Franco’s Spain: Ideology, Support, Politics, and Exile
Franco’s Spain: State Building and International Relations
1. Ideological Foundations of Francoism
Franco’s dictatorship was personal and based on several key principles:
- Centralist Spanish nationalism, rejecting regional nationalisms.
- Strict Catholicism, defining the regime as National Catholicism.
- Historical references to the Catholic Monarchs, the conquest of America, and the Habsburgs.
- Rejection of liberalism, Freemasonry, Jews, socialists, communists, democracy, and the separation of powers.
- Glorification of military values: authority, hierarchy, order, and discipline.
- Traditional conservative values: family, private property, the subordinate role of women, and puritanical sexual morality.
While Franco’s regime shared similarities with fascism (authoritarianism, repression, militarism, economic interventionism), it differed from Italian fascism and Nazism. Key differences included the lack of a cohesive single party, the greater influence of the military and Catholicism, and the absence of racial policies (although it appealed to race and despised Jews).
2. Social Support for Francoism
Franco’s social support base varied over the 40-year dictatorship:
- The Military: Strong and unwavering support, ensuring the regime’s longevity. Many senior political leaders were military officers.
- The Church: Provided public legitimacy. Some sectors, particularly in Catalonia and the Basque Country, were hostile, but the hierarchy distanced itself further after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
- Traditionalists (Carlists) and the Falange: Merged into the Traditionalist Spanish Falange and the National Syndicalist Offensive Boards (FET y de las JONS), later called the “National Movement,” which included the vertical union.
- Landowners, financiers, businessmen, and the rural middle class.
- A silent majority of the Spanish population, who, while not actively supporting the regime, accepted it, especially during the economic development of the 1960s, contributing to its long duration.
3. Political Developments and External Environment
Franco’s regime can be divided into stages:
a) Totalitarian Phase (until 1957)
- The Second World War (1939-1945): Spain initially declared neutrality, shifted to non-belligerency during German successes (supporting the Axis with the “Blue Division” against the USSR), and returned to neutrality in 1942. Domestically, Franco established the courts (a symbolic representative body) and the Charter of the Spanish (a bill of rights, largely non-functional).
- International Isolation (1945-1950): Post-WWII, Spain was isolated due to its ideological proximity to the Axis. It was excluded from the UN, and many countries withdrew their ambassadors (except Argentina). The Law of Succession declared Spain a kingdom with Franco as head of state, able to appoint his successor (Prince Juan Carlos was educated in Spain from 1948).
- Cold War (1950-1959): Spain’s strategic location became important to the U.S. due to the Cold War. The U.S. provided loans, ending Spain’s isolation, leading to UNESCO admission in 1952, and establishing military bases in 1953 in exchange for economic and military aid (Marshall Plan). The Concordat with the Vatican was signed in 1953. Spain joined the UN in 1955, and U.S. President Eisenhower visited in 1959, marking the end of Spain’s international isolation. The Basic Law of the National Movement Principles was enacted in 1958, consolidating the regime.
4. Exile
Spanish Republican exiles were citizens forced to leave Spain during and after the Civil War (1936-1939) due to ideological reasons, fear of reprisals, or the authoritarian regime. Many remained abroad, while others gradually returned as circumstances allowed. A significant number integrated into their host societies.
In 1939, approximately 440,000 refugees fled to France, facing harsh conditions, exacerbated by WWII. While many returned by 1940, around 220,000 remained in “permanent” exile, including ex-combatants, politicians, officials, families, civilians, intellectuals, artists, scientists, teachers, and skilled workers, representing a significant loss for Spain’s reconstruction.
Primary destinations included Argentina, France, and Mexico, with significant groups in Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the Soviet Union, the USA, and the UK.
Political developments in Spain and the transition to democracy gradually allowed exiles to return. However, many chose to remain in their host countries, where they were joined by later economic migrants (from the 1950s) and new exiles persecuted by the dictatorship until 1975.