-
Childhood
Francisco Franco was born at 12:30 am on December 4, 1892 at number 108 Frutos Saavedra street in Ferrol -currently, María Street, located in the historic center of the city-, in the province of La Coruña .29 On December 17, he was baptized as Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo. -
Your first position
Franco had to insist before one of his former commanders in the Infantry Academy, Colonel Villaba, with his request for a fate in Africa to be denied in the first instance, probably for his mediocre qualification in the military Academy. He is destined to Ferrol, his hometown, where he spent two years until his request was admitted. -
His rise
Already in Africa, during the ten and a half years that remained there, he achieved an ascension to the general, becoming the youngest general in Europe at that time, acquiring a great popularity among the Spanish bourgeoisie and a prestige within the Army that allowed him, even with his youth, to enjoy an egalitarian status with the most consolidated generals, being one of the military with greater ancestry among the population at a key moment in the history of Spain: the Second Republic. -
Milan-Astray
In his biographies the great influence that Millán-Astray was able to exert on young Franco is recognized. His appearance became shocking: one-armed, without an eye, part of the jaw shattered and face and body sewn with scars. Histrionic character who founded the Legion in the image of the French Foreign Legion, recruiting outlaws regardless of their nationality, to whom they would redeem their permanence in the Legion. -
La Legión
In the following years, under the command of the Legion, Franco still carried out several military successes, while he was reluctant to draft the military directory to withdraw from Morocco. Apparently. Finally he accepted military discipline. On February 7, 1925, he was promoted to colonel. -
The Republic
After the proclamation of the Republic, Franco was tempted to intervene in Madrid with the cadets in defense of King Alfonso XIII, but communicating his intention to General Millán-Astray, this made him share a confidence of General Sanjurjo, according to which, not you had enough support; mainly, there was no Civil Guard. This made him desist. -
Coup
He was a member of the group of high officials of the military leadership who gave the coup of 1936 against the democratic government of the Second Republic, whose failure led to the Spanish civil war. He was invested as supreme leader of the rebellious side on October 1, 1936, and served as head of Spain - head of state - from the end of the conflict until his death in 1975, and as president of the Government -
End ofthe war
When the Civil War ended on April 1, 1939, there were about 400,000 Spaniards exiled abroad, of which an estimated 200,000 remained in permanent exile.
