biography
| name: |
Franco (Bahamonde), Francisco
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popular name el Caudillo (‘the leader’)
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pronunciation:
[frangkoh]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1892–1975)
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| biography:
| Spanish general and dictator (1936–75), born in El Ferrol, Galicia, NW Spain. He graduated from Toledo military academy in 1910, acquired extensive combat experience in Morocco, and by 1926 was Spain's youngest general. During the Second Republic (1931–6), he led the repression of the Asturias miners' revolt (1934), and in 1935 served as chief-of-staff. In 1936 he belatedly joined the conspiracy against the Popular Front government (elected Feb 1936) which on 17–18 July launched the rebellion from which the Spanish Civil War (1936–9) resulted. Franco's leadership of the vital Army of Africa, and his close relations with the rebels' Italian and German allies, led to his becoming (Sep 1936) generalísimo of the rebel forces and chief of the Nationalist state. Between October 1936 and April 1939 he led the Nationalists to victory, and presided over the construction of an authoritarian regime that endured until his death. During World War 2, he initially stood close to Germany and Italy, opting (1940) for nonbelligerency rather than neutrality, having offered in October 1940 to fight on the side of Hitler, who did not want to expend resources on Spain. He kept Spain out of the war, while making Spanish submarine bases and other facilities available to the Nazis; but from 1943 he shrewdly distanced himself from the Axis. During the 1950s, his anti-Communism made possible a rapprochement with the Western powers. In 1969 he announced that upon his death the monarchy would return in the person of Juan Carlos, grandson of Spain's last ruling king. Within two years of Franco's death, almost every vestige of his dictatorship had disappeared. |
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