Franco didn't enter the war on Axis side thanks to Wilhelm Canaris. The Admiral talked a lot with Franco. One of the times they talked, Franco expressed his fears of a German invasion to Spain in 1941, and Canaris told him to forget that, because in late 1941 Germany will be invading the USSR. This is why Franco could delay entering on the war. After Canaris was executed due to the July plot and the war ended, his wife moved to Spain and was given the pension of the widow of a dead admiral. I think that Franco knew Canaris was an anti-nazi.
@@johnroscoe2406 what I knew is that Spain payed the pension. If she got another one from the U.S., good for her. But she moved to Madrid after the war.
@@lemat579 Errrrrmm nahnahnah fascist don't oppose inetrnational capital they start fairly protectionist but start getting imperialist the moment they run out of options. AKA they all ened up wantig to be what the U.S.A are today XD !
@@darthrevan3342 Hi. national socialists in Germany invented kind of National Capitalism thing in 1930's. Spain of Franco went into "autarchia" - isolation and self-sufficiency. Italy of Mussolini, Fascios were combat small troops allied with local big owners and capitalists. What I want to say is that Fascism easily goes along with national capitalism. National.
@@lemat579 Importing people from africa to be treated as secondary citizens that could be exploited ! Because they to concurence Jewish Palestine in furnishing the reich with oranges so nazi could make their Fanta.
De gaulle Hated Franco, but Franco had many fans in France. The French legion still salutes Franco because he earned the ''Legion d'honnour'' and the french goverment ordered to create a movie to honor Franco in 1927.
Franco:" I'd like to thank the Germans for assisting in my consolidation of power. Also Franco:" I'd like to thank the Allies for allowing me to remain in power.
Not alot of allowing was done. The Allies knew that with the USSR taking the East, they were gonna need all the friends they could get. And the Spanish really hated the Communists. Turns out it worked for the best, as Spain was a middle man in Operation Paperclip, which put a man on the moon.
@Spartan 506 I believe it. I studed the spanish civil war very much. The socialists were killing christians for no reason and stealing peoples property they had for generations. Franco and the nationalists were way better in every way.
Ok 3 things to point out: 1. The decision of declaring war to Japan was also heavily motivated due to the masacre of almost all of the spanish population in the Philipines by the japanese forces (burning then alive in churches and stabing with bayonets those who had taken refuge in the spanish embassy. 2. The Soviets had also quite a resentment against Franco due to the "Blue division", a spanish military force sent to help in the invasion of Barbarosa which fought in the siege of Leningrad. 3. The suport of the british to Fascist Spain was also influenced by a really god relationship between their aristocrats, noblemen and businesmen. It was common for spanish wealthy familys to sent their sons to study to England where naturally ended up forming friendships.
@@shashwatsinha2704 In books: Paul Preston in his book about the Spanish civil War when talking about the international relations at the start of the war and also in his Biography about Juan Carlos i think there were some comentaries also but the book its quite big and i am not really going to search for the page quite a big book and just like the Romanov by Simon S. Montfiore i regret not having put markers on the books i read i started after that last one. In the sources its more dificult to point especifics since its generally something that comes out of diaries, albums and that sort of thing. Then there is tv documentals, sadly enough all in spanish.
yep. they go so fucking wild, holy shit. before this pandemy they would appear on the news every so often and it would be quite embarasing, though we kind of need them because our economy really depends on turism (no hate, they're nice but need to chill at parties)
Yes, well... The vast majority of the armed opposition to Franco did not affiliate themselves with the Communist Party at all... Granted, the vast majority were of Marxist ideology, but they despised the Commies just as much as Franco did...
It might be interesting to note that there was an armed attempt by the Spanish National Union (UNE), a group sponsored mainly by the PCE (Spanish Communist Party), to militarily invade Spain with the aim of provoking a general anti-Francoist insurrection among the population. Up to 6000 "guerrilleros" invaded in October, 1944, in what was called the "Invasion of Val D'Aran", but it was an utter failure, since the expected general uprising didn't occur. This further convinced many that Franco's regime was strong at this point and that it faced no widespread internal opposition, and made the Allies think that removing him would be more costly and detrimental than not to.
To be fair, many spaniards were tired and sick from the recent civil war, it's not hard to believe that your average Alejandro wouldn't be part of an armed uprising, even if it was to depose the dictator.
also the Spanish Marquis was active in Guerrilla campaigns and hiding in France until around the end of WW2, so Franco did have some experience in putting down rebellions by that point
@@RyoKasai25 We should also take into account that most of the people that had been politically active in favor of the Second Spanish Republic had by that point been killed in war, executed, vanished, imprisoned or forced into exile, both internal and external, and those who remained were either hiding or too afraid to challenge the statu quo, so no wonder that plan failed miserably.
1. An alternative Spanish government might have skewed pro-Russian. They were already worried about France and Italy going that way. Why rock the boat? 2. Franco was willing to cooperate with the US. Again, why rock the boat? 3. If there was the slightest chance Franco's Spain would have resisted and required an invasion, why expend more American or British lives or resources for no gain? The Allies went to war with Germany and Italy because they attacked things and threatened British, American and wider interests. Franco hadn't done any of those things.
Indeed, it’s almost like international capital is perfectly compatible with fascism so long as the fascists are polite enough not to touch their things.
@@Necroskull388 There were several other fascist counties post-WW2. Argentina, Peru, at one point Chile come to mind. Additionally, there is a pretty good case that modern China is more fascist than communist in its structure at this point.
@@fortusvictus8297 Don't forget Brasil! It's facista lasted juuuust long enough to see Brasil through the war. And then be immediately deposed. In part because some felt Vargas' fence-sitting had isolated Brasil and cost it opportunities on the global stage.
They were voluntary as far as i know, so a good way of giving support without giving support as it wasnt government sanctioned. Almost like how the Irish do things cause they send troops to fight in both sides, then hope no one calls them on their bull
@@FKaps16 Republican ones too. It was funny because they joined De Gaulle because he promised them that he would move into spain next and overthrow Franco. He didn't fulfill his promise
They mostly only aided in Operation Barbarossa, as Franco viewed the destruction of Communism to be a worthy effort. Despite this, he also advocated for the Allied war effort against Japan, while also personally being opposed to German expansion.
