The Voie Sacrée ("Sacred Way") is a road that connects Bar-le-Duc to Verdun ( Meuse ), France . It was given its name because of the vital role it played during the Battle of Verdun in World War I .
93-527: After March 1916, along the 72 km (45 mi) of the "Voie Sacrée", transport vehicles were on the move day and night ferrying troops, armaments, and supplies to the Verdun battlefield. During the initial crisis of 21 February to 22 March, 600 trucks per day had already delivered 48,000 tons of ammunition, 6,400 tons of other material and 263,000 men to the battlefield. Beginning on 21 February, all horse drawn traffic and troop movements on foot had been ordered off
186-403: A Castilian -centric unitary national identity by repressing Spain's cultural diversity. Bullfighting and flamenco were promoted as national traditions, while those traditions not considered Spanish were suppressed. Franco's view of Spanish tradition was somewhat artificial and arbitrary: while some regional traditions were suppressed, Flamenco, an Andalusian tradition, was considered part of
279-410: A clergy that was bitter because of the violent anti-clericalism and the unacceptable level of secularisation that Spanish society had reached during the republican years" and the law of 1939 made the priests investigators of peoples' ideological and political pasts. The authorities encouraged denunciations in the workplace. For example, Barcelona's city hall obliged all government functionaries to "tell
372-564: A democracy . During Franco's rule, Spain was officially known as the Spanish State ( Estado Español ). The nature of the regime evolved and changed during its existence. Months after the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Franco emerged as the dominant rebel military leader and was proclaimed head of state on 1 October 1936, ruling a dictatorship over the territory controlled by
465-580: A fervent Catholic and a staunch defender of Roman Catholicism, the declared state religion . The regime favoured very conservative Roman Catholicism and it reversed the secularisation process that had taken place under the Republic. According to historian Julian Casanova , "the symbiosis of religion, fatherland and Caudillo" saw the Church assume great political responsibilities, "a hegemony and monopoly beyond its wildest dreams" and it played "a central role in policing
558-434: A larger, national identity. All cultural activities were subject to censorship and many were forbidden entirely, often in an erratic manner. This cultural policy relaxed over time, most notably in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Franco was reluctant to enact any form of administrative and legislative decentralisation and kept a fully centralised form of government with a similar administrative structure to that established by
651-495: A long-lasting influence in the catholic universities of Chile. The Guildists, presenting themselves as apolitical, were highly critical of perceived detrimental ideological influences in the Church , corporations (e.g. trade unions) and the Christian Democratic Party . Already in the first days after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état Guzmán became advisor and speechwriter of dictator Augusto Pinochet . While writing
744-492: A monarchy through the Ley de Sucesión en la Jefatura del Estado act, but did not designate a monarch. He had no particular desire for a king because of his strained relations with the legitimist heir to the Crown, Juan of Bourbon. Therefore, he left the throne vacant with himself as regent and set the basis for his succession. This gesture was largely done to appease monarchist factions within
837-471: A scholar of Spain notes that "scarcely any of the serious historians and analysts of Franco consider the generalissimo to be a core fascist". According to historian Walter Laqueur "during the Civil War, Spanish fascists were forced to subordinate their activities to the nationalist cause. At the helm were military leaders such as General Francisco Franco, who were conservatives in all essential respects. When
930-491: A senior government level, especially before the late 1940s, there were higher concentrations of monarchists, military officials and other traditional conservative factions at those levels. However, the Falange remained the sole party. The Francoists took control of Spain through a comprehensive and methodical war of attrition ( guerra de desgaste ) which involved the imprisonment and executions of Spaniards found guilty of supporting
1023-973: A specific variant of Fascism marked by the preponderance of the Catholic Church , the Armed Forces and Traditionalism. While the regime evolved along with its protracted history, its primitive essence remained, underpinned by the legal concentration of all powers into a single person, Francisco Franco, " Caudillo of Spain by the Grace of God", embodying national sovereignty and "only responsible before God and History". The consistent points in Francoism included above all authoritarianism , anti-Communism , Spanish nationalism , national Catholicism , monarchism , militarism , national conservatism , anti-Masonry , anti-Catalanism , pan-Hispanism , and anti-liberalism —some authors also include integralism . Stanley Payne ,
