Yaco Pastor

12/15/18
Mr. Sokoloff

Communism versus Fascism during Franco’s Regime

The rise of Franco leads to destroying Spain in a civil war and isolating it
from the outside world during WWII. Altering the course of development of
technologies and services and as a result of that, it leads to the rise of communism
versus fascism that causes the deaths of many innocent people. The Spanish Civil
War was started by a military coup orchestrated by then General Franco against
the Second Republic. Franco’s coup was for the destruction of left-wing
organizations and ordered the rebels to kill anyone of the “Bolshevik” activists as
if they were dogs. At the end of the civil war almost 325,000 people died in battle
and at least 150,000 were executed.
The communist party fought against Francos regime based on the treatment of the
Spanish civilians during the beginning of the war. For most Spanish natives the
fighting was for their freedom of thought, expression, and speech, many like my
grandfather wrote against Franco’s treatment of the people and so in Barcelona
1937, Franco sent men to kill anyone who wrote badly against him. As many as
one hundred and twenty reporters against Franco were assassinated. As a result of
the assassinations, the communist regime began attacking any and all
“nationalists” even if they were not apart of the Franco regime. This became a
game of not knowing if someone next to you at a store was a nationalist or a
communist, it was a game of guess who. Therefore communists established secret
signs to determine who was who, and if you got the sign wrong you were killed.
This leads the deaths of many who weren't involved with the war. And so the
death counter continued to rise.
Franco was a general before the war even started. A respected man by his peers,
with many unethical thoughts of politics and how the government was being run
thus far. So he and his higher ranking colleagues began to scheme a plan to retake
what they thought was a fallen country. Not much later in July of 1936, there was
a military coup against the republic that had only been established five years ago​1​.
After some time he caught the attention of Italian and German dictators Adolf
Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who soon transported men to Spain in hopes of
strengthening Franco's rule. German planes would later be used to bomb major
communist populated cities like Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, and destroying the
town of Guernica later being used as inspiration for Pablo Picassos painting​2​.
Fighting of the civil war was reported around the world one American writer
wrote of “the first to be witnessed (…) by a corps of professional photographers at
the lines of military engagement and in the towns under bombardment”​3​ she later
wrote about her experience in a biography.
After the civil had ended Franco was in full control of the country being named
Generalísimo of the Nationalists and Jefe del Estado​4​. One of his first Ministers
established was my uncle's grandfather working as the Minister of Industry. He
was close friends with Franco during the civil war and as he was a general in the
Navy, Franco saw fit that he should rebuild the country after the civil war. So he
began by making factories that would sell Spanish goods to America, Germany,
The United Kingdom, all while destroying the economy of small business owners.
As the civil war put most people out of business due to relocation or destruction it
was proving difficult to rebuild something so destroyed.
After a decade or so after Franco won the civil war, the economy had barely
changed. So Franco in the early days of his rule established the policy of autarky​5​,
ceasing trade with international buyers. Which meant the economy dipped even
lower than before. Leading to the Vertical Labor Union which saw my uncles
grandfather in charge of Industry.​6
At the beginning of World War 2, Franco was asked to join the side of Adolf
Hitler and Mussolini in the war. At first, it was likely going to happen, but in the
wake of a weak economy even weaker army Franco could not join Hitler in the
war​7​. And so Franco thought it best to become an Isolationist country during
World War 2. Even after the fall of France Franco decided not to join the war in
fear of retribution in Spain causing a second civil war. Instead, he became neutral
in the later years of the war stating that he did not care who won and who lost.
During World War 2 Franco had been dealing with internal issues of Spain.
People like my grandfather and Ernest Hemingway were still writing against
Franco and the regime. So in 1940, Franco established the Press Law in which it
stated that all articles to be published about the government and Franco himself
had to go through prior censorship, and were forced to put any new “information”
in the article. After the law was established it was hard to find any truthful news
about Franco. Everything was held in secrecy, Chief editors were elected by
Franco himself and journalists had to be registered.​8

