Francisco Franco Francisco Franco y Bahamonde ( ; 4 December 189220 November 1975 ) was a Spanish military leader who ruled as the dictator of Spain from 1939 until his death . He came to power during the Spanish Civil War while serving as the Generalísimo of the Nationalist faction . Franco came from a military background . He became a highly decorated soldier and won rapid promotions in the army . He rose to prominence during the 1920s as a commander in the Spanish Legion and became the youngest general in Europe . He was then appointed in charge of Academia General Militar , Spain ' s main military academy at Zaragoza . However , with the fall of the Spanish monarchy and the establishment of the Second Republic in 1931 , Franco , as a conservative and monarchist officer , was marginalized from power by the Republican government . Franco managed to return to prominence with the electoral victory of the conservatives in 1933 . He was appointed Chief of Staff of the military and suppressed the anarchist uprising of 1934 . In 1936 , Franco and a group of Spanish military leaders conspired to overthrow the Popular Front – led Republican government . The rebellion was only half successful and evolved into a civil war , during which Franco emerged as the leader of the Nationalists . He was able to secure the support of Italy and Germany while integrating the many heterogeneous rebel factions into the Movimiento Nacional . After winning the civil war , Franco had the Spanish Parliament dissolved . He then established a dictatorship and was " de facto " regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain . His official posts were that of Head of State and Head of Government as the Caudillo ( " The Leader " ) and Prime Minister respectively . Franco went on to rule Spain for nearly forty years . He was able to hold on to power by playing off the diverse political factions of the state against one another and through his control over the armed forces while firmly repressing enemies . This included the systematic suppression of dissident views through censorship and coercion , the imprisonment of ideological enemies in concentration camps , the implementation of forced labour in prisons , and the use of the death penalty and heavy prison sentences as deterrents for the opponents of the regime . Pragmatism for the purpose of maintaining stability characterised Franco ’ s economic and foreign policies . Despite his pro - Axis leanings during World War II , Franco orchestrated a rapprochement with the Western democracies , concluding economic and defense agreements with the United States during the Cold War against Communism . Franco initially pursued autarkic development strategies . Amidst economic difficulties in the late 1950s , a cabinet resuffle brought into the government the Opus Dei technocrats who , despite Franco ' s distrust of liberalism , convinced the general to steer Spain towards a market economy . The reforms produced the Spanish Miracle , a long run of record growth that has been described as " the time of the greatest sustained economic development and general improvement in living standards in all of Spanish history . " Socially , Franco was a conservative and championed the cause of Catholicism . The consistent points of his policies , termed as Francoism , had at its core authoritarianism , nationalism , integralism , conservatism , and a frontal rejection of anticlericalism and leftist politics . Others have described him as a reactionary , who led the counter - revolutionary movement in Spain . Franco ' s health declined during the 1960s . In 1969 , he designated Prince Juan Carlos , grandson of Spain ' s former king , Alfonso XIII , as his official successor . In 1973 , Franco relinquished his position as premier to Luis Carrero Blanco but continued to be head of state . He finally died at the age of 82 in 1975 . After Franco ' s death , Juan Carlos became king and Spain began its transition to democracy . The transitional government forged the Pact of Forgetting ; a political agreement between the right and the left to avoid having to deal with the legacy of Francoism in favour of national reconciliation . In 2007 , the status quo was challenged by the socialist government , which sought to condemn the Francoist regime through the Historical Memory Law . The conservative opposition voted against the passage of the law . However , the government was able to pass the bill ; among other measures , the law rejected the legitimacy of the Francoist regime and prohibited the use of Francoist symbols . After the conservatives came to power in 2011 , the government closed the offices pertaining to the law , and also withdrew funding . Franco has been criticized in the rest of Europe , where the European Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution in 2006 that " firmly " condemned the " multiple and serious violations " of human rights committed under the Francoist regime . His mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen is subject to much controversy in Spain ; there have been various attempts to remove and relocate his remains . Early life . Francisco Franco was born at 12 : 30 p . m . on 4 December 1892 at number 108 Calle Frutos Saavedra in Ferrol , Spain . He was baptised on 17 December at the military church of San Francisco with the baptismal names Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo : Francisco for his paternal grandfather , Paulino for his godfather , Hermenegildo for his maternal grandmother and godmother and Teódulo for the saint day of his birth . His father ' s ancestry was from Andalucia . Since relocating to Galicia , his father ' s family was strongly involved in the Spanish Navy and over two centuries produced naval officers for six generations uninterrupted , right down to Franco ' s father Nicolás Franco y Salgado - A ( 22 November 1855 – 22 February 1942 ) . His mother was María del Pilar Bahamonde y Pardo de Andrade ( 1865 – 28 February 1934 ) , and his parents married in 1890 . The young Franco spent much of his childhood with his two brothers , Nicolás ( Ferrol , 1891 – 1977 ) , a naval officer and diplomat who in time was married to María Isabel Pascual del Pobil y Ravello , and Ramón , and his two sisters , María del Pilar ( Ferrol , 1894 – Madrid , 1989 ) , later wife of Alonso Jaráiz y Jeréz , and María de la Paz ( Ferrol , 1899 – Ferrol , 1903 ) . Military career . Rif War and rise through the ranks . Francisco was to follow his father into the Navy , but as a result of the Spanish - American War the country lost much of its navy as well as most of its colonies . Not needing any more officers , entry to the Naval Academy was closed from 1906 to 1913 . To his father ' s chagrin , Francisco decided to try the Spanish Army . In 1907 , he entered the Infantry Academy in Toledo , graduating in 1910 as a lieutenant . Two years later , he obtained a commission to Morocco . Spanish efforts to occupy their new African protectorate provoked the protracted Rif War ( from 1909 to 1927 ) with native Moroccans . Their tactics resulted in heavy losses among Spanish military officers , but they also provided an opportunity to earn promotion