Francisco Franco
 |
Francisco "El Caudillo" Franco. |
Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (
December 4 1892 –
November 20 (or possibly
November 19[Franco died on November 20, 1975, at the age of 82—the same date as José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange. It is suspected that the doctors were ordered to keep him barely alive by artificial means until that symbolic date. The historian, Ricardo de la Cierva, says that on the 19th around 6 p.m. he was told that Franco had already died. 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 for unknown soldiers killed during war.] 1975), abbreviated
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde and commonly known as
Generalísimo Francisco Franco (
pron. IPA : ), was the
Dictator of
Spain in parts of the country from
1936 and in its entirety from
1939 until his death in
1975. He presided over the government of the
Spanish State following victory in the
Spanish Civil War. From
1947, he was de facto
regent of Spain. During his rule he was known officially as "El Caudillo de la Última Cruzada y de la Hispanidad, El Caudillo de la Guerra de Liberación contra el Comunismo y sus Cómplices" (El Caudillo means "The Chieftain" or "The Leader" in Spanish, so his titles translate roughly as "The Leader of the Final Crusade and of the Hispanic World, The Leader of the War of Liberation Against Communism and Its Collaborators.")
He was officially known as
His Excellency the Head of State, but in state and official documents he was also referred as
the Leader of Spain (Caudillo de España) and
the Supreme General (el Generalísimo)
Franco was born in
Ferrol,
Galicia,
Spain (between
1938 and
1982 his hometown would be known officially as
El Ferrol del Caudillo). His father, Nicolás Franco Salgado-Araujo, was a
Navy paymaster and a violent
alcoholic who mistreated his family. His mother, Pilar Bahamonde Pardo de Andrade, also came from a family with naval tradition. His siblings included Nicolás, navy officer and diplomat, Pilar, a well-known socialite, and
Ramón, a pioneering aviator who was hated by many of Francisco Franco's supporters.
Francisco was to follow his father into the navy, but entry into the Naval Academy was closed from
1906 to
1913. To his father's chagrin, he decided to join the army. In
1907, he entered the Infantry Academy in
Toledo, where he graduated in
1910. He was commissioned as a
second lieutenant. 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 native Moroccans. Tactics at the time resulted in heavy losses among Spanish
military officers, but also gave 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 officers, who acted as
shock troops.
In
1916, at the age of 23 and already a
captain, he was badly wounded in a
skirmish at
El Biutz. 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 honour 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
Rif 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.
[Carmen Franco y Polo, 1st Duquesa de Franco on thePeerage.com. Accessed 8 August 2006.] As a special mark of honour, his
best man (padrino) at the wedding was King
Alfonso XIII, a 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
Joint Military Academy in
Zaragoza, a common college for all Army
cadets.
At the fall of the monarchy in 1931, in keeping with his prior apolitical record, he did not take any remarkable attitude. But the closing of the Academy in June by then War Minister
Manuel Azaña provoked the first clash with the Republic. Azaña found Franco's farewell speech to the cadets
insulting, resulting in Franco being without a post for six months, and under surveillance.
On
February 51932 he was given a command in
La 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 (
February 17), he was given the military command of the
Balearic Islands—a post above his rank.
The Asturias Uprising
New elections were held in October 1933 which resulted in a centre-right majority. In opposition to this government, a
revolutionary movement broke out
October 5,
1934. This attempt was 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 López Ochoa as commander in the field. After two weeks of heavy fighting (and a death toll estimated between 1,200 and 2,000), the rebellion was suppressed.
The uprising and, in general, the events that led over the next two years to the civil war, are still under heavy debate (between, for example,
Enrique Moradiellos and
Pio Moa[
1]). Nonetheless, 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 these events, Franco was briefly commander-in-chief of the Army of Africa (from
February 151935 onwards), and from
May 191935 on,
Chief of the General Staff, the top military post in Spain.
The drift to war
After the ruling coalition collapsed amid the
Straperlo corruption scandal, new elections were scheduled. Two wide coalitions formed: the
Popular Front on the left, with Republicans to the Communists, and the
Frente Nacional on the right, with the centre
radicals to the conservative
Carlists. On
February 16 1936, the left won by a narrow margin.
The days after were marked by near-chaotic circumstances. Franco lobbied unsuccessfully to have a state of emergency declared, with the stated purpose of quelling the disturbances and allowing an orderly vote recount. Instead, on February 23, Franco was sent away to be military commander of the
Canary Islands, a distant place with few troops under his command.
