Francisco Franco
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Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (December 4 1892 – November 20 1975), abbreviated Francisco Franco Bahamonde and sometimes known as Generalisimo Francisco Franco, was the dictator and Head of State of Spain from 1936/1939 until his death in 1975. Known as el "Caudillo de España", and officially as "Caudillo de España por la gracia de Dios" (The Leader of Spain by the grace of God), he presided over the authoritarian government of the Spanish State following victory in the Spanish Civil War.
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Early life
Born in Ferrol, Galicia, Spain. His father Nicolas Franco Salgado-Araujo was a Navy accounting officer. His mother Pilar Bahamonde Pardo de Andrade also came from a family with naval tradition. He was sibling to Nicolás Franco Bahamonde, navy officer and diplomat, a sister, Pilar Franco Bahamonde, latter a well known socialite, and Ramón Franco a pioneer aviator and political conspirator.
His hometown was officially known as El Ferrol del Caudillo from 1938 to 1982.
As the entry into the Naval Academy was closed from 1906 to 1913, he entered in 1907 the Infantry Academy in Toledo, Spain, were he graduated as 2nd lieutenant in 1910.
Two years later, he obtained a commission to Morocco. Spanish efforts to physically occupy their new African protectorate provoked a long protracted war (from 1909 to 1927) with the natives. Then current tactics resulted in heavy losses among Spanish military officers, but gave also the chance of earning promotion through merit. This explains the saying that officers would get either la caja o la faja (a coffin or a general's sash).
Franco soon gained a reputation as a good officer. He joined the newly formed regulares colonial native troops with Spanish officials, which acted as shock troops.
In 1916, at the age of 23 and already a captain, he was badly wounded in a skirmish at El Biutz. This action marked him permanently in the eyes of the native troops as a man of baraka (good luck). He was also proposed unsuccessfully for Spain's highest honor for gallantry, the coveted Cruz Laureada de San Fernando. Instead, he was promoted to major (comandante), becoming the youngest staff officer in the Spanish Army.
From 1917 to 1920 he was posted on the Spanish mainland. That last year, Lieutenant Colonel José Millán Astray, a histrionic but charismatic officer, founded the Legión Extranjera, along similar lines to the French Foreign Legion. Franco became the Legión's second-in-command and returned to Africa.
In summer 1921, the overextended Spanish army suffered (July, 24) a crushing defeat at Annual at the hands of the Riff tribes led by the Abd el-Krim brothers. The Legión symbolically, if not materially, saved the Spanish enclave of Melilla after a gruelling three-day forced march led by Franco. In 1923, already a lieutenant colonel, he was made commander of the Legión.
The same year he married María del Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés and they had one child, a daughter, María del Carmen, born in 1926. As a special mark of honour, his best man(padrino) at the wedding was King Alfonso XIII, fact which would mark him, during the Republic as a monarchical officer.
Promoted to Colonel, Franco led the first wave of troops ashore at Alhucemas in 1925. This landing in the heartland of Abd el-Krim's tribe, combined with the French invasion from the south, spelled the beginning of the end for the shortlived Republic of the Rif.
Becoming the youngest general in Spain in 1926, Franco was appointed, in 1928 director of the newly created the Joint Military Academy in Zaragoza, a common college for all Army cadets.
During the Republic
Image:Celebracion de la victoria electoral del Frente Popular en Madrid.jpg
At the fall of the monarchy in 1931, in keeping with his prior apolitical record, did not take any remarkable attitude. But the closing of the Academy in June by then War Minister Manuel Azaña provoked the first clash: Azaña found Franco's farewell speech to the cadets [1] insulting, resulting in Franco been without a post for six months, and under surveillance.
On December 1931 he was given a command in A Coruña. Franco avoided being involved in Jose Sanjurjo's attempted coup that year. As a side result of Azaña's military reform, in January 1933 Franco was relegated from the first to the 24th in the list of Brigadiers; conversely, the same year, he was given the military command of the Balearic Islands—a post above his grade.