Spain started as neutral because of Germany's alliance with the communist USSR, but changed to non-belligerent status when Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940. In October 1940, Spain signed the Protocol of Hendaya, which included joining the Steel Pact that Germany and Italy signed in 1939. This meant collaboration with Germany and Italy but not a formal joining of the Tripartite Pact. Germany pushed the latter, which the Allies feared because it could mean closing off the Mediterranean to Allied forces, so the Allies reduced trade sanctions that were hampering Spain's economic survival and prepurchased Spanish goods to keep them out of German hands (and British cash bribes to key Spanish elites helped). At the same time, Germany started having trouble paying for Spanish goods it did import and having trouble fulfilling promised exports that Spain purchased. With the start of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's attention was diverted and they didn't push Spain so hard on the Tripartite Pact. As Operation Torch got underway in North Africa, internal government opposition in Spain saw even more reason to stay out of the war because it looked bad for the Axis. By October 1943, Spain had returned to a declared neutral status, though Franco still had clear leanings toward Berlin, as evidenced by his protection of German assets and refusal to limit German access. Spain didn't entirely act like a neutral country, and its pro-Axis overtures clearly violated basic tenets of activities of neutral nations. But it also wasn't treated like one. Germany held sway over it both on the basis of historical assistance and threat of military action to try to force an alliance, and the Allies used economic actions and threat of military action to try to force neutrality, all of which violated basic tenets of treatment of neutral nations. It's hard to look back on them and assign a binary good or bad label because much of what they did was playing for survival.
It's well documented how Antonio Salazar from Portugal helped draw Franco away from the Axis. Strange to not see a reference to Portugal in your animation. If you want documentation just tell me or search a paper by Maria Inácia Rezola.
Historians I’ve seen speak of Spain typically state the recent Civil War and the lack of reward for entering. How could Spain have helped and what would that get them? France fell in 6 weeks and Spain’s navy couldn’t hope to compete against Britain’s, so they would be a mostly useless ally. Even in some alternate timeline where Spain enters and they somehow help defeat Britain, what would they gain from Hitler having total control over Europe?
Hmmm. No. Roosvelt used to love Stalin. And was in, for granting Anything to Stalin, only if he decide to attack Japan in Manchuria, and by so doing, relief American effort in pacific.
En España la peña sigue traumatizada culturalmente por la guerra civil, no hay huevos para hablar del tema. Pero visto desde fuera la situación era muy simple, o como mínimo no requiere tanta delicadeza.
El avion que trajo a Franco a España lo puso el servicio secreto ingles. Los "aliados" respaldaron el golpe de estado, de que de hecho se fraguo en Inglaterra. Lo demas es propaganda de guerra.
I don't know if it makes sense but, Spanish facist dictatorship and Portugal's dictatorship (Franco and Salazar) weren't as hard-line facist as Mussolini or Hitler. Don't get me wrong, they did a lot of bad stuff, but their facism was "softer"
@@carlosquintela2950 Well yes, as far as I know neither were pure fascism, I am unsure about Portugals form of it but I know Franco was a Falangist, which had a few key differences.
Oversimplified and history matters both new videos, my favorite British history channels. Edit: Enjoy the video glad we talked about Argentina and often less talked about nation in history. I'd love to see more videoson other nations history and there's current position on the world stage keep up the good work. Maybe one on why not all British colonies are in the Commonwealth, or the Indian revolution aftermath/ post world war 2
Franco has been wiser than Mussolini, didn't join WW2 and lived more than him and Hitler. In the end Franco probably knew that although nazi Germany was powerful it simply couldn't win against half Europe, USA and URSS combined. Or simply he wasn't too ambitious, he didn't even try to invade Portugal or France.
When most of the negotiations between Germany and Spain took place (mid till end 1940), France was quickly defeated, USA was not in the game and USSR was allied with Germany. Franco surely did not knew Germany was losing. He did know Spain would lose at the very least most colonies and the canaries to the British if Germany would not help with gigantic amounts of ressources and fortifications. Which Hitler again wouldn't do.
@@karlheisenberg2857Most of his economic aid was coming from the Western allies so he had no reason to rock that boat, add to that the split in his coalition domestically (The Traditional Catholic side were not fond of fascism, at least not enough to join the War.).
Or he realized his "regime" was a joke at the time and would have barely been able to maintain even the first month of an offensive war. He liked to say he was strong though which was adorable
Hearts of Iron 4 Spain: I gotchu fam (instantly conquers half of france and forces the allies to a 2front war in the middle of france, as well as a new war in Africa)
Spain as a non-belligerent served the interests of a lot of folks. It was a neutral meeting ground for the diplomats (& spies) of all the participants in the war. Many, many allied airmen the escaped made their way back to the UK via Spain.
1.Those "good relationships with Britain" weren't quite good as Churchill declared a naval blockade to Spain in hopes of drowning their food supply. The only country who didn't respect this blockade was Argentina as Peron sent tons of meat for stopping the famine outbreaks in Spain. 2. Spain had a strong resentment towards Japan due to the genocide of Filipinos and Spanish speakers in the Philippines.
Podrías recomendarme alguna lectura de este periodo? Me interesa bastante, y no conozco en absoluto el genocidio de filipinos hispanohablantes. De hecho, no tenía ni idea de que Franco hubiera ayudado contra Japón.
@@alejandrop.s.3942 Más que libros todo esto lo he ido leyendo en la sección histórico cultural del ABC (Te la recomiendo porque cada semana suben algo bueno) y en algún que otro documental de los que subía Canal Historia hace años. Pd: Si te interesa, te recomiendo que busques cosas sobre el genocidio filipino que hizo EEUU en 1899, justo después de la expulsión de los españoles.
@@Angel_Gomez El genocidio estadounidense contra los filipinos hispanohablantes lo conozco, pero lo que usted ha comentado es que Franco habría querido ayudar a EE UU contra Japón por un supuesto genocidio japonés contra los filipinos hispanohablantes, cosa que me extraña sobremanera. ¿Cuál es la documentación que demuestra que Japón exterminara a los filipinos hispanohablantes en la segunda Guerra mundial? Que sepa yo, ocuparon Filipinas principalmente para controlar sus bases navales, al igual que hicieron con Papua, sin ninguna agenda étnica particular más allá de facilitar la colonización japonesa. Las masacres japonesas se dirigieron principalmente contra los chinos en la invasión de China.
There is an argument by historians that Mussolini could have survived WWII had he done like Franco and simply been neutral during the conflict. I'm not sure it's the same situation though since Italy was far more strategically relevant in WWII than Spain but it's an interesting hypothesis nonetheless.
As an Italian, yes. Before he decided to join the war, the Allies admired him(except the Liberals, they’re tol based). Mussolini hated Sh|tler, but eventually he had to either be neutral or join the Axis, as the Allies wanted to embargo him. Italy was very useful for Germany to avoid Britain’s blockade, but the Germans were so selfish.
