Postwar Spain 1939-1959: Franco’s Regime and Economic Policies

Posted on Dec 12, 2024 in History

Postwar Spain, 1939-1959: Political, Social, and Economic Issues

Political Aspects: The Consolidation of the New State

After the Civil War, Franco introduced a military dictatorship in Spain, abolishing liberal inspiration, parliamentarism, and communism.

A. The Organization of the New State

  • Concentration of Power:
    • Franco established a totalitarian state model, a combination of a fascist state, a military dictatorship, and an absolute monarchy without a king.
    • Franco assumed all powers: Chief of State, Prime Minister, “Leader of Spain,” and Generalissimo of the armies.
  • Fundamental Laws:
    • The dictator abolished the Republican Constitution of 1931, banned all political parties and class unions, and revoked the statutes of autonomy of Catalonia and the Basque Country.
    • The Franco regime was based on these Fundamental Laws:
      1. Labor Charter (1938): Established vertical unions, prohibited strikes and labor grievances.
      2. Law of the Courts (1942): A tool for collaboration in the legislative work of the head of state.
      3. Charter of the Spanish People (1945): A sort of declaration of rights, provided they did not clash with the fundamental principles of the state.
      4. The National Referendum Act (1945)
      5. The Law of Succession (1947): Allowed Franco to appoint a successor with the title of king.
      6. Act of Principles of the Movement (1958): A synthesis of all the above.
  • Organization of Association:
    • Courts
    • Civil Governors
    • Captains General

B. The Pillars of the Regime

Franco based his political regime on three pillars:

  • The Church: In return for its support, the Church became the principal basis of the Franco regime’s ideology, greatly influenced the educational system, and the Catholic religion was imposed as the sole official religion.
  • The Falange: The single party, which gradually lost power.
  • The Army: The backbone of the regime, it never questioned the Generalissimo’s power.
  • Important social sectors supported the regime, including: large landowners, the high industrial and financial bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, and the Catholic peasantry of northern and central Spain.

C. Ideological Puritanism and Social Control

The Franco regime was not only a political system but also an ideology with full control of the media, through advertising, influencing: everyday life, cultural and religious behavior, the formation of youth and women, education, and religious practices.

D. The Repression of the Opposition

The Law of Political Responsibilities (1939) served for the total purging of those who remained faithful to the Republic through: military trials with death penalties, civil judgments against members of parties and trade unions that remained banned in Spain, and the purging of professionals and officials from their jobs.

E. The Franco Regime and International Politics

  • Spain’s Position During World War II: During this war, the Franco regime, allied with Nazi-fascist powers, went from being neutral to non-belligerent, and back to neutral when Germany began losing the war.
  • The International Isolation of the Franco Regime: Between 1945 and 1946, the regime remained isolated for having supported the Nazi-fascist powers that lost World War II. In December 1946, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the withdrawal of ambassadors accredited in Madrid as a measure of pressure to encourage political change and bring democracy to Spain.

Social and Economic Aspects

After the Civil War, the Spanish working population had been markedly reduced, agricultural and industrial production was much lower than in 1935, gold and currency reserves were gone, and transportation was in bad shape. The postwar period is divided into two phases:

1st Phase, 1939-1950: Autarky, Misery, and Rationing

  • The 1940s were years of famine for the Spanish population. It was the era of rationing: the prices of staples (bread, rice, potatoes, oil) were fixed by the administration, which was the only one that could sell to families who had ration cards. As rationing did not cover family needs, people had to resort to the black market, where black marketeers sold goods for double or triple the appraised price.
  • In those years, the regime based its economic policy on autarky, avoiding imports of foreign goods at all costs, and covering the population’s needs with Spanish products.
  • The state intervened in the economy:
    • Imports and exports were controlled by the government.
    • Railways were nationalized with the creation of RENFE.
    • The INI (National Institute of Industry) was composed of public companies such as Iberia, SEAT, etc.

2nd Phase, 1951-1956: The First Attempts at Opening

  • Autarky was a failure, so from the beginning, Spain had to import food to alleviate hunger. In the 1950s, there was no choice but to start liberalizing the Spanish economy by opening it to the outside.
  • In 1953, the Franco dictatorship was formally recognized by:
    • The Catholic Church, by signing a concordat that recognized its privileged position in Spain.
    • The USA, by signing treaties of military and economic aid in return for which Spain allowed the installation of military bases that could be used by the Americans in case of an attack from the USSR to the West, without the permission of the Spanish government.