Dictator
of the Month: July 2004:
Dictator
of the Month: July 2004:
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Francisco Franco Bahamonde
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Gallery! Fact Sheet Name: Francisco Franco Bahamonde Score Card (click
here for the explanations) Charisma/ Popularity: 4.11
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Early
life Born in
Ferrol (officially known as El Ferrol del Caudillo from 1938 to 1982),
Spain, Franco's early life was marked by his father's drunkenness and
womanizing which contrasted with his devout mother's overprotective
devotion. His first ambition was to follow the family tradition and join
the navy, but cutbacks resulting from Spain's humiliating defeat in the
Spanish-American War of 1898 reduced the available positions and Franco
enlisted in the army instead. His brother Ramón Franco was a pioneer
aviator. After
graduating from the Infantry Academy in Toledo, he spent two years in a
quiet garrison in mainland Spain, but obtained a posting to Morocco at
the earliest opportunity. Spanish efforts to physically occupy their new
African protectorate provided the only chance of being engaged in combat
and thus earning promotion through merit. In practice this meant
surviving actions in which heavy losses were suffered, officers would
get either la caja o la faja (a coffin or a general's sash). Franco soon
gained a reputation as a meticulous and fearless officer and joined the
newly formed regulares colonial troops to improve his chances of swift
advancement. At the age
of 23, he was badly wounded in a skirmish at El Biutz and although
Spain's highest award for gallantry, the coveted Cruz Laureada de San
Fernando, eluded him, he became the youngest major in the Spanish army
and returned to the mainland where he met José Millán Astray, a
histrionic but charismatic officer who was soon to found the Legión
Extranjera, along similar lines to the French Foreign Legion. Franco
became the Legión's second-in-command. In the
summer of 1921, the overextended Spanish army suffered 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. Rise to
Power Promoted to
colonel, Franco led the first wave of troops ashore at Alhucemas. This
landing, in the heartland of Abd el-Krim's tribe, combined with the
French invasion from the south, spelt the beginning of the end for the
shortlived Republic of the Riff. Becoming the
youngest general in any European army in 1926, Franco was appointed
director of the newly created Joint Military Academy in Zaragoza, where
cadets were taught the brutal lessons of the irregular war in Morocco. With the
fall of the monarchy in 1931, Franco initially maintained an ambivalent
attitude to the new Republic, not wishing to compromise his career by
overt opposition. He even swallowed the bitter pill of the closure of
his beloved Military Academy and subsequent postings to La Coruña and
the Balearic Islands, the main purpose of which was to keep him at a
distance from other potentially disloyal elements. The
Republic's failure to satisfy much of the popular expectation it had
created and the fragmentation of the left-wing parties permitted a
strong right-wing government to gain power in 1933. When miners in
Asturias started a full scale rebellion a year later, it was Franco who
ensured that colonial troops were sent to crush the uprising. They
employed the same ruthless tactics that had been used against the
tribesmen in Morocco. Having thus 'saved' Spain again, Franco was given
the top job in the army — chief of the general staff. Having
learnt their lesson, the left-wing and republican parties presented a
common front in the tense elections of spring 1936 and won a narrow
victory. This time, Franco was posted to the Canary Islands. He, in fact,
had not been actively plotting to overthrow the Republic, but when the
coup came, he flew to Morocco to take command of the colonial army
(including the Legión and the Regulares) which had rebelled and rapidly
taken control of the Spanish Protectorate. The coup
failed in many of the large cities and the situation quickly degenerated
into the Spanish Civil War. During the war, in late September 1936, he
became Generalísimo of the Nationalist army, with rank of lieutenant
general and then on October 1, 1936, he was elected Jefe del Estado
(Head of State). He also managed to fuse the ideologically incompatible
Falange ("phalanx," a far-right Spanish political party with
close connections to Hitler and Mussolini) and the Carlist parties under
his rule. His army was supported by troops from Nazi Germany (Legion
Condor) and Fascist Italy (Corpo Truppe Volontari). Salazar's Portugal
also openly assisted the Nationalists from the start. The war officially
ended on April 1, 1939 shortly after the conquest of Madrid although
guerrilla resistance to Franco continued into the late 1940s. Franco
continued to rule as dictator of Spain until his death in 1975. Dictatorship Spain was
bitterly divided and economically ruined as a result of the civil war
and Franco's government actively promoted this division between
"victors" and "vanquished" while its incompetence
did little to improve the economic situation. In September 1939, World
War II broke out in Europe, and although Adolf Hitler met Franco in
Hendaye, France (23 October 1940), to discuss Spanish entry on the side
of the Axis, Franco's demands (Gibraltar, French North Africa, etc.)
proved too much and no agreement was reached. Also contributing to the
disagreement was an ongoing disagreement 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. However,
others argue that he simply had nothing to offer the victorious Germans.
Spain adopted a pro-Axis non-belligerency 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
and some went just for the pay or to clear former liaisons with the
Republic. Franco also offered facilities to German ships. 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. In 1947
Franco proclaimed Spain a monarchy, but ironically did not designate a
monarch. 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. Lacking any
strong ideology, Franco initially sought support from National
Syndicalism (nacionalsindicalismo) and the 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)
and the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi Party). His
Spanish State was chiefly a conservative - even traditionalist -
rightist regime, with emphasis on order and stability, rather than a
definite political vision. Although a
monarchist, Franco had no particular desire for a king. As such, he left
the throne vacant, with himself as de facto un-crowned king. He wore the
uniform of a captain general (a rank traditionally reserved for the
King), resided in the Pardo Palace, and appropriated the kingly
privilege of walking beneath a canopy. 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), his personal
title was por la gracia de Dios, Caudillo de España y de la Cruzada, or
"by the grace of God, Caudillo of Spain and of the Crusade"
("by the grace of God" is a technical, legal phrase which
indicates sovereign dignity, 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 nationalists, especially Basque and Catalan
nationalists), were suppressed. In every town there was a constant
presence of Guardia Civil, a militiary 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 enormous fishes from the Azor yacht during his holidays. Famous
quote: "Our regime is based on bayonets and blood, not on
hypocritical elections." He died on
November 20, 1975, on 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.
Franco is buried at Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, a site he had
built as the tomb of el Ausente. His successor was the current Spanish
Monarch, Juan Carlos. Since his
death, almost all the placenames named after him (most Spanish towns had
a calle del Generalísimo) have been changed. This article is from www.wikipedia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco And is subject to the GNU-FDL license for free documentation List of authors at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Francisco_Franco&action=history
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