@Ferbujosbe yeah, upon signing Versailles the British only thought about their gain, ignoring Italy(which didn’t gain their territories as in London secret pact),Russia(which was engulfed in a civil war)and France(which wanted a divided Germany). Also they still could’ve invaded Germany when Churchill made it clear that Sh|tler was rearming
@@wimschmied3800 Sh|tler admired Mussolini, but Mussolini hated him. He was about to ratify the Stresa Front with the Allies, he massed troops on the Austrian Border after the Anschluss and took a pacifist stand in the Munich agreement, gaining the respect of the Allies, but he wanted to rule the Mediterrean and Britain was an obstacle, while Sh|tler wanted Italian help in the war against UK in the colonies and wanted to avoid Britain’s blockade which costed the Kaiser’s Germany WW1. It was only during the Spanish Civil War and after the accords which led Germany to renounce their claims in South Tyrol that the relations improved
@@Tortellobello45 Incorrect. Mussolini adopted many of Hitler's policies and had they mutual respect for one another's abilities. Italy and Mussolini was saved by Germany multiple times. E.g. The Greek war and the North African front, Hitler even sent men to rescue Mussolini out of loyalty and respect even though Mussolini had lost all official power. If they hated each other to the point you claim, they never would've been on the same side. As you said South Tyrol was recognised as Italian, Italy respected and accepted the anschluss. Hitler and Mussolini were arguably the most connected nations and men in Ww2 consisting their proximity and similar ideology and enemies. Calling Germany selfish is wrong considering it had to sacrifice valuable divisions to assist Italy in Greece even though it didn't even want to fight Greece for example.
He also had a backup plan, at least on paper, to secure an anti-communist Spain after his death. By decreeing Don Juan Carlos, grandson of King Afonso and Queen Victoria Eugenie (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) as his heir in government, he held over the Spanish people a carrot of a restored monarchy. What he hadn't counted on was that, after Franco's death, King Juan Carlos would open the country to deep political reform moved towards democracy.
Franco was a son of.... but was a very smart guy. Someone stupid can't stand for so long in power. And in fact, I have the feeling that Franco and Hitler didn't get along so well (maybe, for that, Franco was saved after WW2). It's knwon that Hitler despised Franco, and Franco, well, he was a military, a men how earn his place (he was also teacher from a military school, and that, after gaining medals of honor from the Morroco conflict some years ago), so the difference betwen both Hitler and Franco were enormous.
@@kellyvaters1689 yea that was kindof a bruh moment for franco, but it ended up going decently for spain once the dictatorship ended, though of course no country is without issues.
My Video ideas: - When did Korea become christian? - When did the Pope lose power over Europe and when was the last time Europe listened to Pope? - Early History of HRE (from east francia to habsburg takeover). - WW1 outside Europe. - 7 Years War
@@bigpotato8 South Korea is 30% circa christians, higher than Buddhism. Yeah, Korea has Nearly 50% of Atheists/Agnosticism, but a big result notherless. Mostly because of the christan evangelism, which were also present in China and Japan, but got outlawed for élite interests.
Another key moment was the defeat of the Allies in Paris. The company that had spearheaded the Allied advance against the Nazis in France was made up of exiled Spanish Republicans and later enlisted in the French Legion, known as the Lecrec Division or "La Nueve". They hoped to count on the allied apollo to liberate Spain from Franco. His motto in fact was Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid indicating that this would be his war route. I do not remember well but I think it was Amado Granell, one of the leaders of the company, who, when attending a meeting between the Americans and the French, soon realized that the allies had no interest in Spain. According to his words, Patton said that he did not understand why those Spaniards were on his side.
@@jorgeshaft1483 the labour party lasted that long 5 years? I thought after the war the labour party in the UK was going to have 2 terms in office with the big govt ideas being popular with the masses there.
@@attiepollard7847 Clement Attlee was a very popular PM who implemented a lot of the modern welfare state and nationalised many industries. However, Britain used the First Past the Post electoral system and in 1951, despite Labour gaining more votes then the Tories, the Tories won the election.
Ah yes. Spain in the 20th century. A beautiful tale of "If i do nothing then i cant do nothing wrong". Edit: Really recommend reading the reply chain. Pretty interesting imo.
@ Well fascism is all about ultra-nationalism and more, so fascism without revanchinism and expansionism is like communism without collectivization or democracy without voting, which at that point might as well just call them authoritarianism. Besides, a non-expansionist fascist nation is still at it's core very racist and was all about racial supremacy. International relations would not improve just because they aren't aggressive. In fact, relationship between fascistic nations are purely for war purpose. Italy, Germany, and Japan (just to name a few) were really cautious against each other and at a few occassions were discriminative against each other.
@The Nova renaissance Communism at it's very core is an economic based ideology. It's radically left economic wise, so it's only natural that left wingers, even moderate ones, would not condemn communism as much as moderate right wingers condemn fascism. Communism is an idea that can be applicable and indiscriminative across any race and nation, and it only has the bourgeois as it's enemy. Even if you're right wing socially, you can still be a supporter of communism (Nazbolism is a ridiculous ideology that reflects this.) Fascism, on the other hand, is a social based ideology. Even though it's naturally right wing, a fascist in Germany and a fascist in France would be fierce enemies. Fascism is all about racial purity and supremacy. The only reason Germany, Italy, and Japan were "allied" in WW2 were purely because they had the same enemies, and they realised that they have to compromise and set their differences aside for the duration of the war. Mussolini were very wary of Hitler at the early 30s, and Hitler considered the Italians and Japanese as lesser races to the Aryan race. In conclusion, Fascism is an ideology that naturally creates enemies, which is the reason why a wide range of people disapprove of such ideas. The attrocities they committed and their expansionism is just icing on the cake.
@The Nova renaissance My point is racial supremacists naturally attracts and makes enemies. Since there's no dominant race in the world, they're bound to be in the minority, and therefore have literally the entire world as their ideological enemy. The Nazis only got into power because of the hyper inflation and economic crisis plus a little bit of covert actions. Italy and Japan had a coup d'etat. The fascists had to play real dirty to get into power, and that just proves that the population doesn't support such an ideology enough to have them rule in the first place, which in turn disproves fascism "normality" in the 30s society.
This sounds like a classic example of the "my enemy's enemy is my friend," logic. The Franco regime didn't see eye to eye with Britain, France or America, but disliked the Soviet Union more, so after WW2 gradually improved relations with Western allies
Pretty much what the Soviets did in 1941. They hated the British empire with a passion but they needed it to help them survive, and it's not like the USSR has any moral advantage over Britain at all, the opposite is true.
sovnarkom communists claim that fascism and capitalism are the same Capitalists (liberals, conservatives) claim that communism and fascism are the same ("totalitarianism") Fascists claim that capitalism and communism are the same (tools for "jewish control") Truth is, none of these are true
@@odim7960 i don't claim communism and fascism is the same. I state the well proven fact that they are so different from one another like the north and south poles, they are indistinguishable from one another. And the fact that neither support freedom of speech, which if you don't have, you don't have anything at all.
@@odim7960 history shows that Capitalism and Fascism are more keen to work togheter than to fight. in fact, they worked togheter for an incredibly large portion of their historical coexistence.
Franco did not put non-Falangists in the power to please the Allies, he did it because the Falange was a problem for him. He tried to reduce its power narrower and narrower since the late civil war.
