The Early Years of Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco was born on 4th December 1892 in the port city of Ferrol in the region of Galicia in north-western Spain. His full birth name was Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo. Franco’s father was a Navy man called Nicolás Franco Salgado-Araujo, and his mother, Pilar Bahamonde Pardo de Andrade, also came from a family with strong naval connections. Franco had three siblings Nicolás (a naval officer), Pilar, and Ramón.

As a young man Franco wanted to continue in the footsteps of his father by joining the navy. However, the Spanish state had been making financial cutbacks as a consequence of the Spanish defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The knock on effect in terms of the Spanish navy was that the number of posts available in the Spanish naval fleets was reduced. So the 14 year-old Francisco Franco instead joined the Spanish army in 1907.

Franco and Army Training

Franco spent his army training in Toledo at the Infantry Academy: the most prestigious military training centre in Spain. His military education was to last three years, after which time Franco graduated as a second lieutenant. In 1910 Franco was stationed in mainland Spain for two years.

The historical background against which the life Francisco Franco was set, had seen Spain lose the remains of its empire, due principally to the aforementioned War in America. The losses that the war imposed caused many people to blame the Spanish government. In turn the Spanish government tried to reclaim lost imperial glories by focussing on Morocco, a country for which Spain had harboured colonial plans since the 15th century. Morocco provided the only real opportunity for an ambitious soldier to advance his career, and so Franco was happy to accept a posting there in 1912.

Between 1912 and 1916, Francisco Franco acquired a reputation as a courageous and cunning officer, winning the Military Cross (la Crúz Militar) in 1913 when he was 20 years old. In 1916 Franco sustained a life-threatening abdominal wound in a battle at El Biurtz but made a rapid recovery and soon returned to duty. Franco was awarded promotion to major and stationed in the northern Spanish region of Asturias.

From Francisco Franco to General Francisco Franco

Franco met two people in Asturias that played major roles in the direction of his life: his future wife (María del Carmen Polo y Martínez Valdés); and José Millán Astray an army officer who was a founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion (el Tercio de Extranjeros). In late 1920 Francisco Franco was assigned to the Tercio de Extranjeros to shape and lead this new elite strand of the Spanish army. Between 1920 and 1925 Franco married María (1923) and distinguished himself further as a bright military tactician and leader to such an extent that he was promoted to brigadier general by the time he left Morocco in 1926.

In 1928 Brigadier General Francisco Franco was awarded the position of head of the Joint Military Academy (la Academia General Militar) in Zaragoza. The academy was designed to be a breeding ground for young (male) career soldiers who aimed to become army officers.

General Francisco Franco (the Second Republic Years)