Francisco Franco

Born into an upper-class military family in Ferrol in 1892, Franco rose quickly through the army ranks in Morocco to become brigadier general at 33. A conservative and monarchist, he served the Second Republic despite resenting it, his career ascending after the right won in 1933 and he crushed the Asturias uprising. Sidelined to the Canary Islands after the 1936 leftist election, he joined the July coup that failed to take Spain outright and ignited civil war. Commanding the African colonial army, he became sole leader of the Nationalist forces after rivals died, appointed generalissimo in 1936. He consolidated power under the Movimiento Nacional, received support from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and declared victory in 1939. The White Terror that followed - executions, forced labour, concentration camps - killed between 100,000 and 350,000. He kept Spain neutral in World War II while favouring the Axis, then pivoted during the Cold War to anti-communism and technocratic economic reform, presiding over the "Spanish miracle" of accelerated growth. Parkinson's began eroding him in the 1960s; he resigned as prime minister in 1973 but held on as head of state u