The Francisco Franco Regime: The Spanish Civil War

The Francisco Franco authoritarian regime lasted from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 until Francisco Franco’s death in 1975. Spain in the early 1930s had “become a free, democratic country” (87) but this would change. The origins of Franco’s power begins with the bloody Spanish Civil War. The Franco supported Nationalists versus the Pro-Democratic Republicans.

The origins of Franco to being the caudillo or the supreme leader of Spain start with Franco rising through the ranks in his military career. According to Stanley G. Payne’s work The Franco Regime 1936-1975 “by the end of the 1920s, Franco a military hero had become a prominent part of the military establishment” (57). Franco was swiftly promoted to Major General and the Head of the Ministry of War because he found himself in

Franco’s “relations with the party were excellent” and was able systematically to advance in the ranks with the “electoral victory of the center-right near the end of 1933” (78). Under the center-right administration, Franco became the “number one general of the republic” (79). Economic and political turmoil plagued the administration and were threatened with the collapse in December 1936. Payne describes that “various small groups of the military, officers began to plot against the government” (82). In particular, the right-radical party led the Falangist supported by Franco “began to conspire against the Republican system” (83). Shortly, Franco was named head of the Nationalist movement and Generalísimo of the military.

Franco’s regime came to power during the Spanish Civil War, eliminating members that did not support the regime’s movement. The military rebellion and repression led by Franco and the Falangist “was not carried out directly by the army, but by the Civil Guard and