The Franco regime cleaved the population of Spain between victors and defeated. Although the war officially ended on 1 April 1939, a state of war continued officially until 1948 and in practice for many years after. While those with close connections to the regime enjoyed the benefits of unbridled power, clientelism and corruption, those who lost the war faced execution, torture and impisonment, swept up in what has been termed “the prison universe of Francosim”, their families marked out as being “scum” and “barbarians” for many years to come.
Themes
The different groups that made up the regime
Resistance to the Franco regime
How the regime evolved politically and above all economically over the decades.
The Valley of the Fallen, Franco’s memorial grave until October 2020 and the impact of Francoism on today’s Spain.
Resources
- Helen Graham: Interrogating Francoism: History and Dictatorship in Twentieth-Century Spain (2016) Superbly dissects the regime.
- AUDIO. The Cathedral of the Fallen. BBC Radio 4 illuminating about the horror represented by Franco’s mausoleum.
- Paul Preston: Franco: A biography. The seminal work on the dictator.
- Book: Valley of the Fallen: The (N)ever Changing Face of General Franco’s Monumen (2013) by Gareth Stockey
- Nick’s article on the Fossar de la Pedrera, the mass grave of the victims of Franco in Barcelona