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#17328545693721116-581: A strength of about 400,000 men until the end of the Second World War . Spain attempted to retain control of the last remnants of its colonial empire throughout Franco's rule. During the Algerian War (1954–1962), Madrid became the base of the Organisation armée secrète right-wing French Army group which sought to preserve French Algeria . Despite this, Franco was forced to make some concessions. When
1209-467: The Guardia Civil , a military police for civilians, which functioned as a chief means of social control. Larger cities, and capitals, were mostly under the heavily armed Policía Armada , commonly called grises due to their grey uniforms. Franco was also the focus of a personality cult , which taught that he had been sent by Divine Providence to save the country from chaos and poverty. Members of
1302-602: The Allied landings in North Africa and the German occupation of France bringing hostilities closer than ever to Spain's border, Franco ordered a partial mobilization, bringing the army to over 750,000 men. The Air Force and Navy also grew in numbers and in budgets to 35,000 airmen and 25,000 sailors by 1945, although for fiscal reasons Franco had to restrain attempts by both services to undertake dramatic expansions. The army maintained
1395-532: The Basque Country fared much better than others such as Extremadura , Galicia or Andalusia . Franco eliminated the autonomy granted by the Second Spanish Republic to the regions and abolished the centuries-old fiscal privileges and autonomy (the fueros ) in two of the three Basque provinces: Guipuzcoa and Biscay , which were officially classified as "traitor regions". The fueros were kept in
1488-568: The Chicago Boys and writings such as The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism . In 1975 Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart attended the funeral of Francisco Franco. When Pinochet died in 2006 supporters of late Francisco Franco paid homage in Spain. Antonio Tejero , who led the failed coup of 1981 , attended a memorial service in Madrid. For nearly twenty years after the war, Francoist Spain presented
1581-697: The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) went underground. University students seeking democracy revolted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which was repressed by the grises . The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) went into exile and in 1959 the armed separatist group ETA was created to wage a low-intensity war against Franco. Like others at the time, Franco evinced a concern about a possible Masonic and Judaic conspiracy against his regime. Franco continued to personally sign all death warrants until just months before he died despite international campaigns requesting him to desist. Franco's Spanish nationalism promoted
1674-577: The Constitution of Chile of 1980 Jaime Guzmán studied the institutionalization of Francoism in Spain with the aim of preventing undesired reforms in future as it happened in Spain with the post-Franco constitution of 1977 . Josemaría Escrivá , the founder of Opus Dei , visited Chile 1974 after which Opus Dei begun to spread in the country. Opus Dei helped establish the University of the Andes in 1989. Both
1767-709: The French protectorate in Morocco became independent in 1956, Spain surrendered its Spanish protectorate in Morocco to Mohammed V , retaining only a few exclaves, the Plazas de soberanía . The year after, Mohammed V invaded Spanish Sahara during the Ifni War (known as the "Forgotten War" in Spain). Only in 1975, with the Green March and the military occupation, did Morocco take control of all of
1860-515: The House of Bourbon and General Miguel Primo de Rivera . These structures were modelled after the centralised French state. As a result of this type of governance, government attention and initiatives were irregular and often depended more on the goodwill of government representatives than on regional needs. Thus inequalities in schooling, health care or transport facilities among regions were patent: historically affluent regions like Madrid , Catalonia or
1953-613: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Labour battalion Labour battalions have been a form of alternative service or unfree labour in various countries in lieu of or resembling regular military service . In some cases they were the result of some kind of discriminative segregation of the population, while in some others they have been a conscious choice. In some countries labour battalions were created from part of population which for various reasons were not suitable for regular military service, often because this population
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#17328545693722046-626: The Ministry of Education . He held the post for 12 years, during which he finished the purging of the ministry begun by the Commission of Culture and Teaching headed by José María Pemán . Pemán led the Catholicizing state-sponsored schools and allocating generous funding to the Church's schools. Romualdo de Toledo , head of the National Service of Primary Education, was a traditionalist who described
