5.5: Spain in the Second Half of the 20th Century

 

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Spain began the 20th century as a parliamentary, largely agrarian, and conservative monarchy that clung unsuccessfully to its imperial past; today it is a decentralized and liberal society, with one of the largest economies in the European Union. By the end of the century (1975), the King of Spain had much to teach the world about how to use authority to promote democratic openness. But these changes were not gradual. From an anti-clerical democracy so opposed to the authoritarian tradition that it led to social chaos (1931-36), it transitioned into a violent civil war (1936-39) that served as a prelude to the Second World War. Later, Franco's centralist and Catholic dictatorship (1939-1975) gave stability to the country, but kept it economically, politically and culturally isolated for decades. The transition to a democratic system with territorial autonomy in its political division marked a vibrant cultural process. Spanish cinema is one of the fields of cultural production that has achieved the greatest international diffusion since the end of the 20th century, serving as a good indicator of sociocultural changes, especially since the 1960s. The comedy "The National Shotgun" (1978), for example, humorously represents the confusing experience of the democratic transition, marked by greater freedom of expression, yet still influenced by the Franco dictatorship.

The National Shotgun (1978), directed by Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010).

The Franco Era (1939-1975)

As we saw, after three years of civil war, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, head of the right-wing military forces (the nationalists), assumed command of the government, with the support of sectors of the elite and the people, eager for centralist and Catholic stability. The regime consolidated its authority through the suspension of civil rights, the elimination of political parties, the establishment of vertical unions controlled by the State, strict censorship of information, and the concentration of power, allowing the dictator to govern by decree. The army assumed police functions, with strong repression in executions, imprisonment and forced labor. Thousands of citizens escaped into exile. Some formed a rural guerrilla group (the Maquis) that was reduced until it disappeared in the early 1960s.

In September 1939, the Second World War broke out in Europe, leaving the Franco regime in an ambiguous situation. His two power bases in Spain had contradictory positions before the Nazis: the fascist phalanx favored him, and Catholicism rejected him. Nor were the precarious internal conditions conducive to intervening in another war. At his 1940 meeting, Hitler was unable to reach an agreement with Franco regarding his possible entry into the Italo-German Axis, as the generalissimo demanded a great deal and offered very little. Spain then adopted an opportunistic and non-belligerent position. In the first years of Nazi victories, it allowed Axis ships to use some naval facilities on the Peninsula or for Spanish volunteer troops (the Blue Division) to fight alongside the Germans against the Soviets. When the Allies took advantage, Franco emphasized his neutrality, extended diplomatic protection to some Jewish refugees, and superficially reformed his regime as an “organic democracy” (he created a legislative parliament clearly controlled by the dictatorship). At the end of the war in 1945, Spain was not admitted to the United Nations, despite the Franco regime having enacted two laws (on citizen rights and referendums) that gave the appearance of greater civil guarantees.

Isolation was also the economic policy of the 1940s in Spain, with a strategy of self-sufficiency (“autarchy”) that had served the war regimes in Italy and Germany well. The large number of people living in misery received charitable help from the “Social Aid” of Catholic organizations, which regained its traditional prestige in education, politics and the economy. Commodities were regulated by the State, and the interests of the domestic oligarchy and foreign financiers were preserved. Under the slogan “Spain, one, great and free”, a centralist policy of repression was applied against regional autonomy. The use of languages other than Spanish was prohibited, and the teaching of religion, physical education, and civic culture was imposed nationwide. A strict system of censorship was implemented over all artistic and journalistic production. In 1947, the regime stabilized its legal status by declaring Spain a kingdom, with Franco as its Head of State for life.

