hard currency to arms dealers to obtain often outdated weapons and find ways to transport these goods into the embargoed country.

In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration chose not to intervene officially in the conflict, although the President sought to clandestinely provide some aid to the besieged Republic after 1937. The Spanish Civil War divided American public opinion between those who supported the Republic and those who condemned the Republican forces for carrying out attacks on the Catholic Church. Isolationism too proved to be an effective motivation for non-intervention. Fears of war and foreign entanglements helped to shape American politics in the 1930s.

For many liberals and leftists throughout the world, the Spanish Civil War represented a dress rehearsal for World War II, a pending conflict between the forces of democracy and fascism. By the mid-1930s, fascism and authoritarianism seemed to be on the rise in Europe. In 1936, when Franco launched his rebellion, right-wing regimes were in power in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Finland, Austria, and Greece. And openly pro-Fascist and pro-Nazi political parties existed in many other countries, including France, Great Britain, and the United States.

Some 35,000 to 40,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries rushed to join the International Brigades to defend the Republic. A smaller number of foreign recruits joined Franco's forces.

Mass Violence

The Spanish Civil War engendered massive political violence, carried out by both sides on the battlefield and on city streets. The Nationalists included ultra-reactionary monarchists (Carlists), fascists (Falangists) as well as traditional conservatives, who viewed the Republic's supporters as "godless Bolsheviks" (Communists) who needed to be eradicated in order to create a new Spain. Franco's army also included Moorish troops from Morocco. The rebels portrayed the fighting as a "crusade," a "holy war," against a "Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevist" conspiracy. Antisemitic propaganda, including the notorious fictional work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, circulated throughout the Nationalist-held territories. The Nationalists also tried to combat Basque and Catalan nationalism, which was perceived as a threat to national unity.

The Republican forces (Loyalists) too included a broad spectrum of political positions from moderate democrats, liberals, and socialists to more radical Leftists, such as Communists (both of the Stalinist and Trotskyist varieties) and Anarchists. On occasions, this coalition broke down into internecine violence.

The Spanish Civil War proved to be a breeding ground for mass atrocities, carried out by belligerents eager to eradicate their ideological opponents. About 500,000 people lost their lives in the conflict. Of these, about 200,000 died as the result of systematic killings, mob violence, torture, or other brutalities. Anarchists and other radicals often took out their anger against the Catholic clergy, whom they saw as an obstacle to major reform. Almost 7,000 Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were killed, primarily in the first months of the revolt. By May 1937, most of the mass killings of priests by Leftist radicals subsided. Francoist forces too killed liberal-minded or Loyalist clergy.

The Nationalists waged a brutal war against the Republic's supporters. Republican women were raped or were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved. By 1940, more than 500,000 individuals were rounded up and sent to about 60 concentration camps. Large numbers of prisoners were conscripted for forced labor or to fight in Franco's army or tried by military courts.

During the war itself, 100,000 persons were executed by the Nationalists; after the war ended in spring 1939, another 50,000 were put to death. Martial law remained in place in Franco's Spain until 1948, and former Republicans were subjected to various forms of discrimination and punishment.

Internal Displacement and Spanish Refugees

The fighting and persecution resulted in several million Spaniards being displaced. Many fled areas of violence for safe refuge elsewhere. Only a few countries, such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic, opened their doors to Spanish refugees. When the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, with Franco's victory, some 500,000 Spanish Republicans escaped to France, where many were placed in internment camps in the south, such as Gurs, St. Cyprien, and Les Milles. Following the German defeat of France in spring 1940, Nazi authorities conscripted Spanish Republicans for forced labor and deported more than 30,000 to Germany, where about half of them ended up in concentration camps. Some 7,000 of these became prisoners in Mauthausen; more than half of them died in the camp.

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The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936, when generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco launched an uprising aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The Nationalist rebels' initial efforts to instigate military revolts throughout Spain only partially succeeded. In rural areas with a strong right-wing political presence, Franco's confederates generally won out.

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Francisco Franco y La Guerra Civil Espanol

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Francisco Franco y La Guerra Civil Espanol

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-Grant Micaletti

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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Bhavana Dronamraju

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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Cullen

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1. The rebels expected to take control quickly.

A cadre of rebel army officers began plotting to overthrow the government as soon as a leftist coalition won Spanish elections in February 1936. Gaining the support of General Franco at the final hour, they called for a July 18 uprising in Spanish Morocco, followed by a general uprising a day later, that they envisioned as a rapid coup d'état. But although they captured Spanish Morocco and the conservative heartland with barely a struggle, the Republican government retained about two-thirds of Spain, including most major cities. As civil war subsequently erupted, Franco ferried his battle-hardened troops from Morocco to the mainland-using planes and boats provided by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler-and began marching northward toward Madrid.

2. Franco benefited from the untimely deaths of his rivals.

Though a key contributor to the coup, Franco didn't originate the plot and was never supposed to lead the country. However, the rebels' purported first choice for head of state, General José Sanjurjo, died in a plane crash just days after the uprising began while returning from exile in Portugal. Around the same time, Republican forces took out several of Franco's other potential rivals, including monarchist politician José Calvo Sotelo, fascist politician José Antonio Primo de Rivera, and generals Joaquín Fanjul and Manuel Goded. By October 1936, Franco had been named commander in chief of the armed forces and head of the rebel Nationalist government. His final near-equal, General Emilio Mola, the technical mastermind of the coup plot, then died in a June 1937 plane crash, leaving him firmly and solely in charge.

3. The Republicans suffered from severe infighting.

While the Nationalists largely united behind Franco, the various Republican factions were constantly at each other's throats. Tensions came to a boiling point in May 1937, when a police raid on the anarchist-controlled central telephone exchange in Barcelona sparked days of street fighting that left hundreds dead. This so-called civil war within the civil war, which pitted anarchists and anti-Stalin Marxists against Soviet-backed communists and the regional government, resulted in the communists-and hence Moscow-increasing their control over the war effort. Anarchist and anti-Stalin Marxist organizations were suppressed, and the revolutionary egalitarian fervor that had once gripped Barcelona died out.

4. Both sides committed widespread atrocities.

From the very beginning, Franco's Nationalist troops initiated a campaign of terror in which they killed, tortured and shamed perceived political opponents. In August 1936, for example, they gunned down up to 4,000 alleged Republicans in the town of Badajoz and then burned the bodies at a local cemetery. Similar massacres occurred in Málaga, Toledo and elsewhere, each time with the tacit approval of the rebellion's top leaders, such as Mola, who declared at one point, "We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do." (Another Nationalist general was quoted saying, "I authorize you to kill like a dog anyone who dares oppose you.") Though less systematic, Republicans committed their own share of atrocities, including the slaying of thousands of Catholic priests, monks and nuns, as well as a mass execution of alleged fascists just outside Madrid. In total, it's estimated that the Nationalists murdered about 150,000 prisoners of war and civilians over the course of the conflict-plus another 20,000 following their victory-compared to about 49,000 murders at the hands of the Republicans.

5. Thousands of Americans signed up to fight.

Although the U.S. government stayed neutral in the Spanish Civil War, about 2,800 Americans-many of whom had never before fired a gun-volunteered for the Republican cause. A diverse bunch, their unit, the so-called Abraham Lincoln Battalion, included a vaudeville acrobat, a rabbi and the first African-American ever to lead white troops into battle. Morale quickly deteriorated, however, after they were forced into several ill-advised charges against entrenched opposition. "We are shock troops," a wounded American reportedly said from his hospital bed. "The Republic had to push some meat out there in front, and we were elected." By the time the Lincolns departed Spain in October 1938, more than a quarter of them had perished. The roughly 40,000 international volunteers from other countries didn't fare much better, suffering casualties at a far greater rate than the Spanish members of the Republican army.

6. Texaco's CEO personally assisted Franco.

No more than a handful of Americans fought with the Nationalists. But Franco did gain the vital support of Texaco chief executive Torkild Rieber, a Norwegian-born American who admired Hitler and allegedly preferred doing business with autocrats. From his office high atop New York City's Chrysler Building, Rieber illegally sold the Nationalists discounted oil on credit and illegally transported the fuel in his company's own tankers. His worldwide network of employees passed along the whereabouts of Republican-bound oil shipments, thereby leaving them open to attack. For these blatant violations of U.S. neutrality acts, Texaco (now part of Chevron Corp.) received only a small fine.

7. A cornucopia of famous writers and artists covered the conflict.

Despite the danger, writers flocked to Spain during the civil war, with some fighting on the front lines and others filing articles from such places as the Hotel Florida in Madrid, a famed literary hotspot. "The Little Prince" author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry even flew his own plane to report on the conflict, whereas George Orwell survived a bullet wound to the neck while serving with a Republican militia. The poet Federico García Lorca, meanwhile, was assassinated by a Nationalist death squad. Other well-known literary figures in Spain at that time included Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda, John Dos Passos, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, André Malraux and Arthur Koestler. Artists likewise produced numerous memorable works about the war, most notably Pablo Picasso, whose painting "Guernica" depicts the bombing of a defenseless town by Hitler's Condor Legion.

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7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War | HISTORY

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Explore seven fascinating facts about this bloody prelude to World War II.

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All Hail North Korea.

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.

The war was an outcome of a polarization of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades. On one side, the Nationalist, were most Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, most landowners, and many businessmen. On the other side, the Republican, were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, and many of the educated middle class. Politically, their differences often found extreme and vehement expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to socialism, including a small communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival, Leon Trotsky. In 1934 there was widespread labour conflict and a bloody uprising by miners in Asturias that was suppressed by troops led by General Francisco Franco. A succession of governmental crises culminated in the elections of February 16, 1936, which brought to power a Popular Front government supported by most of the parties of the left and opposed by the parties of the right and what remained of the centre.

A well-planned military uprising began on July 17, 1936, in garrison towns throughout Spain. By July 21 the rebels had achieved control in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) and in the part of Spain north of the Guadarrama mountains and the Ebro River, except for Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces along the north coast and the region of Catalonia in the northeast. The Republican forces had put down the uprising in other areas, except for some of the larger Andalusian cities, including Sevilla (Seville), Granada, and Córdoba. The Nationalists and Republicans proceeded to organize their respective territories and to repress opposition or suspected opposition. Republican violence occurred primarily during the early stages of the war before the rule of law was restored, but the Nationalist violence was part of a conscious policy of terror. The matter of how many were killed remains highly contentious; however, it is generally believed that the toll of Nationalist violence was higher. In any event, the proliferation of executions, murders, and assassinations on both sides reflects the great passions that the Civil War unleashed.

The captaincy of the Nationalists was gradually assumed by General Franco, leading forces he had brought from Morocco. On October 1, 1936, he was named head of state and set up a government in Burgos. The Republican government, beginning in September 1936, was headed by the socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero. He was followed in May 1937 by Juan Negrín, also a socialist, who remained premier throughout the remainder of the war and served as premier in exile until 1945. The president of the Spanish Republic until nearly the end of the war was Manuel Azaña, an anticlerical liberal. Internecine conflict compromised the Republican effort from the outset. On one side were the anarchists and militant socialists, who viewed the war as a revolutionary struggle and spearheaded widespread collectivization of agriculture, industry, and services; on the other were the more moderate socialists and republicans, whose objective was the preservation of the Republic. Seeking allies against the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had embraced a Popular Front strategy, and, as a result, the Comintern directed Spanish communists to support the Republicans.

