Francisco Franco (born December 4, 1892,El Ferrol, Spain—died November 20, 1975, Madrid) was ageneral and leader of theNationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in theSpanish Civil War (1936–39); thereafter he was the head of the government ofSpain until 1973 and head of state until his death in 1975.

Life

Franco was born at the coastal city and naval centre of El Ferrol inGalicia (northwestern Spain). His family life was not entirely happy, for Franco’s father, an officer in the Spanish Naval Administrative Corps, waseccentric, wasteful, and somewhat dissolute. Moredisciplined and serious than other boys his age, Franco was close to his mother, a pious andconservative upper middle-classRoman Catholic. Like four generations and his elder brother before him, Franco was originally destined for a career as a naval officer, but reduction of admissions to the Naval Academy forced him to choose the army. In 1907, only 14 years old, he entered the Infantry Academy atToledo, graduating three years later.

Franco volunteered for active duty in the colonial campaigns in SpanishMorocco that had begun in 1909 and was transferred there in 1912 at age 19. The following year he was promoted to first lieutenant in an elite regiment of native Moroccan cavalry. At a time in which many Spanish officers were characterized by sloppiness and lack of professionalism, young Franco quickly showed his ability to command troops effectively and soon won a reputation for complete professional dedication. He devoted great care to the preparation of his unit’s actions and paid more attention than was common to the troops’ well-being. Reputed to be scrupulously honest, introverted, and a man of comparatively fewintimate friends, he was known to shun allfrivolous amusements. In 1915 he became the youngest captain in the Spanish army. The following year he was seriously wounded by a bullet in the abdomen and returned to Spain to recover. In 1920 he was chosen to be second in command of the newly organized Spanish ForeignLegion, succeeding to full command in 1923. That year he also married Carmen Polo, with whom he had a daughter. During crucial campaigns against the Moroccan rebels, the legion played a decisive role in bringing the revolt to an end. Franco became a nationalhero, and in 1926, at age 33, he was promoted tobrigadier general. At the beginning of 1928, he was named director of the newly organized General Military Academy inSaragossa.

After the fall of the monarchy in 1931, the leaders of the new Spanish Republic undertook a major and much-neededmilitary reform, and Franco’s career was temporarily halted. The General Military Academy was dissolved, and Franco was placed on the inactive list. Though he was an avowed monarchist and held the honour of being a gentleman of the king’s chamber, Franco accepted both the new regime and his temporary demotion with perfectdiscipline. When conservative forces gained control of the republic in 1933, Franco was restored to active command; in 1934 he was promoted to major general. InOctober 1934, during a bloody uprising ofAsturian miners who opposed the admission of three conservative members to the government, Franco was called in to quell the revolt. His success in this operation brought him new prominence. In May 1935 he was appointed chief of the Spanish army’sgeneral staff, and he began tightening discipline and strengthening military institutions, although he left many of the earlier reforms in place.

Following a number of scandals that weakened the Radicals, one of the parties of the governingcoalition, parliament was dissolved, and new elections were announced for February 1936. By this time the Spanish political parties had split into two factions: the rightist National Bloc and the leftistPopular Front. The left proved victorious in the elections, but the new government was unable to prevent the accelerating dissolution of Spain’s social and economic structure. Although Franco had never been a member of apolitical party, the growinganarchy impelled him to appeal to the government to declare a state of emergency. His appeal was refused, and he was removed from the general staff and sent to an obscure command in the Canary Islands. For some time he refused to commit himself to a militaryconspiracy against the government, but, as thepolitical system disintegrated, he finally decided to join the rebels.

Franco’s military rebellion

At dawn on July 18, 1936, Franco’smanifesto acclaiming the military rebellion was broadcast from theCanary Islands, and the same morning the rising began on the mainland. The following day he flew to Morocco and within 24 hours was firmly in control of theprotectorate and the Spanish army garrisoning it. After landing in Spain, Franco and his army marched towardMadrid, which was held by the government. When the Nationalist advance came to a halt on the outskirts of the city, the military leaders, in preparation of what they believed was the final assault that would deliver Madrid and thecountry into their hands, decided to choose a commander in chief, or generalissimo, who would also head the rebel Nationalist government in opposition to the republic. Because of his military ability andprestige, a political record unmarred by sectarian politics andconspiracies, and his proven ability to gain military assistance fromAdolf Hitler’sGermany andBenito Mussolini’sItaly, Franco was the obvious choice. In part because he was not a typical Spanish “political general,” Franco became head of state of the new Nationalist regime on October 1, 1936. The rebel government did not, however, gain complete control of the country for more than three years.

Franco presided over a government that was basically a militarydictatorship, but he realized that it needed a regular civil structure to broaden its support; this was to be derived mainly from the antileftist middle classes. On April 19, 1937, he fused theFalange (the Spanishfascist party) with theCarlists and created the rebel regime’s official political movement. While expanding the Falange into a more pluralistic group, Franco made it clear that it was the government that used the party and not the other way around. Thus, his regime became an institutionalizedauthoritarian system, differing in this respect from the fascist party-states of the German and Italian models.

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As commander in chief during the Civil War, Franco was a careful and systematic leader. He made no rash moves and suffered only a few temporary defeats as his forces advanced slowly but steadily; the only majorcriticism directed at him during the campaign was that his strategy was frequently unimaginative. Nevertheless, because of the relatively superior military quality of his army and the continuation of heavy German and Italian assistance, Franco won a complete and unconditional victory on April 1, 1939.

The Civil War had been largely a sanguinary struggle ofattrition, marked by atrocities on both sides. The tens of thousands of executions carried out by the Nationalist regime, which continued during the first years after the war ended, earned Franco more reproach than any other single aspect of his rule.