The Asturias Uprising
On October 1933, new elections were held, which resulted in a center-right majority. In opposition to this government, a revolutionary movement broke out October 5, 1934. This attempt ws rapidly quelled in most of the country, but gained a stronghold in Asturias, with the support of the miners' unions. Franco, already general of a Division and assessor to the war minister, was put in command of the operations directed to suppress the insurgency. The forces of the Army in Africa were to carry the brunt of the operations, with General Eduardo Lopez Ochoa as commander in the field. After two weeks of heavy fighting (and a death toll estimated between 1,200 and 2,000), the rebellion was supressed.
The uprising, and in general, the events which led over the next two years to the civil war, are still under heavy debate (between, for example, Enrique Moradiellos and Pio Moa: see [2], [3], or [4]). It is universally agreed that the insurgency in Asturias sharpened the antagonism between left and right. Franco and Lopez Ochoa—who up to that moment was seen as a left-leaning officer—were marked by the left as enemies. Lopez Ochoa was persecuted, jailed, and finally killed at the start of the war.
Some time after this events, Franco was briefly commander-in-chief of the Army of Africa, and from May 1935 on, Chief of the General Staff, the top military post in Spain.
The government of the Popular Front
After the center parties of the ruling coalition collapsed amid corruption scandals (the estraperlo case), new elections were scheduled. Two wide coalitions formed: the Popular Front on the left, from Republicans to the Comunists, and the Frente Nacional, on the right, from the radicals to the Carlists). On February, 16 1936, the left won by a narrow margin[5]. The days after were marked by near chaotic circumstances. Franco lobbied unsuccessfully to have a state of emergency declared, with the stated purpose to quell the disturbances and allow an orderly vote recount. Instead, Franco was sent as military commander of the Canary Islands, a far place with few troops under his command.
Meanwhile, the conspiracy led by Emilio Mola was taking shape, and Franco was contacted, but he maintained an ambiguous attitude almost up to July. Still on June, 23 1936, he wrote to the head of the government Casares Quiroga offering to quell the discontent in the army. Once decided to join, he was given the task of commanding the African Army. A private airplane (the "Dragon Rapide") was chartered in England July 11 to bring him to Africa. On July 17, ahead of schedule, the African Army rebelled, detaining their commanders. On July 18 Franco published a manifesto [6] and left for Africa, where he arrived the next day to take command.
A week later, the rebels controlled only a third of Spain, and most navy units remained under control of the republicans (which left Franco isolated). The coup had failed, but the Spanish Civil War had begun.
Franco during the War
Image:Italians leave Spain for home.jpg See also Spanish Civil War
The first months
The first days of the rebelion were marked with the need of securing the control over the Protectorate. On on side, Franco managed to win the support of the natives and their (nominal) authorities. On the other to insure his control over the army. This lead to the execution of some senior officers loyal to the republic (one of them a first cousin [7]). Franco had to face the problem of how to move his troops to the Iberian Peninsula, because most units of the Navy had remained in control of the Republic and were blocking the Strait of Gibraltar. From the 20th onward he was able, with a small group of airplanes, to initiate an air bridge to Seville, where his troops helped to insure the rebel control of the city. Thru representatives, he started to negociate with Great Britain,Germany and Italy, for military support, and above all for more airplanes. Negociation were succesful with the last two on the 25th, and airplanes began to arrive in Tetouan on August 2. The 5th, with this fresh air support, he was able to break the blockade and send a ship convoy with some 2.000 soldiers.
At early August, the situation in western Andalusia was enough stabilized to allow him to organize a column (some 15.000 men at its height), under the command of then Lieutenant-Colonel Juan Yagüe, which would march thru Extremadura towards Madrid. The 11th Mérida was taken, and the 15th Badajoz, thus joining both nationalist controled areas. September 21, with the head of the column at the town of Maqueda (some 80 km away from Madrid), Franco orders a detour to free the besieged garrison at the Alcázar of Toledo (Spain), which is done September 27. This decision was controversial even then, but resulted in an important propagandistic success, both for the nationalist party and for Franco himself.
Rise to power
The designated leader of the uprising, Gen. José Sanjurjo had died on July 20 in an air crash. The nationalist leaders managed to overcome this thru regional commands (Mola in the North, Queipo in Andalusia, Franco with an independent command and Cabanellas in Aragon), and a coordinating Junta nominally led by the last, as the most senior general. On September 21 was decided that Franco was to be commander-in-chief, and the 28th, after some discussion, also head of government. On October 1, 1936 he was publicly proclaimed as Generalissimo of the Nationalist army and Jefe del Estado (Head of State.
