Leaders & commanders
Army officers and politicians all left indelible marks on the course of the war, and Spain’s future
Francisco Franco was born in 1892, to a troubled family. His mother was a pious Roman Catholic, while his father was an eccentric who would eventually abandon them. Despite wanting a career in the navy, cutbacks meant that at age 14 Franco enrolled in the Toledo Military Academy instead, where the young man excelled. At the age of 19 he volunteered for active duty against the Moroccan rebels and by 1915 Franco had become the youngest captain in the Spanish army. It was due to his role in the rebels’ eventual defeat that at age 33 he was promoted to brigadier general. After the fall of the monarchy, Franco found himself placed on the inactive list but was soon named chief of the Spanish Army’s General Staff when conservative forces took over in 1935.
After the Popular Front was victorious in the 1936 elections, yet was unable to halt social and economic collapse, Franco appealed for a declaration of emergency but was removed from his post and sent to the Canary Islands. Despite being initially sceptical of a military conspiracy, on 18 July 1938 Franco broadcast a message from the Canary Islands calling for all army officers to join a rebellion against the Republic of Spain. The next day a secret flight took Franco to Morocco, from where he led his forces back into Spain and was chosen as the leader of the Nationalist government.
After the death of José Sanjurjo, Franco took over command of the Nationalist forces during the civil war, carrying out a strategy that slowly but steadily wrested territory from the Republican government. Support from Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany helped and on 1 April 1939 his forces were victorious. His regime following the war was authoritarian and essentially a military dictatorship.