2139-669: The Nationalist faction . The 1937 Unification Decree , which merged all parties supporting the rebel side, led to Nationalist Spain becoming a single-party regime under the FET y de las JONS . The end of the war in 1939 brought the extension of the Franco rule to the whole country and the exile of Republican institutions . The Francoist dictatorship originally took a form described as "fascistized dictatorship", or "semi-fascist regime", showing clear influence of fascism in fields such as labor relations ,
2232-467: The Opus Dei ensured professorships were offered only to the most faithful. The orphaned children of "Reds" were taught in orphanages run by priests and nuns that "their parents had committed great sins that they could help expiate, for which many were incited to serve the Church". Francoism professed a strong devotion to militarism, hypermasculinity and the traditional role of women in society. A woman
2325-818: The Western powers , particularly the United States. Franco died in 1975 at the age of 82. He restored the monarchy before his death and made his successor King Juan Carlos I , who would lead the Spanish transition to democracy . On 1 October 1936, Franco was formally recognised as Caudillo of Spain —the Spanish equivalent of the Italian Duce and the German Führer —by the Junta de Defensa Nacional ( National Defense Junta ), which governed
2418-475: The autarkic economic policy , aesthetics , and the single-party system . As time went on, the regime opened up and became closer to developmental dictatorships, although it always preserved residual fascist trappings. During the Second World War , Spain did not join the Axis powers (its supporters from the civil war , Italy and Germany ). Nevertheless, Spain supported them in various ways throughout most of
2511-512: The compulsory national educational system and the development of modern mass media, both controlled by the state and exclusively in Spanish, reduced the competency of speakers of Basque, Catalan and Galician. Franco's regime often used religion as a means to increase its popularity throughout the Catholic world, especially after the Second World War. Franco himself was increasingly portrayed as
2604-512: The " Spanish miracle ". During the 1950s the regime also changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to an authoritarian system with limited pluralism and economic freedom . As a result of these reforms, Spain was allowed to join the United Nations in 1955 and during the Cold War Franco was one of Europe's foremost anti-communist figures: his regime was assisted by
2697-669: The 1960s and 1970s these restrictions were somewhat relaxed. However, from 1941 until well into the Spanish transition to democracy , the Women's Protection Board confined ten of thousands of girls and young women deemed 'fallen or at risk of falling', even without having committed any crime, in centers run by Catholic religious orders where they were routinely brutalized. They could be admitted to these centers starting at age 16 through police raids, for "immoral behavior," arbitrary reports from family members and individuals ("guardians of morals"), requests from civil and religious authorities, or at
2790-655: The British Army during the First World War, labour or pioneer battalions were initially formed in December 1914 from recruits with skilled trades or experience in manual labour, trained to fight as infantry but usually used to build trenches and carry out other manual labour. Early in 1916 these began to also include men not assessed as fit enough to fight to carry out a similar role and were sometimes also known as Infantry Works Battalions. Initially assigned to individual regiments,
2883-542: The Catholic Church, which traditionally supported the social subordination of women, had preeminence in all aspects of public and private life in Spain. The Catholic Church had a central role in upholding the traditional role of the family and women's place in it. Civil marriage had also been introduced in the country during the Republic, so the Church immediately asked the new Franco regime to restore its control of family and marriage laws. All Spanish women were required by
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2976-553: The Chief of Staff of the French Second Army ), is what saved Verdun in 1916. A special unit responsible for controlling traffic and servicing the vehicles numbered 300 officers and 8,500 men. The rolling stock was made up of 3500 Berliet and Renault trucks plus 800 ambulances, the latter often being Ford Model T's. Thirty breakdown trucks remained on the road at all times with repair crews stationed besides them. Any disabled vehicle
3069-522: The Europe-wide post-war economic normality centred on mass consumption and consensus, in contrast to the concurrent reality of the Soviet bloc". On 26 July 1947, Spain was declared a kingdom, but no monarch was designated until in 1969 Franco established Juan Carlos of Bourbon as his official heir-apparent. Franco was to be succeeded by Luis Carrero Blanco as Prime Minister with the intention of continuing
3162-527: The Falange was declared the sole legally sanctioned political party in Spain and it asserted itself as the main component of the National Movement. In a state of emergency -like status, Franco ruled with, on paper, more power than any Spanish leader before or since. He was not even required to consult his cabinet for most legislation. According to historian Stanley G. Payne , Franco had more day-to-day power than Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin possessed at