Both the Nationalist and Republican sides, seeing themselves as too weak to win a quick victory, turned abroad for help. Germany and Italy sent troops, tanks, and planes to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union contributed equipment and supplies to the Republicans, who also received help from the Mexican government. During the first weeks of the war, the Popular Front government of France also supported the Republicans, but internal opposition forced a change of policy. In August 1936, France joined Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy in signing a nonintervention agreement that would be ignored by the Germans, Italians, and Soviets. About 40,000 foreigners fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades largely under the command of the Comintern, and 20,000 others served in medical or auxiliary units.

By November 1936 the Nationalists had advanced to the outskirts of Madrid. They laid siege to it but were unable to get beyond the University City area. They captured the Basque northern provinces in the summer of 1937 and then Asturias, so that by October they held the whole northern coast. A war of attrition began. The Nationalists drove a salient eastward through Teruel, reaching the Mediterranean and splitting the republic in two in April 1938. In December 1938 they moved upon Catalonia in the northeast, forcing the Republican armies there northward toward France. By February 1939, 250,000 Republican soldiers, together with an equal number of civilians, had fled across the border into France. On March 5 the Republican government flew to exile in France. On March 7 a civil war broke out in Madrid between communist and anticommunist factions. By March 28 all of the Republican armies had begun to disband and surrender, and Nationalist forces entered Madrid on that day.

The number of persons killed in the Spanish Civil War can be only roughly estimated. Nationalist forces put the figure at 1,000,000, including not only those killed in battle but also the victims of bombardment, execution, and assassination. More recent estimates have been closer to 500,000 or less. This does not include all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease.

The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between-depending on their point of view-tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization. For Germany and Italy, Spain was a testing ground for new methods of tank and air warfare. For Britain and France, the conflict represented a new threat to the international equilibrium that they were struggling to preserve, which in 1939 collapsed into World War II. The war also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to take up arms. Among the most notable artistic responses to the war were the novels Man's Hope (1938) by André Malraux, Adventures of a Young Man (1939) by John Dos Passos, and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway; George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica (1937); and Robert Capa's photograph Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain (1936).

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Spanish Civil War | Definition, Causes, Summary, & Facts

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides.

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I FOUND DOLORES! (EMOTIONAL)

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Dolores Ibárruri, pseudonym La Pasionaria (Spanish: "The Passionflower"), (born Dec. 9, 1895, Gallarta, near Bilbao, Spain-died Nov. 12, 1989, Madrid), Spanish Communist leader, who earned a legendary reputation as an impassioned orator during the Spanish Civil War, coining the Republican battle cry, " No pasarán! " ("They shall not pass!").

Born the eighth of 11 children of a Viscayan miner, Ibárruri was compelled by poverty to quit school at age 15 to work as a seamstress and later as a cook. Becoming radicalized, she published in 1918 an article in a newspaper called El Minero Vizcaino, using for the first time the pseudonym La Pasionaria. Two years later she joined the newly formed Spanish Communist Party. After a turbulent career, in which she was jailed several times for political activities, she emerged as one of the Communist deputies in the Republican parliament and, by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, had become a national figure. A sometimes violent radio and street orator, she made such famous exhortations as "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" (July 1936).

With Francisco Franco's victory in 1939 she escaped by plane to the Soviet Union, where over the years she represented her party at Kremlin congresses, until Santiago Carrillo succeeded her as secretary-general in 1960. Though reputed to be an old-line Stalinist, she protested the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. She returned to Spain on May 13, 1977, some 18 months after Franco's death and 34 days after the Spanish government again legalized the Communist Party. She was reelected to her deputy seat in the Spanish parliament that year but later resigned because of ill heath. She remained honorary president of the Spanish Communist Party until her death. Throughout her career Ibárruri almost always appeared dressed in black.

She married Julián Ruiz in 1915 and separated from him in the 1930s. Only two of her six children survived childhood; a son, Rubén, was killed at Stalingrad as an officer in the Red Army. In 1962 she published her memoirs, El único camino ("The Only Way"; Eng. trans., They Shall Not Pass).

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Dolores Ibárruri | Spanish political leader

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Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish Communist leader, who earned a legendary reputation as an impassioned orator during the Spanish Civil War, coining the Republican battle cry, "No pasarán! " ("They shall not pass!"). Born the eighth of 11 children of a Viscayan miner, Ibárruri was compelled by poverty to

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Secretos de la guerra
-Holly Marcus

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1. The rebels expected to take control quickly.

A cadre of rebel army officers began plotting to overthrow the government as soon as a leftist coalition won Spanish elections in February 1936. Gaining the support of General Franco at the final hour, they called for a July 18 uprising in Spanish Morocco, followed by a general uprising a day later, that they envisioned as a rapid coup d'état. But although they captured Spanish Morocco and the conservative heartland with barely a struggle, the Republican government retained about two-thirds of Spain, including most major cities. As civil war subsequently erupted, Franco ferried his battle-hardened troops from Morocco to the mainland-using planes and boats provided by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler-and began marching northward toward Madrid.

2. Franco benefited from the untimely deaths of his rivals.

Though a key contributor to the coup, Franco didn't originate the plot and was never supposed to lead the country. However, the rebels' purported first choice for head of state, General José Sanjurjo, died in a plane crash just days after the uprising began while returning from exile in Portugal. Around the same time, Republican forces took out several of Franco's other potential rivals, including monarchist politician José Calvo Sotelo, fascist politician José Antonio Primo de Rivera, and generals Joaquín Fanjul and Manuel Goded. By October 1936, Franco had been named commander in chief of the armed forces and head of the rebel Nationalist government. His final near-equal, General Emilio Mola, the technical mastermind of the coup plot, then died in a June 1937 plane crash, leaving him firmly and solely in charge.

3. The Republicans suffered from severe infighting.

While the Nationalists largely united behind Franco, the various Republican factions were constantly at each other's throats. Tensions came to a boiling point in May 1937, when a police raid on the anarchist-controlled central telephone exchange in Barcelona sparked days of street fighting that left hundreds dead. This so-called civil war within the civil war, which pitted anarchists and anti-Stalin Marxists against Soviet-backed communists and the regional government, resulted in the communists-and hence Moscow-increasing their control over the war effort. Anarchist and anti-Stalin Marxist organizations were suppressed, and the revolutionary egalitarian fervor that had once gripped Barcelona died out.

4. Both sides committed widespread atrocities.

From the very beginning, Franco's Nationalist troops initiated a campaign of terror in which they killed, tortured and shamed perceived political opponents. In August 1936, for example, they gunned down up to 4,000 alleged Republicans in the town of Badajoz and then burned the bodies at a local cemetery. Similar massacres occurred in Málaga, Toledo and elsewhere, each time with the tacit approval of the rebellion's top leaders, such as Mola, who declared at one point, "We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do." (Another Nationalist general was quoted saying, "I authorize you to kill like a dog anyone who dares oppose you.") Though less systematic, Republicans committed their own share of atrocities, including the slaying of thousands of Catholic priests, monks and nuns, as well as a mass execution of alleged fascists just outside Madrid. In total, it's estimated that the Nationalists murdered about 150,000 prisoners of war and civilians over the course of the conflict-plus another 20,000 following their victory-compared to about 49,000 murders at the hands of the Republicans.

5. Thousands of Americans signed up to fight.

Although the U.S. government stayed neutral in the Spanish Civil War, about 2,800 Americans-many of whom had never before fired a gun-volunteered for the Republican cause. A diverse bunch, their unit, the so-called Abraham Lincoln Battalion, included a vaudeville acrobat, a rabbi and the first African-American ever to lead white troops into battle. Morale quickly deteriorated, however, after they were forced into several ill-advised charges against entrenched opposition. "We are shock troops," a wounded American reportedly said from his hospital bed. "The Republic had to push some meat out there in front, and we were elected." By the time the Lincolns departed Spain in October 1938, more than a quarter of them had perished. The roughly 40,000 international volunteers from other countries didn't fare much better, suffering casualties at a far greater rate than the Spanish members of the Republican army.

6. Texaco's CEO personally assisted Franco.

No more than a handful of Americans fought with the Nationalists. But Franco did gain the vital support of Texaco chief executive Torkild Rieber, a Norwegian-born American who admired Hitler and allegedly preferred doing business with autocrats. From his office high atop New York City's Chrysler Building, Rieber illegally sold the Nationalists discounted oil on credit and illegally transported the fuel in his company's own tankers. His worldwide network of employees passed along the whereabouts of Republican-bound oil shipments, thereby leaving them open to attack. For these blatant violations of U.S. neutrality acts, Texaco (now part of Chevron Corp.) received only a small fine.

7. A cornucopia of famous writers and artists covered the conflict.

Despite the danger, writers flocked to Spain during the civil war, with some fighting on the front lines and others filing articles from such places as the Hotel Florida in Madrid, a famed literary hotspot. "The Little Prince" author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry even flew his own plane to report on the conflict, whereas George Orwell survived a bullet wound to the neck while serving with a Republican militia. The poet Federico García Lorca, meanwhile, was assassinated by a Nationalist death squad. Other well-known literary figures in Spain at that time included Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda, John Dos Passos, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, André Malraux and Arthur Koestler. Artists likewise produced numerous memorable works about the war, most notably Pablo Picasso, whose painting "Guernica" depicts the bombing of a defenseless town by Hitler's Condor Legion.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War | HISTORY

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Explore seven fascinating facts about this bloody prelude to World War II.

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Samantha Leddy

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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-Holly Marcus

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For the more superstitious inhabitants of the Basque village of El Regato, the beginning of the Spanish civil war was portended not so much by Francisco Franco's coup as by the onset of a sudden turmoil in the heavens.

"People were saying the war is starting because all the stars in the sky are rushing around," says Herminio Martínez, who, even as a six-year-old then, was beginning to grow sceptical. "I would look up in the sky but I couldn't see the stars rushing around."

More material proof of the conflict was not long in coming. Soon enough, bombers were rumbling through the skies towards Bilbao, shotguns were being collected for the front, and Martínez's father was one of the men gathering in the mine to make small bombs from tomato tins and dynamite.

As the food shortages worsened and the bombing intensified, the Basque government decided the area around Bilbao was becoming too dangerous for children, and many were evacuated to France, Belgium, Russia and Mexico.

Far less keen to take the Basque children was the British government, which was still hoping that the non-intervention agreement it had signed would prevent the war spilling over the Pyrenees.

Hitler had fewer scruples. Just under a month after the Nazi bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937, Westminster reluctantly gave in and 3,840 young Basques - among them young Herminio and his older brother, Victor - were taken to the port of Santurce and put aboard the steamship Habana, bound for Southampton.

To this day, the Expedición a Inglaterra, as the evacuation was christened, remains one of the least-known chapters in the history of 1930s Britain. To mark its 75th anniversary, some of the surviving niños vascos will gather at Southampton University this weekend to meet and to remember their exile.

"I remember saying goodbye to my father, who was very upset," recalls Martínez, who had turned seven a week before leaving Spain. "He just handed us over and left. Downstairs it was quite disconcerting because it was absolutely crowded with children." As well as the gales of homesick weeping, Martínez particularly remembers crossing the Bay of Biscay during a storm.

"Most of us were downstairs, sleeping on the floor, rolling about and being sick all over ourselves and each other. I remember a girl crying and saying, 'Tell the captain to go back. I want to go back home to my parents.'"

If the British government was less than thrilled by the Basques' arrival, the people of Southampton - and many of the other English towns where the young exiles subsequently ended up - were only too happy to help.

Tom Webb, a retired accountant now involved with the Basque Children's Association, can remember his father taking him to visit the outdoor camp near Southampton that was the first English home for the children and the teachers and priests who accompanied them.

