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Franco took control of Spain since the moment on which they won the war until his death. This government was a forty-year dictatorship after a three-year war that destroyed the country.
In the 60s decade the “economic miracle” brought welfare (a very good situation), but with the economic development, citizens started mobilizing asking for more freedom. Franquist government´s answer was to harden repression.
Finally, franconism entered in decadence at the same time that his life was ending.
Franconism is the name given to a political regime created by Franco General from 1939 to 1975. From its beginning to its end, this regime was a dictatorship. Franco had always all the powers in his hands and he put the limits he wanted. There has not been other authority in Spain with so much power.
Anyway, franconism never existed as an ideology; the regime he created was based upon different external references and it was a synthesis of other ideologies.
Fascism. From the very beginning, Franco appeared in favour of the fascist system and, for that, he counted on two models: Hitler´s German one and Mussolini´s Italian one. From these, he took two characteristics: the title to be called “Caudillo” and unite all people in his favour in only one party, “FET-JONS”: Falange Española Tradicionalista y Juntas de Ofensiva Nacionalista Sindicalista.
The attempt to complete a fascist regime failed due to Franco´s lack of charism and because the party he created was never able to fill its role in society. Due to this, it is not accurate to say that franconism was fascism even when the regime adopted several characteristics of the fascism.
Anticommunism. Communism was used as an excuse to justify the military riot.
Catholicism. Franconism and Catholic Church cooperated from the very beginning to help and justify each other. Church was controlled by Franco and assumed the control of the educative system.
All troops that rioted, united and decided to put them under the control of only one head. They appointed Franco general as Head of the Government because he had conducted the riot since 1936. In this way, Franco kept under his control the military power, all political powers and the capacity of creating and applying laws.
Franco managed to impose his personal dictatorship thanks to the following factors:
Military factors. Franco became general when he was 34. In addition to this, during the republic, he had military duties and he obtained the commandment of the troops of Africa and with them, he was reputed as a highly skilled military stratega.
International factors. Franco was able to establishing negotiations with Italy and Germany and he obtained support from both of them to win the war.
Internal factors. Mola and Sanjurio generals were very famous ans charismatic and both appeared as clear candidates for becoming head of the riot. Franco was a skilled military, but without political preparation and this is why, at the beginning, he was not considered as an appropiate candidate. But during the war, the two first died, so this made things easier for Franco to become Head of the Government.
Democracy, liberalism, communism and any ideology similar to them appeared as an enemy.
After the end of Civil war, Franco assumed all the powers, both in politics and military, and in an absolute way without limits. He managed to maintain his dictatorship for about forty years, because he counted on authoritarians (phalange, carlists, catholics…), church, army, burgeoisie and medium classes.
Militaries, church, phalange and carlists accused democratic Spain of all the problems of the country. This is why franconism eliminated democracy and put only one party: FET-JONS. Phalangists, carlists and monarchists united in that party and they wanted that all citizens would be part of that to indoctrinate them.
Franco´s regime based his success on military victories so he put militaries in some of his governments. Anyway, he never resourced to the army to control the street; he had enough with national police and Civil Guard. Spain became the European Country with more police.
State and Church united to develop what was known as national-catholicism; this is, the ideology that united catholic faith to be Spanish. Franco assumed a radical national-catholic thinking to justify his riot, defining their action as a Holy Crusade and saying that God had chosen Franco to recue Spain. The theory of national-catholicism was that Spain and catholic religion were one.
Spanish nationalism. The contribution of military and Phalange was a strong trend to centralization. Franconism gave to the state a phalangist sense and, in the future, it would be linked to define the Spanish nationalism. He used this idea to fight against Catalan and Basque nationalisms.
In economy and society, he proposed the national-syndicalism. This was anti-capitalist and anti-communist, but Franconism was mixed with capitalism. Private property was allowed, but State directed the economy. As long as society is concerned, Franconism put special stress on the ideological control of young people.
Franco stood in the government for forty years, but we cannot forget that he counted on the support of some institutions and social groups.
Catholic church was the main support of Franconism. From the very beginning, they justified the sublevation by saying it was a crusade to defeat the enemies without faith. On exchange of that, they obtained some privileges that included not only economic support, but also a great influence in education. Being the state confessional, religious institutions in education and religious schools became official and religion was a compulsory subject. In addition to this, religion was used as a way of exercising moral control and strong censorship.