through merit . It was said that officers would receive either " la caja o la faja " ( a box or a general ' s sash ) . Franco quickly gained a reputation as a good officer . He served in the newly formed regulares : Moroccan colonial troops with Spanish officers , who acted as shock troops In 1916 , age 23 and already a captain , he was badly wounded in a skirmish at " El Biutz " and possibly lost a testicle . His survival marked him permanently in the eyes of the native troops as a man of " baraka " ( good luck ) . He was recommended for Spain ' s highest honor for gallantry , the coveted " Cruz Laureada de San Fernando " , but was instead promoted to major in the Spanish Army . From 1917 to 1920 , he served in Spain . In 1920 , Lieutenant Colonel José Millán Astray , a histrionic but charismatic officer , founded the Spanish Foreign Legion , on similar lines to the French Foreign Legion . Franco became the Legion ' s second - in - command and returned to Africa . On 24 July 1921 , the poorly commanded and overextended Spanish Army suffered a crushing defeat at Annual from Rif tribesmen led by the Abd el - Krim brothers . The Legion and supporting units relieved the Spanish enclave of Melilla after a three - day forced march led by Franco . In 1923 , by now a lieutenant colonel , he was made commander of the Legion . That year , he married María del Carmen Polo y Martínez - Valdès . Three years later the couple had a daughter , María del Carmen . Following his honeymoon Franco was summoned to Madrid to be presented to King Alfonso XIII . This and other occasions of royal attention would mark him during the Republic as a monarchical officer . Promoted to colonel , Franco led the first wave of troops ashore at Al Hoceima 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 short - lived Republic of the Rif . Becoming the youngest general in Spain in 1926 , Franco was appointed in 1928 director of the newly created General Military Academy of Zaragoza , a new college for all Army cadet s , replacing the former separate institutions for young men seeking to become officers in infantry , cavalry , artillery , and other branches of the army . During the Second Spanish Republic . With the fall of the monarchy in 1931 , Franco did not take any notable stand . But the closing of the Academy , in June , by War Minister Manuel Azaña , provoked his first clash with the Spanish Republic . Azaña found Franco ' s farewell speech to the cadets insulting . For six months , Franco was without a post and under surveillance . Franco was a subscriber to " Acción Española " , an ultra - right wing monarchist theoretical journal , and a firm believer in the Jewish - Masonic - Bolshevik conspiracy - or " contubernio " , ( filthy cohabitation ) , ' one of Franco ' s favourite words ' ; a conspiracy in which Jews , Freemasons and leftists allegedly sought the destruction of Christian Europe , with Spain the principal target . On 5 February 1932 , he was given a command in A Coruña . Franco avoided involvement in José Sanjurjo ' s attempted " coup " that year , and even wrote a hostile letter to Sanjurjo expressing his anger over the attempt . 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 ( 17 February ) , he was given the military command of the Balearic Islands : a post above his rank . New elections held in October 1933 resulted in a center - right majority . In opposition to this government , a revolutionary movement broke out 5 October 1934 . This uprising was rapidly quelled in most of the country , but gained a stronghold in Asturias , with the support of the miner s ' unions . Franco , already General of Division and aide to the war minister , Diego Hidalgo , was put in command of the operations directed to suppress the insurgency . Troops of the Spanish Army of Africa carried this out , 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 insurgency in Asturias sharpened the antagonism between Left and Right . Franco and López Ochoa — who , prior to the campaign in Asturias , had been seen as a left - leaning officer — emerged as officers prepared to use ' troops against Spanish civilians as if they were a foreign enemy ' . Franco described the rebellion to a journalist in Oviedo as , ' a frontier war and its fronts are socialism , communism and whatever attacks civilization in order to replace it with barbarism . ' Though the colonial units sent to the north by the government at Franco ' s recommendation consisted of the Spanish Foreign Legion and the Moroccan Regulares Indigenas , the right wing press portrayed the Asturian rebels in xenophobic terms as lackeys of a foreign Jewish - Bolshevik conspiracy . At the start of the Civil War , López Ochoa was assassinated . Some time after these events , Franco was briefly commander - in - chief of the Army of Africa ( from 15 February onwards ) , and from 19 May 1935 on , Chief of the General Staff . General election of 1936 . After the ruling centre - right coalition collapsed amid the Straperlo corruption scandal , new elections were scheduled . Two wide coalitions formed : the Popular Front on the left , ranging from Republican Union Party to Communists , and the Frente Nacional on the right , ranging from the center radicals to the conservative Carlists . On 16 February 1936 , the left won by a narrow margin . Growing political bitterness surfaced again . The government and its supporters , the Popular Front , had launched a campaign against the Opposition whom they accused of plotting against the Republic . According to the right wing opposition , the real enemies of the Republic were not on the Right but on the Left ; Spain was in imminent danger of falling under a Communist dictatorship , and therefore by fighting the democratically elected Popular Front they , the opposition , were merely doing their duty in defence of law and order and of the freedom and the fundamental rights of the Spanish people . The days after the election were marked by near - chaotic circumstances . On 23 February , Franco was sent to the distant Canary Islands to serve as the islands ' military commander , an appointment perceived by him as a " destierro " ( banishment ) . Meanwhile , a conspiracy led by Emilio Mola was taking shape . In June , Franco was contacted and a secret meeting was held within the forest of La Esperanza on Tenerife to discuss starting a military coup . ( An obelisk commemorating this historic meeting was erected at the site in a clearing at Las Raíces . ) Outwardly , Franco maintained an ambiguous attitude almost up until July . On 23 June 1936 , he wrote to the head of the government , Casares Quiroga , offering to quell the discontent in the Spanish Republican Army , but was not answered . The other rebels were determined to go ahead " con Paquito o sin Paquito " ( with " Paquito " or without " Paquito " ; " Paquito " being a diminutive of " Paco " , which in turn is short for " Francisco " ) , as it was put by José Sanjurjo , the honorary leader of the military uprising . After various postponements , 18 July 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 Army of Africa . A privately owned DH 89 De Havilland Dragon Rapide , flown by two British