"I remember seeing hundreds and hundreds of children running about and playing games. The only thing I recollect about the children - but I was wrong, of course - was that they all had black hair. I didn't know they were Spanish and I didn't know anything about it."

Webb's father, an aircraft engineer who built Spitfires at the nearby Supermarine works, was one of the many local people who did what they could for the children. "It was a big event for Southampton to have 4,000 foreign children arrive overnight as it were," says Webb. "People had to provide food and clothing for the children because the government did nothing."

Three years later, when the full futility of appeasement had become apparent, a piece of historical symmetry afforded him a horrible insight into the lives that the Basque children had fled: on 24 September 1940 Webb's father was killed when the Germans bombed the Supermarine factory. Webb, who is now 85, spent more than half a century unaware of the significance of what he had seen at the camp that afternoon in 1937. It was only when he read about the foundation of the association 10 years ago that he began to learn about the niños vascos.

Despite the publication of Adrian Bell's book on the children, Only for Three Months, and Steve Bowles's documentary, The Guernica Children, the story of the niños is often overlooked amid the myriad horrors of Spain's three-year civil war.

Natalia Benjamin, whose mother taught some of the Basque children, co-founded the association to bring together the surviving niños and to reclaim their story from obscurity.

"The niños are the forgotten ones of the Spanish civil war; nobody talks about them," she says. "In the history books that were written about the civil war, they're confined to about three lines, but they were victims of Franco just as much as other people were."

Although most of the children had been repatriated by the start of the second world war, a few hundred remained because their parents were either dead, imprisoned or had started new lives abroad. By 1945 there were around 250 niños still in the UK, including Martínez and his older brother.

Having lived with other Basque children in "colonies" in Swansea, Brampton, Tynemouth, Margate and Carshalton - and with an English Methodist family in Leicester - Martínez decided to stay put in the UK where he educated himself at night school and Birkbeck College and became a pattern-maker and then a teacher and lecturer. Victor emigrated to Australia at the end of the 1950s.

Martínez was reunited with his mother in 1948; his father, who was arrested and imprisoned after being denounced by a neighbour, spent four or five years in prison before being released because he was unable to do hard labour after being fed industrial oil, leaving him semi-paralysed and in poor health for the rest of his life.

Martínez may have turned his back on Franco's Spain and chosen to live, marry and raise his children in England, but, 75 years after he stepped on to the Habana, he remains a man exiled by history. The shelves of his London flat are striped with books about the civil war, and from the top of the bag he has packed for Southampton spills the red, yellow and purple flag of the short-lived second republic.

"I am of that Spanish generation that never was," he says, "the Spain that never flowered because it was cut off. Life has been very interesting, but I still have within me a sadness, a loneliness. In essence, I don't belong."
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Forgotten children of Spain's civil war reunite 75 years after exile

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For the more superstitious inhabitants of the Basque village of El Regato, the beginning of the Spanish civil war was portended not so much by Francisco Franco's coup as by the onset of a sudden turmoil in the heavens.

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Early Life and Military Bloodlines

Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps. However, the economic and territorial aftermath of the Spanish-American War led to a reduction in the navy, and after completing his primary education at a Catholic school, Franco was forced to enlist at the Infantry Academy at Toledo instead. He graduated three years later with below-average marks.

Ruthless Rise

After an initial posting to El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to serve in Spain's recently acquired protectorate Morocco, where the country's native population was staging a resistance to occupation. Stationed there from 1912 to 1926, Franco distinguished himself with his fearlessness, professionalism and ruthlessness, and was frequently promoted. By 1920, he had been named second in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and three years later took full command. During this period he also wed Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdéz. The couple had one daughter.

In 1926, Franco's role in suppressing the Moroccan rebellion earned him an appointment as general, which, at age 33, made him the youngest man in Europe to hold that post. Two years later, he was also named director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, a position he would hold until three years later when political changes in Spain would temporarily halt Franco's steady rise.

Major Unrest and Power Shifts

In April 1931, general elections led to the ousting of King Alfonso XIII, whose military dictatorship had been in place since the early 1920s. The moderate government of the Second Republic that replaced it led to a reduction in the power of the military, which resulted in the closing of Franco's military academy. However, the country was also wracked by a deepening, often violent social and political unrest, and when new elections were held in 1933, the Second Republic was replaced by a more right-leaning government. As a result, Franco returned to a position of power, which he wielded the following year in a ruthless suppression of a leftist revolt in northwestern Spain.

But like the Second Republic before it, the new government could do little to quell the growing divide between left- and right-leaning factions. When elections that were held in February 1936 led to a shift in power to the left, Spain slipped further into chaos. For his part, Franco was once again marginalized, with a new posting to the Canary Islands. Though Franco accepted what amounted to banishment with the professionalism for which he was known, other high-ranking members of the military began to discuss a coup.

The Spanish Civil War

Though he initially kept his distance from the plot, on July 18, 1936, Franco announced the Nationalist manifesto in a broadcast from the Canary Islands as the uprising began in the northwest of Spain. The next day, he flew to Morocco to take control of the troops, and shortly thereafter gained the support of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, whose planes were used to shuttle Franco and his forces to Spain. Establishing his base of operations in Seville the following month, Franco began his military campaign, advancing north toward the seat of the Republican government in Madrid. Anticipating a swift victory, on October 1, 1936, the Nationalist forces declared Franco head of the government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, when their initial assault on Madrid was repelled, the military coup evolved into the protracted conflict known as the Spanish Civil War.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Over the next three years, the Nationalist forces - led by Franco and backed by right-wing militias, the Catholic Church. Germany and Italy - battled the left-wing Republicans, who received aid from the Soviet Union as well as brigades of foreign volunteers. Though the Republicans were able to resist the Nationalist advance for a time, with far-superior military strength, Franco and his forces were able to systematically defeat them, eliminating their opposition region by region.

By the end of 1937, Franco had conquered the Basque lands and the Asturias and had also combined the fascist and monarchist political parties to form his Falange Española Tradicionalista while dissolving all others. In January 1939, the Republican stronghold of Barcelona fell to the Nationalists, followed two months later by Madrid. On April 1, 1939, after receiving an unconditional surrender, Franco announced the end of the Spanish Civil War. Sources vary, but many estimate the number of casualties resulting from the war as high as 500,000, with perhaps as many as 200,000 the result of executions perpetrated by Franco and his forces.

El Caudillo

For nearly four decades following the conflict, Franco - who became known as "El Caudillo" (the Leader) - would rule Spain through a repressive dictatorship. Immediately following the war, military tribunals were held that led to tens of thousands more being executed or imprisoned. Franco also outlawed unions and all religions except for Catholicism, as well as banning the Catalan and Basque languages. To enforce his power over Spain, he established a vast network of secret police.

However, five months after taking control of the country, Franco's rule and Spain's position in the international community were further complicated by the start of World War II. Initially declaring Spain's neutrality, Franco was ideologically sympathetic to the Axis powers and met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the possibility of Spain joining them. Though Hitler ultimately rejected Franco's conditions - which he deemed far too high - Franco would later send some 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front as well as open Spain's ports to German ships and submarines.

When the tide of the war began to turn against the Axis powers in 1943, Franco once more declared Spain's neutrality, but in the aftermath of the conflict, his former allegiances were not forgotten. As a result, Spain was ostracized by the United Nations, placing a significant economic strain on the country. However, circumstances changed with the advent of the Cold War; Franco's status as a staunch anti-communist led to economic and military assistance from the United States in exchange for the establishment of military bases in Spain.

Later Years and Death

Over time, Franco began to relax his control of Spain, removing some of the restraints of censorship, instituting economic reforms and promoting international tourism while maintaining his position as head of state. In 1969, amidst a period of declining health, he named his successor, Prince Juan Carlos, whom he believed would maintain the political structure that Franco had established and rule as a king. However, two days after Franco's death on November 20, 1975, Juan Carlos I set about dismantling Spain's authoritarian apparatus and reintroduced political parties. In June 1977, the first elections were held since 1936. Spain has remained a democracy ever since.

Valley of the Fallen

Franco was buried in a massive mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, constructed by the dictator - with the use of forced labor - as a monument to the dead of the Spanish Civil War. In the decades since Franco's rule, it has been the subject of frequent controversy, with many advocating for the removal of his remains. But amidst the often-fractured political environment in post-Franco Spain, the site remains more or less unchanged.

Though some have chosen not to look closely at the years of Franco's ascension and rule, many Spanish citizens have continued to push for the exhumation of mass graves, with the U.N. calling for an investigation into the whereabouts of those who went missing during the years of the conflict as well. Archaeologists have tried for some time to locate the remains of poet/playwright Federico García Lorca, who was executed by Granada-based right-wing forces in 1936.

In September 2019, his body was moved to Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo.

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Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps.

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.

The war was an outcome of a polarization of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades. On one side, the Nationalist, were most Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, most landowners, and many businessmen. On the other side, the Republican, were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, and many of the educated middle class. Politically, their differences often found extreme and vehement expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to socialism, including a small communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival, Leon Trotsky. In 1934 there was widespread labour conflict and a bloody uprising by miners in Asturias that was suppressed by troops led by General Francisco Franco. A succession of governmental crises culminated in the elections of February 16, 1936, which brought to power a Popular Front government supported by most of the parties of the left and opposed by the parties of the right and what remained of the centre.

A well-planned military uprising began on July 17, 1936, in garrison towns throughout Spain. By July 21 the rebels had achieved control in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) and in the part of Spain north of the Guadarrama mountains and the Ebro River, except for Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces along the north coast and the region of Catalonia in the northeast. The Republican forces had put down the uprising in other areas, except for some of the larger Andalusian cities, including Sevilla (Seville), Granada, and Córdoba. The Nationalists and Republicans proceeded to organize their respective territories and to repress opposition or suspected opposition. Republican violence occurred primarily during the early stages of the war before the rule of law was restored, but the Nationalist violence was part of a conscious policy of terror. The matter of how many were killed remains highly contentious; however, it is generally believed that the toll of Nationalist violence was higher. In any event, the proliferation of executions, murders, and assassinations on both sides reflects the great passions that the Civil War unleashed.

The captaincy of the Nationalists was gradually assumed by General Franco, leading forces he had brought from Morocco. On October 1, 1936, he was named head of state and set up a government in Burgos. The Republican government, beginning in September 1936, was headed by the socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero. He was followed in May 1937 by Juan Negrín, also a socialist, who remained premier throughout the remainder of the war and served as premier in exile until 1945. The president of the Spanish Republic until nearly the end of the war was Manuel Azaña, an anticlerical liberal. Internecine conflict compromised the Republican effort from the outset. On one side were the anarchists and militant socialists, who viewed the war as a revolutionary struggle and spearheaded widespread collectivization of agriculture, industry, and services; on the other were the more moderate socialists and republicans, whose objective was the preservation of the Republic. Seeking allies against the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had embraced a Popular Front strategy, and, as a result, the Comintern directed Spanish communists to support the Republicans.

Both the Nationalist and Republican sides, seeing themselves as too weak to win a quick victory, turned abroad for help. Germany and Italy sent troops, tanks, and planes to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union contributed equipment and supplies to the Republicans, who also received help from the Mexican government. During the first weeks of the war, the Popular Front government of France also supported the Republicans, but internal opposition forced a change of policy. In August 1936, France joined Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy in signing a nonintervention agreement that would be ignored by the Germans, Italians, and Soviets. About 40,000 foreigners fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades largely under the command of the Comintern, and 20,000 others served in medical or auxiliary units.