Military command
From then on, Franco personaly guided military operations thru the war. After the failure of taking Madrid, in November 1936, Franco settled to a piecemal approach to wining the war, rather than bold manoveuring. This approach has been subject of some debate, and some of his decisions, for instance, when in June 1938 he prefered to head for Valencia, instead of Catalonia, remain controversial.
His army was supported by troops from Nazi Germany (Legión Cóndor) and, above all, Fascist Italy (Corpo Truppe Volontarie), but the degree of influence of both powers on Franco's direction of war seems to have been very limited. António de Oliveira Salazar's Portugal also openly assisted the Nationalists from the start.
Political command
He managed to fuse the ideologically incompatible Falange ("phalanx", a far-right Spanish political party with ideology similar to that of Mussolini's movement) and the Carlist monarchist parties under his rule.
From early 1937 every death sentence had to be signed (or acknowledged) by him
The end of the war
On March 41939 am anticomunist rebelion broke out inside the republican camp (led by col. Segismundo Casado and Julián Besteiro) gaining control over Madrid. They tried to negociate a settlement with Franco, who refused anything but unconditional surrender. They gave way, and Madrid was occupied on March 27, and the republic fell . The war officially ended on April 1, 1939.
During the 40's, some guerrilla resistance to Franco was to be found in rural areas.
Spain under Franco
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Spain was bitterly divided and economically ruined as a result of the civil war.
After the war began a very harsh repression, with thousands of summary executions (some historians say around 80.000), an unknown number of republicans jailed and thousands of people in exile, in France and Latin America, . The shooting of the President of the Catalan Governement Lluís Companys (1940) was one of the most notable case of this early repression.
In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe, and although Adolf Hitler met Franco in Hendaye, France (October 23, 1940), to discuss Spanish entry on the side of the Axis, Franco's demands (food, military equipment, Gibraltar, French North Africa, etc.) proved too much and no agreement was reached. Contributing to the disagreement was an ongoing dispute over German mining rights in Spain. Some historians argue that Franco made demands that he knew Hitler would not accede to in order to stay out of the war. Other historians argue that he simply had nothing to offer the Germans. After the collapse of France in June 1940, Spain adopted a pro-Axis non-belligerency stance (e.g. offering Spanish naval facilities to German ships) until returning to complete neutrality in 1943 when the tide of the war had turned decisively against Germany. Franco sent troops (División Azul, or "Blue Division") to fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. They were "volunteers"; some were crusaders against Communism, some were professionals who were given no choice, and some went just for the pay or to clear their names from former liaisons with the Republic.
With the end of World War II, Franco and Spain were forced to suffer the economic consequences of the isolation imposed on it by nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States. This situation ended in part when, due to Spain's strategic location in light of Cold War tensions, the United States entered into a trade and military alliance with Spain. This historic alliance commenced with U.S. President Eisenhower's visit in 1953. This launched the so-called "Spanish Miracle," which developed Spain from autarky into capitalism. Spain was admitted in the United Nations in 1955. In spite of this opening, Franco almost never left Spain once in power.
Lacking any strong ideology, Franco initially sought support from National syndicalism (nacionalsindicalismo) and the Roman Catholic Church (nacionalcatolicismo). His coalition ruling single party, the Movimiento Nacional, was so heterogeneous as to barely qualify as a party at all, and certainly not an ideological monolith like the Fascio di Combattimento (Fascist Party) or the ruling block of Antonio Salazar. His Spanish State was chiefly a conservative - even traditionalist - rightist regime, with emphasis on order and stability, rather than a definite political vision.