Yeah, he was never really a huge fan of them. But the only other large conservative faction that was even remotely acceptable to him were the Carlists, but Franco wasn’t going to restore the monarchy while he was alive, so he just need ultra-conservative ministers
I mean that sounds like a case of killing two bird with one stone, consolidating his power while simultaneously pleasing the Allies without sacrificing much
Would be interesting to see Spanish troops fighting in the Pacific Theater. Spain: SIII RECONQUISTA EL TIEMPO- USA: N O Philippines: N O Spain: ...lo siento
Hirohito: Before we start… Franco: Jesus Christ… Hirohito: I said. Before. We. Start! Franco: HOLY SHIT! Hirohito: Would you kindly let me explain? Franco: Oh yes! I’d love to know why you killed all the Spanish in the Pilippines! Hirohito: They weren’t Asians. Franco:…THEY WEREN’T ASIANS?!?! Hirohito: They. Weren’t. Asians! Franco: Well I guess they should get out! Hirohito: Well, too late. ‘Cause we killed ‘em. Franco: Great! So what are we supposed to do now?!? Hirohito: Well, off to the Co-Prosperity Sphere they go! Franco: UUUUURRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH! Hirohito: Yep. Can’t see any other option. Franco: How about any other options?! Any other options at all?!? Hirohito: No use trying to put the brakes on this! It’s going down! Franco:…You planned this. Hirohito: What?!? Franco: You planned this! I know you did! Franco: You…You honestly don’t trust me? Jose Laurel: Master! The Archipelago has been secured! Unfortunately a few Philippinos are resisting, but-oh. Hirohito:..You won’t BELIEVE how cheap this guy is! He’s a lawyer! Franco: HIROHITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Hirohito: BITCH, LET ME HAVE MY JAPANESE EMPIRE!
Besides, after all the effort that UK put in facilitating Franco ascend to power while pretending they were pro democracy it would have been a shame to put him down, don't you think?
@@rena-mq2bg The UK never supported Franco, happens that the guys in the other band became openly supporters of Stalin so UK by 1937 was cutting the help. But the Uk putted zero effort in favor of Franco.
@@gerardsotxoa they actively prevented any european intervention during the civil war. Meanwhile fascist Italy and Portugal were freely interfering. Without the British reluctances the French government would probably have helped the Republicans at some point, even if it wouldn't have mobilized the army for it.
@@joadg6592 LMAO, this is so insane. France was taking all the spanish gold and shipping it to Odessa Ukraine, they allowed to gather all the soviet equipment in french soil, French army empted their 1st Reserve warehouses which hindered them badly in May of 1940, also hosted the voluntary support troops including Red Army officials. and you say the UK prevented any European intervention??? WTF France remained out because they thought an open support could backfire with a communist insurrection in France. As i said before, the spanish ''republicans'' were way too red for the taste of UK and worldwide diplomats. Maybe if the ''republicans'' hadn't murdered the ''burgoise republicans'' with such a pride and cockery, maybe then diplomats and politicians in UK and France wouldn't hesitate so much to aim for an open intervention.
@@gerardsotxoa Yes, the Brits did prevent meaningful intervention on the Republic's side by keeping up the farce of the Non-Intervention Committee while turning a blind eye on the super obvious involvement of Germany and Italy
“One thing I am sure of, and which I can answer truthfully, is that whatever the contingencies that may arise here, where ever I am there will be NO communism” Franco
Interesting note: In Spain we are told in school that Spain was not "neutral" but "non belligerent" during WWII. We did send the "Blue Division" to Russia to support the Germans after all ^^;
In practise "non-belligerant" equals to neutral. It's true that a small group of Spanish volunteers helped Germany although they only fought in the Russian front vs the comunists (also some Spaniards fought vs Gemany on their own).
There were also volunteers who fought for the allies, in fact more fighters than the blue division. Although it was against the wish of the government, of course.
I believe that head of the Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, played a crucial role in ensuring that Spain remained neutral despite Hitler's overtures. Canaris, who spoke fluent Spanish, was a longtime opponent of the Hitler regime and a close friend of Franco. He was forced to retire in early 1944 and arrested after the failed attempt to kill Hitler in July 1944. He was executed on April 8, 1945. His secret diaries would probably have been one of the great sources on German underground opposition to Hitler had they not been discovered and destroyed.
Except if there was a Communist dictarship full of Soviet naval and terrestrial bases in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and controlling the Straight of Gibraltar.
@Вхламинго One of the eternal whises of the russian powers, the access to warm waters. Whichever it is in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic ocean behind all NATO allies, controlling all the trade and oil that passes towards the Straight and in front of Britain.
and all the former Nazi's resident in Spain (along with a lot of others wanted for war crimes in WW2) basically got a PASS, or a route through the rat line to Argentina, with Spain as a backup plan. Nice. We can that the western alllies for that??
There was heavy pressure on Spain in the immediate postwar period. Spain was not even allowed to join the UN until 1955. There were multiple attempts to create an effective insurgency in Spain sponsored by countries like France after the war, but they all failed. The French attitude was largely driven by the influence the French Communist Party had in the government in the immediate postwar period. Franco attempted various measure to improve the situation. He marginalized the actual fascists (the falange) in his government after the war and replaced them with more traditional conservative politicians. He also moved to (in theory) restore the monarchy eventually. There was always uncertainty about going too far with Spain. There was a belief that no insurgency would be strong enough to actually overthrow Franco in a clean way. That any support for an insurgency would effectively lead to a resumption of the civil war and quite possibly lead to events that would be difficult to predict or control. What changed everything was the outbreak of the Korean War. US Policy changed in the direction of supporting any country that seemed friendly and useful.
"There was a belief that no insurgency would be strong enough to actually overthrow Franco in a clean way. That any support for an insurgency would effectively lead to a resumption of the civil war and quite possibly lead to events that would be difficult to predict or control. " Lessons that the west recently forgot with their adventures in Lybia and Syria
@Underdog History The French Attitude in the later 1940s was very much influenced by the role of the French Communist Party (the PCF) in government. The PCF was regularly drawing a quarter of the French national vote. The PCF was generally the largest party within the coalition French governments between 1945 and 1947. Supporting the overthrow of Franco was one of the major priorities of the PCF at that time. The entry of 146 Spanish soldiers into Paris the night before the rest of the allied formations entered paris in 1944 was of no significance.
Just a thought: When you hit a million subscribers, how about celebrating it with an interview with James Bisonette? (Not sure if I spelled his name right.)
@@PANZERFAUST90 no. All lives matter! Phil the oink oink, gustav swann, marcus aznar, kelly moneymaker, rashid ali, is he? , david silverman, and list goes on.
*VIDEO SUGGESTION:* How did the other European powers react when Napoleon III became The Emperor Of France and founded The Second French Empire? Weren't they at all worried that he would do the same things that his uncle did, and start a repeat of The Napoleonic Wars?
