ABSTRACT
Francisco Franco used his forceful personality, his dedication to political conservatism, and the respect he had earned among Spain's conservative elites to establish a dictatorship that ruled over Spain for more than 35 years. Franco was born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde on December 4, 1892, into a devout Roman Catholic family. In 1898, the morale of the Spanish people reached its lowest point after the humiliating loss of most of its colonies to the United States. Francisco Franco revealed the power of the deep and enduring conservatism embedded in Spain's ruling classes and the difficulty of suppressing democracy and social justice in a country that desires them. Franco's legacy is also one of the larger, cynical world of international politics. Beginning with the Spanish Civil War, the Western democracies did litde to oppose Franco's ascent to power because they were opposed to giving Nazi Germany and fascist Italy any excuse to push for a wider war.