By November 1936 the Nationalists had advanced to the outskirts of Madrid. They laid siege to it but were unable to get beyond the University City area. They captured the Basque northern provinces in the summer of 1937 and then Asturias, so that by October they held the whole northern coast. A war of attrition began. The Nationalists drove a salient eastward through Teruel, reaching the Mediterranean and splitting the republic in two in April 1938. In December 1938 they moved upon Catalonia in the northeast, forcing the Republican armies there northward toward France. By February 1939, 250,000 Republican soldiers, together with an equal number of civilians, had fled across the border into France. On March 5 the Republican government flew to exile in France. On March 7 a civil war broke out in Madrid between communist and anticommunist factions. By March 28 all of the Republican armies had begun to disband and surrender, and Nationalist forces entered Madrid on that day.

The number of persons killed in the Spanish Civil War can be only roughly estimated. Nationalist forces put the figure at 1,000,000, including not only those killed in battle but also the victims of bombardment, execution, and assassination. More recent estimates have been closer to 500,000 or less. This does not include all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease.

The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between-depending on their point of view-tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization. For Germany and Italy, Spain was a testing ground for new methods of tank and air warfare. For Britain and France, the conflict represented a new threat to the international equilibrium that they were struggling to preserve, which in 1939 collapsed into World War II. The war also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to take up arms. Among the most notable artistic responses to the war were the novels Man's Hope (1938) by André Malraux, Adventures of a Young Man (1939) by John Dos Passos, and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway; George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica (1937); and Robert Capa's photograph Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain (1936).

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Spanish Civil War | Definition, Causes, Summary, & Facts

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides.

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.

The war was an outcome of a polarization of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades. On one side, the Nationalist, were most Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, most landowners, and many businessmen. On the other side, the Republican, were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, and many of the educated middle class. Politically, their differences often found extreme and vehement expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to socialism, including a small communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival, Leon Trotsky. In 1934 there was widespread labour conflict and a bloody uprising by miners in Asturias that was suppressed by troops led by General Francisco Franco. A succession of governmental crises culminated in the elections of February 16, 1936, which brought to power a Popular Front government supported by most of the parties of the left and opposed by the parties of the right and what remained of the centre.

A well-planned military uprising began on July 17, 1936, in garrison towns throughout Spain. By July 21 the rebels had achieved control in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) and in the part of Spain north of the Guadarrama mountains and the Ebro River, except for Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces along the north coast and the region of Catalonia in the northeast. The Republican forces had put down the uprising in other areas, except for some of the larger Andalusian cities, including Sevilla (Seville), Granada, and Córdoba. The Nationalists and Republicans proceeded to organize their respective territories and to repress opposition or suspected opposition. Republican violence occurred primarily during the early stages of the war before the rule of law was restored, but the Nationalist violence was part of a conscious policy of terror. The matter of how many were killed remains highly contentious; however, it is generally believed that the toll of Nationalist violence was higher. In any event, the proliferation of executions, murders, and assassinations on both sides reflects the great passions that the Civil War unleashed.

The captaincy of the Nationalists was gradually assumed by General Franco, leading forces he had brought from Morocco. On October 1, 1936, he was named head of state and set up a government in Burgos. The Republican government, beginning in September 1936, was headed by the socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero. He was followed in May 1937 by Juan Negrín, also a socialist, who remained premier throughout the remainder of the war and served as premier in exile until 1945. The president of the Spanish Republic until nearly the end of the war was Manuel Azaña, an anticlerical liberal. Internecine conflict compromised the Republican effort from the outset. On one side were the anarchists and militant socialists, who viewed the war as a revolutionary struggle and spearheaded widespread collectivization of agriculture, industry, and services; on the other were the more moderate socialists and republicans, whose objective was the preservation of the Republic. Seeking allies against the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had embraced a Popular Front strategy, and, as a result, the Comintern directed Spanish communists to support the Republicans.

Both the Nationalist and Republican sides, seeing themselves as too weak to win a quick victory, turned abroad for help. Germany and Italy sent troops, tanks, and planes to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union contributed equipment and supplies to the Republicans, who also received help from the Mexican government. During the first weeks of the war, the Popular Front government of France also supported the Republicans, but internal opposition forced a change of policy. In August 1936, France joined Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy in signing a nonintervention agreement that would be ignored by the Germans, Italians, and Soviets. About 40,000 foreigners fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades largely under the command of the Comintern, and 20,000 others served in medical or auxiliary units.

By November 1936 the Nationalists had advanced to the outskirts of Madrid. They laid siege to it but were unable to get beyond the University City area. They captured the Basque northern provinces in the summer of 1937 and then Asturias, so that by October they held the whole northern coast. A war of attrition began. The Nationalists drove a salient eastward through Teruel, reaching the Mediterranean and splitting the republic in two in April 1938. In December 1938 they moved upon Catalonia in the northeast, forcing the Republican armies there northward toward France. By February 1939, 250,000 Republican soldiers, together with an equal number of civilians, had fled across the border into France. On March 5 the Republican government flew to exile in France. On March 7 a civil war broke out in Madrid between communist and anticommunist factions. By March 28 all of the Republican armies had begun to disband and surrender, and Nationalist forces entered Madrid on that day.

The number of persons killed in the Spanish Civil War can be only roughly estimated. Nationalist forces put the figure at 1,000,000, including not only those killed in battle but also the victims of bombardment, execution, and assassination. More recent estimates have been closer to 500,000 or less. This does not include all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease.

The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between-depending on their point of view-tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization. For Germany and Italy, Spain was a testing ground for new methods of tank and air warfare. For Britain and France, the conflict represented a new threat to the international equilibrium that they were struggling to preserve, which in 1939 collapsed into World War II. The war also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to take up arms. Among the most notable artistic responses to the war were the novels Man's Hope (1938) by André Malraux, Adventures of a Young Man (1939) by John Dos Passos, and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway; George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica (1937); and Robert Capa's photograph Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain (1936).

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Spanish Civil War | Definition, Causes, Summary, & Facts

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides.

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francisco franco

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The general and dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents, repressed the culture and language of Spain's Basque and Catalan regions, censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.

Franco: The Early Years

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol, a small coastal town on Spain's northwestern tip. Until age 12, Franco attended a private school run by a Catholic priest. He then entered a naval secondary school with the goal of following his father and grandfather into a sea-based military career. In 1907, however, the cash-strapped Spanish government temporarily suspended the admission of cadets into the Naval Academy. As a result, Franco enrolled at the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating three years later with below-average grades.

Did you know? During World War II, Spanish leader Franco wrote a semi-autobiographical novel called "Raza," which was later turned into a film. Using the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade, Franco portrayed a family that strongly resembled his own, including a hero who valiantly fought against bloodthirsty Republicans.

After a brief posting back in El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to fight an insurgency in Spanish-controlled Morocco. He arrived in early 1912 and stayed there largely without break until 1926. Along the way, he survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen, received a number of merit promotions and awards, and took time out to marry Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés, with whom he would have one daughter. At age 33 Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe. He was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza.

Franco and the Second Republic

A military dictatorship embraced by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1930, but municipal elections held in April 1931 deposed the king and ushered in the so-called Second Republic. In the aftermath of the elections, winning Republican candidates passed measures that reduced the power and influence of the military, the Catholic Church, property-owning elites and other entrenched interests. Franco, a known authoritarian rightist, was reprimanded for criticizing the actions of those in charge and sent to an out-of-the-way post near El Ferrol. Moreover, his General Military Academy was shut down.

Nevertheless, Franco was brought back into the good graces of the government in 1933 when a center-right coalition won elections. The following year he deployed troops from Morocco to Asturias in northern Spain to suppress a leftist revolt, an action that left some 4,000 dead and tens of thousands imprisoned. Meanwhile, street violence, political killings and general disorder were ramping up on both the right and the left. In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a leftist coalition won the next round of elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

Banished to a remote post in the Canary Islands, Franco initially hesitated in his support of the military conspiracy. He became fully committed, however, following the assassination by police of radical monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. On July 18, 1936, military officers launched a multipronged uprising that put them in control of most of the western half of the country. Franco's role was to fly to Morocco and begin transporting troops to the mainland. He also made contacts with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, securing arms and other assistance that would continue throughout the duration of what became known as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Within a few months, Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government and commander-in-chief (generalísimo) of the armed forces. He unified a base of support by securing the backing of the Catholic Church, combining the fascist and monarchist political parties, and dissolving all other political parties. Meanwhile, on the way north, his men-who included fascist militia groups-machine-gunned hundreds or perhaps thousands of Republicans in the town of Badajoz. An additional tens of thousands of political prisoners would be executed by Nationalists later on in the fighting. The internally divided Republicans, who murdered their own share of political opponents, could not stop the slow Nationalist advance despite support from the Soviet Union and International Brigades. German and Italian bombardments helped the Nationalists conquer Basque lands and Asturias in 1937. Barcelona, the heart of Republican resistance, fell in January 1939, and Madrid surrendered that March, effectively ending the conflict.

Life Under Franco

Many Republican figures fled the country in the wake of the civil war, and military tribunals were set up to try those who remained. These tribunals sent thousands more Spaniards to their death, and Franco himself admitted in the mid-1940s that he had 26,000 political prisoners under lock and key. The Franco regime also essentially made Catholicism the only tolerated religion, banned the Catalan and Basque languages outside the home, forbade Catalan and Basque names for newborns, barred labor unions, promoted economic self-sufficiency policies and created a vast secret police network to spy on citizens.

Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of World War II (1939-45) but did send nearly 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front. Franco also opened his ports to German submarines and invaded the internationally administered city of Tangier in Morocco. Following the war, Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to thaw as the Cold War heated up. In 1953 Spain allowed the United States to construct three air bases and a naval base on its soil in return for military and economic aid.

As Franco aged, he increasingly avoided daily political affairs, preferring instead to hunt and fish. At the same time, police controls and press censorship began to relax, strikes and protests became more commonplace, some free-market reforms were introduced, tourism increased and Morocco gained its independence. Franco died on November 20, 1975, after suffering a series of heart attacks. At his funeral, many mourners raised their arm in a fascist salute.

Life After Franco

Back in 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he handpicked Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII, for the role. Though Juan Carlos had spent a good deal of time alongside Franco and publicly supported the regime, he pressed for change immediately upon taking the throne, including the legalization of political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in June 1977, and, except for an 18-hour-long coup attempt in 1981, Spain has remained democratic ever since.

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Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death. He rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. Adopting the title of "El Caudillo" (The Leader), Franco persecuted political opponents and censured the media, among other abuses.

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From bombings, Guernica, forced labor camps and starvation, Spanish civil war survivors tell their stories of the tragedy that tore Spain in two.

Eighty years ago, civil war broke out in Spain: a painful, bloody wound that has yet to heal. A dark period in Spanish history and a prelude to World War II, the conflict unleashed passions around the world for close to three years and led to a decades-long dictatorship.

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the war, which pitted the elected leftist, Socialist-led government against Franco's right-wing Nationalist forces, backed by Hitler and Mussolini. Today the Spanish Civil War is a dark spot on the the history of Spain, as stories live on and the country continues to deal with its past tragedy:

How the Spanish civil war began

Some scholars of Spanish history trace the beginnings of the civil war back to the Spanish Second Republic (suggesting the military coop was an inevitable maneuver to reestablish political order), others take it back to the Spanish-American war of 1898 and the failure of Spanish Imperialism (arguing that the military and old order was still in denial about the democratic consequences of modernization). Some historians trace it back to 1492...