@@clementlefevre5384 By bringing Liberal reforms while remaining a traditionalist, Conquering Africa, invading Mexico, losing to the Prussians, and so on
The main reason is : he was nothing like Napoleon. He prefered proxy-wars, helping the rise of other allied nations (Italy, and failed Mexico) than personal conquest (which is a smart move). He switched from authoritarian empire to liberal empire (mainly because France was a shitstorm), and he seemed much more concerned with the developpment of economics and industrialisation than military conquest. He was, overall, not very intimidating to the neighbouring nations (Victor Hugo called him "Napoleon the Small", but i believe he actually had a positive impact on his country, unlike his "great" predecessor). That being said, he brought some new territories to France (Nice and Savoy), which if i recall correctly were given to him by the new Italian king as a thank you gift for helping him win the italo-austrian war (and remaining neutral concerning the italian-papacy conflict, which was crucial for the italian unification).
@@FrancoisMarchant im pretty sure napoleon (the predecessor one) also had a positive impact on France like where would France be if it kept that ineffective government it had before his rise to power i also imagine napoleon had a big impact on French national pride
Franco remarkably escaped twice, once when he didn't aloud Germans to attack Gibraltar , twice after the war! For a military man , he was a very capable politician !
@@carmugon In reality, all types o Governments need a type of Democratic allowance! You can't run a Country you and few hundreds of your friends its impossible! In Democracy you get this allowance by voting, in Dictatorship you get it by the collaboration of the key players in State mechanisms and the fact that people in general stay quiet . More importantly when you examine Dictatorships which stayed in power for decades. I of course condemn Dictatorships, I believe its better for the people to have Democracy but on the other hand I can't accept that a dictator who managed to stay in power that long wasn't a good politician! His long stay in power made him politician even if at the beginning was just a Dictator and nothing more. And one more thing. Even capable politicians are committing crimes, the fact that he was capable politician doesn't make him innocent for his crimes.
there were also a treaty between portugal and spain that said they would both join the same side if they were to pick a side. And during the ww2, the alliance between britain and portugal was still going on, so portugal accepted britain used some of its island as a naval base in the atlantic, even tho they let the german used these same bases before.
Small mistake @0:33 - Portugal was neutral in ww2. Actually, Salazar had an attitude similar to that of Franco, and even lowered the portuguese flag the day Hitler died.
Portugal was pro allied and allowed the allies to use Portuguese bases. That is why Portugal was helped via the Marshall plan. Portugal has always been the most pro English Latin country and has had long term alliance with England.
@@wonjubhoy it is true that by the end of 1944, Portugal allowed the US to use Azores air force base - having access to that military base was a wish of both the allies and the axis since 1939, but Portugal only made the decision of allowing one of the sides to use the base by the time that it became clear that Nazi Germany was pushing Spain and Portugal out of neutrality so to push forward a plan of occupying the peninsula, and secure a solid occupation of the north of Africa (which would have radically changed history). That said, Portugal maintained neutrality in the war because a) it was not a relevant war for Portugal as long as no country would try to invade one of its colonial territories - on the contrary, neutrality was economically interesting as they were selling wolfram to both allies and axis, b) so to justify they were keeping the historical alliance with England (which would have surely been broken if the UK had thought of demanding Portugal for military support fulfilling the alliance), while they would keep an ideological alliance with far-right powers, which Salazar hoped and believed would represent the political future of Europe, even if he personally had a degree of intellectual disdain for Hitler, Mussolini or Franco (Salazar was a rather arrogant person who would believe that he was smarter than any other European leader; he was equally arrogant as a university professor, believing to be the top expert on political economy, while in reality he was just a professor of fiscal law); c) Portugal was really far more worried about the Soviet Union than any other political force. That last point is also the reason why Portugal joined the western powers as a founding member of NATO, and that is the real reason why Portugal received a small amount of money from the Marshall plan (which initially Salazar refused claiming that Spain should also receive Marshall funds, and did so for the same ideological reasons that lead to maintaining a neutral position in the war and a sympathetic stance towards Nazi Germany).
@@wonjubhoy It´s been more than 20 years since the last time I saw someone calling southern european countries (such as Portugal, or Spain, or Italy - or even France) a "Latin country". How old are you, Sir? Americans imposed that "latino" is a derrogative word for Latin America, and formerly known Latin coutries in Europe now are just "Europeans" (try calling anyone from those countries above a "latin" and see what happens)
@@CarlosEduardo-rz5wwbut like... aren't majority of people from Latin America ethnicly either Spanish or Portuguese? Ok yeah there is also many people whose relatives were previous slaves from Africa but still, I always find it wierd why people in America think that previous English men and previous Spanish men are so different, but in Europe both Spanish people and English people are called Europeans
Franco played a brilliant game with Hitler. He kept stalling Hitler off, avoiding involvement in the World War. Unlike Mussolini he had no extra-territorial ambitions. After WW2 he held a strategic position and could guarantee stability in Spain. He was a dictator and remained so, but it was quite possible that had he failed an even more brutal Communist dictatorship might have replaced him. Now Spain is a democracy. History forces some tough choices.
@ggg No, what you say is possible,but given Stalinist support it is more likely that show trials, denial of personal liberty, installation of a dictatorial leadership and a tyrannical and inefficient bureaucracy would be the actual result.
@@trajan75 Because Stalin was the only helping the republic, hell even England blocked France from help the country at the same time a coup is getting a shitton of help from everywhere. You yanks and english love to talk about democracy but as long as it benefits you, you don't give a shit.
You need to do some more study. Historians are doubtful whether Franco was that clever. Far from not having territorial ambitions his proposals to Hitler included ceding large parts of French colonial Africa to Spain. Franco more likely was persuaded by his generals, suborned by Churchill paying them large amounts of gold, and Admiral Raeder who privately urged Franco not to get involved. Raeder had a close relationship with Franco going back to their cooperation during the civil war.
@@mrstxx2048 In France the Popular Front of Leon Blum still sent weapons and supplies to the Republic through the Pyrenees frontier, but secretly during the first years of the war. No one, except maybe Britain and US, followed up the Non Intervention Pact.
@@bighands69Spain could have become a democracy after the war, like Germany or Italy did in the same period. But unlike Germany or Italy, here in Spain fascism won the war and no foreign country helped to overthrow Franco, so there was repression and lack of liberty until the 80s. These are facts, not opinions. Denying it is like denying the holocaust or the covid.
Just a bold guess without having watched this video: Franco was "useful" in that he kept the number of communists down in Spain. That's certainly how a whole slew of military juntas in South America were given a carte blanche in regards to their own internal politics. Let's say that totalitarian regimes such as Franco's and others were more than just condoned during the Cold War.
The British establishment was pro-Franco even during the Civil War. They resisted any French measures to provide even non-military aid and looked the other way when the Germans airlifted Franco's core Moroccan troops to Andalucia, avoiding the Spanish (Republican) Navy. They were only more anti-Fascist than anti-Communist for a brief period of time: World War II. Though the idea of the French being afraid of a Spanish invasion any time after 1800 is kinda funny.
