Franco, Francisco, in full Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Te�dulo Franco Bahamonde 1892-1975
Spanish general and dictator

Franco was born in El Ferrol, Galicia, and graduated from Toledo military academy in 1910. He rose rapidly through the ranks in Spanish Morocco to become Europe's youngest general (1926). He oversaw the repression of the Asturias miners' revolt (1934), and during 1935 served as Chief of Staff. In 1936, at the last moment, he joined the conspiracy against the newly elected Popular Front government, which was launched on 17-18 July; the rebellion led to the Spanish Civil War.

Franco's leadership of the vital Army of Africa, and his close relations with the rebels' Italian and German allies, led to his becoming (September 1936) general�ssimo 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 II, he wanted to join Germany and Italy, but Hitler was not prepared to pay his price of France's north African territories. Franco therefore kept Spain out of the war, but sent the Blue Division to fight in the USSR, and provided Germany with logistical and intelligence support.

In 1947, Franco was declared head of state for life by the reconstituted parliament (Cortes). During the 1950s, his anti-communist stand made possible a rapprochement with the Western powers, the 1953 Bases Agreement with the USA providing Franco with his breakthrough. The greatest paradox of Franco was that he oversaw the modernization of the Spanish economy in the 1950s and 1960s which undermined the political foundations of his police state and prepared it for the transition to democracy. In 1969 he announced that on his death the monarchy would return in the person of Juan Carlos I, grandson of Spain's last ruling king. Franco died in Madrid, and within two years almost every vestige of his dictatorship had disappeared.

Bibliography: Paul Preston, Franco: A Biography (1993); J W D Trythall, El Caudillo: A Political Biography of Franco (1970); Brian Crozier, Franco: A Biographical History (1967).