The war itself started on July 18, 1936, when army generals staged a coup against a fledgling republic that had been established five years prior in a restive, poor country. The coup failed but divided the country between those who supported the Republic and the 'nationalist' rebels. Among these was General Francisco Franco, in command of the army in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco.

He promptly gained the support of German and Italian dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, whose planes transported troops onto the mainland in what is known as the world's first major airlift. The planes would go on to regularly bomb cities around the country, and destroy the town of Guernica in the Basque Country, made famous by Picasso's haunting painting.

For the first time, civilians were direct targets.

The fighting and violence were reported around the world. Thanks to new portable cameras the war was 'the first to be witnessed (...) by a corps of professional photographers at the lines of military engagement and in the towns under bombardment', American writer Susan Sontag, who also wrote about photography, said in The New Yorker.

Spain's atmosphere of terror and a burgeoning war

On the ground, there was mayhem.

"We must create an atmosphere of terror... by eliminating all those who don't think like us without any misgivings or hesitation," rebel general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano called in a radio address in July 1936.

As the rebels progressed, left-wing lawmakers, unionists, Socialist activists, supporters or their families were executed in their thousands.

On the Republican side, armed gangs chased the wealthy and those suspected of being on the side of the rebels were executed.

Some were taken away at night for a 'walk', a car ride from which no one ever returned.

Priests and nuns were also targeted for their perceived closeness to upper classes, and more than 6,500 were killed, most at the hands of Republicans.

Madrid asked its neighbors for help, in vain. Britain and France refused, scared of being dragged into another world war. They opted instead for a 'pact of non-intervention' to which Italy and Germany also signed up, even as they continued to openly help the nationalist rebels.

The conflict moved people the world over. With the inaction of Western democracies, intellectuals took the side of the Republic, from novelist John Steinbeck to India's Nobel Literature laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Some authors such as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway wrote about the war and its effects on the population. Soon enough, the Soviet Union entered the fray, arming the Republicans. The civil war had evolved into a clash between fascism and communism.

"Our foes are the Reds, the Bolsheviks of the world," sang the young pilots of the Condor Legion sent by Hitler.

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin jumped on the occasion to strengthen his influence, sending advisers and organizing International Brigades. Some 50,000 volunteered from all over the world.

"They saw fascism as an international threat, and the Brigades appeared to offer the best way of fighting it", writes historian Antony Beevor.

They helped the Republic score rare victories, holding onto Madrid in a winter 1936 battle or defeating Italian brigades sent by Mussolini in 1937.

But militarily inferior and weakened by divisions, the Republic slowly lost ground, losing key battles such as the Battle of Ebro. The Barcelona-based government eventually went into exile in March 1939 along with some 400,000 Spaniards.

Five months later, World War II erupted.

Spain yet to heal

Back in Spain, Franco declared victory on April 1, 1939 and ruled Spain until his death in 1975.

In his book The Spanish Holocaust, historian Paul Preston calculates that 20,000 Republican supporters were executed after the war. He estimates that 200,000 people died in combat during the conflict, and another 200,000 were murdered or executed - 150,000 of these at the hands of nationalists.

Franco's regime paid tribute to its dead, but those who died on the opposite side were largely forgotten and dumped in mass graves.

When Spain transitioned to democracy after his death, authorities opted for a 'pact of forgetting' to put the past and its bloody divisions behind it.

Then in 2007 as more and more people clamored for the war and its aftermath to be addressed, Spain passed a law to help relatives willing to exhume and recover the remains of loved ones.

But acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has boasted of not having spent one euro to put it into effect. His conservative party, founded by Franco's former ministers, doesn't want to 'stir the ashes of the past'.

There is, however, a burgeoning interest in Spanish history among locals, an interest in exploring the history of Spanish exiles, the Civil War, and the postwar regime, and their many legacies today in Spain. This local movement is offering 'surprising discoveries': that Spain was not backward in the 1910s and 1920s, but had Nobel Laureates, important scientific research centers, thriving cultural movements.

From Guernica to slavery, Spanish vet recalls war horrors

Luis Ortiz Alfau was 19 and working at a food warehouse when Spain's civil war began in 1936, as General Francisco Franco led an uprising against a democratically elected Republican government.

Today almost 100, Luis is one of the last surviving witnesses of the atrocities of that conflict, from the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica to the forced labor camps.

"I joined a battalion of the Republican Left in the first days of August in Bilbao," he recalls at his flat in his hometown of Bilbao in northern Spain, surrounded by his archives and his computer.

"As the son of a Republican I had to join because they would surely call me up and I wanted to defend freedom and the legal Popular Front government," adds Luis, wearing a traditional round Basque beret.

"We would practice with brooms... we didn't have rifles or any war material," says Luis, a 99-year-old widower who lives alone.

'Collect the dead'

Luis refuses to be presented as a brave hero and says he never fired a single shot during the three-year war that began on July 18, the most devastating conflict in Spanish history.

"I was lucky to be assigned to the transmissions section. I was a living phone. I would go from the battalion command to the trenches with an envelope," he recalls.

His battalion was resting in a neighborhood in the Basque town of Guernica on April 26, 1937 when German planes dropped dozens of tonnes of bombs - an atrocity that shocked the world and was immortalized in Picasso's haunting anti-war painting that year named after the town.

"We had to go out and collect the dead and wounded, everything was burning and full of smoke, I had never seen so much blood," he said.

Historians estimate as many as 1,600 people were killed when aircraft from Hitler's 'Condor Legion' sent to Spain to support Franco's forces carpet-bombed the Basque town.

Franco blamed 'red vandalism' - a reference to Communists and other leftists - for the destruction of the city.

'Eat raw lizards'

In February 1939, Luis fled to neighboring France where he experienced the hardships of the camps where Spanish Republicans - deemed 'undesirable' - were confined.

Journalist Ander Izaguirre, who was asked by a Basque government institute to write a biography of Luis, says 'what is impressive' about his life story is that he 'passed through the most important places of the war and post-war'.

When France entered World War II in September 1939 by declaring war against Germany, Luis - like thousands of other Spaniards - thought the time was right to return to Spain. But he was arrested at the border and in June 1940 was sent to one of the 121 forced labor camps that were set up by Franco, according to British historian Antony Beevor, to punish the losing Republican side.

Luis likes to say that he is alive because he knew how to use a typewriter. Thanks to this skill, he was assigned the job of scribe in the labor camp that was tasked to build a road through the valleys of the frosty Pyrenees mountains on the border with France in 'inhuman conditions'.

"I was privileged, I stayed with the officials in a small house, but the rank and file were in the outskirts in the barracks for livestock," he recalls.

"Some weighed just 38-40 kilos (83-88 pounds). They would eat vegetable peelings that were thrown to the pigs, even raw lizards."

'Slaves of the Franco regime'

Luis said he still feels 'shame' for having contributed, against his own will, to the hunger the prisoners endured when his corrupt lieutenant demanded that he hand over part of the funds meant to buy food.

When he finally returned to Bilbao as a free man in 1943, Luis quickly realized that jobs were reserved for 'those who had fought with Franco'. He only found work after he bribed a civil servant to eliminate his record as a former Republican fighter.

Luis, who will turn 100 on October 13, says he is 'wonderfully happy' and pleased that he has the chance to bear witness in the name of the former 'slaves of the Franco regime'.

An amnesty law passed in 1977 - two years after Franco's death - pardons crimes committed during the war and dictatorship that followed. But a judge in Argentina has opened an inquiry into Franco-era crimes and Luis was able to outline 'everything that dead Republican prisoners can never tell'.

Painful memories of civil war purge live on in southern Spain

"They would say: 'We have to eliminate the red seed'," said Rogelia Beltran as she recalled how her grandfather died in a purge against leftists in southern Spain during the country's civil war.

After Nationalist troops staged a coup on July 18, 1936, large landowners in the southern region of Andalusia aided the revolt by persecuting day laborers who they believed backed the government.

In Beltran's hometown of La Algaba the pro-Nationalist landowners were led by a matador, Jose Garcia Carranza, also known as El Algabeno, who became known as the 'killer of bulls and reds'. Civilian supporters of the military uprising like El Algabeno received 'carte blanche' from the military men who quickly seized control of the region, historian Francisco Espinosa told AFP.

"They were members of the rural bourgeoisie" who offered to repress opposition to the coup "mounted on their own horses and using their own weapons", he said.

Eighty years after the war began, the memory of the purge carried out against leftists in Andalusia, known today for its sandy tourist beaches, lives on.

'Hunted like animals'

Paramilitaries and the rebel troops 'carried out clean-up operations in the mountains' where leftists and unionists sought sanctuary, said Juan Jose Lopez, a member of an association of victims of the civil war and the dictatorship that followed. His great uncle was killed in November 1936 in a raid near the village of El Madrono.

"It was like a deer or wild boar hunt. The raiders would sweep the mountains so the prey would flee" and then shoot them, he said.

As he speaks he holds a photo of his relative which is part of a traveling exhibition called 'The DNA of Memory' which aims to give visibility to victims of the conflict eight decades after it started.

A 1977 amnesty law prevents Spain from investigating and trying the crimes of the civil war era and the repressive right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco that followed until his death in 1975.

"They did horrible things. They would leave bodies scattered in the streets as an example and would prevent them from being collected so they would be eaten by animals," said Antonio Narvaez, 83, a retired steelworker.

He was just three-years-old when his father was killed in Marchena. A day laborer who did not belong to a union and had no political affiliation, his only crime was that he knew how to read, said Narvaez.

"He would read the press to his colleagues," he said with a toothless smile.

Widows were also punished. Supporters of the right-wing coup would confiscate their homes and goods, leaving them without work and stigmatized with young children to raise.

"They would shave their hair off and parade them around the town," said Antonio Martinez, 80, a retired hotel worker whose father was repressed during the war in the town of Escacena del Campo.

'Ideological purge'

Beltran, a 53-year-old nursing assistant, said the idea was "'if you don't think like me, I will eliminate you' and that is called genocide".

"It was an ideological purge which also included teachers, lawyers, journalists, writers with a liberal ideology," added Paqui Maqueda, 52, a social worker whose great-grandfather and three great-uncles were killed in the town of Carmona near Seville.

She gave the example of the celebrated Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, known for works including the play " Blood wedding ", who was shot for his suspected leftist sympathies by supporters of the military uprising near the southern city of Granada in 1936.

"But the lower classes were the most repressed," said Maqueda.

Plagued by high levels of illiteracy and miserable living conditions, farmworkers had formed a strong union movement. And wealthy landowners like El Algabeno, who is said to have speared day laborers as if they were bulls, decided to quash their movement, historians and victims say.

"Many of Garcia Carranza's crimes were gathered and detailed by witnesses and contemporaries," said Diego Aguera, the mayor of La Algaba, the matador's hometown.

In a narrow street of white houses near the bougainvillea-lined main square of the town, a plaque reads: 'Jose Garcia Carranza Street'. Aguera in March got the town hall to approve changing the name to 'Equality Street' because of the 'countless murders he carried out, the majority in cold blood, the countless detentions, and tortures he practiced'. Several family members of the late matador, contacted by AFP, refused to be quoted about his legacy.

"Sometimes you think you are doing good and you are doing bad," said one of his great-nieces who declined to be named.

But for now, the street sign bearing Carranza's name remains in place as local authorities wrestle with the bureaucracy needed to change it.

Spain under bombs: 'testing ground' for WWII

Teenager Angel Bertran had just gone out to work in fields of hazelnut trees when Spain's civil war burst into his small town with the arrival of Nazi bomber planes.