@@christianweibrecht6555 Probably not. Franco was never going to join the Axis due to his focus being as far away from military as possible. He wanted to stabilise and rebuild his nation after the civil war, something that would be made harder if he prepared for a war with France, which would be unpopular due to the embargos that the Royal Navy would impose on Spanish Imports. Additionally, the Spanish Army, after the Civil War, would be in no shape to take something like Gibraltar which had been fortified and had enough supplies to last for a year under siege, with the Spanish having no way of stopping the Royal Navy from bringing in more supplies.
@@youraveragescotsman7119 Robert Murphy seems pretty convinced that Franco could have easily taken Gibraltar (Diplomat among warriors, page 144). True that he was not on the british side, but since this was part of the african plan I assume he must have had some relevant information.
@@MrAngryCucaracha I can say this: Gibraltar was fortified to hold against siege for 1 year without supplies. Franco, with a barely standing military, destroyed country and all the problems recovering from the civil war, would have no chance of managing to take Gibraltar within an acceptable timescale. If the Germans got involved, maybe, but they have no way to stop the Royal Navy from sending men, supplies and weapons to Gibraltar. Sure, the Luftwaffe can attack the convoys, but there is an Airbase at Gibraltar than can send up RAF squadrons to guard supply convoys. It'll be another Tobruk, but the British are better dug-in.
@@sdsd2e2321 It's honestly questionable how "fascist" Franco's government was to begin with, considering he was actually still able to purge the fascist elements that went in while he was being friendly with Germany. His regime was a right-wing dictatorship, sure, but not every right-wing dictatorship is fascist. Meanwhile, the Soviets were in the habit of calling a lot of regimes and insurgent groups opposing them "fascist" for propaganda purposes, regardless of reality or nuance.
France hated Franco for existing. Sounds like French foreign policy in a nutshell both back then and today. For France the world is divided into three parts. France, former French colonies that are somewhat France, and Not France
It's hard being neutral when the place is on fire all around you, and everyone wants a piece of you, or want you to support them. Sweden, Spain, and Turkey needed to tread carefully diplomatically. Play along well with every side.
This bit of history is so terribly fascinating and really tells so much about how we tell ourselves our history to look like the good guys. Really wish to study this subject more.
I've read a bit of history and honestly this is the first time I have even heard of this. Spain had just finished a civil war between two odious sides and wanted nothing to do with a world war. Who would decide what type of government would replace the existing one? How could it have any popular or unpopular support? Powers only start to worry about other countries when they begin to show tendencies to invade other countries.
As a Spanish, I can say the reason why Franco wasn't ousted was the Cold War. Simply because the Gov made a deal with the USA and allowed a USA military base in Rota, Cádiz (which is still in use today) and three more bases, to control the Mediterranean exit to Atlantic Ocean, so the Soviet Navy can't go through there (it was effective, the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea had a hard time leaving the Mditerranean and they went through the Artic Ocean which is frozen most part of the year). And Franco was a hard anti-communist, something the rest of Western Powers saw as a good point in Franco's favor.
You left out the part where the UK helped Franco seize power and supported him during World War II as detailed in the book Franco’s Friends by Peter Day. This is from the review in The Guardian: But it was not until the second world war that Franco really started coining money out of his British friends. The British could have tried to profit from the fact that Franco's government was full of jealousies and faction-fighting. Instead, Churchill's policy was to keep Spain out of the war by lavish bribes to key people in Franco's government, including Franco's brother-in-law and perhaps Franco himself. A huge slush fund was administered directly by the British embassy under Sir Samuel Hoare, and the regime, which was corrupt as well as brutal, made itself rich and unassailable at the expense of the British taxpayer. Western capitalists always hated communists more than Nazis. Just check out The First Casualty by Phillip Knightley.
😂😂😂 if u believe a single word from The Guardian u are just dumb enough to defend what u just posted here, mate. The Guardian has always been against Spain and it's History. It's just ridiculous propaganda. Even Spanish communists admit Franco seized power despite the british, french, soviets, canadians and the US, which all them fought against Franco through the Brigadas Internacionales and the Makis. It was long after the 50's where they decided to stop isolating Spain since it was an anticommunist country, and without a single loan from abroad nor invading any lands, Spain escalated up to 8th World Power in 10 years. Dude, stop reading The Guardian and start reading books.
Except that they allied with Communist Stalin against Nazi Hitler. That undermines your assertion that they always hated communists more. A more reasonable conclusion would be that they hated both, but were willing to tolerate whichever they thought was the smaller threat at any given time if it helped oppose the bigger threat.
@@bradhombre6912 they might have allied with Hitler against the Soviet Union were it not for the fact that Hitler started fighting them first. But generally your consensus is right. Post WWII and to this day, communism was the bigger threat because nazism lost the Second World War. It could’ve been the other way around, and perhaps we might even say it should have been. Hard to really decide which is worst, but I’d say communism is worse than nazism because it has actually been more successful.
Or the even more relevant and more problematic fact that Stalin and the capitalists allied in undermining the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War. George Orwell details this quite neatly in his Homage to Catalonia, which chronicles his personal experiences in war against the Spanish fascists. The most effective fighting force against the fascists in the civil war were the anarchists, and international capital opposed them because they of course had no respect for the property rights of foreign investors, and Stalin opposed them because… well, a lot of reasons, all of them having to do with Stalin being a piece of shit, but particularly involved with Stalin being fully opposed to worker control and revolution to that end - much like the USSR in general post-1921. What the Spanish situation shows us is not only that liberals are more scared of socialism than fascism, but also that “communists” are more scared of socialism than fascism. Stalin, Lenin before him, and every “communist” leader in the world today are LARPers who have no intention of either advancing socialism themselves or even allowing others to advance it for them.
I love it whenever the "diplomacy" scene shows up it always a character happily walk in a flower garden as if their diplomacy succeeded
In some cases it has gone well but usually it ain't fun
Or Bismarck calmly walking across flower garden
@@Mike_P "a mild case of death"
Soviet UwUnion it’s always fun
@@Mike_P "Bad case of the deads"
Franco about Germany in 1939: Cool guy!
Franco about Germany in 1945: Never met this man in my life!
How trumpist
@@Alusnovalotus yawn
@@Alusnovalotus People like you got boring after the first week he won, now it's just sad tbh. Go find something constructive to do.
@@Alusnovalotus npc response.
@@Alusnovalotus Trump 2020
Franco mastered the skill of moving so incredibly slow, he became invisible
“MEET THE SPY”
But he's still dead.
@@r0cketplumber no he just mastered it even more, thats what he wants you to think
Franco was BASED !
The famous Drax's defend
Franco didn't enter the war on Axis side thanks to Wilhelm Canaris. The Admiral talked a lot with Franco. One of the times they talked, Franco expressed his fears of a German invasion to Spain in 1941, and Canaris told him to forget that, because in late 1941 Germany will be invading the USSR. This is why Franco could delay entering on the war.
