Totalitarian Regimes:

Towards God through Empire (Franco’s Spain)

Juan Manuel Acero3rd. Form English

CeRP del Sur – October 2011

After a steady, three-century long decline, Spain hit rock bottom in the 19th Century…

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), The Family of Charles IV

… a time full of trouble, both domestic and foreign…

Internally: Externally:

Napoleon’s Invasion (1808)

Three Dinastic Civil Wars (Carlist Wars)

Change of Regime (First Republic , 1873-1874) and subsequent restoration

Loss of American Colonies (1810-1820)

Loss of Predominance in European and World Affairs

Spanish-American War of 1898

… resulting in a country divided in two major factions…… those who

wanted to open Spain out to the World…

… and those who wanted to keep it closed into itself.

Francisco Franco was only six years old when …

… Spain was soundly defeated by the USA both at the Caribbean and the Pacific.

1898: a Winter of Discontent

The dawn of the 20th Century will show that Spain’s downfall is not to stop soon…

1921’s Disaster of Annual: over 10000 Spanish soldiers killed in Morocco.

1912: current Head of Government José Canalejas killed by an alleged anarchist.

1929’s World Crisis hits Spain even harder.

… and radical ways are proposed to avoid decay.

1923: King Alfonso XIII appoints Miguel Primo de Rivera as dictator.

1933: creation of Falange Española, the first openly Fascist party in Spain.

The platform of Falange Española Spain must remain one. Separatism is “a crime we will not

forgive”. The 1931 Constitution, as it condones separatism, must disappear.

Spain is entitled to an Empire of its own, with preponderance over Latin America and a privileged place in European affairs.

The State will be a “totalitarian instrument at the service of national integrity”. Political parties, Parliament and elections are to be abolished.

A “rigorous discipline” will fall upon those who try to “poison, create divisions among Spaniards or move them away against the Destiny of their Motherland”

José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Falange Española

Meanwhile…. Francisco Franco pursues a succesful military carreer, and seems to stay away from political turmoil.

1931 - 1933: ruled by a coalition of Center-Left to Left parties, the new Republic passes a Constitution, new laws of Public Education, Agrarian Reformation, Vote for women.

1932: General Sanjurjo and other high-rank officers attempt a coup d’état known as “Sanjurjada”.

1933 -1936: CEDA (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights): the Black / Sterile Biennial.

1934: Anarchist and Communist Unions unleash the failed “Red October” revolution in Asturias (North-Western Spain). Catalonia declares itself “sovereign state within the Republic”

1931: Proclamation of theSecond Republic

In five years, from 1931 to 1936, Spain slides down towards Civil War

On July 18th 1936, tensions between radical left and extreme right lead up to rebellion from Conservative Army officers.

Franco seems to be disconnected from the heads of the rising, but…

... by June 1937 the two top insurrectionist officers have died, both at plane crashes.

The “Movement” leads to a war that will last for three hard, bloody years.

July 1936

November 1936November

1938October 1937

February 1939

Both sides have external help

Both sides have external help

After the War, Franco leadership will be uncontested for the following 40 years...

April 1st 1939: War is over, says Franco

The main traits of Francoism

• Rejection of Parliamentarism, Division of Powers, Civil Liberties.

• Anti-Communism, Anti-Semitism

• Catholic Nationalism, Centralism, Traditionalism, Militarism

• Single-Party system, Vertical Syndicalism

• Repression: 50000 dead during war, 200000 in 1939-1943

• Press and people under strict control.

• Personality cult: Franco “Leader of Spain by the Grace of God”

Hitler made his move to try to get Franco’s Spain into the war.

World War II broke up five months after the Spanish Civil War had ended.

… Franco did not enter the war, but his support of the Axis …

… increased Spain’s isolation from the Western World.

In 1941, Spain sent the “Blue Squadron” and “Blue Division”, volunteer pilots and soldiers who fought against Stalin in the Russian Front.

The post-war scenario did not have much to offer to Franco’s Spain:

1946: the newlyborn UN puts Spain in quarantine. Huge crowds support Franco at Madrid’s Plaza de Oriente.

1940’s: post-Civil War hardships, added to the international situation, bring famine, shortages and rationing.

1946-52: the years of autarchy bring a slight economic recovery, based in the re-building of Spanish infrastructure.

1953: Pacts of Madrid pave Spain’s way back to the international community. Economic restrictions slowly give in.

As the alliance with the USA grows stronger, political changes follow:

Throughout the 1960’s a new, generation of younger, college-educated technicians and politicians will inject fresh blood into Francoism….

Farewell “Old Shirts” Hello “Technocrats”

… and a booming economy will give rise to the so-called “Spanish Miracle”.

But, in spite of the “miracle”, social and political unrest set in…

The aged Generalisimo seeks for continuity of his political regime...

1969 1973

1973: Carrero Blanco killed by ETA bombing

Franco’s Funeral was attended by huge crowds in all major Spanish towns

Post Franco Facts 1975: Juan Carlos de Borbon crowned as King

of Spain, Monarchy is thus restored after 46 years.

1977: Legalization of the Spanish Communist

Party.

1978: A new Constitution, introducing

Parliamentary Democracy, is sworn by the King.

1982: The Socialist Workers Party of Spain

wins General Elections. Felipe Gonzalez is the new Prime Minister.

Franco’s Legacy

No convictions nor charges nor enquiries have ever been made for the crimes commited either during or after the Civil War.

Francoist monuments and street names still exist in many parts of Spain.

Former Franco minister Fraga Iribarne founded the Popular Party (PP), which has several strongholds in some Spanish regions, and is about to win the 2012 General Election.