It was May 25, 1938. Bertran, then just 15, was heading to the countryside outside Benasal, a town of around 1,000 residents in the eastern province of Castellon where a mountain range separates Spain's Mediterranean coast from its central plains.

"Suddenly three planes flew by, not very high. They turned towards the town and nosedived," Bertran, now 93, recalls as he sits in a rustic wooden chair in the living room of his home.

"They lined up and dropped their bombs. They fell very quickly, making a loud whistling sound. Within seconds you could only see dust."

He stops talking and thinks for a moment before adding in a broken voice: "When I returned to the town, everything was destroyed."

Photographs from the time show entire blocks of Benasal reduced to rubble, the dome and roof of the baroque church blown open. At least 13 people were killed, victims of a new war tactic: air bombardments.

'Absolute panic'

It was the first war where 'aviation played a crucial role', said Barcelona University historian Joan Villarroya. Planes bombed systematically the battlefront as well as the civilian population to 'cause terror and break morale', he said. Hospitals, schools, theatres, markets, and even churches became military targets.

Scholars of Spanish history estimate that at least 10,000 people were killed across the country in the air raids during the 1936-39 war. The vast majority of the dead were opponents of Franco's forces, who were backed by Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. The soldiers loyal to the Socialist-led government known as Republicans received help from the Soviet Union, but it was much more limited.

In November 1936 Madrid became the first European capital to be bombed by planes.

The following year the town of Guernica in the northern Basque region was wiped out by aircraft from Hitler's 'Condor Legion' sent to Spain to support Franco, an atrocity immortalized in Picasso's haunting anti-war masterpiece named after the town.

At the same time Italian aircraft based in Mallorca bombed Spain's Mediterranean coast, especially Barcelona where 2,500 people were killed.

Spain was for them 'a test ground for World War Two', said history professor Josep Sanchez Cervello of Tarragona's Rovira i Virgili University.

"They wanted to see what would be the effect of bombs on the civilian population. It was absolute panic."

'Stuka experiment'

Benasal suffered one of these experiments, the testing of the Junker-87, or Stuka, a German dive bomber that served the Axis forces in World War Two.

For decades no one explained why Benasal was targeted. It was an unimportant town, without troops and 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the nearest front. But in 2011 Oscar Vives, a university professor who lives in Benasal, found a German military report titled 'Images of the Effects of 500-kilogram bombs'. The report proved that Benasal and three other nearby towns were used to test the dive bombers.

At least 40 people died "because of an experiment, of weapons testing," said Vives.

Time has not erased the memories. Now aged 90, Rosa Soligo says she was in bed when the bombs landed near her house. She recalls hearing her mother scream and 'a loud noise as part of the building came crashing down.

"When they pulled us out of the rubble our bodies were covered in blood because of the injuries but fortunately they were not very serious," she said.

The German dive bombers returned three days later but there were no longer any inhabitants left in Benasal. Everyone had fled.

'Punished by history'

"We lived in caves for days, for fear that they would return. We suffered a lot... a lot," Soligo said.

The effects of the air bombings can be seen still in the town of Corbera de Ebro in the northeastern region of Catalunya near the Ebro River, the site of the bloodiest battle of the war which paved the way for victory by Franco's forces.

Corbera was 'completely leveled' by the insurgents, said professor Sanchez Cervello.

The town was engulfed in fire and smoke for weeks, and was called 'the eternal flame', said local historian and high school teacher Joan Antonio Montana who provides tours of the ruins of Corbera.

Only the bell tower and facade of the town's baroque church survived.

After the war the surviving residents moved down the hill and rebuilt their town. The original town was left in rubble as a memorial to a 'town punished by history'.

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History of Spain: Facts from Spain's civil war | Expatica

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From bombings, Guernica, forced labor camps and starvation, Spanish civil war survivors tell their stories of the tragedy that tore Spain in two. Eighty years ago, civil war broke out in Spain: a painful, bloody wound that has yet to heal.

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DYLAN LAIL

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In Spain, the Republican defenders of Madrid raise the white flag over the city, bringing to an end the bloody three-year Spanish Civil War.

In 1931, Spanish King Alfonso XIII approved elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favor of a liberal republic. Alfonso subsequently went into exile, and the Second Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate socialists, was proclaimed. During the first five years of the Republic, organized labor and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reforms, and the independence-minded Spanish regions of Catalonia and the Basque provinces achieved virtual autonomy.

The landed aristocracy, the church, and a large military clique increasingly employed violence in their opposition to the Second Republic, and in July 1936 General Francisco Franco led a right-wing army revolt in Morocco, which prompted the division of Spain into two key camps: the Nationalists and the Republicans. Franco's Nationalist forces rapidly overran much of the Republican-controlled areas in central and northern Spain, and Catalonia became a key Republican stronghold.

During 1937, Franco unified the Nationalist forces under the command of the Falange, Spain's fascist party, while the Republicans fell under the sway of the communists. Germany and Italy aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and arms, while the Soviet Union aided the Republican side. In addition, small numbers of communists and other radicals from France, the USSR, America, and elsewhere formed the International Brigades to aid the Republican cause. The most significant contribution of these foreign units was the successful defense of Madrid until the end of the war.

In June 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean Sea and cut Republican territory in two. Later in the year, Franco mounted a major offensive against Catalonia. In January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was captured, and soon after the rest of Catalonia fell. With the Republican cause all but lost, its leaders attempted to negotiate a peace, but Franco refused. On March 28, 1939, the victorious Nationalists entered Madrid in triumph, and the Spanish Civil War came to an end. Up to a million lives were lost in the conflict, the most devastating in Spanish history.

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In Spain, the Republican defenders of Madrid raise the white flag over the city, bringing to an end the bloody three-year Spanish Civil War. In 1931, Spanish King Alfonso XIII approved elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favor of a liberal republic.

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Jake Bauschard

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.

The war was an outcome of a polarization of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades. On one side, the Nationalist, were most Roman Catholics, important elements of the military, most landowners, and many businessmen. On the other side, the Republican, were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, and many of the educated middle class. Politically, their differences often found extreme and vehement expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to socialism, including a small communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival, Leon Trotsky. In 1934 there was widespread labour conflict and a bloody uprising by miners in Asturias that was suppressed by troops led by General Francisco Franco. A succession of governmental crises culminated in the elections of February 16, 1936, which brought to power a Popular Front government supported by most of the parties of the left and opposed by the parties of the right and what remained of the centre.

A well-planned military uprising began on July 17, 1936, in garrison towns throughout Spain. By July 21 the rebels had achieved control in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) and in the part of Spain north of the Guadarrama mountains and the Ebro River, except for Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces along the north coast and the region of Catalonia in the northeast. The Republican forces had put down the uprising in other areas, except for some of the larger Andalusian cities, including Sevilla (Seville), Granada, and Córdoba. The Nationalists and Republicans proceeded to organize their respective territories and to repress opposition or suspected opposition. Republican violence occurred primarily during the early stages of the war before the rule of law was restored, but the Nationalist violence was part of a conscious policy of terror. The matter of how many were killed remains highly contentious; however, it is generally believed that the toll of Nationalist violence was higher. In any event, the proliferation of executions, murders, and assassinations on both sides reflects the great passions that the Civil War unleashed.

The captaincy of the Nationalists was gradually assumed by General Franco, leading forces he had brought from Morocco. On October 1, 1936, he was named head of state and set up a government in Burgos. The Republican government, beginning in September 1936, was headed by the socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero. He was followed in May 1937 by Juan Negrín, also a socialist, who remained premier throughout the remainder of the war and served as premier in exile until 1945. The president of the Spanish Republic until nearly the end of the war was Manuel Azaña, an anticlerical liberal. Internecine conflict compromised the Republican effort from the outset. On one side were the anarchists and militant socialists, who viewed the war as a revolutionary struggle and spearheaded widespread collectivization of agriculture, industry, and services; on the other were the more moderate socialists and republicans, whose objective was the preservation of the Republic. Seeking allies against the threat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had embraced a Popular Front strategy, and, as a result, the Comintern directed Spanish communists to support the Republicans.

Both the Nationalist and Republican sides, seeing themselves as too weak to win a quick victory, turned abroad for help. Germany and Italy sent troops, tanks, and planes to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union contributed equipment and supplies to the Republicans, who also received help from the Mexican government. During the first weeks of the war, the Popular Front government of France also supported the Republicans, but internal opposition forced a change of policy. In August 1936, France joined Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy in signing a nonintervention agreement that would be ignored by the Germans, Italians, and Soviets. About 40,000 foreigners fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades largely under the command of the Comintern, and 20,000 others served in medical or auxiliary units.

By November 1936 the Nationalists had advanced to the outskirts of Madrid. They laid siege to it but were unable to get beyond the University City area. They captured the Basque northern provinces in the summer of 1937 and then Asturias, so that by October they held the whole northern coast. A war of attrition began. The Nationalists drove a salient eastward through Teruel, reaching the Mediterranean and splitting the republic in two in April 1938. In December 1938 they moved upon Catalonia in the northeast, forcing the Republican armies there northward toward France. By February 1939, 250,000 Republican soldiers, together with an equal number of civilians, had fled across the border into France. On March 5 the Republican government flew to exile in France. On March 7 a civil war broke out in Madrid between communist and anticommunist factions. By March 28 all of the Republican armies had begun to disband and surrender, and Nationalist forces entered Madrid on that day.

The number of persons killed in the Spanish Civil War can be only roughly estimated. Nationalist forces put the figure at 1,000,000, including not only those killed in battle but also the victims of bombardment, execution, and assassination. More recent estimates have been closer to 500,000 or less. This does not include all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease.

The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between-depending on their point of view-tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization. For Germany and Italy, Spain was a testing ground for new methods of tank and air warfare. For Britain and France, the conflict represented a new threat to the international equilibrium that they were struggling to preserve, which in 1939 collapsed into World War II. The war also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to take up arms. Among the most notable artistic responses to the war were the novels Man's Hope (1938) by André Malraux, Adventures of a Young Man (1939) by John Dos Passos, and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway; George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica (1937); and Robert Capa's photograph Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain (1936).

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Spanish Civil War | Definition, Causes, Summary, & Facts

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Spanish Civil War, (1936-39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides.

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Es la persona mejor en el army del nationalist espana

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https://www.donquijote.org/spanish-culture/history/spanish-civil-war/

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Early Life and Military Bloodlines

Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps. However, the economic and territorial aftermath of the Spanish-American War led to a reduction in the navy, and after completing his primary education at a Catholic school, Franco was forced to enlist at the Infantry Academy at Toledo instead. He graduated three years later with below-average marks.

Ruthless Rise

After an initial posting to El Ferrol, Franco volunteered to serve in Spain's recently acquired protectorate Morocco, where the country's native population was staging a resistance to occupation. Stationed there from 1912 to 1926, Franco distinguished himself with his fearlessness, professionalism and ruthlessness, and was frequently promoted. By 1920, he had been named second in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and three years later took full command. During this period he also wed Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdéz. The couple had one daughter.

In 1926, Franco's role in suppressing the Moroccan rebellion earned him an appointment as general, which, at age 33, made him the youngest man in Europe to hold that post. Two years later, he was also named director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, a position he would hold until three years later when political changes in Spain would temporarily halt Franco's steady rise.

Major Unrest and Power Shifts

In April 1931, general elections led to the ousting of King Alfonso XIII, whose military dictatorship had been in place since the early 1920s. The moderate government of the Second Republic that replaced it led to a reduction in the power of the military, which resulted in the closing of Franco's military academy. However, the country was also wracked by a deepening, often violent social and political unrest, and when new elections were held in 1933, the Second Republic was replaced by a more right-leaning government. As a result, Franco returned to a position of power, which he wielded the following year in a ruthless suppression of a leftist revolt in northwestern Spain.