3255-563: The Franco regime recognition until it developed a more representative government. The Falange Española de las JONS , a fascist party formed during the Republic, soon transformed itself into the framework of reference in the National Movement. In April 1937, the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx and of the Councils of National Syndicalist Offensive)
3348-565: The Francoist regime, but those hopes ended with his 1973 assassination by the Basque separatist group ETA . With the death of Franco on 20 November 1975, Juan Carlos became the King of Spain . He initiated the country's subsequent transition to democracy , ending with Spain becoming a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament and autonomous devolved governments. After Franco's victory in 1939,
3441-644: The Iberian Peninsula from the Islamic Moors . Falangist founder, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, had a more tolerant position than the national socialists in Germany. This was influenced by the small size of the Jewish community in Spain at the time that did not favor the development of strong antisemitism. Primo de Rivera saw the solution to the "Jewish problem" in Spain as simple: the conversion of Jews to Catholicism. At
3534-511: The Law of Succession). In 1973, due to old age and to lessen his burdens in governing Spain he resigned as Prime Minister and named Navy Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco to the said post, but Franco remained as the Chief of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Jefe del Movimiento (Chief of the Movement). However, Carrero Blanco was assassinated in the same year and Carlos Arias Navarro became
3627-570: The Movement. At the same time, Franco wore the uniform of a captain-general (a rank traditionally reserved for the King), resided in the Royal Palace of El Pardo , appropriated the kingly privilege of walking beneath a canopy and his portrait appeared on most Spanish coins. Indeed, although his formal titles were Jefe del Estado (Head of State) and Generalísimo de los Ejércitos Españoles (Generalissimo of
3720-532: The Republic be relatively safe from imprisonment or unemployment. After the death of Franco, the price of the peaceful transition to democracy would be silence and "the tacit agreement to forget the past", which was given legal status by the 1977 Pact of forgetting . Civil marriages that had taken place in the Republic were declared null and void unless they had been validated by the Church, along with divorces. Divorce , contraception and abortions were forbidden. Children had to be given Christian names. Franco
3813-507: The Republic had granted them for the first time in the history of Spain. The former policy of promoting Spanish as the only official language of the state and education was resumed, even though millions of the country's citizens spoke other languages. The legal usage of languages other than Spanish was forbidden: all government, notarial, legal and commercial documents were to be drawn up exclusively in Spanish and any written in other languages were deemed null and void. The use of any other language
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3906-464: The Spanish Armies), he was referred to as Caudillo of Spain , by the Grace of God . Por la Gracia de Dios is a technical, legal formulation which states sovereign dignity in absolute monarchies and had been used only by monarchs before. The long-delayed selection of Juan Carlos of Bourbon as Franco's official successor in 1969 was an unpleasant surprise for many interested parties as Juan Carlos
3999-484: The University of the Andes and the political party Independent Democratic Union , founded in 1983 by Guzmán, have a Francoist heritage. In the 1970s Pinochet's dictatorship organized ritualized acts reminiscent of Francoist Spain, notably Acto de Chacarillas . After 1980 Francoist influence gave way to economic liberalism . Even Guzmán, once clearly influenced by Francoist corporatism , adopted economic liberalism from
4092-593: The approximately 300 concentration camps ) during the Spanish Civil War as a form of repression of political enemies that continued through the dictatorship, as well as labour battalions in other territories held by Nazi Germany and its allies (see also " Hiwi "). In some countries labour battalions are a form of civil conscription instead of military conscription for people who cannot join military service for various reasons, e.g., due to bad health or being conscientious objectors to any forms of violence, as long as they aren't considered unfit for other work. In
4185-437: The base of the construction of the "communist menace" as a modern-day Eastern plague". The official position was therefore that the wartime Republic was simply a proto-Stalinist monolith, its leaders intent on creating a Spanish Soviet satellite. Many Spanish children grew up believing the war was fought against foreigners and the painter Julian Grau Santos has said "it was instilled in me and I always believed that Spain had won