Meanwhile, a conspiracy led by
Emilio Mola was taking shape. Franco was contacted, but maintained an ambiguous attitude almost up until July. On
June 23 1936, he even wrote to the head of the government,
Casares Quiroga, offering to quell the discontent in the army, but was not answered. The other rebels were determined to go ahead, whether
con Paquito o sin Paquito (with Franco or without him). After various postponements,
July 18 was fixed as the date of the uprising. The situation reached a point of no return and, as presented to Franco by Mola, the coup was unavoidable and he had to choose a side. He decided to join the rebels and was given the task of commanding the
African Army. A privately owned DH 89
De Havilland Dragon Rapide, (still referred to in Spain as
the Dragon Rapide), was chartered in
England July 11 to take him to
Africa.
The assassination of the right-wing opposition leader
José Calvo Sotelo by government police troops (quite possibly acting on their own, as in the case of
José Castillo) precipitated the uprising. On
July 17, one day earlier than planned, the
African Army rebelled, detaining their commanders. On
July 18 Franco published a manifesto
and left for Africa, where he arrived the next day to take command.
A week later, the rebels, who soon called themselves the
Nacionales (literally Nationals, but almost always referred to in English as Nationalists) controlled only a third of Spain, and most
navy units remained under control of the opposition Republican forces, which left Franco isolated. The coup had failed, but the
Spanish Civil War had begun.
The first months
The first days of the rebellion were marked with a serious need to secure control over the
Protectorate. On one side, Franco managed to win the support of the natives and their (nominal) authorities, and on the other to ensure his control over the army. This led to the execution of some senior officers loyal to the republic (one of them his own first cousin).
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
July 20 onward he was able, with a small group of airplanes, to initiate an air bridge to
Seville, where his troops helped to ensure the rebel control of the city. Through representatives, he started to negotiate with the
United Kingdom,
Germany and
Italy for military support, and above all for more aeroplanes. Negotiations were successful with the last two on
July 25, and aeroplanes began to arrive in
Tetouan on
August 2. On
August 5, Franco was able to break the blockade with the newly arrived air support, successfully deploying a ship convoy with some 2,000 soldiers.
In early August, the situation in western
Andalusia was stable enough to allow him to organize a column (some 15,000 men at its height), under the command of then Lieutenant-Colonel
Juan Yagüe, which would march through
Extremadura towards
Madrid.
August 11,
Mérida was taken, and
August 15 Badajoz, thus joining both nationalist-controlled areas.
On
September 21, with the head of the column at the town of
Maqueda (some 80 km away from Madrid), Franco ordered a detour to free the besieged garrison at the
Alcázar of
Toledo, which was achieved
September 27. This decision was controversial even then, but resulted in an important propaganda success, both for the fascist 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 through 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, it was decided that Franco was to be commander-in-chief, and
September 28, after some discussion, also head of government. On
October 1,
1936 he was publicly proclaimed as
Generalísimo of the Fascist army and
Jefe del Estado (
Head of State).
Military command
From that time until the end of the war, Franco personally guided military operations. After the
failed assault on Madrid in November
1936, Franco settled to a piecemeal approach to winning the war, rather than bold manouevering. As with his decision to relieve the garrison at Toledo, this approach has been subject of some debate; some of his decisions, such as in June
1938 when he preferred to head for
Valencia instead of
Catalonia, remain particularly controversial.
Unable to receive support from any other nation, his army was supported by
Nazi Germany in the form of the
Condor Legion, ironically Franco only asked for weapons and tanks and never for the air services of the
Condor Legion. Principle assistance was received from
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. Likewise, Franco's direction of the Nazi and Fascist forces was limited, particularly in the direction of the
Condor Legion.
António de Oliveira Salazar's
Portugal also openly assisted the Nationalists from the start.
Political command
He managed to fuse the
ideologically incompatible national-syndicalist
Falange ("
phalanx", a
far-right Spanish
political party) and the
Carlist monarchist parties under his rule. This new political formation appeased the more extreme and germanophile Falangists while tempering them with the anti-german, pro-spain Carlists. The Falangists movement slowly moved away from its Fascist ideology after negotiations when negotiations with Hitler revealed that Germany wanted Spain as a pawn and did not care about Spain or the Falange.
From early
1937 every death sentence had to be signed (or acknowledged) by Franco. However, this does not mean that he had intimate or complete knowledge of every official execution.
It is interesting to note, while it seems that Franco was allowing Germany free reign in Spain, Franco was continually working to prevent the advance of German forces into Spain. During World War II, Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris had regular meetings with France and informed Franco of Germany's attitude and plans for Spain. This information prompted Franco to surreptitiously repostion his best and most experienced troops to camps near the Pyrenees and to reshape the terrain to be unfriendly to tanks and other military vehicles.
