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The early years of Franco dictatorship (1939-1949)
Franco won the civil war and started a dictatorship (1939-1975). He assumed all powers: head of the government, army and state. There was only one legal party and all rights and freedoms were suppressed.
Fear drove Republicans into exile. Many of those who remained in Spain were imprisoned
condemned to forced labor or executed.
Franco was being supported by the army, the catholic church, land owners, businessmen and part of the middle class. -
Spain in ww2
Even though spain declared itself a neutral state, Franco was favourable to the Axis powers from the beginning. Franco and Hitler met to negotiate an entry for Spain into war, but that never actually happened. After the end of the war, the winner powers tried to cause the fall of Franco's regime. Because of this, they isolated Spain internationally: it was not admitted to the UN and France closed its border with Spain. -
Autarchy.
Franco imposed an economic system called Autarchy, this was created with de main goal of acheaving self sustainance in Spain. Franco did this by contacting the National
Wheat Service and the National Institute of Industry, but his attempt failed and Spain fell into a crisis. By 1940 Spain was in need of the most basic necesities like water, food, clothing..... To solve this the state imposed a rationing of all the needs that had to be covered. -
The Maquis.
These were a group of people that were against the Franco regime. They fought in isolated places like mountains for example.
Stalin didn't like this Spanish guerrilla against communism so in 1948 the Franquist repression intensified and little by little made de guerrillas disappear in 1950. -
Strengthening of the regime and developmentalism (1950-1973)
The Spanish isolation was put down since the US considered Franco and its state an ally. Then the agreement between the Spanish-American friendship and the Holy sea was singed. This allowed military bases installations to be settled in Spain and this was in exchange of economic aid.
Spain was able to join several organizations like: FAO, UNESCO and UN. -
Franco's Death and the end of the dictatorship.
After the death of Franco, Juan Carlos I assumed the role of leader and was crowned king. He wanted to establish a democratic regime in Spain, decided to keep Carlos Arias Navarro as the head of the government. Unfortunately the progress towards the democratic future for Spain was too slow and the opposition showed its discontent in several demonstrations. -
The 1978 constitution.
In 1978 the new constitution was signed and new rules were drafted:
- Spain was declared as a democratic state: the state intervenes in any conflict and laws are there to bind Spanish people.
- Spain is a parliamentary state=the king is the one in charge of the state.
- Separation of powers is established in which the congress and the deputies originate, then the Government, the executive power; and the judges and
magistrates. -
The PSOE governments.
The PSOE won the elections in 1982 with an absolute majority. It has been, the longest a party in the entire democratic has lasted in the history of Spain. Then Spain was in an unstable situation, the democracy was not well established and there was danger of cups being held. Finally in 1996 the democracy was well established in Spain.