4278-402: The civil war ended, Franco was so deeply entrenched that the Falange stood no chance; in this strongly authoritarian regime, there was no room for political opposition. The Falange became junior partners in the government and, as such, they had to accept responsibility for the regime's policy without being able to shape it substantially". The United Nations Security Council voted in 1946 to deny
4371-530: The communist period between the end of World War II and the end of the 1980s. An interesting example are the Bulgarian Construction Troops (Строителни Войски), first established in 1920 to circumvent the limits on the size of the military imposed by the Treaty of Neuilly-Sur-Seine at the end of World War I. Over the years this branch became a blend of a corps of engineers and a means for some to fulfill
4464-457: The conflict as a crusade against Bolshevism in defence of Christian civilization. In Francoist narrative, authoritarianism had defeated anarchy and overseen the elimination of "agitators", those "without God" and the " Judeo-Masonic conspiracy ". Since Franco had relied on thousands of North African soldiers, anti-Islamic sentiment "was played down but the centuries-old myth of the Moorish threat lay at
4557-404: The country's citizens". The Law of Political Responsibility of February 1939 turned the Church into an extralegal body of investigation as parishes were granted policing powers equal to those of local government officials and leaders of the Falange. Some official jobs required a "good behaviour" statement by a priest. According to historian Julian Casanova, "the reports that have survived reveal
4650-529: The country's new Prime Minister. During the first year of peace, Franco dramatically reduced the size of the Spanish Army —from almost one million at the end of the Civil War to 250,000 in early 1940, with most soldiers two-year conscripts. Concerns about the international situation, Spain's possible entry into World War II , and threats of invasion led him to undo some of these reductions. In November 1942, with
4743-552: The end of hostilities in 1945, in the face of which Franco's strong anti-communism naturally tilted its regime to ally with the United States. Independent political parties and trade unions were banned throughout the duration of the dictatorship. Nevertheless, once decrees for economic stabilisation were put forth by the late 1950s, the way was opened for massive foreign investment—"a watershed in post-war economic, social and ideological normalisation leading to extraordinarily rapid economic growth "—that marked Spain's "participation in
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#17328545693724836-582: The end of the Spanish Civil War, according to the regime's own figures there were more than 270,000 men and women held in prisons and some 500,000 had fled into exile . Large numbers of those captured were returned to Spain or interned in Nazi concentration camps as stateless enemies . Between six and seven thousand exiles from Spain died in Mauthausen . It has been estimated that more than 200,000 Spaniards died in
4929-638: The existing Labour and Infantry Works battalions were grouped together in February 1917 to form the new Labour Corps . Until the last days of the Soviet Union with obligatory military duty in the state, men deemed unfit to regular military duty but not unfit for other work, as well as many able-bodied ones, were assigned to construction battalions (стройбаты) of the Soviet Army . Similar armed forces branches existed in other Eastern European countries throughout
5022-460: The first years of the dictatorship from 1940 to 1942 as a result of political persecution, hunger and disease related to the conflict. Spain's strong ties with the Axis resulted in its international ostracism in the early years following World War II as Spain was not a founding member of the United Nations and did not become a member until 1955. This changed with the Cold War that soon followed
5115-527: The former Spanish territories in the Sahara. In 1968, under United Nations pressure, Franco granted Spain's colony of Equatorial Guinea its independence and the next year ceded the exclave of Ifni to Morocco . Under Franco, Spain also pursued a campaign to gain sovereignty of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar and closed its border in 1969. The border would not be fully reopened until 1985. Initially
5208-557: The front. Beginning in March 1916, a standard gauge railway bypass was placed under accelerated construction: the Sommeilles-Nettancourt to Dugny line. During the summer of 1916 it would reconnect Verdun to the regional standard gauge network. The Voie Sacrée still exists but it has been paved-over and is now an active secondary road. In 2006, the route was renumbered RD1916, a reference to the road's most critical year. The city hall in
5301-407: The government television network, debuted in 1956. The Roman Catholic Church had its own media outlets, including the Ya newspaper and the Cadena COPE radio network. Other pro-government media included Cadena SER , ABC , La Vanguardia Española , El Correo and El Diario Vasco . Notable independent media outlets included humour magazine La Codorniz . The 1966 Press Law dropped