But like the Second Republic before it, the new government could do little to quell the growing divide between left- and right-leaning factions. When elections that were held in February 1936 led to a shift in power to the left, Spain slipped further into chaos. For his part, Franco was once again marginalized, with a new posting to the Canary Islands. Though Franco accepted what amounted to banishment with the professionalism for which he was known, other high-ranking members of the military began to discuss a coup.

The Spanish Civil War

Though he initially kept his distance from the plot, on July 18, 1936, Franco announced the Nationalist manifesto in a broadcast from the Canary Islands as the uprising began in the northwest of Spain. The next day, he flew to Morocco to take control of the troops, and shortly thereafter gained the support of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, whose planes were used to shuttle Franco and his forces to Spain. Establishing his base of operations in Seville the following month, Franco began his military campaign, advancing north toward the seat of the Republican government in Madrid. Anticipating a swift victory, on October 1, 1936, the Nationalist forces declared Franco head of the government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, when their initial assault on Madrid was repelled, the military coup evolved into the protracted conflict known as the Spanish Civil War.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Over the next three years, the Nationalist forces - led by Franco and backed by right-wing militias, the Catholic Church. Germany and Italy - battled the left-wing Republicans, who received aid from the Soviet Union as well as brigades of foreign volunteers. Though the Republicans were able to resist the Nationalist advance for a time, with far-superior military strength, Franco and his forces were able to systematically defeat them, eliminating their opposition region by region.

By the end of 1937, Franco had conquered the Basque lands and the Asturias and had also combined the fascist and monarchist political parties to form his Falange Española Tradicionalista while dissolving all others. In January 1939, the Republican stronghold of Barcelona fell to the Nationalists, followed two months later by Madrid. On April 1, 1939, after receiving an unconditional surrender, Franco announced the end of the Spanish Civil War. Sources vary, but many estimate the number of casualties resulting from the war as high as 500,000, with perhaps as many as 200,000 the result of executions perpetrated by Franco and his forces.

El Caudillo

For nearly four decades following the conflict, Franco - who became known as "El Caudillo" (the Leader) - would rule Spain through a repressive dictatorship. Immediately following the war, military tribunals were held that led to tens of thousands more being executed or imprisoned. Franco also outlawed unions and all religions except for Catholicism, as well as banning the Catalan and Basque languages. To enforce his power over Spain, he established a vast network of secret police.

However, five months after taking control of the country, Franco's rule and Spain's position in the international community were further complicated by the start of World War II. Initially declaring Spain's neutrality, Franco was ideologically sympathetic to the Axis powers and met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the possibility of Spain joining them. Though Hitler ultimately rejected Franco's conditions - which he deemed far too high - Franco would later send some 50,000 volunteers to fight alongside the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front as well as open Spain's ports to German ships and submarines.

When the tide of the war began to turn against the Axis powers in 1943, Franco once more declared Spain's neutrality, but in the aftermath of the conflict, his former allegiances were not forgotten. As a result, Spain was ostracized by the United Nations, placing a significant economic strain on the country. However, circumstances changed with the advent of the Cold War; Franco's status as a staunch anti-communist led to economic and military assistance from the United States in exchange for the establishment of military bases in Spain.

Later Years and Death

Over time, Franco began to relax his control of Spain, removing some of the restraints of censorship, instituting economic reforms and promoting international tourism while maintaining his position as head of state. In 1969, amidst a period of declining health, he named his successor, Prince Juan Carlos, whom he believed would maintain the political structure that Franco had established and rule as a king. However, two days after Franco's death on November 20, 1975, Juan Carlos I set about dismantling Spain's authoritarian apparatus and reintroduced political parties. In June 1977, the first elections were held since 1936. Spain has remained a democracy ever since.

Valley of the Fallen

Franco was buried in a massive mausoleum at the Valley of the Fallen, constructed by the dictator - with the use of forced labor - as a monument to the dead of the Spanish Civil War. In the decades since Franco's rule, it has been the subject of frequent controversy, with many advocating for the removal of his remains. But amidst the often-fractured political environment in post-Franco Spain, the site remains more or less unchanged.

Though some have chosen not to look closely at the years of Franco's ascension and rule, many Spanish citizens have continued to push for the exhumation of mass graves, with the U.N. calling for an investigation into the whereabouts of those who went missing during the years of the conflict as well. Archaeologists have tried for some time to locate the remains of poet/playwright Federico García Lorca, who was executed by Granada-based right-wing forces in 1936.

In September 2019, his body was moved to Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo.

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Francisco Franco was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps.

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El mato 150,000 a 200,000 de ejecucion  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco

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Dawson Steere

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On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War begins as a revolt by right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain. From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain's leftist Republican government. Within three days, the rebels captured Morocco, much of northern Spain, and several key cities in the south. The Republicans succeeded in putting down the uprising in other areas, including Madrid, Spain's capital. The Republicans and the Nationalists, as the rebels were called, then proceeded to secure their respective territories by executing thousands of suspected political opponents. Meanwhile, Franco flew to Morocco and prepared to bring the Army of Africa over to the mainland.

In 1931, Spanish King Alfonso XIII authorized elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favor of a liberal republic. Alfonso went into exile, and the Second Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate socialists, was proclaimed. During the first two years of the Republic, organized labor and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reforms, and the independence-minded region of Catalonia and the Basque provinces achieved virtual autonomy.

The landed aristocracy, the church and a large military clique opposed the Republic, and in November 1933 conservative forces regained control of the government in elections. In response, socialists launched a revolution in the mining districts of Asturias, and Catalan nationalists rebelled in Barcelona. General Franco crushed the so-called October Revolution on behalf of the conservative government, and in 1935 he was appointed army chief of staff. In February 1936, new elections brought the Popular Front, a leftist coalition, to power, and Franco, a strict monarchist, was sent to an obscure command in the Canary Islands off Africa.

Fearing that the liberal government would give way to Marxist revolution, army officers conspired to seize power. After a period of hesitation, Franco agreed to join the military conspiracy, which was scheduled to begin in Morocco at 5 a.m. on July 18 and then in Spain 24 hours later. The difference in time was to allow the Army of Africa time to secure Morocco before being transported to Spain's Andalusian coast by the navy.

On the afternoon of July 17, the plan for the next morning was discovered in the Moroccan town of Melilla, and the rebels were forced into premature action. Melilla, Ceuta, and Tetuan were soon in the hands of the Nationalists, who were aided by conservative Moroccan troops that also opposed the leftist government in Madrid. The Republican government learned of the revolt soon after it broke out but took few actions to prevent its spread to the mainland.

On July 18, Spanish garrisons rose up in revolt all across Spain. Workers and peasants fought the uprising, but in many cities the Republican government denied them weapons, and the Nationalists soon gained control. In conservative regions, such as Old Castile and Navarre, the Nationalists seized control with little bloodshed, but in other regions, such as the fiercely independent city of Bilbao, they didn't dare leave their garrisons. The Nationalist revolt in the Spanish navy largely failed, and warships run by committees of sailors were instrumental in securing a number of coastal cities for the Republic. Nevertheless, Franco managed to ferry his Army of Africa over from Morocco, and during the next few months Nationalist forces rapidly overran much of the Republican-controlled areas in central and northern Spain. Madrid was put under siege in November.

During 1937, Franco unified the Nationalist forces under the command of the Falange, Spain's fascist party, while the Republicans fell under the sway of the communists. Germany and Italy aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and arms, while the Soviet Union aided the Republican side. In addition, thousands of communists and other radicals from France, the USSR, America, and elsewhere formed the International Brigades to aid the Republican cause. The most significant contribution of these foreign units was the successful defense of Madrid until the end of the war.

In June 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean Sea and cut Republican territory in two. Later in the year, Franco mounted a major offensive against Catalonia. In January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was captured, and soon after, the rest of Catalonia fell. With the Republican cause all but lost, its leaders attempted to negotiate a peace, but Franco refused. On March 28, 1939, the Republicans finally surrendered Madrid, bringing the Spanish Civil War to an end. Up to a million lives were lost in the conflict, the most devastating in Spanish history. Franco subsequently served as dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.
READ MORE: 7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War

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On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War begins as a revolt by right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain. From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain's leftist Republican government.

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https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Francos-Spain-1939-75

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Evelyn Kloubec
The Spanish Civil War was caused by many factors, including major socio-economic problems, such as poverty and inequality. However,
one of the main causes was all sides' failure to compromise and to respect the rights and opinions of others.

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The Spanish Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in Twentieth Century in Europe. The war was not simply a Spanish affair, but drew in other several other nations, including Italy, Portugal, Germany and the Soviet Union. The war was a result of many factors, some of which will be discussed here. The main cause of the Spanish Civil War, was the failure of Spanish democracy. This was because there was a refusal by the Spanish parties and groups to compromise and respect democratic norms.

Background

Spain was a very divided, unstable and weak country in the 19th century. Once a great power, Spain lost almost the last of its colonies after it defeat in the Spanish-American war. It was technically a monarchy, but power had frequently been in the hands of military dictators. The country was bitterly divided. The acute poverty of the Spanish people meant that many were drawn to Communism, Anarchism and Socialism. These ideologies call for popular governments and the re-distribution of resources, such as land and wealth.

Spanish anarchists, socialists and communists were secular and wanted to remove the influence of the Catholic Church from Spanish society. The elite and the middle class were especially conservative. They dominated the economy and feared that the Communists would confiscate their property. This is typified in the fact that much of the best land in Spain was owned by a relatively small proportion of the population. Furthermore, the wealthy and the middle class, especially in rural society was Catholics and resisted any idea that there should be a separation of Church in State in Spain. The elite and the rich landowners, the 'agrarian oligarchy' were terrified of communism, especially after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

By 1930, Spain was bitterly divided on social and ideological lines. Spain was and is a diverse society. There are many areas of the country with strong regional or national identities. Many of the regions in Spain, such as the Catalans, demanded more autonomy or even outright independence from Madrid, such as the Basques. The tensions between the regions and the central government meant that the country was inherently unstable, as compromise was impossibly, between the parties.

The Failure of Spanish Government

Spain had been neutral during the First World War. However, this had not made the country peaceful or prosperous. In the wake of the ending of the WWI, there was a major economic slump. The working class and the rural poor suffered greatly at this time and they began to organize themselves and they were often led by Communists and Anarchists. At this time the Trade Unions in Spain became very strong and there were widespread strikes. In the countryside impoverished peasants began to seize land. To many in the elite it seemed as if the country was on the brink of Communist revolution. Miguel Primo de Rivera, with the support of the monarchy and army launched a coup and came to power in 1923, and he became dictator of Spain. He was a monarchists and conservative and did nothing to reform the country and especially to alleviate the plight of the poor. De Rivera soon became very unpopular and tensions in the country increased and he was forced to resign. In 1931, The Spanish monarch resigned. It seemed that Spain had an opportunity to begin a new era and to become a true democracy, after elections were held.

Second Republic

A new constitution was introduced in 1931 ad it was a liberal document that guaranteed human rights and basic freedoms. The Constitution also separated the Church and State. Elections were again held in 1932. In the first elections under the Constitution in 1933, an alliance of right wing and center right parties came to power. Despite the establishment of democracy there was no stability. This was partly a result of the economic consequences caused by the Great Depression. The left, including the Communists and the Trade Unions continued to press for their agendas. They sought the nationalization of industry and the redistribution of land to the poor. The first democratically elected government was constantly undermined by General Strikes and local left wing revolts. In particular there was a revolt by miners in Asturias, which was suppressed by the army. The left could not simply abide by the outcome of the election and instead of achieving their goals by constitutional means, they opted for violent methods.