MI6 agents , Cecil Bebb and Hugh Pollard , was chartered in England 11 July to take Franco to Africa . The assassination of the right - wing opposition leader José Calvo Sotelo by government police troops , possibly acting on their own in retaliation for the murder of José Castillo , precipitated the uprising . On 17 July one day earlier than planned , the African Army rebelled , detaining their commanders . On 18 July , 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 " Nationalists " , controlled a third of Spain , but most navy units remained under control of the Republican loyalist forces , which left Franco isolated . The coup had failed in the attempt to bring a swift victory , but the Spanish Civil War had begun . From the Spanish Civil War to World War II . The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 and officially ended with Franco ' s victory in April 1939 , leaving 190 , 000 to 500 , 000 dead . Despite the Non - Intervention Agreement of August 1936 , the war was marked by foreign intervention on behalf of both sides , leading to international repercussions . The nationalist side was supported by Fascist Italy , which sent the " Corpo Truppe Volontarie " , and later by Nazi Germany , which assisted with the Condor Legion . They were opposed by communist Russia and communist , socialists and anarchists within Spain . The United Kingdom and France strictly adhered to the arms embargo , provoking dissensions within the French Popular Front coalition led by Léon Blum , but the Republican side was nonetheless supported by the Soviet Union and volunteers fighting in the International Brigades ( see for example Ken Loach ' s " Land and Freedom " ) . Because Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin used the war as a testing ground for modern warfare , some historians , such as Ernst Nolte , have considered the Spanish Civil War , along with World War II , part of a " European Civil War " lasting from 1936 to 1945 and characterized mainly as a left / right ideological conflict . However , this interpretation has not found acceptance among most historians , who consider the Spanish Civil War and Second World War to be two distinct conflicts . Among other things , they point to the political heterogeneity on both sides ( " See Spanish Civil War : other factions " ) and criticize a monolithic interpretation which overlooks the local nuances of Spanish history . The first months . Despite Franco having no money , while the state treasury was in Madrid with the government , there was an organized economic lobby in London looking after his financial needs with Lisbon as their operational base . Eventually , he was to receive important help from his economic and diplomatic boosters abroad . Following the 18 July 1936 , " pronunciamiento " , Franco assumed the leadership of the 30 , 000 soldiers of the Spanish Army of Africa . The first days of the insurgency were marked with a serious need to secure control over the Spanish Moroccan 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 summary execution of some 200 senior officers loyal to the Republic ( one of them his own cousin ) . Also his loyal bodyguard was shot by a man known as Manuel Blanco . Franco ' s first problem was how to move his troops to the Iberian Peninsula , since most units of the Navy had remained in control of the Republic and were blocking the Strait of Gibraltar . He requested help from Benito Mussolini , who responded with an unconditional offer of arms and planes ; in Germany , Wilhelm Canaris , the head of the " Abwehr " military intelligence , persuaded Hitler to also support the Nationalists . From 20 July onward , Franco was able , with a small group of 22 mainly German Junkers Ju 52 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 more military support , and above all for more airplanes . Negotiations were successful with the last two on 25 July and airplanes began to arrive in Tetouan on 2 August . On 5 August 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 . On 11 August Mérida was taken , and on 15 August Badajoz , thus joining both nationalist - controlled areas . Additionally , Mussolini ordered a voluntary army , the " Corpo Truppe Volontarie " ( CTV ) of some 12 , 000 Italians of fully motorized units to Seville and Hitler added to them a professional squadron from the Luftwaffe ( 2JG / 88 ) with about 24 planes . All these planes had the Nationalist Spanish insignia painted on them , but were flown by Italian and German troops . The backbone of Franco ' s aviation in those days were the Italian SM . 79 and SM . 81 bombers , the biplane Fiat CR . 32 fighter and the German Junkers Ju 52 cargo - bomber and the Heinkel He 51 biplane fighter . On 21 September , 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 27 September . This controversial decision gave the Popular Front time to strengthen its defences in Madrid and hold the city that year , but the holding of Alcázar was an important morale and propaganda success for the Nationalists . Rise to power . The designated leader of the uprising , Gen . José Sanjurjo died on 20 July 1936 in an airplane crash . Therefore , in the nationalist zone , " Political life ceased . " Initially , only military command mattered ; this was divided into regional commands ( Emilio Mola in the North , Gonzalo Queipo de Llano in Seville commanding Andalusia , Franco with an independent command and Miguel Cabanellas in Zaragoza commanding Aragon ) . The Spanish Army of Morocco itself was split into two columns , one commanded by General Juan Yagüe and the other commanded by Colonel José Varela . From 24 July , a coordinating " junta " was established , based at Burgos . Nominally led by Cabanellas , as the most senior general , it initially included Mola , three other generals , and two colonels ; Franco was later added in early August . On 21 September it was decided that Franco was to be commander - in - chief ( this unified command was opposed only by Cabanellas ) , and , after some discussion , with no more than a lukewarm agreement from Queipo de Llano and from Mola , also head of government . He was , doubtlessly , helped to this primacy by the fact that , in late July , Hitler had decided that all of Germany ' s aid to the nationalists would go to Franco . Mola considered Franco as unfit and not part of the initial rebel group . But Mola himself had been somewhat discredited as the main planner of the attempted coup that had now degenerated into a civil war , and was strongly identified with the Carlist monarchists and not at all with the Falange , a party with Fascist leanings and connections ( " phalanx " , a far - right Spanish political party founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera ) , nor did he have good relations with Germany ; Queipo de Llano and Cabanellas had both previously rebelled against the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and were therefore discredited in some nationalist circles ; and Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera was in prison in Alicante ( he would be executed a few months later ) and the desire to keep a place open for him prevented any other Falangist leader from emerging as a possible head of state . Franco ' s previous aloofness from politics meant that he had few active enemies in any of the factions that needed to be placated , and had cooperated in recent months with both Germany and Italy . On 1 October 1936 , in Burgos , Franco was publicly proclaimed as " Generalísimo " of the National army and " Jefe del Estado " ( Head of State ) . When Mola was killed in another air accident a year later ( which some believe was an assassination ) ( 2 June 1937 ) , no military leader was left from those who organized the conspiracy against the Republic between 1933 and 1935 . 