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Franco (1892-1975) was the Caudillo (Leader) of Spain from 1939 to 1975. He began his career as a military commander in Morocco, putting down insurgents, and gained even more power in 1934 when he suppressed a miner’s revolt in Northern Spain. His true rise to power began with the Spanish Civil War in 1936, where he was able to receive aid from both Hitler and Mussolini to airdrop the Army of Africa (a combination of the Spanish Foreign Legion and Franco’s own Moroccan troops) from Morocco to Spain in order to combat the leftist uprising. When the coup was over, Franco was the only power left standing, and became the de facto dictator of Spain.
Unlike many other dictators, Franco possessed neither charisma nor a gift for the usual methods of propaganda, only using the new, burgeoning television industry to rehabilitate his image after the fact. His most effective tools, instead, were silence and fear, bought with the blood and lives of countless leftist insurgents. By covering up the greatest extent of his atrocities and remaining politically-adaptive, changing strategies whenever needed, he was able to remain in power until the end of his life, when he died of natural causes. Even after his death, the complete toll that his rule took on Spain is still an unknown, as mass graves are still being excavated to this day.