5394-504: The government was not responsible to it: ministers were appointed and dismissed by Franco alone as the "Chief" of state and government. The Ley del Referendum Nacional (Law of the National Referendum), passed in 1945 approved for all "fundamental laws" to be approved by a popular referendum, in which only the heads of families could vote. Local municipal councils were appointed similarly by heads of families and local corporations through local municipal elections while mayors were appointed by
5487-444: The government. It was thus one of the most centralised countries in Europe and certainly the most centralised in Western Europe following the fall of the Portuguese Estado Novo in the Carnation Revolution . The referendum law was used twice during Franco's rule—in 1947, when a referendum revived the Spanish monarchy with Franco as de facto regent for life with sole right to appoint his successor; and in 1966, another referendum
5580-441: The latter having inner backing from within the regime. During the Cold War , Juan José Linz , either accused of whitewashing the regime or being praised as the elaborator of "the first scientific conceptualization" of the regime, famously early characterized it as an "authoritarian regime with limited pluralism". The Francoist regime has been described by other scholars as a " Fascismo a la española " ("Spanish-style Fascism") or as
5673-449: The mandatory conscription in place during communism in the country. Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( Spanish : España franquista ), also known as the Francoist dictatorship ( dictadura franquista ), was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title Caudillo . After his death in 1975 due to heart failure, Spain transitioned into
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#17328545693725766-455: The model school as "the monastery founded by Saint Benedict ". The clergy in charge of the education system sanctioned and sacked thousands of teachers of the progressive left and divided Spain's schools up among the families of falangists, loyalist soldiers and Catholic families. In some provinces, like Lugo , practically all the teachers were dismissed. This process also affected tertiary education, as Ibáñez Martín, Catholic propagandists and
5859-472: The oppressed ranged from Catholic trade unions to communist and anarchist organisations to liberal democrats and Catalan or Basque separatists. The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) trade unions were outlawed and replaced in 1940 by the corporatist Sindicato Vertical . The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) party were banned in 1939 while
5952-450: The passing of the organic law of 1942 and the Ley Constitutiva de las Cortes (Constituent Law of the Cortes) the same year, which saw the grand opening of the Cortes Españolas on 18 July 1942. The Organic Law made the executive government ultimately responsible for passing all laws, while defining the Cortes as a purely advisory body elected by neither direct nor universal suffrage. The Cortes had no power over government spending, and
6045-451: The period prior to 1980. Traditionalist historian Jaime Eyzaguirre was an admirer of Francoist Spain. The lawyer Jaime Guzmán, once a student of Eyzaguirre, helped establishing the Francoist-influenced Guildist Movement at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in the 1960s. This has been interpreted as a reaction inspired in Francoist corporatism against elements of the Chilean university reform . The movement rapidly gained
6138-401: The power to choose the person to become King of Spain and his successor. Reforms were implemented in the 1950s and Spain abandoned autarky, reassigned authority from the Falangist movement , which had been prone to isolationism, to a new breed of economists, the technocrats of Opus Dei . This led to massive economic growth, second only to Japan , that lasted until the mid-1970s, known as
6231-455: The proper authorities who the leftists are in your department and everything you know about their activities". A law passed in 1939 institutionalised the purging of public offices. The poet Carlos Barral recorded that in his family "any allusion to republican relatives was scrupulously avoided; everyone took part in the enthusiasm for the new era and wrapped themselves in the folds of religiosity". Only through silence could people associated with
6324-408: The regime embraced the definition of a " totalitarian state " or the nacional-sindicalista label. Following the defeat of Fascism in World War II, "organic democracy" [ es ] was the new moniker the regime adopted for itself, yet it only sounded credible to staunch believers. Other later soft definitions include "authoritarian regime" or "constituent or developmental dictatorship",
6417-404: The request of the women themselves or their parents. In practice, girls as young as 11 were forcibly interned. Young women and girls were routinely trafficked to men and forced to bear children, only to have their babies stolen immediately afterwards. Francoism had an influence abroad in Chile, where it found clear expressions in the military dictatorship era (1973–1990), in particular in
