An estimated 700,000 people died in battle during the SCW; 30,000 more were executed; 15,000 died in air raids.
Franco established a corporatist, authoritarian state.
Franco acted as Caudillo (leader), with one political party (the Falange) and favouring the Catholic Church.
Franco maintained Spanish neutrality during the Second World War.
In Franco’s Spain, Socialist, Anarchist and Separatist parties were all banned.
Hitler took advantage of Italy being bogged down in Spain to seize Austria.
The Civil War ravaged the Spanish economy: infrastructure had been damaged, workers killed.
Cold War tensions in the 1940s slowly saw Spain re-integrated into the West European community.
President Eisenhower visited Spain in 1953; this was followed by a trade treaty - the Pact of Madrid.
Guernica convinced Britain and France that appeasement with Germany was necessary to avoid civilian bloodshed.
Right-wing parties were amalgamated into one organisation – the FET de las JONS.
SCW cemented the alliance between Mussolini and Hitler (Rome Berlin Axis, Anti-Comintern Pact, Pact of Steel)
In 1947, Franco proclaimed Spain a monarchy (to please the Carlists), but left the throne vacant.
The USSR's aid to the Republicans scared Britain and France into fearing a communist revolution.
Cold War meant Spain’s re-entry into the Western community.
After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain became a constitutional monarchy.
In Guernica, Germany developed the "Blitzkrieg" ("Lightning War") strategies that she used in World War Two.
In 1959 the IMF and the USA persuaded Franco to adopt a free market economy.
Spain was admitted to the United Nations in 1955.
The Law for the Recovery of Historical Memory is divisive: is it re-opening old wounds or healing divisions?
"Scarcely any … serious historians … consider the Generalissimo to be a core fascist" (Stanley Payne).
Franco consistently pursued policies of anti-communism, Catholicism and nationalism.
In 1969, Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos, with the new title of King of Spain, as his successor.
The first decade of Franco's rule in the 1940s saw tens of thousands of political opponents executed.
Franco replaced all trade unions with a “Syndicalist” system (run by the government on behalf of bosses and workers).
ETA was formed in 1959 to conduct a Guerilla war against the regime for the Basque separatists.
In the 1960s an economic boom began which became known as the “Spanish Miracle”.
After Franco’s death in 1975, the Left and Right signed a “Pact of Silence”: the SCW would not be discussed.
In the 1940s the economy stagnated – Franco pursued autarky and cut off international trade.
In 2007, the Law for the Recovery of Historical Memory overturned the “Pact of Silence”.
