Francisco Franco

"We do not believe in government through the voting booth. The Spanish national will was never freely expressed through the ballot box. Spain has no foolish dreams."

- Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (December 4th, 1892 - November 20th, 1975) was the leader of the Spanish Fallange movement and a conspirator of the Spanish Civil War. He then became dictator for about forty years. He led the spanish far - left movements to overthrow the government. He then shoved away any "infurior" people in his country and aligned with the Nazis. He also tried to banish a large portion of the country. He has caused vast amounts of death and destruction to his own country. But the growth proved too much for the economy, with shortages and inflation breaking out towards the end of the 1950s.

In Spain and abroad, the legacy of Franco remains controversial. The length of his rule, the suppression of opposition, and the effective propaganda sustained through the years has made a detached evaluation impossible. For 40 years, Spaniards, and particularly children at school were told that Divine Providence had sent him to save Spain from chaos and poverty. With time, the regime evolved and the ferocious oppression of the early 1940s was reduced over the years. The economic success of the latter part of his regime won support from many citizens, who found the dramatic rise in the everyday standard of living more significant than his regime's human rights abuses, although strong anti-Francoist views are held by large numbers of Spaniards to this day.