# Francisco Franco

4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975 → 82 Years

Dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975.

Born into military family rose through military ranks, becoming the youngest general in Spain at the age of 33.

Two years later he became the director of a military academy.

He was a royalist and deeply regretted the abolition of the monarchy in 1931.

After a failed military coup in 1936 which lead to the Spanish Civil War he rose through the military ranks again, becoming head of state in 1939.

Then he consolidated all political parties and turned the country in to a de facto dictatorship. Supported by the catholic church he  dismantled a lot of womens rights policies th previous government enacted.

During his reign, he created concentration camps, executed political opponents and made use of forced labor. This era was later called the white terror.

This era lead to the death of 30 to 50 thousand deaths.

In the second world war he supported the axis, Germany and Italy, seriously damaging his countries international standing.

After the second world war the regime relaxed some of its hard line policies. Because of this and the regimes anti-communist position it garnered the support from the United Stated.

During the cold-war era Franco lead his country to economic prosperity thanks to his technocratic and liberal economic policies.

In his final years he restored the monarchy being succeeded by Juan Carlos, King of Spain, who led the spanish transition to democracy.