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 on a piecemeal approach to winning the war , rather than bold maneuvering . 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 from a military viewpoint . It was however , in Valencia , Castellon and Alicante where the last troops were defeated by Franco . Although both Germany and Italy provided military support to Franco , the degree of influence of both powers on his direction of the war seems to have been very limited . Nevertheless , the Italian troops , despite not being always effective , were present in most of the large operations in large numbers , while the German airplanes helped the Nationalist air force dominate the skies for most of the war . António de Oliveira Salazar ' s Portugal also openly assisted the Nationalists from the start , contributing some 20 , 000 troops . It is said that Franco ' s direction of the German and Italian forces was limited , particularly in the direction of the Condor Legion , however , he was officially , by default , their supreme commander and they rarely made decisions on their own . For reasons of prestige , it was decided to continue assisting Franco until the end of the war , and Italian and German troops paraded on the day of the final victory in Madrid . Political command . In April 1938 , Franco managed to fuse the ideologically incompatible national - syndicalist Falange ( " phalanx " , a far - right Spanish political party founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera ) and the Carlist monarchist parties under a single - party under his rule , dubbed " Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional - Sindicalista " ( FET y de las JONS ) , which became the only legal party in 1939 . The Falangists ' hymn , " Cara al Sol " , became the semi - national anthem of Franco ' s not yet established regime . This new political formation appeased the pro - Nazi Falangists while tempering them with the anti - German Carlists . Franco ' s brother - in - law Ramón Serrano Súñer , who was his main political advisor , was able to turn the various parties under Franco against each other to absorb a series of political confrontations against Franco himself . Franco expelled the original leading members of both the Carlists ( Manuel Fal Conde ) and the Falangists ( Manuel Hedilla ) to secure his political future . Franco also appeased the Carlists by exploiting the Republicans ' anti - clericalism in his propaganda , in particular concerning the " Martyrs of the war " . While the loyalist forces presented the war as a struggle to defend the Republic against Fascism , Franco depicted himself as the defender of " Catholic Spain " against " atheist Communism . " The end of the Civil War . Before the fall of Catalonia in February 1939 , the Prime Minister of Spain Juan Negrín unsuccessfully proposed , in the meeting of the Cortes in Figueres , capitulation with the sole condition of respecting the lives of the vanquished . Negrín was ultimately deposed by Colonel Segismundo Casado , later joined by José Miaja . Thereafter , only Madrid ( see History of Madrid ) and a few other areas remained under control of the government forces . On 27 February Chamberlain and Daladier ' s governments recognized the Franco regime , before the official end of the war . The PCE ( the Spanish Communist Party ) attempted a mutiny in Madrid with the aim of re - establishing Negrín ' s leadership , but José Miaja retained control . Finally , on 28 March 1939 , with the help of pro - Franco forces inside the city ( the " fifth column " General Mola had mentioned in propaganda broadcasts in 1936 ) , Madrid fell to the Nationalists . The next day , Valencia , which had held out under the guns of the Nationalists for close to two years , also surrendered . Victory was proclaimed on 1 April 1939 , when the last of the Republican forces surrendered . On this very date , Franco placed his sword upon the altar of a church and in a vow , promised that he would never again take up his sword unless Spain itself was threatened with invasion . At least 50 , 000 people were executed during the civil war . Franco ' s victory was followed by thousands of summary execution s ( from 15 , 000 to 25 , 000 people ) and imprisonments , while many were put to forced labour , building railways , drying out swamps , digging canals ( " La Corchuela " , the Canal of the Bajo Guadalquivir ) , construction of the Valle de los Caídos monument , etc . The 1940 shooting of the president of the Catalan government , Lluís Companys , was one of the most notable cases of this early suppression of opponents and dissenters . According to Gabriel Jackson , the number of victims of the " White Terror " ( executions and hunger or illness in prisons ) only between 1939 and 1943 was 200 , 000 . Although leftists suffered from an important death - toll , the Spanish intelligentsia , atheists and military and government figures who had remained loyal to the Madrid government during the war were also targeted for oppression . In his recent , updated history of the Spanish Civil War , Antony Beevor " reckons Franco ' s ensuing ' white terror ' claimed 200 , 000 lives . The ' red terror ' had already killed 38 , 000 . " Julius Ruiz concludes that " although the figures remain disputed , a minimum of 37 , 843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150 , 000 executions ( including 50 , 000 after the war ) in Nationalist Spain . " In " Checas de Madrid " , César Vidal comes to a nationwide total of 110 , 965 victims of Republican violence ; 11 , 705 people being killed in Madrid alone . Despite the official end of the war , guerrilla resistance to Franco ( known as " the " maquis " " ) was widespread in many mountainous regions , and continued well into the 1950s . In 1944 , a group of republican veterans , which also fought in the French resistance against the Nazi s , invaded the Val d ' Aran in northwest Catalonia , but they were quickly defeated . The end of the war led to hundreds of thousands of exiles , mostly to France ( but also Mexico , Chile , Cuba , the USA and so on . ) . On the other side of the Pyrenees , refugees were confined in internment camps of the French Third Republic , such as Camp Gurs or Camp Vernet , where 12 , 000 Republicans were housed in squalid conditions ( mostly soldiers from the Durruti Division ) . The 17 , 000 refugees housed in Gurs were divided into four categories ( Brigadist s , pilots , " Gudaris " and ordinary ' Spaniards ' ) . The " Gudaris " ( Basques ) and the pilots easily found local backers and jobs , and were allowed to quit the camp , but the farmers and ordinary people , who could not find relations in France , were encouraged by the Third Republic , in agreement with the Francoist government , to return to Spain . The great majority did so and were turned over to the Francoist authorities in Irún . From there they were transferred to the Miranda de Ebro camp for " purification " according to the Law of Political Responsibilities . After the proclamation by Marshal Philippe Pétain of the Vichy France regime , the refugees became political prisoners , and the French police attempted to round - up those who had been liberated from the camp . Along with other " undesirables " , they were sent to the Drancy internment camp before being deported to Nazi Germany . 