Franco’s Dictatorship in Spain: 1939-1959
Introduction
The Franco dictatorship began in 1936 and emerged after the Civil War, extending throughout Spain. Franco concentrated all the powers in his person: Head of State, Generalissimo of the Army, Prime Minister, and leader of the only party. The first stage of the dictatorship (1939-1959) was characterized by autarky, the rationing of a long war, external isolation, and ferocious repression.
1. Ideological Foundations and Social Support
The new regime had very clear ideological foundations: traditionalism, anti-parliamentarism, national-Catholicism, “defending the unity of the Fatherland” (extreme centralism), and anti-communism. The key element was the military dictatorship. Franco established his new regime on the landowner and financial oligarchy, which regained its social hegemony, which it held in the Restoration and had lost in the Second Republic. The rural middle class of the North and Castile were influenced by Catholicism, which assumed a huge ideological role. In contrast, the urban middle classes and working classes did not support the dictatorship, but they would form the opposition. The dictatorship was based on the strict prohibition of political parties, coupled with a brutal crackdown against those who had supported the Republic. In 1937, a single party was established, the FET de las JONS, called the National Movement. However, there were “political families”, that is, the memory of the parties that had supported the coup. Franco evenly distributed them in his governments, and they, in turn, tried to influence the course of the regime.
Falangists
Their main function was to control the social and economic life of the country through institutions of the regime (Youth Front, Women’s Section, and Union Organization: vertical union). When the Axis started to suffer losses from 1943, they took a more secondary role. (Dismissal of Serrano Súñer in 1942)
Military
Subordinate to Franco, they were the real political power.
Catholics
The church recovered more than its economic power and became the main ideological support, despite being under the authority of the leader.
Royalists
After the end of World War II, the Carlists went on to take a secondary role. Although Franco refused to relinquish the head of state to Don Juan de Borbón, many monarchists collaborated with the dictatorship, especially during the early years of the regime.
2. Political and International Situation (1939-1959)
a) The Institutionalization of the Regime: The Organic Laws
The dictator assumed the constitutional role. Gradually, the regime approved several organizational laws, which made up what came to be called the Fundamental Laws of the Movement:
- Prohibition of free trade unions. Following the fascist model, the union was set as the union monopoly controlled by the Falange. [Labor Law, 1938, during the Civil War]. These laws lasted until the dictator’s death.
- The Court was elected by indirect suffrage based on various corporations: the family, the municipality, and the union. In practice, it was fully rigged elections, and elected representatives were sought by the regime. [Constitutive Act of the Parliament, 1942]
- The Charter of the Spanish [1945]: A theoretical bill of rights and duties imbued with the Catholic traditionalist mentality. It posed no real recognition of political or social rights.
- The National Referendum Act allowed the head of state to call referendums for the people to endorse a law [1945].
- Spain was declared a “kingdom,” and Franco reserved the power to propose his successor. This law was a major disappointment to the monarchists who dreamed Franco would fuel a return to the throne of Don Juan. [Law of Succession to the Head of State, 1946]
b) Hunger and Repression in the Postwar Period
During the forties and early fifties, the “Years of Famine” continued.
There was food rationing until 1952. The black market, known as “Estraperlo”, extended in parallel for all types of products. This smuggling of goods became the only means to achieve great wealth for a few on how to get rich quickly. Social life was marked by corruption. For any employment or service, one had to have contacts with bureaucrats or recommendations.
Postwar repression provided an atmosphere of general terror directed against the vanquished. This was the real strategy of domination of the Franco regime from the beginning to the end to get total subjugation. The number of political prisoners was so large (1/4 of a million) that concentration camps had to be enabled throughout the country. The executions were counted by the tens of thousands. [The Law of Political Responsibilities, February 1939]. This fear explains the weakness of the opposition and the survival of the dictatorship for years.
c) The Internal Political Conflicts in the Decade of the 50s
After the terror and paralysis of the country during the forties, the first protests of the opposition appeared in the fifties:
Since the 1950s, worker protests spread, followed by several strikes. In 1956, several incidents took place at the university in Madrid.
