Franco was born in Ferrol , Spain as the son of upper-class parents with a strong connections to the Spanish Navy . Franco however joined the Spanish Army as a cadet in the Toledo Infantry Academy in 1907 , graduating in 1910 . He would go on to have a successful military career in Morocco and advanced through the ranks at a very young age . He served in the Rif War and was in 1926 promoted General at age 33 , the youngest in Europe . As a conservative and a monarchist , Franco opposed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the democratic secular republic in 1931 . He nevertheless continued his position in the Republican Army and in 1934 led the brutal suppression of the miners ' strike in Asturia , which sharpened the antagonism between Left and Right in the country . After the leftist Popular Front came to power after the 1936 elections , Franco joined other Generals who launched a coup the same year , intending to overthrow the republic . The coup failed to take control of most of the country and precipitated the Spanish Civil War . After the war had started , Franco took control of the Army of Africa , which were air-lifted to Spain . With the death of the other leading Generals , Franco became his faction 's only leader and was appointed Generalissimo and Head of State in the fall on 1936 . In 1937 , Franco merged all parties on the Nationalist side into a single legal party , the FET y de las JONS . In 1939 , Franco won the war , which had claimed almost half a million lives . The victory extended his dictatorship to the whole country and was followed by a period of repression of political opponents and dissenters , whereby as many as between 58,000 and 400,000 died through the use of forced labor and executions in concentration camps . Franco continued to rule Spain alone , with more power than any Spanish leader before or since , ruling almost exclusively by decree . He nurtured a cult of personality and the '' Movimiento Nacional '' became the only channel of participation in Spanish public life . During World War II , he espoused neutrality as Spain 's official wartime policy , but supported the Axis – whose members Italy and Germany had supported him during the Civil War – in various ways . After the war , Spain became isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade . By the 1950s , the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to an authoritarian system with limited pluralism , and was allowed to join the UN in 1955 . During the Cold War Franco became one of the world 's foremost anti-Communist figures : his regime was assisted by the West – particulary the United States – and it was asked to join NATO . After chronic economic depression in the late 1940s and early 1950s , Franco presided over the " Spanish miracle " , abandoning autarky and pursuing economic liberalization , delegating authority to the technocrats of the Opus Dei , leading to massive economic growth . The Francoist dictatorship continued to soften over time and Luis Carrero Blanco became '' éminence grise '' , controlling the day-to-day operations of the government , which only intensified with Franco showing symptoms of Parkinson 's disease in the 1960 's . The introduction of the Organic Law in 1966 limited and clearly defined Franco 's powers and officially created the office of Prime Minister . In 1973 , due to old age , sickness and to lessen his burdens in governing Spain , Franco resigned his position as Prime Minister which Carrero Blanco now took officially . However , Franco remained as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief . Franco died in 1975 at the age of 82 and was buried in the Valle de los Caídos . He restored the monarchy before his death , which had been decided since 1947 , and made King Juan Carlos I his successor , who led the Spanish transition to democracy
repression of political opponents and dissenters
White Terror (Spain)
Francisco Franco