In the face of German pressure, Spain was also responsible for the safe passage of 45,000-60,000+ Jews. This was accomplished by allowing any Jews who made it to the Spanish border entrance into Spain. Furthermore, any Jew who made it to a Spanish Embassy was granted Spanish citizenship on the basis of being a
Sephardic Jew, even if there was no evidences of Sephardism. When Franco was warned that Hitler would not be pleased with this policy and that he would have to face Hitler about this Franco responded that he would rather face Hitler for aiding the Jews than to face God for not aiding them.
The end of the war
On
March 4 1939 an uprising broke out within the Republican camp, claiming to forestall an intended Communist coup by prime minister Juan Negrín. Led by Colonel
Segismundo Casado and
Julián Besteiro, the rebels gained control over
Madrid. They tried to negotiate a settlement with Franco, who refused anything but
unconditional surrender. They gave way; Madrid was occupied on
March 27, and the republic fell. The war officially ended on
April 1,
1939.
However, during the 1940s and 1950s,
guerrilla resistance to Franco (known as "the
maquis") was widespread in many mountainous regions. In
1944, a group of republican veterans that also fought in the
French resistance against the
Nazis invaded the
Val d'Aran in northwest
Catalonia, but they were easily defeated.
Spain was bitterly divided and economically ruined as a result of the civil war. After the war a very harsh repression began, with thousands of summary executions, an unknown number of political prisoners and tens of thousands of people in exile, largely in France and Latin America. The 1940 shooting of the president of the
Catalan government,
Lluís Companys, was one of the most notable cases of this early repression, while the major groups targeted were real and suspected
leftists, ranging from the moderate, democratic left to
Communists and
Anarchists, the Spanish
intelligentsia,
atheists and military and government figures that had remained loyal to the Madrid government during the war. The bloodshed in Spain did not end with the cessation of hostilities, many political prisoners suffered execution by the firing squad, under the accusation of treason by martial courts.
World War II
|
Franco and Hitler meeting in Hendaye in 1940.
Despite the smiles, negotiations between Franco and Hitler were not friendly, with Franco not giving in to Hitler's demands. |
In September 1939,
World War II broke out in Europe, and although
Adolf Hitler met Franco once in
Hendaye, France (
October 23,
1940), to discuss Spanish entry on the side of the
Axis, 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, as leader of a destroyed country in chaos, simply had nothing to offer the Germans and their military. After the collapse of France in June 1940, Spain adopted a pro-Axis non-belligerency stance (for example, he offered Spanish naval facilities to German ships) until returning to complete neutrality in 1943 when the tide of the war had turned decisively against
Germany and its allies. Some volunteer Spanish troops (the
División Azul, or "Blue Division")—not given official state sanction by Franco—went to fight on the
Eastern Front under German command. On
June 14, 1940, the Spanish forces in Morocco occupied
Tangiers (a city under the rule of the
League of Nations) and did not leave it until
1942.
During the war Franco's Spain also proved to be an escape route for several thousands of, mainly
Western European Jews fleeing deportation to concentration camps from occupied France.Spanish diplomats extended their protection to
Sephardi Jews from Eastern Europe too, especially in
Hungary. As such, Franco's Spain proved to be a safe haven for Jews and a country effectively undertaking more to help Jews escape deportation to the concentration camps than many neutral (Switzerland, Turkey) and Allied countries did.
Post-War
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
United States President Eisenhower's visit in
1953 which resulted in the
Pact of Madrid. This launched the so-called "
Spanish Miracle," which developed Spain from
corporatist autarky into semi-
capitalism, during the
1960s Francist Spain's population would experience an enormous increase in personal wealth. Spain was admitted to the
United Nations in
1955. In spite of this, 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 was certainly not an ideological monolith like the Fascio di Combattimento (
Fascist Party of Italy) or the
ruling block of
Antonio Salazar in
Portugal. 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, and as such, he left the throne vacant, with himself as
de facto regent. He wore the uniform of a
Captain General (a rank traditionally reserved for the King) and resided in the
El Pardo Palace (not to be confused with the
El Prado). In addition he 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 (
Generalísimo of the Spanish Armed Forces), he had originally intended any government that succeeded him to be much more authoritarian than the previous monarchy. This is indicated in his use of "
by the grace of God" in his official title. It 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 across the
political spectrum, from
communist and
anarchist organizations to
liberal democrats and
Catalan or
Basque nationalists, were suppressed. The only legal "trade union" was the government-run
Sindicato Vertical.
In order to build a uniform Spanish nation, the public usage of languages other than
Spanish (especially
Catalan,
Galician and
Basque languages) was strongly repressed.
Language politics in Francoist Spain stated that all government, notarial, legal and commercial documents were drawn up exclusively in Spanish and any written in other languages were deemed null and void. The usage of other than Spanish languages was banned on road and shop signs, advertising and in general all exterior images of the country.
All cultural activities were subject to
censorship, and many were plainly forbidden on various, many times spurious, grounds (political or moral). This cultural policy relaxed with time, most notably after 1960.