5 , 000 Spaniards thus died in Mauthausen concentration camp . The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda , who had been named by the Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda special consul for immigration in Paris , was given responsibility for what he called " the noblest mission I have ever undertaken " : shipping more than 2 , 000 Spanish refugees , who had been housed by the French in squalid camps , to Chile on an old cargo ship , the " Winnipeg " . World War II . In September 1939 , World War II broke out in Europe , and on 23 October 1940 Hitler and Franco met in Hendaye , France , to discuss the possibility of Spain ' s entry on the side of the Axis . However , Franco ' s demands , which included food , military equipment , and Spanish control of Gibraltar and French North Africa proved too much for Hitler , and no agreement was reached . ( An oft - cited remark attributed to Hitler is that the German leader would rather have some teeth extracted than to have to deal further with Franco . ) Franco ' s tactics received important support from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during the civil war . He remained emphatically neutral in the Second World War , but nonetheless offered various kinds of support to Italy and Germany . He allowed Spanish soldiers to volunteer to fight in the German Army against the USSR ( the Blue Division ) , but forbade Spaniards to fight in the West against the democracies . Franco ' s common ground with Hitler was particularly weakened by Hitler ' s propagation of Nazi mysticism and his attempts to manipulate Christianity , which went against Franco ' s fervent commitment to defending Christianity and Catholicism . Contributing to the disagreement was an ongoing dispute over German mining rights in Spain . Some historians argue that Franco made demands he knew Hitler would not accede to in order to stay out of the war . Other historians argue that Franco , as the leader of a destroyed country in chaos following a brutal three - year civil war , simply had nothing to offer the Germans and their military . Yet , after the Fall of France in June 1940 , Spain did adopt 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 . Franco did also consider blocking allied access to the Mediterranean Sea by invading the British - controlled Gibraltar , but abandoned the idea after learning that the plan would have likely failed and would have given the British an excellent opportunity to take both the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco . 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 from 1941 – 1943 . Some historians have argued that not all of the Blue Division were true volunteers and that Franco expended relatively small but significant resources to aid the Axis powers ' battle against the Soviet Union . Franco was initially disliked by Cuban President Fulgencio Batista , who , during World War II , had suggested a joint U . S . - Latin American assault on Spain in order to overthrow Franco ' s regime . According to the recent discovery of a World War II document , Franco ordered his provincial governors to compile a list of Jews while he negotiated an alliance with the Axis powers . Franco supplied Reichsführer - SS Heinrich Himmler with a list of 6 , 000 Jews in Spain , for the Nazis ' " Final Solution " . However , Franco built no Jewish concentration camps on Spanish territory , nor did he voluntarily hand Jews over to Germany . Furthermore , Spanish diplomats extended their diplomatic protection over Jews in Hungary , Czechoslovakia and the Balkans . On 14 June 1940 , Spanish forces in Morocco occupied Tangier ( a city under the rule of the League of Nations ) and did not leave it until 1945 . Spain under Franco . Franco was recognized as the Spanish head of state by Britain and France in February 1945 . Already proclaimed " Generalissimo " of the Nationalists and " Jefe del Estado " ( Head of State ) in October 1936 , he thereafter assumed the official title of " " Su Excelencia el Jefe de Estado " " ( " His Excellency the Head of State " ) . However , he was also referred to in state and official documents as " " Caudillo de España " " ( " the Leader of Spain " ) , and sometimes called " " el Caudillo de la Última Cruzada y de la Hispanidad " " ( " the Leader of the Last Crusade and of the Hispanic heritage " ) and " " el Caudillo de la Guerra de Liberación contra el Comunismo y sus Cómplices " " ( " the Leader of the War of Liberation Against Communism and Its Accomplices " ) . In 1947 , Franco proclaimed Spain a monarchy , but did not designate a monarch . This gesture was largely done to appease the " Movimiento Nacional " ( Carlists and Alfonsists ) . Although a self - proclaimed monarchist himself , Franco had no particular desire to proclaim himself King of Spain , nor have a King to rule the country yet , and as such , he left the throne vacant , with himself as a " 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 . In addition , he appropriated the royal privilege of walking beneath a canopy , and his portrait appeared on most Spanish coins and postage stamps . He also added " by the grace of God " , a phrase usually part of the styles of monarchs , to his style . Franco initially sought support from various groups . His support initially included the fascist elements of the Falange , but when he took power , not being a true fascist himself , he merged the Falange with the Carlists and transformed the Falange into a party which was authoritarian but not fascist . Franco ' s administration marginalized fascist ideologues in favor of technocrats , many of whom were linked with Opus Dei , who promoted the economic modernization under Franco . Although Franco and Spain under his rule adopted some trappings of fascism , he , and Spain under his rule , are generally not considered to be fascist ; among the distinctions , fascism entails a revolutionary aim to transform society , where Franco and Franco ' s Spain did not seek to do so , and , to the contrary , although authoritarian , were conservative and traditional . Stanley Payne notes : " scarcely any of the serious historians and analysts of Franco consider the generalissimo to be a core fascist " . The few consistent points in Franco ' s long rule were above all authoritarianism , nationalism , Catholicism , anti - Freemasonry , and anti - Communism . The aftermath of the Civil War was socially bleak : many of those who had supported the Republic fled into exile . Spain lost thousands of doctors , nurses , teachers , lawyers , judges , professors , businessmen , artists , etc . Many of those who had to stay lost their jobs or lost their rank . Sometimes those jobs were given to unskilled and even untrained personnel . This deprived the country of many of its brightest minds , and also of a very capable workforce . However , this was done to keep Spain ' s citizens consistent with the ideals sought by the Nationalists and Franco . With the end of World War II , Spain suffered from the economic consequences of its isolation from the international community . 