Key Terms of the Franco Dictatorship in Spain

Posted on Apr 28, 2025 in History

Key Definitions from Francoist Spain

Generalísimo of the Armies
Title received by Francisco Franco during his dictatorship, signifying his role as the supreme commander of the armed forces.
Caudillo
Title adopted by Franco during his dictatorship, meaning ‘leader’ or ‘chieftain’, signifying his supreme political authority, akin to a head of state.
Dictatorship
Political system under Franco where all power was concentrated in his hands, establishing a dictatorial regime.
FET y de las JONS
Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista. The only political party permitted during the Franco dictatorship; an extreme-right party initially founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
Blue Division (División Azul)
Unit of Spanish volunteers who fought alongside the German army on the Eastern Front during World War II.
International Isolation
Period of diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on Spain by many countries due to the dictatorial nature of the Franco regime following World War II.
Concordat with the Vatican (1953)
An agreement signed between Franco’s Spain and the Vatican, granting the Catholic Church significant privileges and marking a step towards ending Spain’s international isolation.
Pact of Madrid (Treaty with the United States, 1953)
A collaboration agreement signed between the United States and Spain, allowing the US to establish military bases in Spain in exchange for economic and military aid.
Autarky
An economic policy aiming for national self-sufficiency, relying solely on the country’s own resources. Practiced in the early Franco period.
INI (Instituto Nacional de Industria)
National Institute of Industry, a state-owned holding company created to promote industrial development and state control over key industries.
Rationing (Racionamiento)
System involving ration cards issued to the population to control the limited amount of essential goods, especially food, that could be purchased per person during the post-war autarky period.
Black Market (Estraperlo)
Illegal trade of goods, especially rationed items like food, often sold clandestinely at highly inflated prices to circumvent state controls and taxes.
Sección Femenina
The women’s branch of the Falange, directed by Pilar Primo de Rivera. It aimed to promote National Syndicalist ideology and traditional gender roles among women.
Technocrats
Ministers, often linked to the lay Catholic organization Opus Dei, who entered the government from the late 1950s onwards to implement economic liberalization and development policies.
Opus Dei
An institution within the Catholic Church, founded in Spain, composed of both clergy and lay members. Members held influential positions in Franco’s later governments.
National Movement (Movimiento Nacional)
The official designation for the coalition of political forces and institutions that supported the Franco regime, serving as the sole legal political structure after the unification decree of 1937.
Organic Democracy (Democracia Orgánica)
The regime’s term for its political system, presented as an alternative to liberal parliamentary democracy. It denied individual political freedoms and free trade unions, with representation based on corporate bodies (family, municipality, syndicate) rather than universal suffrage for parliament.
Stabilization Plan (1959)
A crucial economic reform plan aimed at ending autarky, stabilizing the currency, controlling inflation, and opening the Spanish economy to international trade and investment.
Development Plans (Planes de Desarrollo)
Economic plans implemented from the 1960s onwards, guided by technocrats, which sought to promote industrial development and reduce regional economic imbalances across Spain.
Social Security (Seguridad Social)
A state-run collective system established and expanded during the Franco regime to provide workers with protection against risks such as unemployment, sickness, disability, old age, and death.
Censorship
Strict state control over all forms of public expression, including press, publications, radio, film, and theatre, to suppress dissent and promote the regime’s ideology.
Migration
Significant movement of people, both internally (from rural areas to cities) and externally (emigration to other European countries for work), particularly during the period of economic development.
Execution of Lluís Companys
The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Spanish Republic. Arrested by the Gestapo in occupied France in 1940, he was handed over to Franco’s authorities and executed by firing squad.
Maquis
Anti-Franco guerrilla fighters, often former Republican soldiers, who continued armed resistance against the dictatorship, particularly in mountainous regions, hoping Allied victory in World War II would lead to Franco’s overthrow.
CCOO (Comisiones Obreras)
Workers’ Commissions, a clandestine trade union movement that emerged in the 1960s, challenging the official Francoist syndicates and becoming a major force in the labor and anti-Franco opposition.
Assembly of Catalonia (Assemblea de Catalunya)
A unitary body established in 1971, bringing together various democratic opposition forces in Catalonia around four basic demands: Freedom, Amnesty, Statute of Autonomy, and Coordination with other democratic forces in Spain.
Oil Crisis (1973)
The global energy crisis triggered by the OPEC oil embargo, which abruptly ended the period of sustained economic growth (‘Spanish miracle’) and led to a deep economic recession in Spain during the final years of the dictatorship and the transition.
Assassination of Carrero Blanco (1973)
The bombing assassination of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco’s Prime Minister and designated successor, carried out by the Basque separatist group ETA. This event significantly impacted the regime’s succession plans.
Western Sahara Conflict
Conflict arising during the decolonization of the Spanish Sahara. Spain withdrew in 1975 following pressure from Morocco (including the ‘Green March’) and Mauritania, leading to a long-standing conflict involving the Sahrawi independence movement (Polisario Front).
Political Reform Law (Ley para la Reforma Política, 1976)
A fundamental law approved by the Francoist Cortes and a subsequent referendum, which effectively dismantled the Francoist political structure and paved the way for the transition to democracy by establishing a system based on universal suffrage for electing a new bicameral parliament (Congress of Deputies and Senate).