Was franco a good leader

Francisco Franco was a career soldier who rose through the ranks until the mids.

Francisco franco rise to power

When the social and economic structure of Spain began to crumble, Franco joined the growing right-leaning rebel movement. He soon led an uprising against the leftist Republican government and took control of Spain following the Spanish Civil War. He then presided over a brutal military dictatorship in which tens of thousands were executed or imprisoned during the earlier years of his regime.

Franco was born on December 4, , in Ferrol, Spain, a northwestern port city with a long history of shipbuilding. The men in his family had served in the navy for generations, and the young Franco expected to follow in their footsteps. However, the economic and territorial aftermath of the Spanish-American War led to a reduction in the navy, and after completing his primary education at a Catholic school, Franco was forced to enlist at the Infantry Academy at Toledo instead.

He graduated three years later with below-average marks. Stationed there from to , Franco distinguished himself with his fearlessness, professionalism and ruthlessness, and was frequently promoted. By , he had been named second in command of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and three years later took full command.

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The couple had one daughter. In April , general elections led to the ousting of King Alfonso XIII, whose military dictatorship had been in place since the early s. However, the country was also wracked by a deepening, often violent social and political unrest, and when new elections were held in , the Second Republic was replaced by a more right-leaning government.

As a result, Franco returned to a position of power, which he wielded the following year in a ruthless suppression of a leftist revolt in northwestern Spain. But like the Second Republic before it, the new government could do little to quell the growing divide between left- and right-leaning factions. When elections that were held in February led to a shift in power to the left, Spain slipped further into chaos.