After Canaris was executed due to the July plot and the war ended, his wife moved to Spain and was given the pension of the widow of a dead admiral. I think that Franco knew Canaris was an anti-nazi.
You lie because blue divison besieged Leningrad.
@@БубликПомидорович That was a token "volunteer" force that amounted to nothing.
@CitreonGS The pension for Canaris' wife was provided by the US, don't know if you knew that, or decided to leave that part out.
@@johnroscoe2406 what I knew is that Spain payed the pension. If she got another one from the U.S., good for her. But she moved to Madrid after the war.
Token
Wasn’t there long
Of course the French didn't like him. The 19th century taught us that Franco-Franco relations are distrustful at best
Okay you got me there x)
That's an excellent joke that I'll happily make more popular in my baguette country
I wonder if Franco from Seinfeld was named after him?
Franco did nothing wrong
Well done..
Franco: Maybe if I don't move, they will forget about me...
It worked
Jurassic Park tactics!
more tha 40 years later, same tactic worked for ex president Rajoy to stay in charge for 8 years. -_-"
@@harddrivegamesHDG i doubt they were going to get invaded back then
Well that worked perfectly
Allies in 1945: Anyone anti Fascist is a friend.
Allies in 1947: Anyone anti Communist is a friend.
@CodingCrusader1095 the royal families? How so?
Well.
Whom both fascism and communism oppose?
-they oppose international capitalism. And that is whom rules the world.
@@lemat579 Errrrrmm nahnahnah fascist don't oppose inetrnational capital they start fairly protectionist but start getting imperialist the moment they run out of options. AKA they all ened up wantig to be what the U.S.A are today XD !
@@darthrevan3342 Hi.
national socialists in Germany invented kind of National Capitalism thing in 1930's.
Spain of Franco went into "autarchia" - isolation and self-sufficiency. Italy of Mussolini, Fascios were combat small troops allied with local big owners and capitalists.
What I want to say is that Fascism easily goes along with national capitalism. National.
@@lemat579 Importing people from africa to be treated as secondary citizens that could be exploited ! Because they to concurence Jewish Palestine in furnishing the reich with oranges so nazi could make their Fanta.
The ghost of Napoleon advising against invading Spain was next level funny.
Indeed
"The French hated Franco for many reasons"
1st: "He existed" LOL
Typical French.
That's classic Franco for ya
De gaulle Hated Franco, but Franco had many fans in France. The French legion still salutes Franco because he earned the ''Legion d'honnour'' and the french goverment ordered to create a movie to honor Franco in 1927.
Based French.
When you realize that the name Franco is another way to say France
Franco:" I'd like to thank the Germans for assisting in my consolidation of power.
Also Franco:" I'd like to thank the Allies for allowing me to remain in power.
It's called smart politics.
Not alot of allowing was done. The Allies knew that with the USSR taking the East, they were gonna need all the friends they could get. And the Spanish really hated the Communists. Turns out it worked for the best, as Spain was a middle man in Operation Paperclip, which put a man on the moon.
@Spartan 506 I believe it. I studed the spanish civil war very much. The socialists were killing christians for no reason and stealing peoples property they had for generations. Franco and the nationalists were way better in every way.
Why do you have a satanic profile picture?
@Spartan 506 I'm in the New Covenant with God through Jesus Christ.
Ok 3 things to point out:
1. The decision of declaring war to Japan was also heavily motivated due to the masacre of almost all of the spanish population in the Philipines by the japanese forces (burning then alive in churches and stabing with bayonets those who had taken refuge in the spanish embassy.
2. The Soviets had also quite a resentment against Franco due to the "Blue division", a spanish military force sent to help in the invasion of Barbarosa which fought in the siege of Leningrad.
3. The suport of the british to Fascist Spain was also influenced by a really god
relationship between their aristocrats, noblemen and businesmen. It was common for spanish wealthy familys to sent their sons to study to England where naturally ended up forming friendships.
Can ypu tell me more about the Spanish-British relations or point to a source?
Stalin tried to take over Spain during revolution! Franco had every reason to hate communism and send the division against him!
So basically, Spain was the good guy in WWII.
I never heard about japanese killing Spanish citizens in the Phillipines. I don’t think its true
@@shashwatsinha2704 In books: Paul Preston in his book about the Spanish civil War when talking about the international relations at the start of the war and also in his Biography about Juan Carlos i think there were some comentaries also but the book its quite big and i am not really going to search for the page quite a big book and just like the Romanov by Simon S. Montfiore i regret not having put markers on the books i read i started after that last one.
In the sources its more dificult to point especifics since its generally something that comes out of diaries, albums and that sort of thing.
Then there is tv documentals, sadly enough all in spanish.
0:27 I love the image of Franco physically charging into battle against Germany
Right? I was expecting a soldier of Spain, but there Franco goes! Into the bloody conflict
Britain decided to finally conquer Spain later on through the use of tourism.
Indeed, the British veterans have a stronghold on Benidorm whereas the unexperienced paratroopers have seized Mallorca, setting their HQ on Magaluf.
Germans and British are still fighting WW2 in the beaches of Mallorca.
This.
yep.
they go so fucking wild, holy shit. before this pandemy they would appear on the news every so often and it would be quite embarasing, though we kind of need them because our economy really depends on turism
(no hate, they're nice but need to chill at parties)
@@ln6373 when your country is a boring rainy shothole ig it’s understandable they go hard when they get the chance away lol
Franco: "We killed a lot of Commies, and I mean a lot of Commies, a few years ago."
UK: "Seems like a stand-up guy."
in the end, its the brits, always the brits...
The only good commie . . .
Chile: Hold my helicopter
@Paul Judkins you wanna kill people??
Yes, well... The vast majority of the armed opposition to Franco did not affiliate themselves with the Communist Party at all... Granted, the vast majority were of Marxist ideology, but they despised the Commies just as much as Franco did...
It might be interesting to note that there was an armed attempt by the Spanish National Union (UNE), a group sponsored mainly by the PCE (Spanish Communist Party), to militarily invade Spain with the aim of provoking a general anti-Francoist insurrection among the population. Up to 6000 "guerrilleros" invaded in October, 1944, in what was called the "Invasion of Val D'Aran", but it was an utter failure, since the expected general uprising didn't occur. This further convinced many that Franco's regime was strong at this point and that it faced no widespread internal opposition, and made the Allies think that removing him would be more costly and detrimental than not to.
Hmmm, almost as if people didn’t want to fight two civil wars in arrow🤔 how quaint
To be fair, many spaniards were tired and sick from the recent civil war, it's not hard to believe that your average Alejandro wouldn't be part of an armed uprising, even if it was to depose the dictator.
lmao what a bunch of idiotas grandes
also the Spanish Marquis was active in Guerrilla campaigns and hiding in France until around the end of WW2, so Franco did have some experience in putting down rebellions by that point
@@RyoKasai25 We should also take into account that most of the people that had been politically active in favor of the Second Spanish Republic had by that point been killed in war, executed, vanished, imprisoned or forced into exile, both internal and external, and those who remained were either hiding or too afraid to challenge the statu quo, so no wonder that plan failed miserably.
