Francisco Franco, born in Galicia, Spain, in 1892, remains one of the most controversial and consequential figures in modern Spanish history. Rising through the ranks of the Spanish army, he gained early recognition during Spain’s campaigns in Morocco. At that time Spain controlled territories in northern Morocco, and the Spanish army was engaged in violent colonial campaigns against Berber resistance in the Rif. Franco distinguished himself during this period for his strict discipline, and these campaigns helped him build a reputation as a tough, ambitious officer. By the 1930s, he had become one of the youngest generals in Europe and a figure trusted by conservative and monarchist sectors of Spain.

Franco’s place in history was cemented by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (la Guerra Civil Española) in July 1936. Following a failed coup against the Second Republic (la Segunda República), a democratic government that had ruled from 1931 to 1939, Franco emerged as the leader of the Nationalist faction (los Nacionales). The Republic had introduced reforms including secular schooling, land redistribution, women’s suffrage and greater recognition of regional autonomy, which angered conservative, monarchist and Catholic groups. With the backing of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Franco’s forces gradually secured control over Spain through a brutal conflict that lasted until 1939. The Civil War became a proxy battlefield for competing ideologies of fascism, communism and democracy, while Spain itself descended into devastation. The bombing of Guernica by German planes, immortalised in Picasso’s mural, became a global symbol of the war’s brutality. Franco’s leadership, marked by ruthlessness and discipline, allowed him to unify disparate right-wing factions and by 1939 he was able to proclaim victory.

Once in power, Franco established a dictatorship (la dictadura franquista) that would last until his death in 1975. His regime was defined by authoritarianism, nationalism and repression. All political parties were banned. The only legal political organisation was a single state-controlled party created in 1937 when Franco forcibly merged the Falange with Carlist groups to form FET y de las JONS (Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista). Independent trade unions were dismantled and censorship was enforced across media, education and the arts. Tens of thousands of political opponents were executed or imprisoned in the immediate aftermath of the war, in what became known as the “White Terror” (el Terror Blanco). Franco’s Spain sought to erase the legacy of la Segunda República and its reforms in secular education, land redistribution and regional autonomy. In its place he promoted a rigid conservative Catholic identity that was deliberately entwined with the state. Under el nacionalcatolicismo, the Catholic Church regained sweeping authority over education, morality and family life, while secular or dissenting beliefs were marginalised or banned.

Franco’s dictatorship also imposed a harsh vision of national unity that came at the expense of Spain’s rich regional diversity. El catalán, el euskera y el gallego were excluded from schools and official use, and severely restricted in cultural and media spheres, as Castilian Spanish was imposed as the country’s sole official language. Symbols of regional identity were suppressed, and any assertion of local autonomy was treated as a threat to the unity of the state. It was an irony not lost on later generations that Franco himself was Galician, yet he worked systematically to silence the very language and culture of his own birthplace.

Economically, Spain followed a policy of autarky (la autarquía), meaning it tried to be entirely self-sufficient and cut off from international trade. This policy led to shortages of food and goods, widespread poverty and long-term stagnation. Only in the 1960s, under the influence of technocratic ministers, did limited modernisation begin to open the Spanish economy, though for ordinary Spaniards the decades of Franco’s rule remained associated with censorship, fear and the absence of political freedoms.

When Franco died in 1975, he left behind a country that had been shaped by nearly four decades of authoritarian control. His successor, King Juan Carlos I, surprised many by steering Spain towards democracy, beginning the period known as la Transición. Franco’s shadow, however, has not entirely disappeared. His remains were originally interred in the monumental site of el Valle de los Caídos outside Madrid, beneath a giant cross built in part by forced labour. Shockingly, some continued to make pilgrimages there. In 2019 Franco’s body was removed, and in 2022 the site was officially renamed el Valle de Cuelgamuros in an effort to reframe it as a place of remembrance for the victims of the Civil War. Even so, the site remains deeply contested, symbolising both the persistence of Francoist nostalgia and Spain’s struggle with its historical memory.

Francisco Franco’s role in Spanish history cannot be separated from the violence of la Guerra Civil Española or the authoritarianism of la dictadura franquista. His impact on Spain’s regional identities, its cultural life and its political memory continues to shape debates about history and identity today, ensuring that his legacy is remembered as one of division, repression and authoritarian rule.