However, this revival of the opposition had a very slight impact. The most important politically for the period was the access of many Opus Dei ministers to the government in 1957. This addition was the prelude to the 1959 economic reform that would bring economic liberalization and the development of the sixties.
Political paralysis was established in 1958 with the adoption of the Law on Principles of the National Movement.
3. Foreign Policy: From Isolation to International Recognition
a) The Immediate Postwar Years During World War II
Just after the civil war ended, Franco announced his adherence to the anti-communist agreement that associated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Japan.
In October 1940, after the Nazi invasion of France, a meeting took place between Franco and Hitler (Hendaye) that was about to introduce our country into the world conflict. Finally, it did not. Hitler did not accept the ambitious claims of Franco on French Morocco, and the incorporation into the war of a country exhausted was not of great interest to the Axis. However, to show their support for the fascist powers, Spain sent the Blue Division to fight alongside Nazi troops on the Russian front from 1941. The Gestapo gave Franco many Spanish exiles; others were sent to concentration camps. During these years, the activity of the “Maquis” guerrillas was mainly active, but it began to subside after the disappointment at the abandonment of the allies.
The defeats of the Axis made Franco begin a cautious shift in his foreign policy, seeking conciliation with the allied countries, starting in 1942. The dismissal of Serrano Súñer (Phalange) shows this change in attitude.
b) International Isolation [1945-50] and Changes Within the Regime
In 1946, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted against the entry of Spain, considered an ally of the recently defeated fascist powers.
This international condemnation was followed by years of economic isolation (autarky) and political isolation. However, the U.S. was trying not to break completely with a regime that could be its ally in the Cold War that had just started. Nevertheless, Spain did not receive any help from the Marshall Plan and was not admitted into NATO or the EEC.
While the dictatorship sought to wash its international image, reducing the prominence of the Falange and all symbols that recalled the Axis powers. In parallel, the Catholics got closer to the dictatorship. The support of the Holy See was essential to get out of international isolation.
c) The End of Isolation: The Agreement with the U.S.
We can say that the beginning of the Cold War saved the Franco regime. The hostility toward the USSR caused a shift in the U.S.’s international position. Inside, these were the times of the anti-communist hysteria promoted by Senator McCarthy.
In 1950, the UN, under U.S. authority, recommended the end of diplomatic isolation of Spain. In 1953, bilateral agreements were signed with the United States, which allowed the installation of U.S. military bases in Spain (Torrejón de Ardoz, Zaragoza, Morón, and Rota). In return, Spain received U.S. economic aid. Also, in that year, the Concordat was signed between Spain and the Holy See.
The end of international isolation was clearly outlined by the visit of U.S. President Eisenhower to Spain in 1959. The embrace between the general who had intervened decisively in defeating Hitler and the dictator showed how the Cold War had changed international politics.
4. Exile
At the end of the civil war, about 400,000 people left Spain through the Pyrenees to France or through Mediterranean ports to North Africa, forced to flee for fear of reprisals by the victors and the dictatorial regime. The refugees had to face harsh living conditions that were aggravated by the outbreak of World War II. Although some of them returned in the following years, just over half of all politicians, officials, veterans, and intellectuals remained in exile. However, there were also civilians, including a number of children who were the first to be evacuated. Once in France, the Gestapo gave Franco many Spanish exiles; others were sent to concentration camps [especially to Mauthausen in Austria, where 16,000 Spaniards died]. During these years, the activity of the “Maquis” guerrillas was mainly active, and they actively participated in the liberation of France from Nazi occupation. Guerrilla activity also took place in the Spanish mountains but began to subside after the disappointment at the abandonment of the allies in the cause of Spanish democracy. Part of the exiled population went to Latin America, Argentina, or Chile, but especially to Mexico, where the republican government in exile settled at the end of World War II. The clashes and accusations due to the bitterness of defeat contributed to the fragmentation of the political divide. The most active group of exiles who had a clandestine network of contacts within Spain was the PCE, which became the main element of the struggle against Franco.