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 . Spain was then admitted to the UN in 1955 . In 1952 , a syndicate from Dallas , Texas , including Jack Crichton , Everette Lee DeGolyer , and Clint Murchison sought drilling rights to petroleum in Spain . The operation was handled by Delta Drilling Company . Political oppression . The first decade of Franco ' s rule in the 1940s following the end of the Civil War in 1939 saw continued oppression and the killing of an undetermined number of political opponents . Estimation is difficult and controversial , but the number of people killed probably lies somewhere between 15 , 000 and 50 , 000 ( see above , " The end of the Civil War " ) . Subsequently , Franco ' s state became less violent , but 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 separatists , were either suppressed or tightly controlled by all means , up to and including violent police repression . The " Confederación Nacional del Trabajo " ( CNT ) and the " Unión General de Trabajadores " ( UGT ) trade - unions were outlawed , and replaced in 1940 by the corporatist " Sindicato Vertical " . The Spanish Socialist Workers ' Party and the " Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya " ( ERC ) were banned in 1939 , while the Communist Party of Spain ( PCE ) went underground . The Basque Nationalist Party ( PNV ) went into exile , and in 1959 , the ETA armed group was created to wage a low - intensity war against Franco . Franco ' s Spanish nationalism promoted a unitary national identity by repressing Spain ' s cultural diversity . Bullfighting and flamenco were promoted as national traditions while those traditions not considered " Spanish " were suppressed . Franco ' s view of Spanish tradition was somewhat artificial and arbitrary : while some regional traditions were suppressed , Flamenco , an Andalusian tradition , was considered part of a larger , national identity . All cultural activities were subject to censorship , and many , such as the Sardana , the national dance of Catalunya , were plainly forbidden ( often in an erratic manner ) . This cultural policy relaxed with time , most notably in the late 1960s and early 1970s . Franco also used language politics in an attempt to establish national homogeneity . He promoted the use of Castilian Spanish and suppressed other languages such as Catalan , Galician , and Basque . The legal usage of languages other than Castilian was forbidden . All government , notarial , legal and commercial documents were to be drawn up exclusively in Castilian and any written in other languages were deemed null and void . The usage of any other language was forbidden in schools , in advertising , and on road and shop signs . For unofficial use , citizens continued to speak these languages . This was the situation throughout the 1940s and , to a lesser extent , during the 1950s , but after 1960 the non - Castilian Spanish languages were freely spoken and written and reached bookshops and stages , although they never received official status . On the other hand , the Catholic Church was upheld as the established church of the Spanish State , and regained many of the traditional privileges it had lost under the Republic . Civil servants had to be Catholic , and some official jobs even required a " good behavior " statement by a priest . Civil marriages which had taken place under Republican Spain were declared null and void unless confirmed by the Catholic Church . Divorce was forbidden , and also contraceptives and abortion . Most country towns , and rural areas , were patrolled by pairs of " Guardia Civil " , a military police for civilians , which functioned as his chief means of social control . Larger cities , and capitals , were mostly under the Policia Armada , or " grises " ( " greys " ) as they were called . Student revolts , at universities in the late 1960s and early 1970s , were violently repressed by the heavily armed " Policía Armada " ( Armed Police ) . Plainclothes secret police worked inside Spanish universities . In May 1972 , an American student was arrested by university secret police in Barcelona and charged and imprisoned under martial law for the crime of wearing an old Spanish Army jacket . The enforcement by public authorities of traditional Catholic values was a stated intent of the regime , mainly by using a law ( the " Ley de Vagos y Maleantes " , Vagrancy Act ) enacted by Azaña . The remaining nomads of Spain ( Gitanos and Merchero s like El Lute ) were especially affected . In 1954 , homosexuality , pedophilia , and prostitution were , through this law , made criminal offenses , although its application was seldom consistent . Status of women . Francoism professed a devotion to the traditional role of women in society , that is : loving child to her parents and brothers , faithful to her husband , residing with her family . Official propaganda confined the role of women to family care and motherhood . Immediately after the war , most progressive laws passed by the Republic aimed at equality between the sexes were made void . Women could not become judges , or testify in trial . They could not become university professors . Their affairs and economy had to be managed by fathers and husbands . Even in the 1970s a woman fleeing from an abusive husband could be arrested and imprisoned for " abandoning the home " ( " abandono del hogar " ) . Until the 1970s a woman could not have a bank account without a co - sign by her father or husband . In the 1960s and 1970s the situation was somewhat relieved , but it was not until after Franco ' s death that a more egalitarian view of the sexes was adopted . Spanish colonial empire and decolonisation . Spain attempted to retain control of its colonial empire throughout Franco ' s rule . During the Algerian War ( 1954 – 62 ) , Madrid became the base of the " Organisation de l ' armée secrète " ( OAS ) right - wing French Army group which sought to preserve French Algeria . Despite this , Franco was forced to make some concessions . When French Morocco became independent in 1956 , he surrendered Spanish Morocco to Mohammed V , retaining only a few enclaves ( the " Plazas de soberanía " ) . The year after , Mohammed V invaded Spanish Sahara during the Ifni War ( known as the " Forgotten War " in Spain ) . Only in 1975 , with the Green March , did Morocco take control of all of the former Spanish territories in the Sahara . In 1968 , under United Nations pressure , Franco granted Spain ' s colony of Equatorial Guinea its independence , and the next year , ceded the exclave of Ifni to Morocco . Under Franco , Spain also pursued a campaign to force a negotiation on the British overseas territory of Gibraltar , and closed its border with that territory in 1969 . The border would not be fully reopened until 1985 . Economic policy . The Civil War had ravaged the Spanish economy . Infrastructure had been damaged , workers killed , and daily business severely hampered . For more than a decade after Franco ' s victory , the devastated economy recovered very slowly . Franco initially pursued a policy of autarky , cutting off almost all international trade . The policy had devastating effects , and the economy stagnated . Only black marketeers could enjoy an evident affluence . On the brink of bankruptcy , a combination of pressure from the USA , the IMF and , most importantly , the technocrats from Opus Dei , managed to convince the regime to adopt a freer market economy . Many of the old guard in charge of the economy were replaced by " technocrata " , despite some initial opposition from Franco . From the mid - 1950s there was a modest pick up in economic activity after some minor reforms and a freeing up of controls . But the growth proved too much for the economy , with shortages and inflation breaking out towards the end of the 1950s . When Franco replaced his ideological ministers with the apolitical technocrats , the regime implemented several development policies that included deep economic reforms . After a recession , growth took off from 1959 , creating an economic boom that lasted until 1974 , and became known as the " Spanish Miracle " . Concurrent with the absence of social reforms , and the economic power shift , a tide of mass emigration commenced to other European countries , and to a lesser extent , to South America . Emigration helped the regime in two ways . The country got rid of populations it would not have been able to keep in employment , and the emigrants supplied the country with much needed monetary remittances . During the 1960s , the wealthy classes of Francoist Spain experienced further increases in wealth , particularly those who remained politically faithful , while a burgeoning middle class became visible as the " economic miracle " progressed . International firms established factories in Spain where salaries were low , company taxes very low , strikes forbidden and workers ' health or state protections almost unheard of . State - owned firms like the car manufacturer SEAT , truck builder Pegaso and oil refiner INH , massively expanded production . Furthermore , Spain was virtually a new mass market . Spain became the second - fastest growing economy in the world during the 1959 – 1973 period , just behind Japan . By the time of Franco ' s death in 1975 , Spain still lagged behind most of Western Europe , but the gap between its per capita GDP and that of the leading Western European countries had narrowed greatly and the country had developed a large industrialized economy . Regions . Franco was reluctant to enact any form of administrative and legislative decentralisation and kept a fully centralized government with a similar administrative structure to that established by the House of Bourbon and General Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja . Such structures were both based on the model of the French centralised State . The main drawback of this kind of management is that government attention and initiatives were irregular , and often depended more on the goodwill of regional Government representatives than on regional needs . Thus , inequalities in schooling , health care or transport facilities among regions were patent : classically affluent regions like Madrid , Catalonia , or the Basque Country fared much better than Extremadura , Galicia or Andalusia . Some regions , like Extremadura or La Mancha did not have a university . The Basque Country and Catalonia were among the regions that offered the strongest resistance to Franco in the Civil War . Franco dissolved the autonomy granted by the Second Spanish Republic to these two regions and to Galicia . Franco abolished the centuries - old fiscal privileges and autonomy ( the " fueros " ) in two of the three Basque provinces : Guipuzcoa and Biscay , but kept them for Álava which had sided with the nationalists in the civil war . Among Franco ' s greatest area of support during the civil war was Navarre , also a Basque speaking region in its north half . Navarre remained a separate region from the Basque Country and Franco decided to preserve its also centuries ' old fiscal privileges and autonomy , the so - called Fueros of Navarre . The regional privileges for Álava and Navarre were kept because Álava and Navarre had participated in the initial coup d ' état against the Republican government on 18 July 1936 . Franco abolished the official statute and recognition for the Basque , Galician , and Catalan languages that the Second Spanish Republic had granted for the first time in the history of Spain . He returned to Castilian as the only official language of the State and education . The Franco era corresponded with the popularisation of the compulsory national educational system and the development of modern mass media , both controlled by the State and in the Castilian language , and heavily reduced the number of speakers of Basque , Catalan and Galician , as happened during the second half of the 20th century with other European minority languages which were not officially protected such as Scottish Gaelic or French Breton . By the 1970s the majority of the population in the urban areas could not speak the minority language or , as in some Catalan towns , their social use had been abandoned , leaving them restrain to family use . Because of the already fragile situation of the Basque language before the Civil War , it became the most endangered language in Spain . By the 1970s Basque lacked of a sufficient number of new speakers to assure its future , getting closer to extinction . It is now recognised that the Basque language would have disappeared in a few more decades if the same linguistic policies had been preserved . This was the main reason that drove the Francoist provincial government of Álava to create a network of Basque medium schools ( Ikastola ) in 1973 which were State - financed . Franco and the United States . With the end of World War II , Spain suffered from the economic consequences of its isolation from the international community . 