Francoist Spain

Spanish State
Estado Español (Spanish)
1936–1975
Flag of Francoist Spain
Flag
(1945–1977)
Coat of arms (1945–1977) of Francoist Spain
Coat of arms
(1945–1977)
Motto: Una, Grande y Libre
("One, Great and Free")
Plus Ultra
("Further Beyond")
Anthem: Marcha Granadera
("Grenadier March")
Territories and colonies of the Spanish State:
  •   Spain, Ifni, Western Sahara and Guinea
  •   Protectorate in Morocco
  •   Tangier International Zone
Capital
and largest city
Madrid[a]
Official languagesSpanish
Religion
Roman Catholicism (official); under the doctrine of
National Catholicism
Demonym(s)Spanish, Spaniard
GovernmentUnitary Francoist one-party personalist dictatorship
Caudillo 
• 1936–1975
Francisco Franco
Prime Minister 
• 1938–1973
Francisco Franco
• 1973
Luis Carrero Blanco
• 1973–1975
Carlos Arias Navarro
Prince 
• 1969–1975
Juan Carlos I
LegislatureCortes Españolas
Historical eraWorld War II • Cold War
• Civil War
17 July 1936
1 April 1939
6 July 1947
14 December 1955
1 January 1967
20 November 1975
Area
1940[1]856,045 km2 (330,521 sq mi)
Population
• 1940[1]
25,877,971
CurrencySpanish peseta
Calling code+34
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Nationalist faction
Second Spanish Republic
Spanish transition to democracy
Today part ofEquatorial Guinea
Morocco
Spain
Western Sahara
  1. ^ In wartime, Salamanca served as the de facto Nationalist capital and centre of power, while administrative functions were moved to Burgos.

Francoist Spain (Spanish: España franquista), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (dictadura franquista), was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title Caudillo. After his death in 1975, Spain transitioned into a democracy. During this time period, Spain was officially known as the Spanish State (Estado Español).

The nature of the regime evolved and changed during its existence. Months after the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Franco emerged as the dominant rebel military leader and was proclaimed head of state on 1 October 1936, ruling a dictatorship over the territory controlled by the Nationalist faction. The 1937 Unification Decree, which merged all parties supporting the rebel side, led to Nationalist Spain becoming a single-party regime under the FET y de las JONS. The end of the war in 1939 brought the extension of the Franco rule to the whole country and the exile of Republican institutions. The Francoist dictatorship originally took a form described as "fascistized dictatorship",[2] or "semi-fascist regime",[3] showing clear influence of fascism in fields such as labor relations, the autarkic economic policy, aesthetics, and the single-party system.[4][5] As time went on, the regime opened up and became closer to developmental dictatorships, although it always preserved residual fascist trappings.[6][3]

During the Second World War, Spain did not join the Axis powers (its supporters from the civil war, Italy and Germany). Nevertheless, Spain supported them in various ways throughout most of the war while maintaining its neutrality as an official policy of "non-belligerence". Because of this, Spain was isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade after World War II, while its autarkic economy, still trying to recover from the civil war, suffered from chronic depression. The 1947 Law of Succession made Spain a de jure kingdom again, but defined Franco as the head of state for life with the power to choose the person to become King of Spain and his successor.

Reforms were implemented in the 1950s and Spain abandoned autarky, reassigned authority from the Falangist movement, which had been prone to isolationism, to a new breed of economists, the technocrats of Opus Dei.[7] This led to massive economic growth, second only to Japan, that lasted until the mid-1970s, known as the "Spanish miracle". During the 1950s the regime also changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to an authoritarian system with limited pluralism and economic freedom.[8] As a result of these reforms, Spain was allowed to join the United Nations in 1955 and during the Cold War Franco was one of Europe's foremost anti-communist figures: his regime was assisted by the Western powers, particularly the United States. Franco died in 1975 at the age of 82. He restored the monarchy before his death and made his successor King Juan Carlos I, who would lead the Spanish transition to democracy.

  1. ^ (in Spanish) "Resumen general de la población de España en 31 de Diciembre de 1940". INE. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  2. ^ Saz Campos 2004, p. 90.
  3. ^ a b «La tesis defendida por Payne en dicho dossier puede sintetizarse con estas palabras:

    Entre 1937 y 1943, el franquismo constituyó un régimen "semi-fascista", pero nunca un régimen fascista cien por cien. Después pasó treinta y dos años evolucionando como un sistema autoritario "posfascista", aunque no consiguió eliminar completamente todos los vestigios residuales del fascismo.

    » Glicerio Sanchez Recio. En torno a la Dictadura franquista Hispania Nova
  4. ^ Moradiellos 2000, p. 20.
  5. ^ Cabrera & Rey 2017; Capítulo V
  6. ^ «La ausencia de un ideario definido le permitió transitar de unas fórmulas dictatoriales a otras, rozando el fascismo en los cuarenta y a las dictaduras desarrollistas en los sesenta».Tusell 1999, cap. «El franquismo como dictadura».
  7. ^ Reuter, Tim (19 May 2014). "Before China's Transformation, There Was The 'Spanish Miracle'". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  8. ^ Payne (2000), p. 645