6510-420: The respective heights of their power. Payne noted that Hitler and Stalin at least maintained rubber-stamp parliaments, while Franco dispensed with even that formality in the early years of his rule. According to Payne, the lack of even a rubber-stamp parliament made Franco's government "the most purely arbitrary in the world." The 100-member National Council of the Movement served as a makeshift legislature until
6603-470: The restoration of a Bourbon) nor the republican "old shirts" (original Falangists). Franco ignored the claim to the throne of Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona , son of the last king, Alfonso XIII , who designated himself as his heir; Franco found him too liberal. Instead, in 1969, Franco selected the young Juan Carlos of Bourbon , son of Infante Juan, as his officially designated heir to the throne, shortly after his 30th birthday (the minimum age required under
6696-473: The road leaving it open for truck and motor car traffic only. After March 1916, one truck passed every 14 seconds, submitting the road to considerable wear and tear. Quarries had to be opened nearby to supply the road with crushed stone. Over the course of ten months, 16 labour battalions worked to keep the road in good shape and order. The road had been recognized since 1915 as the only reliable vehicular road that remained in existence to supply Verdun safely. All
6789-428: The role of women to family care and motherhood. Immediately after the civil war most progressive laws passed by the Republic aimed at equality between the sexes were nullified. Women could not become judges or testify in a trial. Their affairs and economic lives had to be managed by their fathers and husbands. Until the 1970s, a woman could not open a bank account without having it co-signed by her father or husband. In
6882-456: The standard gauge railway lines that could reach Verdun had already been interrupted by German forces in late 1914. To compensate for this precarious situation the road had been widened to 23 feet during 1915, so it could accommodate the continuous up and down flow of two lines of truck traffic. This preemptive roadway improvement in 1915, plus success in organizing the transport system on the road (a mission supervised by colonel Maurice de Barescut,
6975-495: The state to serve for six months in the Women's Section ( Sección Femenina ), the female branch of the Falange state party, to undergo training for motherhood along with political indoctrination. Francoism professed a devotion to the traditional role of a woman in society; that is, being a loving daughter and sister to her parents and brothers, being a faithful wife to her husband, and residing with her family. Official propaganda confined
7068-546: The term "party" was generally avoided, especially after World War II, when it was commonly referred to as the "National Movement" or just as "the Movement". The main point of those scholars that tend to consider the Spanish State to be authoritarian rather than fascist is that the FET-JONS were relatively heterogeneous rather than being an ideological monolith. After World War II , the Falange opposed free capital markets, but
7161-801: The territories occupied by the Nationalists . In April 1937, Franco assumed control of the Falange Española de las JONS , then led by Manuel Hedilla , who had succeeded José Antonio Primo de Rivera , who was executed in November 1936 by the Republican government . He merged it with the Carlist Comunión Tradicionalista to form the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS . The sole legal party of Francoist Spain, it
7254-590: The third Basque province, Alava , and also in Navarre , a former kingdom during the Middle Ages and the cradle of the Carlists, possibly due to the region's support during the Civil War. Franco also used language politics in an attempt to establish national homogeneity. Despite Franco himself being Galician, the government revoked the official statute and recognition for the Basque , Galician and Catalan languages that
7347-502: The ultimately prevailing technocrats , some of whom were linked with Opus Dei , eschewed syndicalist economics and favoured increased competition as a means of achieving rapid economic growth and integration with wider Europe. The Spanish State was authoritarian: Non-government trade unions and all political opponents across the political spectrum were either suppressed or controlled by all means, including police repression. Most country towns and rural areas were patrolled by pairs of
7440-502: The values promoted by the Republic: regional autonomy, liberal or social democracy, free elections, socialist leanings, and women's rights, including the vote. The right-wing considered these "enemy elements" to comprise an "anti-Spain" that was the product of Bolsheviks and a " Judeo-Masonic conspiracy ". The latter allegation pre-dated Falangism, having evolved after the Reconquista of
7533-630: The village of Souilly , on the Voie Sacrée, served as headquarters to Generals Philippe Pétain and Robert Nivelle during the Battle of Verdun. A large, well-preserved, two-storey stone building fronting on the "Voie Sacree", the Souilly city hall is still in official use today. Several plaques on its facade remind the visitor of the historic role it played in 1916 during the Battle of Verdun and, later in 1918, during
7626-601: The war against foreign enemies of our historic greatness". About 6,832 Catholic clergy were murdered by the Republicans. Collectively, they are known as the martyrs of the Spanish Civil War . Under the 1938 Press Law, all newspapers were put under prior censorship and were forced to include any articles the government desired. Chief editors were nominated by the government and all journalists were required to be registered. All liberal, republican and left-wing media were prohibited. The Delegación Nacional de Prensa y Propaganda
7719-418: The war while maintaining its neutrality as an official policy of "non-belligerence". Because of this, Spain was isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade after World War II, while its autarkic economy, still trying to recover from the civil war , suffered from chronic depression. The 1947 Law of Succession made Spain a de jure kingdom again, but defined Franco as the head of state for life with
7812-473: Was considered "undesirable" or "unreliable", e.g., political enemies, population of occupied territories or "lower races ". Examples include labour battalions in the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic both during World War I and during World War II , labour service in Hungary during World War II , labour battalions established by Francoist Spain (estimated in 700 labour units overall, excluding
7905-596: Was created from the absorption of the Comunión Tradicionalista (Traditionalist Communion) by the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista , which itself was the result of an earlier absorption of the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista by José Antonio Primo de Rivera's Falange Española . This party, often referred to as Falange, became the sole legal party during Franco's regime, but
7998-417: Was established as a network of government media, including daily newspapers Diario Arriba and Pueblo . The EFE and Pyresa government news agencies were created in 1939 and 1945. The Radio Nacional de España state radio had the exclusive right to transmit news bulletins, which all broadcasters were required to air. The No-Do were 10-minute newsreels shown at all cinemas. The Televisión Española ,
8091-402: Was forbidden in schools, advertising, religious ceremonies and on-road and shop signs. Publications in other languages were generally forbidden, though citizens continued to use them privately. During the late 1960s, these policies became more lenient yet non-Castilian languages continued to be discouraged and did not receive official status or legal recognition. Additionally, the popularisation of
8184-403: Was held to approve a new " organic law ", or constitution, supposedly limiting and clearly defining Franco's powers as well as formally creating the modern office of Prime Minister of Spain . By delaying the issue of republic versus monarchy for his 36-year dictatorship and by refusing to take up the throne himself in 1947, Franco sought to antagonise neither the monarchical Carlists (who preferred
8277-563: Was immediately moved to the roadside so as not to interrupt the flow of traffic. Automobile repair shops in Bar-le-Duc and Troyes worked ceaselessly as did hydraulic presses that renewed the truck's solid rubber tyres. The Meusien , a narrow-gauge single track railway, ran parallel to the roadside and was able to move 1,800 tons of supplies per day. This included the bulk of the food for the army at Verdun - some 16,600 officers, 420,000 men, and 136,000 horses - and brought back many wounded from
8370-589: Was made a member of the Supreme Order of Christ by Pope Pius XII whilst Spain itself was consecrated to the Sacred Heart . The Catholic Church's ties with the Franco dictatorship gave it control over the country's schools and crucifixes were once again placed in schoolrooms. After the war, Franco chose José Ibáñez Martín , a member of the National Catholic Association of Propagandists, to lead
8463-459: Was the main component of the Movimiento Nacional (National Movement). The Falangists were concentrated at local government and grassroot level, entrusted with harnessing the Civil War's momentum of mass mobilisation through their auxiliaries and trade unions by collecting denunciations of enemy residents and recruiting workers into the trade unions. While there were prominent Falangists at
8556-560: Was the rightful heir for neither the Carlists nor the Legitimists. Women had first been granted the right to vote in Spain during the Second Republic. Under the new constitution they had gained full legal status and equal access to the labor market, abortion had been legalized and the crime of adultery abolished. The Franco regime's embrace of National Catholicism ( nacionalcatolicismo ) as part of its ideological identity meant that
8649-500: Was to be loving to her parents and brothers, faithful to her husband and to reside with her family. Official propaganda confined women's roles to family care and motherhood. Most progressive laws passed by the Second Republic were declared void. Women could not become judges, or testify in the trial. They could not become university professors. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was increasing liberalization, yet such measures would continue until Franco's death. In 1947, Franco proclaimed Spain
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