SPAIN UNDER FRANCO'S RULE
General Francisco Franco was ruling Spain from 1939 to 1975. His government was called
DICTATORSHIP. This period of time has some features:
1. At the beginning of Franco's government, Spain did not trade with other countries. As people became poorer and
poorer, Franco had to allow Spain to trade with foreign countries. This is called AUTARCHY.
2. Repression. Many republicans were sent to prison, assassinated, sent to exile
or punished.
Some republicans were sent to work at El Valle de los Caídos. Some other were
sent to concentration camps.
3. Lack of freedom. People weren't allowed to protest in the streets. The press couldn't say anything bad about
Franco or against him.
4. Starvation. After the Civil War had finished, there was not enough food for everyone, so
RATION BOOKS were introduced. This meant that every family had very poor rations of the basic
foods.
5. Censorship. Many films, books, theatre plays, albums, album covers, etc. were prohibited. In some other ocassions, parts of the films were cut because
Franco considered them inmoral and inadequate.
https://youtu.be/pID2v1qbLhE
Both the film Some like it hot and the album cover Can't buy a thrill by the band Steely Dan were banned.
https://youtu.be/4DC7dFFR7gk
https://youtu.be/4O-g9jXuJm0
6. At the end of Franco's government tourism grew a lot because other countries considered Spain a sunny and cheap place to spend the
holidays. Due to this, economy improved a lot.
7. The Catholic Church was very powerful in this period of time.
In fact, many censors were religious figures.