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Generalísimo Francisco Franco > 
Generalísimo Francisco Franco, was head of state of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. Known as "El Caudillo de España" ("the leader"), he presided over the fascist authoritarian government of the Spanish State following victory in the Spanish Civil War.
With the fall of the monarchy in 1931, Franco initially maintained an ambivalent attitude to the new Republic, not wishing to compromise his career by overt opposition. He even swallowed the bitter pill of the closure of his beloved Military Academy and subsequent postings to La Coruña and the Balearic Islands, the main purpose of which was to keep him at a distance from other potentially disloyal elements.
The Republic's failure to satisfy much of the popular expectation it had created and the fragmentation of the left-wing parties permitted a strong right-wing government to gain power in 1933. When miners in Asturias started a full scale rebellion a year later, it was Franco who ensured that colonial troops were sent to crush the uprising. They employed the same ruthless tactics that had been used against the tribesmen in Morocco. Having thus 'saved' Spain again, Franco was given the top job in the army - chief of the general staff.
Having learnt their lesson, the left-wing and republican parties presented a common front in the tense elections of spring 1936 and won a narrow victory. This time, Franco was posted to the Canary Islands.
He, in fact, had not been actively plotting to overthrow the Republic, but when the coup came, he flew to Morocco to take command of the colonial army (including the Legión and the Regulares) which had rebelled and rapidly taken control of the Spanish Protectorate.
The coup failed in many of the large cities and the situation quickly degenerated into the Spanish Civil War. During the war, in late September 1936, he became Generalísimo of the Nationalist army, with rank of lieutenant general and then on October 1, 1936, he was elected Jefe del Estado (Head of State). He also managed to fuse the ideologically incompatible Falange ("phalanx", a far-right Spanish political party with close connections to Hitler and Mussolini) and the Carlist parties under his rule. His army was supported by troops from Nazi Germany (Legion Condor) and Fascist Italy (Corpo Truppe Volontari). Salazar's Portugal also openly assisted the Nationalists from the start. The war officially ended on April 1, 1939, shortly after the conquest of Madrid, although guerrilla resistance to Franco continued into the late 1940s. Franco continued to rule as dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.
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