Spain After the Civil War: Franco’s Dictatorship and Autarky
In the late 1940s, intervention by the administration blocked economic growth, reduced competitiveness, and caused a decline from the heyday of the European economy.
In the 1950s, economic stabilization occurred, and development would come in the 1960s.
Foreign policy was marked by the beginning of World War II, just months after the end of the Civil War. Initially (1940-1941), Spain declared itself neutral but sympathized with the Berlin-Rome Axis, as Germany and Italy had provided military aid to the rebels during the Spanish War. Hitler and Mussolini pressured Franco to enter the war, holding interviews with him at Hendaye (Doc. 3) and Bordighera. However, Franco demanded substantial compensation, which Hitler deemed too high, so Spain did not enter the war. From 1941 to 1943, Spain was neutral, not a belligerent country. Troops were sent to occupy Tangier, and the Blue Division of volunteers fought alongside German troops in the occupation of Russia. From 1943 to 1945, as the war turned against the Axis powers, Spain returned to neutrality, reducing propaganda for Germany and withdrawing the Blue Division.
After the war, with the prospect of German victory gone, the worst times for the regime began. The Allies held the Potsdam Conference, which stated that Franco was a product of Axis support and should be overthrown by peaceful means. Also, in 1946, the United Nations denounced Franco’s dictatorship as unrepresentative of the Spanish people (Doc. 4) and prevented Spain’s entry into the UN, recommending that “all members of the United Nations immediately remove their ambassadors… in Madrid.”
From 1947, international relations improved due to the support of anti-communist powers during the Cold War, fostering relations with the United States. In 1950, the UN authorized member countries to resume diplomatic relations with Spain.
Situation in Spain After the Civil War
(Postwar)
The Nationalist victory in the Civil War led to the establishment of Franco’s dictatorship. During the war’s final years, he undertook intensive legislative work, nullifying Republican laws and establishing the ideological underpinnings that marked his domestic policy and the institutions to carry it out.
The most important principles that marked the ideology (Doc. 1) of the totalitarian state were three:
– National Catholicism: The state declared itself confessional and abolished all secular legislation of the Republic. “…Paladin of one faith…”
– National Syndicalism: The Falange provided Franco with the rationale: anti-liberal (“political irresponsibility of the liberal parties…”), anti-Marxist (“…threatened by purple-communists.”), and undemocratic (“…that the people, following him, leads the way…”), inspired by Italian fascism in the organization of the corporate state, controlled by a single party and union. The only permitted party was the “National Movement” (“…the unity of our Crusade…”), and a vertical union, controlled by the single party, encompassed both employers and workers.
– National Patriotism: Military ideology contributed a unitarian and traditionalist vision of Spain. The defense of the motherland’s integrity was the government’s priority (“You have to weld the people together…. It takes half a century of separation…”), whose motto was “One, Great, and Free.”
The main institutions of the Franco regime were, firstly, Franco himself, who held all power as Head of State, Head of Government, Head of the Armed Forces (Generalissimo), and Head of the Party (Caudillo). Secondly, there were organizations like the Council of Ministers, the General Secretariat of the Movement, the Courts, the National Defense Board, etc., and a series of Fundamental Laws developed after the war ended, forming the regime’s ideology and acting as a substitute for a constitution (the Labour Law, Spanish Forum, the Law of Succession, and the Law of the State, etc.).
After the war, there was a large decrease in population due to fighting (killed and maimed) and repression (prisoners and exiles). Agrarian and industrial production was much lower than in 1935, gold reserves and foreign exchange were depleted, and the transport network was deteriorating. The postwar period began with autarky, an economic system under which a nation aims to be self-sufficient, surviving on its own resources with minimal trade and rejecting foreign capital (Doc. 2). To achieve this, the administration took measures to intervene in both internal trade (arbitrarily fixing prices) and external trade (“…Abolish imports which are not indispensable. (…) Intensify our exports…”), as well as in industry, creating the INI. The consequences were negative, leading to rising prices, product shortages, rationing, and a thriving black market.