Francisco Franco, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Francisco Franco

Spanish general and dictator

Date of Birth: 04-Dec-1892

Place of Birth: Ferrol, Galicia, Spain

Date of Death: 20-Nov-1975

Profession: military personnel, politician, dictator, military officer

Nationality: Spain

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


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About Francisco Franco

  • Francisco Franco Bahamonde (, Spanish: [f?an'?isko 'f?a?ko]; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and politician who ruled over Spain as dictator from 1939 to 1975.
  • During his rule Franco assumed the title Caudillo.
  • This period in Spanish history, from the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War to Franco's death, is commonly known as Francoist Spain or the Francoist dictatorship. Franco was born in Ferrol, Spain, as the son of upper-class parents with strong connections to the Spanish Navy.
  • Franco, however, joined the Spanish Army as a cadet in the Toledo Infantry Academy in 1907, graduating in 1910.
  • He would go on to have a successful military career in Morocco and rapidly advanced through the ranks for bravery in combat.
  • He served in the Rif War and was in 1926 promoted to General at age 33, the youngest General in all Europe.
  • As a conservative and a monarchist, Franco opposed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the democratic secular republic in 1931.
  • He nevertheless continued his position in the Republican Army and in 1934 led the brutal suppression of the miners' revolutionary strike in Asturias, which sharpened the antagonism between Left and Right in the country.
  • When the leftist Popular Front won the 1936 elections, Franco joined other Generals who launched a coup the same year, intending to overthrow the republic.
  • The coup failed to take control of most of the country and precipitated the Spanish Civil War.
  • After the war had started, Franco took control of the Army of Africa, which were air-lifted to Spain.
  • With the death of the other leading generals, Franco became his faction's only leader and was appointed Generalissimo and Head of State in the autumn of 1936.
  • In 1937, Franco merged all parties on the Nationalist side into a single legal party, the FET y de las JONS.
  • In 1939 Franco won the war, which had claimed almost half a million lives.
  • The victory extended his dictatorship to the whole country and was followed by a period of repression of political opponents and dissenters, with the result that between 30,000 and 50,000 died through the use of forced labor and executions in concentration camps.
  • Combined with the Nationalist executions during the war, the death toll of the White Terror lies between 100,000 and 200,000.Franco continued to rule Spain alone, with more power than any Spanish leader before or since, ruling almost exclusively by decree.
  • He nurtured a cult of personality and the Movimiento Nacional became the only channel of participation in Spanish public life.
  • During World War II, he espoused neutrality as Spain's official wartime policy, but supported the Axis — whose members Italy and Germany had supported him during the Civil War — in various ways.
  • After the war, Spain became isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade.
  • By the 1950s, the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to an authoritarian system with limited pluralism.
  • During the Cold War Franco became one of the world's foremost anti-Communist figures: his regime was assisted by the West — particularly the United States .
  • After chronic economic depression in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Franco presided over the "Spanish miracle", abandoning autarky and pursuing economic liberalization, delegating authority to the technocrats of the Opus Dei, leading to tremendous economic growth.The Francoist dictatorship continued to soften over time and Luis Carrero Blanco became Franco's éminence grise, controlling the day-to-day operations of the government: this increased when Franco began showing symptoms of Parkinson's disease in the 1960s.
  • The introduction of the Organic Law in 1966 limited and clearly defined Franco's powers and officially created the office of Prime Minister.
  • In 1973, beset with old age and sickness and wishing to partially relinquish the burden of governing Spain, Franco resigned as Prime Minister, and was succeeded by Carrero Blanco.
  • However, Franco remained as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief.
  • Franco died in 1975 at the age of 82 and was buried in the Valle de los Caídos.
  • Through the power to appoint a king, granted to him by the 1947 Law of Succession to the Headship of the State, he restored the monarchy before his death, appointing Juan Carlos as his successor and king of Spain.
  • Juan Carlos led the Spanish transition to democracy.
  • Franco remains a controversial figure in Spanish history and the nature of his dictatorship changed over time.
  • His reign was marked by both brutal repression, with thousands killed, and economic prosperity, which greatly improved the quality of life in Spain.
  • His dictatorial style proved very adaptable, which could introduce social and economic reform, and the only consistent points in Franco's long rule were above all authoritarianism, Spanish nationalism, National Catholicism, anti-Freemasonry, and anti-communism.

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