Franco had lead Spain into a large economic and technological depression.
At the end of World War 2, Franco had almost completely destroyed the economy
and if it were not for the United States sending supplies to Spain it would have
fallen completely​9​. As for Franco, his health was slowly deteriorating which
meant even members of his own regime began to lose hope. He finally died in
1975 aged 82 and after his death. A new wave of political ideas began to spring
from the oppression of Franco. People like my grandfather who had been exiled
during his reign returned to Spain to write freely and in very little time Spain’s
economy and political values grew. Even with this new prosperity, many thought
Franco did good for Spain and the debate continues to this day. “For Spanish
people talking about Franco is much like talking about Trump in the United States
today, very controversial and if you are not careful you might get into a fight”-
Titof​10​.
Spain is now a well-established country in Europe and is doing well in
terms of government and economy. In conclusion, Franco lead Spain into a
depression and years after his death, it was still recovering from the regime.
Although many people think he did good for Spain, The deaths of thousands
innocent men women and children would say otherwise. He was a despicable man
who aligned himself with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini and he should be
remembered as such.
 Endnotes
1. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Spanish Civil War." Demystified, 1.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Spanish-Civil-War.

2. Berdichevsky, Norman. "Franco, Fascism and the Falange - Not One and the Same
Thing." New English Review, September 2008. Accessed December 18, 2018.
https://www.newenglishreview.org/Norman_Berdichevsky/
Franco,_Fascism_and_the_Falange_-_Not_One_and_the_Same_Thing/.

3. Encyclopedia Britannica, The Editors. "Spanish Civil War." Encyclopedia

Britannica, March 11, 2000. https://www.britannica.com/event/
Spanish-Civil-War.

4. Wikipedia. "Francoist Spain." Wikipedia. Accessed December 18, 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francoist_Spain.

5. Interview by Yaco Pastor. Over the Phone From Hamden to Madrid, the USA to Spain.
December 1, 2018.

6. Interview by Yaco Pastor. Over the Phone From Hamden to Madrid, the USA to Spain.
December 1, 2018.

7. GREENSPAN, JESSE. "7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War."
History, July 15, 2016, 1-3. Accessed December 6, 2018.
https://www.history.com/news/
7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-Spanish-civil-war.

8. Expatica. "From bombings, Guernica, forced labor camps and starvation, Spanish
civil war survivors tell their stories of the tragedy that tore Spain in two." Expatica. Last
modified April 11, 2015. Accessed August 8, 2018.
https://www.expatica.com/new/es/about/culture-history/history-civil-war-730716/.

9. GREENSPAN, JESSE. "7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War."
History, July 15, 2016, 1-3. Accessed December 6, 2018.
https://www.history.com/news/
7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-spanish-civil-war.

10. Interview by Yaco Pastor. Over the Phone From Hamden to Madrid, USA to Spain.
December 1, 2018.
 Annotated Bibliography

Anderson, Peter. "Why did the Spanish Civil War start in July 1936?" ​History Today,​ March
2004. Accessed March 2004.
https://www.historytoday.com/peter-anderson/why-did-spanish-civil-war-start-july-1936.

Arenas, Daniel. "THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR." Entry posted 1984. Accessed December 18,
2018. http://staff.esuhsd.org/balochie/studentprojects/spanishcivilwar/index.html.

Berdichevsky, Norman. "Franco, Fascism and the Falange - Not One and the Same Thing." ​New
English Review​, September 2008. Accessed December 18, 2018.
https://www.newenglishreview.org/Norman_Berdichevsky/Franco,_Fascism_and_the_Fa
lange_-_Not_One_and_the_Same_Thing/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Spanish Civil War." ​Demystified,​ 1.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Spanish-Civil-War.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Editors. "Spanish Civil War." ​Encyclopaedia Britannica​, March
11, 2000. https://www.britannica.com/event/Spanish-Civil-War.

Expatica. "From bombings, Guernica, forced labor camps and starvation, Spanish civil war
survivors tell their stories of the tragedy that tore Spain in two." Expatica. Last modified
April 11, 2015. Accessed August 8, 2018.
https://www.expatica.com/new/es/about/culture-history/history-civil-war-730716/.

GREENSPAN, JESSE. "7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War." ​History,​
July 15, 2016, 1-3. Accessed December 6, 2018.
https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-spanish-civil-war.

Interview by Yaco Pastor. Over the Phone From Hamden to Madrid, USA to Spain. December 1,
2018.

Wikipedia. "Francoist Spain." ​Wikipedia​. Accessed December 18, 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francoist_Spain.