The global football tournament of 2026 is winding down. The Final Four teams are facing off this week to determine who will play for the trophy. One of the most impressive teams of this summer will face off against their bordering neighbor. This one country has the new upcoming star. This one country also has a dark history and connection between religion and power. In this episode we look at one of the darkest periods starting back in 1936.
Let’s reflect on Spain during the Francisco Franco years.
When you see the players that make up the Spanish National Team remember that just 50 years ago some of these players likely wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to represent this country.
1936-1975 – Learning history through Football
Why should we American’s care about the history of Spain, especially during Franco? Dictators tend to use the same playbook. There was a certain narrative within Francoist Spain, that presented the governments mission as a crusade against Bolshevism in defending the country’s Christian civilization. The story line of the Francoist authoritarian government was that they had defeated anarchy and overseen the elimination of “agitators”. As part of the story the anarchists were people “without God” and pushed a “Judeo-Masonic conspiracy“. The irony to this story is that Franco had relied on thousands of North African soldiers, so there was a fine line in discussing any anti-Islamic sentiment. Because of this curated dogma Spanish children grew up believing that the Franco government had been constantly fighting foreign enemies of Spain’s historic greatness.
How did this happen? Noticiario y Documentales were created and by the government pushed out as trailers to cinema houses. You will need to create an log in to view these reels. These propaganda films helped create the Franco era.
https://historyofspain.es/en/video/the-franco-dictatorship
EPISODE 5: FRANCISCO FRANCO
With his country torn between left and right, Francisco Franco devoted his life to a deeply conservative vision of Spain. Trained in colonial warfare, he was prepared to fight for that vision with deadly force. He joined a military coup, fought ruthlessly in the Spanish Civil War, and emerged as the dictator of Spain.
For almost 40 years, Franco worked to transform the country into a bastion of tradition. Siding with the Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy, he saw liberals and socialists as enemies to be suppressed at any cost. As his forces gained ground during the Civil War, they executed tens of thousands of Spaniards suspected of loyalty to the other side. Even after winning the war, Franco continued this campaign, murdering and imprisoning thousands more.
The Road to Dictatorship
- As a young army officer, Franco was sent to fight a colonial war in Morocco, where he learned the brutal style of warfare that would mark his career.
- At 33, Franco was the youngest general in all of Europe. During the Civil War he built his image as a military leader; before long, he was named “Generalissimo”—a general among generals.
- During the Civil War and later, as the ruler of Spain, Franco was single-minded in his drive to decimate the Spanish left. Under his regime, if a leftist woman had a baby while imprisoned, the child was taken and raised in a “properly Spanish” home.
- About 6,800 Catholic clergy were murdered by the Franco Republicans.
Dig Deeper: Succession
Like many dictators, Franco faced a problem towards the end of his life: who would take over when he died? He wanted a successor who would carry on his vision of Spain as a deeply conservative Catholic country, and thought he had found that person in Juan Carlos I, a member of the Spanish royal family. In 1969, he named Juan Carlos as his successor, certain that the future king would keep Spain on its authoritarian path. But Franco badly misjudged his chosen successor. After the dictator’s death, Juan Carlos turned out to be a reformer. The constitution was rewritten, Spain transitioned to a democratic system, and elections were held soon after.
Spain’s nearly seamless transition to representative democracy was extraordinary. But in the effort to ensure a peaceful process, the crimes committed by Franco’s regime were largely swept under the rug. In 2007, the Law of Historical Memory was passed to bring justice to the families of those killed under Franco. And today, at sites across the country, the bodies of his victims are still being exhumed.
Bilbao. If you know nothing about this city, you probably have seen at least one movie with the Guggenheim Museum, that was designed Frank Gehry. If you are a football fan you’ve seen the Champion’s Leauge finish at San Mames stadium in Bilbao.
Madrid – Real Madrid, Ronaldo. The capital of the country. Every year Madrid gets 5.8 million tourists. Current population is around 3 million people.
Madrid was one of the most heavily affected cities in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). It was a stronghold of the Republican faction from July 1936 and became an international symbol of anti-fascist struggle during the conflict.[77] The city suffered aerial bombing, and in November 1936, its western suburbs were the scene of an all-out battle.[78] The city fell to the Francoists in March 1939. The intense demographic growth experienced by Madrid via mass immigration from the rural areas of Spain led to the construction of abundant housing in the peripheral areas of Madrid to absorb the new population, initially comprising substandard housing. This increased wealth polarisation in Madrid,[82] with as many as 50,000 shacks scattered around Madrid by 1956.[83
The city of Barcelona is a global city. Today people from all over the world travel for its culture, commerce and local football club. In 2025 the city had 15.7 million tourists. Those tourists accounted for 13% of the city’s economy. It has been featured in books and movies. One of its most familiar churches has never completed construction. Currently the city is trying to minimize the impact tourism has had on its residents. Don’t forget Messi played here.