In 1947 Franco proclaimed Spain a monarchy, but did not designate a monarch. This gesture was largely done to appease monarchist factions within the Movimiento. Although a self-proclaimed monarchist himself, Franco had no particular desire for a king. As such, he left the throne vacant, with himself as de facto regent. He wore the uniform of a captain general (a rank traditionally reserved for the King), resided in the Pardo Palace, appropriated the kingly privilege of walking beneath a canopy, and his portrait appeared on most Spanish coins. Indeed, although his formal titles were Jefe del Estado (Chief of State) and Generalísimo de los Ejércitos Españoles (Highest General of the Spanish Armed Forces), he was referred to as por la gracia de Dios, Caudillo de España y de la Cruzada, or "by the grace of God, the Leader of Spain and of the Crusade" ("by the grace of God" is a technical, legal phrase which indicates sovereign dignity in absolute monarchies, and is only used by monarchs).
During his rule non-Government trade unions and all political opponents right across the spectrum, from communist and anarchist organizations to liberal democrats and catalan or basque nationalists, were suppressed. The only legal "trade union" was the Sindicato Vertical, which was government-run. The usage of Catalan, Galician and Basque languages was banned, and many cultural activities were heavily repressed. In every town there was a constant presence of Guardia Civil (Spain), a military police force, who patrolled in pairs with submachine guns, and functioned as his chief means of control. A Freemasonry conspiracy was a constant obsession for him. In popular imagination, he is often remembered as in the black and white images of No-Do newsreels, inaugurating a reservoir, hence his nickname Paco Ranas (Paco - a familiar form of Francisco - "the Frog"), or catching huge fish from the Azor yacht during his holidays.
Image:Tomb of francisco franco.jpg Famous quote: "Our regime is based on bayonets and blood, not on hypocritical elections."
In 1968, due to the United Nations' pressure on Spain, Franco granted Equatorial Guinea its independence.
In 1969 he designated Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón with the new title of Prince of Spain as his successor. This came as a surprise for the Carlist pretender to the throne, as well as for Juan Carlos's father, Don Juan, the Count of Barcelona, who technically had a superior right to the throne. By 1973 Franco had given up the function of Prime Minister (Presidente del Gobierno), remaining only as head of the country and as commander in chief of the military forces. As his final years progressed tension within the various factions of the Movimiento would consume Spanish political life, as varying groups jockeyed for position to control the country's future.
Franco died on November 20, 1975, at the age of 82 -- the same date as José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange. It is suspected that the doctors were ordered to keep him barely alive by artificial means until that symbolic date. The historian, Ricardo de la Cierva, says that on the 19th around 6 pm he was told that Franco had already died. Franco is buried at Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, a site built by forced prisoners of the Spanish Civil War as the tomb of el Ausente (the absent one). The Socialist Spanish government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero recently decided (2005) to convert the site to a homage to democracy.
Spain after Franco
Franco's successor as head of state was the current Spanish monarch, Juan Carlos. Though much beloved by Franco, the King held liberal political views which earned him suspicion among conservatives who expected him to continue Franco's policies. Instead, Juan Carlos would proceed to restore democracy in the nation, and help crush an attempted military coup early in his reign.
Since Franco's death, almost all the placenames named after him (most Spanish towns had a calle del Generalisimo) have been changed. This holds particularly true in the regions ruled by parties heir to the republican side, while in other regions of central Spain rulers have preferred not to change such placenames, arguing they would rather not stir the past. Most statues or monuments of him have also been removed, and the last one standing in the capital, Madrid, was removed in March 2005.
He was declared a saint by the obscure Palmarian Church.
Notes
See also
- History of Spain
- Spain under Franco
- Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead
- Ramón Serrano Súñer
- Luis Carrero Blanco
- Emilio Mola
- Spanish Legion
External links
- Fundación Nacional Francisco Franco (in Spanish with English-language start page). A fascist foundation led by Franco's family, holding lots of documentation.
- Biographical page in Spanish about "Francisco Franco"
- Biography at El Ferrol official site.
- Francisco Franco at the Internet Movie Database. He signed a script as "Jaime de Andrade".
- Franco Biography From Spartacus Educational.
- Hitler Stopped by Franco
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Categories: 1892 births | 1975 deaths | Roman Catholics | Heads of state in Spain | Francoist Spain | Spanish politicians | Spanish generals | Spanish Civil War people | World War II political leaders | State terrorism | Anti-communism | Galician people | Galicia (Spain) | History of Galicia | History of Europe | Cold War