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 as part of the policy of containment . This historic alliance commenced with the signing of the Pact of Madrid in 1953 which guaranteed American support for Franco ' s regime . Spain was then admitted to the United Nations in 1955 . American poet James Wright wrote of Eisenhower ' s visit : " Franco stands in a shining circle of police . / His arms open in welcome . / He promises all dark things / Will be hunted down . " American President Richard Nixon toasted Franco , and , after Franco ' s death , stated : " General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States . " Military facilities of the United States in Spain built during this era include Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base , and an important facility existed at Torrejón de Ardoz . Death and funeral . In 1969 , Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón , who had been educated by him in Spain , with the new title of Prince of Spain , as his heir - apparent . This designation came as a surprise for the Carlist pretender to the throne , as well as for Juan Carlos ' father , Don Juan , the Count of Barcelona , who technically had a superior right to the throne . By 1973 , Franco had surrendered the function of prime minister ( " Presidente del Gobierno " ) , remaining only as head of state and commander in chief of the military . 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 . On 19 July 1974 , the aged Franco fell ill from various health problems , and Juan Carlos took over as Acting Head of State . Franco soon recovered on 2 September and resumed his duties as Head of State , but one year later he fell ill once again from more health problems including a long battle with Parkinson ' s Disease . On 30 October 1975 , he fell into a coma and was put on life support . Franco died just after midnight on 20 November 1975 , at the age of 82 - just two weeks before his 83rd birthday – the same date as the death of José Antonio Primo de Rivera , founder of the Falange . However , the historian Ricardo de la Cierva claims that on 19 November around 6 pm , he was told that Franco had already died . After Franco ' s death , and according to his own wishes , he was buried at Valle de los Caídos , a colossal memorial built by the forced labour of political prisoners to honour the Francoist casualties of the Spanish Civil War . Franco ' s funeral was attended by the Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet , who revered Franco and modelled himself in his image , Bolivia ' s dictator General Hugo Banzer , Jordan ' s King Hussein and US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller . Legacy . In Spain and abroad , the legacy of Franco remains controversial . The length of his rule , the suppression of opposition , and the effective propaganda sustained through the years has made a detached evaluation impossible . For 40 years , Spaniards , and particularly children at school were told that Divine Providence had sent him to save Spain from chaos and poverty . With time , the regime evolved and the ferocious oppression of the early 1940s was reduced over the years . The economic success of the latter part of his regime won support from many citizens , who found the dramatic rise in the everyday standard of living more significant than the right to vote or to speak freely , although strong anti - Francoist views are held by large numbers of Spaniards nowadays . In 2006 , the BBC reported that Maciej Giertych , an MEP of the League of Polish Families , had expressed admiration for Franco , stating that he " guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe " . Many Spaniards , particularly those who suffered under Franco ' s rule , have sought to remove official recognition of his regime . Most government buildings and streets that were named after him during his long rule , reverted to their original names . Owing to Franco ' s human rights record , in 2007 , the Spanish government banned all official public references to the Franco regime and removed any statues , street names and memorials associated with the regime , with reportedly the last statue in Santander having been removed in 2008 . Churches which retain plaques commemorating Franco and the victims of his Republican opponents may lose state aid . Since 1978 , the national anthem of Spain , the " Marcha Real " , has not been accompanied by the lyrics introduced by Franco . Recent attempts to give the national anthem new lyrics have failed due to lack of consensus . In March 2006 , in what has been described as the " Denial of History Commission " , the Permanent Commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe unanimously adopted a resolution " firmly " condemning the " multiple and serious violations " of human rights committed in Spain under the Francoist regime from 1939 to 1975 . The resolution was at the initiative of Leo Brincat and of the historian Luis María de Puig , and is the first international official condemnation of the repression enacted by Franco ' s regime . The resolution also urged to provide public access to historians ( professional and amateurs ) to the various archive s of the Francoist regime , including those of the private " Fundación Francisco Franco " which , as well as other Francoist archives , remain as of 2006 inaccessible to the public . The " Fundación Francisco Franco " received various archives from the El Pardo Palace , and is alleged to have sold some of them to private individuals . Furthermore , it urged the Spanish authorities to set up an underground exhibition in the Valle de los Caidos monument , in order to explain the " terrible " conditions in which it was built . Finally , it proposes the construction of monuments to commemorate Franco ' s victims in Madrid and other important cities . In Spain , a commission to repair the dignity and restore the memory of the victims of Francoism ( " Comisión para reparar la dignidad y restituir la memoria de las víctimas del franquismo " ) was approved in the summer of 2004 , and is directed by the socialist vice - president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega . Recently the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory ( ARHM ) initiated a systematic search for mass graves of people executed during Franco ' s regime , which has been supported since the Spanish Socialist Workers ' Party ` s ( PSOE ) victory during the 2004 elections by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ' s government . A " Ley de la memoria histórica de España " ( Law on the Historical Memory of Spain ) was approved on 28 July 2006 by the Council of Ministers , but it took until 31 October 2007 for the Congress of Deputies to approve an amended version as " The Bill to recognise and extend rights and to establish measures in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence during the Civil War and the Dictatorship " ( in common parlance still known as Law of Historical Memory ) . The Senate approved the bill on 10 December 2007 . Among other things , the law is supposed to enforce an official recognition of the crimes committed against civilians during the Francoist rule and organize under state supervision the search for mass graves . The accumulated wealth of Franco ' s family ( including much real estate inherited from Franco , such as the " Pazo de Meirás " , the " Canto del Pico " in Torrelodones or the Cornide Palace in the Coruña ) has also been discussed . Estimates of the family ' s wealth have ranged from 350 million to 600 million euros . When Franco was sick , the Cortes voted a pension for his wife , Carmen Polo . At the time of her death in 1988 , Carmen Polo was receiving more than 12 . 5 million pesetas ( four million more than Felipe González , then head of the government ) .