In the 1950s, Franco's regime gained some international recognition thanks to its reliable anti-communism in the midst of the Cold War. The United States established military bases in Spanish territory and, in exchange, Spain received technical and economic assistance, being admitted to the United Nations in 1955. The policy of autarky was abandoned, and a team of Catholic professionals implemented an economic stabilization plan based on the guidelines of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This plan involved devaluing the currency, stimulating foreign investment, and reducing public spending. Initially, the plan led to widespread poverty, resulting in the emigration of almost two million Spaniards in search of work to other parts of the world. However, in the 1960s, tourism, industry, and the service sector experienced rapid growth, and prosperity brought a wave of modernization and increased consumption. Traditional patriotic and Catholic rhetoric was losing prestige.

In 1969, at the age of 76, Franco formally recognized Juan Carlos de Borbón, grandson of Alfonso XIII, as his successor to the throne. In the 1970s, however, Franco's regime had lost much authority. Students, labor unions and regional activism were mobilized in Catalonia, as well as extreme left-wing terrorist groups (the Basque ETA, the Maoist GRAPO). Even the Church and the financial community, which had been pillars of support for the regime, were already less enthusiastic about it. Catholicism, renewed by the Second Vatican Council, distanced itself from the authoritarian rhetoric of the government. And the business sector regretted that Spain could not join the European Economic Community as long as it had a dictatorial regime. After his death in 1975, the Generalísimo was mourned by millions, but millions also celebrated the end of his term of office.

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Democratic Spain

King Juan Carlos I swore to respect the rules of Franco's regime and assumed the throne in November 1975. However, it was within these same norms that, by referendum, the Political Reform Law was approved in 1976, elections were held in 1977, and Spain adopted a new Constitution in 1978, establishing the Parliamentary Monarchy as its system of government. The so-called “constitution of consensus” established modern civil rights, freedom of worship without an official religion, a two-chamber parliament elected by the people, and a decentralized State that recognized autonomous rights to its seventeen territorial divisions (which were establishing their statutes between 1978 and 1995). This process of democratization was tense—with strikes and demonstrations by the left, as well as resistance from the right and the army, which attempted a new coup d'état in 1981—but it was firm. The next thirty years were characterized by political stability in which moderate parties of the left and the right alternated in power peacefully.

In the last decades of the century, Spain became a member of NATO (1982) and of the European Union (1986), hosted the Olympic Games and the World Expo in 1992, and achieved a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is among the highest in the world. The remarkable economic dynamism made the country the second-highest destination for immigrants in the world, after the United States. More than three and a half million immigrants (almost ten percent of the total population) arrived from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas in the 1990s and 2000s. This presence is the subject of social and economic debate, especially during the recession that began in 2008, but it is also a source of vibrant cultural production.

Along with the freedoms and rights acquired after the dictatorship, these changes have also generated a diverse and relatively tolerant society. Spanish cultural production encompasses a diverse range of lifestyles, characterized by self-criticism, parody, and the interplay between the cult and the popular, the mass and the local, the domestic and the exotic, resulting in divergent aesthetics. Pedro Almodóvar's films, as well as the novels by Rosa Montero and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, take place in a Spain that is very different from the agrarian and imperial Spain that began the 20th century.

Autonomies, one of the major changes introduced with the Constitution of 1978, to favor a pluralistic type of integration in the country. Rodriguillo, edited by Nnemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Since the 1970s, the inhabitants of Spain have frequently and vigorously exercised their right to protest in public. Public demonstration in Madrid, May 2011. .

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Fuentes

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• Blanco Aguinaga, Carlos, et al. Social history of Spanish literature. Akal, 2000.
• Carr, R. Spain 1808-1936. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
• Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to Hispanic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Flitter, D. Spanish Romantic Theory and Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Garcia de Cortázar, Fernando and José Manuel González Vesga. Brief history of Spain. Editorial Alliance, 2017.
• Gies, David, ed. The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2009.
• Kattan Ibarra, Juan. Cultural perspectives of Spain. NTC Publishing, 1990.
• Paniagua, Javier. Spain, 20th century. Madrid: Anaya, 1996.
• Romero Salvadó, Francisco. Twentieth-Century Spain: Politics and Society in Spain, 1898-1998. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.