The enforcement by public authorities of strict
Catholic social
mores was a stated intent of the regime, mainly by using a law (the
Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, Vagrancy Act) enacted by
Azaña [
2].The remaining nomads of Spain (
Gitanos and
Mercheros like
El Lute) were especially affected.
In
1954,
homosexuality,
pedofilia, and
prostitution were, through this law, made criminal offenses.[
3]. Its application was inconsistent.
In every town there was a constant presence of
Guardia Civil, a military police force, who patrolled in pairs with
submachine guns, and functioned as his chief means of control. He was constantly woried about a possible
Masonic conspiracy against his regime. This has even been described by some non-Spanish authors to have gradually turned into an
"obsession". 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—"Frogs"), or catching huge fish from the
Azor yacht during his holidays.
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, a Spanish
colony, 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'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 hoped he would continue Franco's policies. Instead, Juan Carlos would proceed to restore democracy in the nation, and help crush an
attempted military coup in 1981.
Since Franco's death, almost all the placenames
named after him (most Spanish towns had a
calle del Generalísimo) 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, in the capital, Madrid, the last one standing was removed in March 2005.
Francisco Franco was
declared a saint by
Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (self-declared "Pope Gregory XVII") of the
Palmarian Catholic Church, a right-wing Catholic mysticalist
sect and apparition site largely based in Spain. Franco's canonization is not recognized by the
Roman Catholic Church and the
Vatican.
At the time of Franco's death, on the then-new American television show
Saturday Night Live as part of its
satiric newscast Weekend Update,
Chevy Chase announced, "Despite Franco's death and an expected burial tomorrow, doctors say the dictator's health has taken a turn for the worse."
The segment also included a statement by
Richard Nixon that "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States", accompanied by a photo of Franco and
Adolf Hitler standing together and giving the Fascist/Nazi salute, similar to this one [
4]. Over the next several weeks it became a running joke for Chase to announce as part of the newscast "This just in:
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead"!
Franco in the movies
*
Raza (
1941): based on a script by "Jaime de Andrade" (Franco himself), it's the semi-autobiographical story of a military officer played by
Alfredo Mayo.
*
Caudillo (
1973):
Documentary film about Francisco Franco before and during the
Spanish Civil War.
*
Franco, ese hombre (
1964):
Documentary film about Francisco Franco, directed by
José Luis Sáenz de Heredia.
*
Dragón Rapide (
1986):
played by
Juan Diego*
Espérame en el cielo (
1988):
played by
José Soriano*
Madregilda (
1993):
played by
Juan Echanove*
Operación gónada (
2000):
played by
Javier Deltell*
¡Buen Viaje, Excelencia! (
2003):
played by
Ramon Fontserè*
Cinema mil (
2005, TV):
played by
Juan EchanoveAbout the
romantic comedy You've Got Mail (
1998) it is said that the character Birdie Conrad (
Jean Stapleton) was a former lover of Franco in the 1940s.
Calimero el Tirano, the dictator seen in the
comedy Mortadelo & Filemon: The Big Adventure (
2003), is a
parody of Francisco Franco, played by
Paco Sagárzazu.
Franco in television
In addition to the famous
Saturday Night Live Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead bit, Franco is also referenced in the "Basil the Rat" episode of
Fawlty Towers, when
Basil Fawlty sees
Manuel's pet
rat, he says to
Manuel (who thinks it is a
hamster),
"You *do* have rats in Spain, or did Franco have 'em all shot??". He is also referenced by his
Generalísimo name in the same series, by a delivery driver in the episode
The Builders (the driver is trying to find
Basil):
*Driver: Do you know where the boss is?
*
Manuel: He is-a...uh...I boss!
*Driver: Where's the real boss?
*
Manuel: Qué?
*Driver: Uh, the
Generalísimo.
*
Manuel: (in surprise) In
Madrid!
When the show was aired in
1975, Franco was dying, and by series 2,
Juan Carlos I of Spain was Head of State in
Spain*
History of Spain*
Spain under Franco*
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead*
Ramón Serrano Súñer*
Luis Carrero Blanco*
Emilio Mola*
Spanish Legion*
Language politics in Francoist SpainWikisource has original text related to this article:
*
Biographical page in Spanish about "Francisco Franco"*
Biography at El Ferrol official site.
*
Fundación Nacional Francisco Franco (in Spanish with
English-language start page). A memorial foundation led by Franco's family, holding lots of documentation.
* . He wrote the script for
Raza under the name "Jaime de Andrade".
*
Franco Biography From Spartacus Educational.
*
Hitler Stopped by Franco - Franco's indirect help to the Allies and Jews.
*
1939-1952: Armed resistance to Franco - a history of the guerrilla resistance movement to his regime
