Church and party during the years of the first Francoism (1939‒1957)

Abstract

During the first Francoism, the party and the church became the key in-stitutions of the regime. They were largely responsible for social con-trol over the population. In the first years after the civil war, the "Span-ish Traditionalist Falange and JONS", a result of the forcible unifica-tion of various political forces, took the leading role. The party carried out the task of familiarizing the Spaniards with the ideology of the new state. For this purpose, an extensive network of organizations was cre-ated, which was supposed to cover all the Spaniards. The adult male population was part of vertical trade unions, women were in the "Wom-en's Section", children – in the "Youth Front". Nevertheless, the Party's success in indoctrinating the population was very modest and was re-duced to an obligatory routine that had little effect on everyday life. The church had a much greater influence. The new authorities, in ex-change for the support of the majority of Catholic prelates, gave the church broad powers to control the private lives of the Spaniards. Mar-riage was exclusively in the competence of the church. Divorce has al-most completely disappeared from the life of the country. The church also gained wide influence on the education system, which resulted in conflicts with the Falange. After the World War II, the regime began to favor the church and organizations associated with it. Their representa-tives occupied a number of key positions in the government. Despite the fact that the party faded into the background, it retained all of its original functions.

Keywords

• spain
• franco
• francoism
• church
• falange and jons