A weakened government eventually collapsed and new elections were called for 1936. The General Election saw a victory for a left-wing alliance of parties, including Communists, Anarchists and Socialists. This government was also supported by regional parties. They immediately launched an ambitious program of reforms, especially land reform to meet the 'expectations of the urban and rural poor', that antagonize many in the Spanish elite. Many Spaniards believed that a communist revolution was imminent.

"They eyed with mounting alarm the red flags and banners and portraits of Lenin, Stalin and Largo Caballero on huge placards, and listened to the chanting of the demonstrators, demanding the formation of a proletarian government and a people's army''.

In response right-wing extremists such as the Falange militia began a violent campaign against the left-wing government. The right could not accept that the Left was the legitimate governments and believed that they were entitled to use violence means to secure their position and interests.

Countdown to Civil War

It was clear by 1936 that Spain was on the edge of a major confrontation between the left and the right and between the regions. There began a series of political assassinations. The right openly called for the military to stage a coup to oust the left wing government, which some saw as only the puppets of the Soviet Union. Much of the Spanish Army was stationed in the country's last colonies in Morocco. The left-wing government believed that the military as they were too far away from Spain. The government was losing control of the situation and there was fighting between the Falange militia and the police on the streets of several cities, resulting in many deaths. Then the Spanish Army Generals, led by General Franco, launched a coup, they managed to fly their forces, with the assistance of the Nazi German government to Spain. The arrival of regular Spanish units from Morocco on the Spanish mainland was the trigger for an all-out war that was to 'leave half-a-million people dead.'

Conclusion

The Spanish Civil War was caused by many factors, including major socio-economic problems, such as poverty and inequality. However, the main cause was all sides' failure to compromise and to respect the rights and opinions of others. This meant that the Second Republic, could never provide a government that could bring stability and prosperity to the country. Political violence became endemic in the country as a consequence and it escalated until it became a full scale civil war.

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What were the Root Causes of the Spanish Civil War?

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The Spanish Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in Twentieth Century in Europe. The war was not simply a Spanish affair, but drew in other several other nations, including Italy, Portugal, Germany and the Soviet Union. The war was a result of many factors, some of which will be discussed here.

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Armaan Panjwani

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Fraco in WW2
-Luca Lipari

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Although Franco had visions of restoring Spanish grandeur after the Civil War, in reality he was the leader of an exhausted country still divided internally and impoverished by a long and costly war. The stability of his government was made more precarious by the outbreak of World War II only five months later. Despite his sympathy for the Axis powers' "New Order," Franco at first declared Spanish neutrality in the conflict. His policy changed after the fall of France in June 1940, when he approached the German leader Hitler; Franco indicated his willingness to bring Spain into the war on Germany's side in exchange for extensive German military and economic assistance and the cession to Spain of most of France's territorial holdings in northwest Africa. Hitler was unable or unwilling to meet this price, and, after meeting with Franco at Hendaye, France, in October 1940, Hitler remarked that he would "as soon have three or four teeth pulled out" as go through another bargaining session like that again. Franco's government thenceforth remained relatively sympathetic to the Axis powers while carefully avoiding any direct diplomatic and military commitment to them. Spain's return to a state of complete neutrality in 1943 came too late to gain favourable treatment from the ascendant Allies. Nevertheless, Franco's wartime diplomacy, marked as it was by cold realism and careful timing, had kept his regime from being destroyed along with the Axis powers.

The most difficult period of Franco's regime began in the aftermath of World War II, when his government was ostracized by the newly formed United Nations. He was labeled by hostile foreign opinion the "last surviving fascist dictator" and for a time appeared to be the most hated of Western heads of state; within his country, however, as many people supported him as opposed him. The period of ostracism finally came to an end with the worsening of relations between the Soviet world and the West at the height of the Cold War. Franco could now be viewed as one of the world's leading anticommunist statesmen, and relations with other countries began to be regularized in 1948. His international rehabilitation was advanced further in 1953, when Spain signed a 10-year military assistance pact with the United States, which was later renewed in more limited form.

Franco's domestic policies became somewhat more liberal during the 1950s and '60s, and the continuity of his regime, together with its capacity for creative evolution, won him at least a limited degree of respect from some of his critics. Franco said that he did not find the burden of government particularly heavy, and, in fact, his rule was marked by absolute self-confidence and relative indifference to criticism. He demonstrated marked political ability in gauging the psychology of the diverse elements, ranging from moderate liberals to extreme reactionaries, whose support was necessary for his regime's survival. He maintained a careful balance among them and largely left the execution of policy to his appointees, thereby placing himself as arbiter above the storm of ordinary political conflict. To a considerable degree, the opprobrium for unsuccessful or unpopular aspects of policy tended to fall on individual ministers rather than on Franco. The Falange state party, downgraded in the early 1940s, in later years became known merely as the "Movement" and lost much of its original quasi-fascist identity.

Death and legacy

Unlike most rulers of rightist authoritarian regimes, Franco provided for the continuity of his government after his death through an official referendum in 1947 that made the Spanish state a monarchy and ratified Franco's powers as a sort of regent for life. In 1967 he opened direct elections for a small minority of deputies to the parliament and in 1969 officially designated the then 32-year-old prince Juan Carlos, the eldest son of the nominal pretender to the Spanish throne, as his official successor upon his death. Franco resigned his position of premier in 1973 but retained his functions as head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and head of the "Movement."

Franco was never a popular ruler and rarely tried to mobilize mass support, but after 1947 there was little direct or organized opposition to his rule. With the liberalization of his government and relaxation of some police powers, together with the country's marked economic development during the 1960s, Franco's image changed from that of the rigorous generalissimo to a more benign civilian elder statesman. Franco's health declined markedly in the late 1960s, yet he professed to believe that he had left Spain's affairs "tied and well-tied" and that after his death Prince Juan Carlos would maintain at least the basic structure of his regime. After Franco's death in 1975 following a long illness, his body was interred in the Valley of the Fallen, a massive mausoleum northwest of Madrid that houses the remains of tens of thousands of casualties from both sides of the Spanish Civil War. Almost immediately, Juan Carlos moved to dismantle the authoritarian institutions of Franco's system and encouraged the revival of political parties. Spain had made great economic progress during the last two decades of Franco's rule, and within three years of his death the country had become a democratic constitutional monarchy, with a prosperous economy and democratic institutions similar to those of the rest of western Europe. In 2019 Franco's body was exhumed and reburied in a family crypt near El Pardo, the palace outside Madrid that had served as his official residence throughout his reign.
Stanley G. Payne

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Francisco Franco - Spanish Civil War, Dictatorship, Regime

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Francisco Franco - Spanish Civil War, Dictatorship, Regime: Although Franco had visions of restoring Spanish grandeur after the Civil War, in reality he was the leader of an exhausted country still divided internally and impoverished by a long and costly war.

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https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/francisco-franco

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-Erin Collins

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The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 was a prominent conflict fought for a multitude of reasons. Nationalist rebels fought against the loyalist Republicans in a war that was widely followed by the international community.

Some historians class it as part of a European Civil War that lasted from 1936-45, however most reject that view as ignoring the nuances of Spanish history. Regardless the international interest in this conflict was endemic of the growing tensions of 1930's Europe.

Here are 10 facts about the war.

1. The war had many different factions loosely grouped into two sides

There were many different reasons the war was fought, including over class struggle, religion, republicanism, monarchism, fascism, and communism.

The Republican government billed the war as a struggle between tyranny and freedom, whilst the Nationalist rebels were based around law, order and Christian values standing against communism and anarchism. The factions within these two sides often had conflicting aims and ideologies.

2. The war generated an intense propaganda struggle

Both sides appealed to both internal factions, and international opinion. Whilst the left may have won the opinions of posterity, as their's was the version often touted in later years, the Nationalists actually influenced contemporary, international political opinion by appealing to conservative and religious elements.

3. Many countries officially promised non-intervention, but covertly supported one of the sides

Non-intervention, led by France and Britain, was promised, either officially or unofficially, by all the major powers. A committee was even established to enforce this, however it soon became apparent that several countries had ignored this.

Germany and Italy provided troops and arms to the Nationalists, whilst the USSR did the same for the Republicans.

4. Individual citizens of various countries often volunteered to fight

Around 32,000 volunteers joined the "International Brigades" on behalf of the Republicans. Drawn from countries including France, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, the US, Canada, Hungary, and Mexico, the Republican cause was seen as a beacon for left-leaning intelligentsia and workers. The Nationalists also drew their fair share of volunteers, from many of the same countries.

5. George Orwell was one of those fighting for the Republicans

One of the more famous volunteers, he came to "fight against Fascism". After being shot in the throat by a sniper and barely surviving, Orwell and his wife came under threat from the Communists during factional in-fighting. After escaping he wrote Homage to Catalonia (1938), detailing his experiences in the war.

6. Religion was a major issue in the war

Preceding the war, outbreaks of anti-clerical violence occurred. The Republican government promoted a secularising ideology, which was deeply troubling to large numbers of devout Spaniards.

The Nationalists' array of diverse and sometimes opposing factions were united by both their anti-communism and their Catholic convictions. This spread to international propaganda, with the Vatican covertly supporting them, along with many Catholic intellectuals like Evelyn Waugh, Carl Schmitt, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

7. The Nationalists were lead by General Franco, who would become a dictator upon their victory

The war started on 17 July 1936 with a military coup in Morocco planned by General José Sanjurjo, which seized around one third of the country as well as Morocco. He died in a plane accident on 20 July, leaving Franco in charge.

To establish his control over the army, Franco executed 200 senior officers loyal to the Republic. One of them was his cousin. After the war he became the dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.

8. The Battle of Brunete was a decisive clash where the side with 100 tanks lost

After an initial impasse, the Republicans launched a major offensive where they were able to take Brunete. However the overall strategy failed and so the offensive was halted around Brunete. Franco launched a counter-attack, and managed to retake Brunete. Around 17,000 Nationalists and and 23,000 Republicans became casualties.

Though neither side could claim a decisive victory, Republican morale was shaken and equipment was lost. The Nationalists were able to regain a strategic initiative.

9. Pablo Picasso's Guernica was based on an event during the war

Guernica was a major Republican stronghold in the north. In 1937 the German Condor unit bombed the town. As most of the men were away fighting, the victims were mainly women and children. Picasso reflected this in the painting.

10. The death toll estimates range from 1,000,000 to 150,000

The death toll remains uncertain and controversial. The war took a toll on both fighters and civilians, and indirect deaths caused by disease and malnutrition remain unknown. Additionally the Spanish economy took decades to recover and Spain remained isolationist until the 1950s.

Featured image credit: Al pie del cañón", sobre la batalla de Belchite. Painting by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau / Commons.

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The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 was a prominent conflict fought for a multitude of reasons. Nationalist rebels fought against the loyalist Republicans in a war that was widely followed by the international community. Some historians class it as part of a European Civil War that lasted from 1936-45, however most reject that view as ignoring the nuances of Spanish history.

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password: central
-Holly Marcus

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Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.

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claire zeidel

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Francisco Franco | Biography, Nickname, Beliefs, & Facts

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Francisco Franco, in full Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde, byname El Caudillo (“The Leader”), (born December 4, 1892, El Ferrol, Spain—died November 20, 1975, Madrid), general and leader of the Nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish…