- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde
- Nicknames
- El Caudillo
- El Generalísimo
- Height1.63 m
- Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teoula Franco y Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in Ferrol, Spain. He entered the Spanish Military Academy in 1907 and upon graduation three years later was commissioned as a lieutenant. His career path seemed assured after he was detailed to the colony of Spanish Morocco to fight against the Berber tribes and acquitted himself well. In 1916 he won the Battle of El Biutz, which stopped Berber attacks against Spanish outposts. In 1923 he was appointed commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and in 1926 at the age of 33 was named the army's youngest brigadier general.
Franco returned to Spain in 1927 to lead the National Military Academy. He was assigned to quell a miners' strike in the Masturias in 1934, and revealed himself to be a ruthless authoritarian by ordering the execution of over 2,000 miners and other workers who were "suspected" of being Marxists. Franco proved to be one of Spain's staunchest and most rabid anti-Communists, and as such was invited to take a leading role in a right-wing coup being planned by fellow officers to overthrow the government of the Republic of Spain, which had large numbers of Socialist and democratic members in its ruling circles. Franco accepted and, shortly after the revolt broke out on July 17, 1936, he was named commander of the nationalist forces with the title of "Generalísimo". Although he had hoped to seize control of the government quickly, the republican forces proved to be more formidable than Franco and his conspirators had counted on, and the struggle evolved into a full-scale civil war that lasted nearly three years. With much political, financial and material support from Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, both of whom sent tanks, arms and even combat troops to aid him, Franco emerged as the victor, capturing the capital of Madrid on March 28, 1939, which ended the Spanish Civil War. Named "el caudillo" (the leader), dictator for life, Generalísimo Franco proved to be an astute political leader as well as a masterful military commander. Although he owed a great debt to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for their aid, he managed to keep Spain officially neutral during World War II despite pressure from many senior political and military leaders in the government to enter the war on the side of the Axis Powers. Franco was initially keen to join the Axis, and wrote to Hitler offering to join the war on 19 June 1940. However by the end of the year he had decided to stay out of the conflict and let Spain recover from the terrible civil war that wrecked its economy and severely weakened its military. Nevertheless he provided considerable help to the Axis from 1940 to 1943. After the Axis Powers were defeated in 1945, Spain was isolated for many years before Franco tried allying himself with the west by pushing his anti-Communist "credentials". Spain was admitted into the United Nations in 1955 and was soon allied with the United States and other western powers. He served as supreme leader of Spain until his death on November 20, 1975, at the age of 82.- IMDb mini biography by: Matthew Patay
- SpouseCarmen Polo(October 16, 1923 - November 20, 1975) (his death, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsNicolás Franco y Salgado-AraújoMaría del Pilar Bahamonde y Pardo de Andrade
- RelativesJaime Martínez Bordiu(Grandchild)Carmen Martínez-Bordiú(Grandchild)
- Fine, reedy voice.
- Moustache.
- Below average height.
- At the end of World War II the media in Spain deliberately downplayed the Nazi extermination camps, suggesting they did not really exist and that the inmates had died from starvation or disease due to the war and the Allied economic blockade.
- Dictator of Spain from 1936-1975.
- In July 1974 he suffered an attack of thrombophlebitis, which that signaled a host of successive afflictions over the following 16 months: partial kidney failure, bronchial pneumonia, coagulated blood in his pharynx, pulmonary edema, bacterial peritonitis, gastric hemorrhage, endotoxic shock and finally, cardiac arrest. After relatives asked doctors to remove his support systems, he died on November 20, 1975.
- His death was a recurring running gag on the "Weekend Update" segments of Saturday Night Live (1975) during its first year on the air (i.e. "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!")
- He was the last (and longest-surviving) fascist leader from the Nazi era.
- I am responsible only to God and history.
- One appreciates as always the lofty vision and the good sense of the Führer.
- [after meeting Hitler] These people are intolerable. They want us to come into the war in exchange for nothing. We cannot trust them if they do not undertake, in whatever we sign, a binding, formal contract to grant to us now those territories which I have explained to them are ours by right. Otherwise, we will not enter the war now. This new sacrifice of ours would only be justified if they reciprocated with what would become the basis of our empire. After the victory, despite what they say, if they do not make a formal commitment now, they will give us nothing.
- It was Hitler who did not accept my conditions.
- There is no doubt about the alliance. It is fully expressed in my answer to the Führer and in the whole direction of our policy since our Civil War.
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