Francoist Spain

Francoist Spain (Spanish: España franquista), also known as Nationalist Spain, Falangist Spain, the Franco regime, or the Franco dictatorship, officially the Spanish State (Estado Español), was a state established in Nationalist-held territories of Spain ruled by Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 and then comprising the whole of Spain from 1939 until Franco's death in 1975.

The regime emerged from the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War and developed into a dictatorship centred on Franco and the institutions of the FET y de las JONS/Movimiento Nacional. Historians generally describe Francoist Spain as a dictatorial regime with fascist or para-fascist features in terms of functioning and ideology, especially during the first phase called the "First Francoism", during which Spain is characterized as a semi-fascist or straightly fascist and totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian regime, while afterwards it moved in a less fascist and "more conventionally authoritarian" direction. It has also been described as Catholic corporatism.

During the Second World War, Spain remained formally non-belligerent or neutral, though the regime was supportive of the Axis powers. After a period of postwar isolation and autarky, the regime shifted in the 1950s toward economic liberalization and technocratic government. Following Franco's death in 1975, Spain entered the Spanish transition to democracy.

Establishment

On 1 October 1936, Franco was formally recognised as Caudillo of Spain—the Spanish equivalent of the Italian Duce and the German Führer—by the Junta de Defensa Nacional (National Defense Junta), which governed the territories occupied by the Nationalists. In April 1937, Franco assumed control of the Falange Española de las JONS, then led by Manuel Hedilla, who had succeeded José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who was executed in November 1936 by the Republican government. He merged it with the Carlist Comunión Tradicionalista to form the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS. The sole legal party of Francoist Spain, it was the main component of the Movimiento Nacional (National Movement).