Spanish History · Chronicle IX of X

Francoist Spain

El Caudillo

Thirty-six years of dictatorship, from the Years of Hunger to the death of Franco.

Span: 1939 – 1975
Entries: 13
Next: Democratic Spain & the Modern Era

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Entry 1 of 13

1939
VictoryPolitical
Franco's victory parade in Madrid
On 1 April the Caudillo declares the war over. On 19 May, two hundred thousand victorious troops march down the Castellana of Madrid before Franco on a tribune of laurel and oak — the great rite of Nationalist Spain. The dictatorship is in place; the long repression begins.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1940
Years of HungerPolitical
Hendaye and the Years of Hunger
On 23 October at the railway station of Hendaye on the French border, Franco meets Hitler for nine hours and refuses to commit Spain to the war on terms Berlin can afford. Behind him, autarky and rationing plunge the country into the Años del Hambre — the Years of Hunger.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1946
International isolationPolitical
The United Nations condemns the regime
On 12 December the General Assembly resolves that the Franco regime is a fascist holdover, recommends the withdrawal of ambassadors, and bars Spain from the specialised agencies of the new United Nations. Spain stands alone in western Europe; only Portugal, Ireland, the Vatican, and Argentina keep envoys in Madrid.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1953
Pact of MadridPolitical
The Pact of Madrid and the Concordat
On 27 August the United States and Spain sign the Pact of Madrid, opening four great American bases — Torrejón, Zaragoza, Morón, Rota — in exchange for economic and military aid. On the same day, a Concordat with the Vatican consecrates the National-Catholic order at home.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1956
End of empire in AfricaPolitical
Independence of Morocco
On 7 April, by joint Franco-Spanish agreement with Mohammed V, Spain renounces the protectorate over northern Morocco — twenty-eight thousand square kilometres and a million subjects. The colonial holdings that had defined the regime's military caste begin to dissolve.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1959
Stabilisation PlanPolitical
The Stabilisation Plan; ETA founded
On 21 July, on the urging of IMF economists and the technocrats of Opus Dei in the cabinet, Spain devalues the peseta and opens to foreign trade and investment. On 31 July, a group of young Basque nationalists in Bilbao announces the founding of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna — ETA, Basque Country and Liberty.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1963
RepressionPolitical
The execution of Julián Grimau
On 20 April, after a court-martial closed to the public and over the personal protest of Pope John XXIII and the Italian, French, and British governments, the Communist leader Julián Grimau is shot in the back at Carabanchel for crimes alleged to have been committed during the Civil War.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1966
DesarrollismoCultural
The Press Law and the long boom
Manuel Fraga's Press Law of 18 March abolishes prior censorship in favour of post-publication 'consequences', and the Spanish press — Cuadernos para el Diálogo, Triunfo, the new Madrid — opens a measure of public debate for the first time since 1939. Tourism reaches sixteen million visitors a year; rural Spain emigrates to the cities and to northern Europe.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1969
SuccessionPolitical
Juan Carlos named successor
On 22 July, by Organic Law, the Cortes ratifies Franco's nomination of the thirty-one-year-old Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón — grandson of Alfonso XIII — as future king. Don Juan, Juan Carlos's father, denounces the move from his exile in Estoril; the Falangist 'bunker' is no happier.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1970
Burgos TrialPolitical
The Burgos Trial
In December, sixteen Basque militants of ETA — six of them facing the death penalty — are tried before a military court in Burgos for the killing of the police inspector Melitón Manzanas. Protests sweep western Europe; Franco, after a fortnight of agitation, commutes the death sentences on Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1973
Operation OgrePolitical
ETA assassinates Carrero Blanco
On 20 December, an ETA commando in Madrid detonates eighty kilos of explosive in a tunnel beneath the Calle Claudio Coello and blows the car of the prime minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, over a five-storey building. Franco loses his designated political heir; the regime loses its centre of gravity.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1975
Final crisisPolitical
The last executions; the Green March
On 27 September, five anti-Franco militants — three of the FRAP and two of ETA — are garrotted or shot at Carabanchel, Burgos, and Barcelona, despite worldwide pleas from Pope Paul VI and fifteen European governments. In early November, three hundred and fifty thousand unarmed Moroccans cross into the Spanish Sahara — Hassan II's Green March — while Franco lies dying.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1975
Death of the CaudilloPolitical
Franco dies in his bed
At 4.40 in the morning of 20 November, Francisco Franco Bahamonde dies at his hospital bed in El Pardo, after a five-week struggle with peritonitis and Parkinson's disease. He is eighty-two years old; he has ruled Spain for thirty-six years.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
5 more entries, to 1975

Francoist Spain

Franco's victory parade in Madrid

Hendaye and the Years of Hunger

The United Nations condemns the regime

The Pact of Madrid and the Concordat

Independence of Morocco

The Stabilisation Plan; ETA founded

The execution of Julián Grimau

The Press Law and the long boom

Juan Carlos named successor

The Burgos Trial

ETA assassinates Carrero Blanco

The last executions; the Green March

Franco dies in his bed