Francisco Franco Bahamonde lapel pin

"Franco has the qualities that every good soldier must possess: courage, intelligence, military spirit, enthusiasm, a love of hard work, a spirit of sacrifice, and a virtuous life.” These words of praise might seem to come from some point during the Civil War or the Francoist dictatorship, but they were written in 1922, as the prologue to his book Diario de una bandera, a chronicle of his campaigns in Africa.

It’s true that the prologue’s author, then Lieutenant Colonel José Millán Astray, was an unconditional admirer. After all, Franco had been his deputy when he founded the Legion. But the text shows that even then, Franco was already a well-regarded military figure.

Francisco Franco was born in Ferrol on December 4, 1892. His father, Nicolás Franco y Salgado-Araujo, a Navy captain, was a freethinker and somewhat of a ne'er-do-well

who abandoned the family home at the beginning of the century. His mother, María del Pilar Baamonde (Franco himself later added the “h” to the surname), was a conservative, devout Catholic and the most influential family figure in his upbringing.

Franco wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Navy, but he failed to get accepted into the Naval Academy, a failure that redirected his career toward the Infantry Academy, which he entered in 1907. He was a mediocre student, graduating 251st out of 312 in his class. His career might have remained unremarkable had he stayed on the peninsula, but in 1912 he secured a transfer to Morocco. This was a highly coveted post among officers, as the colonial war there offered the opportunity for rapid promotion.

Methodical and systematic, cold and calculating, but also bold at the front, Franco seized the opportunity to rise through the ranks. He arrived in Morocco as a second lieutenant, soon became a lieutenant, was promoted to captain in 1914 for war merits, to major in 1917, colonel in 1925, and general in 1926—at just 33 years old. The protection of King Alfonso XIII and a runaway system of promotions and rewards for wartime merit were key to his meteoric rise.

His colonial experience not only made possible his rapid advancement; like other so-called “Africanist officers”, he also learned a brutal and ruthless way of waging war, one without established rules and where the enemy was seen as barely human and unworthy of mercy.

Morocco also instilled in the Africanists a unique esprit de corps: many of them shared the conviction that they were part of a chosen group of defenders of the homeland, whose providential mission was to protect it from the enemy. From the external enemy in Africa, and from the internal enemy once they returned to the peninsula and were faced with threats to public order.

Franco would have the opportunity to display the harshness and cruelty he had learned in the African war during the general strike of October 1934 in Asturias. From Madrid, he coordinated the suppression of the rebellion and recommended bringing in troops from the Moroccan Regulares and the Legion which he had commanded in Africa. The repression was fierce, brutal, and excessive.

The African troops were with him when he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to the peninsula after taking command on 19 July 1936. The brutal practices of colonial warfare they brought with them took root in the civil conflict.

MML