fme_1118705 - SPAIN - FRANCISCO FRANCO BAHAMONDE Médaille, Francisco Franco

SPAIN - FRANCISCO FRANCO BAHAMONDE

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo de Andrade more commonly known as Francisco Franco was born in 1892 in El Ferrol, port of Galicia in a military family. A graduate of the infantry school in Toledo, he was posted to Morocco where he distinguished himself in the native troops, then became one of the first officers of the brand new Spanish Legion where he was nicknamed "Caudillo". Close to Primo de Rivera, he founded the military academy of Zaragoza but was dismissed by the Republicans. Assigned to the Canary Islands, he was recalled in 1936 by Mola, instigator of a monarchist plot, at the head of the troops in Morocco. After four years of a terrible civil war, he won in 1939 with the help of Germany and Italy. Joined NATO in 1950, he developed the economy but politically reigned supreme. He died in 1975 without a real political heir, while finally restoring the monarchy with Juan Carlos de Bourbon..