Franco’s Regime in Spain: Early Years

Posted on Jan 14, 2025 in History

Item 10.1 of the Franco Dictatorship (1939-1975)

1. First Franco (1939-1959): Ideological Foundation and Political Developments

A) The Scheme of Franco

1. Ideological Foundations of the Dictatorship

The regime was characterized by a personal dictatorship, but it had ideological components:

  • Anticommunism
  • Anti-parliamentarism and anti-liberalism: Parliamentary democracy was identified with the anti-Spanish and Marxism.
  • National-Catholicism: The Church held absolute dominance, and its control of education was complete.
  • Traditionalism: This feature extolled the values of the Reconquista and the rule of the Habsburgs.

There was strict centralism. The scheme had militaristic and fascist traits.

2. The Social Foundations of the Dictatorship

The dictatorship restored the oligarchy and financial hegemony. They were the main beneficiaries of the interventionist economy. The Franco regime had the support of the rural middle classes. By contrast, among laborers and industrial workers, the dictatorship had little support.

3. Political Families

Franco sought partners among ideological groups, the first of which consisted of the Falange, with Franco as its leader. In the early years, the military was another family of the Falange, but they never formed a pressure group. The third group was Catholics. Monarchists also cooperated, though fighting the regime. Finally, there were those who kept pure loyalty to the dictator, Franco.

B) Political Developments: The Construction of the Scheme

1. The Scheme for the Second World War: The Rise and Fall of Fascism to Serrano Suñer, Foreign Policy During the War

The most relevant figure of the regime was Suñer, who was responsible for designing a fascist state or national syndicalism. The regime’s foreign policy during the Second World War took shape in a position of non-belligerence.

2. The Rise of Catholics: Carrero and National-Catholicism

Since 1945, the political influence of Catholics in the Franco government increased, and a national stage of Catholicism was launched, which emphasized Carrero Blanco.

3. Fundamental Laws of the 1940s
  • The Constitutive Law of the Courts (1942), by which it established a consultative assembly theoretically representing families, unions, and municipalities.
  • The Jurisdiction of the Spanish (1945) collected fundamental rights and duties devised by the dictator.
  • The National Referendum Act (1945) provided the possibility of a referendum.
  • The Law of Succession to the Head of State (1947) granted Franco the prerogative to appoint his successor.
4. International Isolation (1945-1950)

The scheme was condemned by the UN, and the country was blocked diplomatically and economically. The blockade was broken by the Argentine government and U.S. banks shortly afterward. Later, the Cold War and anticommunism caused a relaxation in the blockade.

5. Policy Implications of the Failure of Autarky

The policy of state interventionism sought economic self-sufficiency. Severe shortages of products caused the first social protests and the first strikes.

C) The Consolidation of the Regime (1951-1959)

1. The End of Isolation: The Agreements with the U.S. and the Holy See, Admission to the UN
  • Mutual defense pacts with the U.S. during the Cold War, anti-interest. The treaty meant Spain’s military integration into the Western bloc in exchange for major diplomatic support and economic aid.
  • The Concordat with the Holy See is devoted to church-state union and mutual interference.
  • Membership in the UN.
2. Political Conflicts Between Families
  • Struggle between Catholic Falangists and Franco’s arbitration.
  • New Catholics: the technocrats of Opus Dei.
  • Triumph of Catholic and monarchical families against the Falange and military: toward economic liberalization. Carrero finally decided to tilt in favor of the technocrats and the monarchists.
3. Progress in the Institutionalization of the Regime: The Law of Fundamental Principles of the Movement (1958)
  • There is the institutionalization of the system, removing pseudo-fascist items and organizing bureaucracy and the operation of a regulatory mode.
  • The Law of Principles of the Movement defined the Franco dictatorship as conservative, even assuming capitalism economically. The scheme is defined as a traditional, Catholic, social, and representative monarchy.