1. An alternative Spanish government might have skewed pro-Russian. They were already worried about France and Italy going that way. Why rock the boat?
2. Franco was willing to cooperate with the US. Again, why rock the boat?
3. If there was the slightest chance Franco's Spain would have resisted and required an invasion, why expend more American or British lives or resources for no gain?
The Allies went to war with Germany and Italy because they attacked things and threatened British, American and wider interests. Franco hadn't done any of those things.
Indeed, it’s almost like international capital is perfectly compatible with fascism so long as the fascists are polite enough not to touch their things.
@@Necroskull388 Then explain the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact or the KPD's cooperation with Hitler
@black-uh1df you mean the alliance between the two state capitalist nations?
@@Necroskull388 There were several other fascist counties post-WW2. Argentina, Peru, at one point Chile come to mind. Additionally, there is a pretty good case that modern China is more fascist than communist in its structure at this point.
@@fortusvictus8297 Don't forget Brasil! It's facista lasted juuuust long enough to see Brasil through the war. And then be immediately deposed. In part because some felt Vargas' fence-sitting had isolated Brasil and cost it opportunities on the global stage.
Napoleon's ghost would not advise a war in Spain. I wonder why?
Laughs in Spanish guerilla**
Peninsular wars flashback
Where are the ghosts of Soult and Suchet when we need them ?
Ghosts are known to be wise sages with access to Spooky Wikipedia.
@@MichaelSmith-ij2ut You missed a massive opportunity to call it Spookypedia.
Franco in 1941: **sends Division Azúl to the eastern front**
Franco in 1945: uuuh ... i can explain
Azul doesn't have tilde
They were voluntary as far as i know, so a good way of giving support without giving support as it wasnt government sanctioned.
Almost like how the Irish do things cause they send troops to fight in both sides, then hope no one calls them on their bull
There were Spanish volunteers on both sides of the war.
The first unit to enter Paris when it was taken back from the Germans was also Spanish.
@@FKaps16 Republican ones too. It was funny because they joined De Gaulle because he promised them that he would move into spain next and overthrow Franco. He didn't fulfill his promise
He hates communism
Correction: Spain WAS NOT neutral in WWII. It was "non-belligerant", meaning that they sent troops to aid the Germans without formally declaring war.
They mostly only aided in Operation Barbarossa, as Franco viewed the destruction of Communism to be a worthy effort.
Despite this, he also advocated for the Allied war effort against Japan, while also personally being opposed to German expansion.
Yeah but Hitler wanted to build a military outpost in the Pyrenees and Franco said "Fuck you" sssssooooo....
Spain started as neutral because of Germany's alliance with the communist USSR, but changed to non-belligerent status when Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940. In October 1940, Spain signed the Protocol of Hendaya, which included joining the Steel Pact that Germany and Italy signed in 1939. This meant collaboration with Germany and Italy but not a formal joining of the Tripartite Pact. Germany pushed the latter, which the Allies feared because it could mean closing off the Mediterranean to Allied forces, so the Allies reduced trade sanctions that were hampering Spain's economic survival and prepurchased Spanish goods to keep them out of German hands (and British cash bribes to key Spanish elites helped).
At the same time, Germany started having trouble paying for Spanish goods it did import and having trouble fulfilling promised exports that Spain purchased. With the start of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's attention was diverted and they didn't push Spain so hard on the Tripartite Pact. As Operation Torch got underway in North Africa, internal government opposition in Spain saw even more reason to stay out of the war because it looked bad for the Axis. By October 1943, Spain had returned to a declared neutral status, though Franco still had clear leanings toward Berlin, as evidenced by his protection of German assets and refusal to limit German access.
Spain didn't entirely act like a neutral country, and its pro-Axis overtures clearly violated basic tenets of activities of neutral nations. But it also wasn't treated like one. Germany held sway over it both on the basis of historical assistance and threat of military action to try to force an alliance, and the Allies used economic actions and threat of military action to try to force neutrality, all of which violated basic tenets of treatment of neutral nations. It's hard to look back on them and assign a binary good or bad label because much of what they did was playing for survival.
@@DISTurbedwaffle918 He wasn't personally opposed to German domination at all. His admiration letters to Hitler are proof enough for that.
@Jonathan Williams Except no. They participated actively in war crimes at Leningrad.
It's well documented how Antonio Salazar from Portugal helped draw Franco away from the Axis. Strange to not see a reference to Portugal in your animation. If you want documentation just tell me or search a paper by Maria Inácia Rezola.
Historians I’ve seen speak of Spain typically state the recent Civil War and the lack of reward for entering.
How could Spain have helped and what would that get them? France fell in 6 weeks and Spain’s navy couldn’t hope to compete against Britain’s, so they would be a mostly useless ally.
Even in some alternate timeline where Spain enters and they somehow help defeat Britain, what would they gain from Hitler having total control over Europe?
Franco was anti-Soviet. That's the main reason. Also, Churchill (also anti-Soviet) was pro-Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
Yes Churchill was anti-soviet, but Churchill hated Fascism so I don't know about pro-Franco but I see your point.
@@Davidromasantavazquez oh ok
@Spartan 506 Yes he was
@Spartan 506 "Dictator" Churchill? XD You've mixed your facts up bad.
@Spartan 506 National Catholicism is the answer you were looking for
I read "Allies" as "Aliens" in the thumbnail, and i was like: Now we are answering the real questions
Yeah, be careful around that Tsukalous guy, his hair might crawl off his head and attack you.
I'm just imagining a legion of aliens in their UFOs descending upon Spain and abducting Franco
It is possible to do this in HoI2 but i cannot guarantee they will stop afterwards
Andorra: "Why USA havent eleminated you?"
Spain:"They didnt like us, but they disliked USSR more"
@mPky1 Welcome to the real world. You and I can't change this in no way, so move on.
@mPky1 democracy does not equal freedom, look at south america
@@bcy4551 how south america is democracy? if its not free then its not democratic. simple
Well Played
Hmmm. No. Roosvelt used to love Stalin.
And was in, for granting Anything to Stalin, only if he decide to attack Japan in Manchuria, and by so doing, relief American effort in pacific.
Nunca pensé que vería hablar de Franco a un canal inglés, pero sorprendentemente esta muy bien explicado
En España la peña sigue traumatizada culturalmente por la guerra civil, no hay huevos para hablar del tema. Pero visto desde fuera la situación era muy simple, o como mínimo no requiere tanta delicadeza.
Y aquí dices lo mismo y dicen que son inventos de los "social-comunistas".
El avion que trajo a Franco a España lo puso el servicio secreto ingles. Los "aliados" respaldaron el golpe de estado, de que de hecho se fraguo en Inglaterra. Lo demas es propaganda de guerra.
En España si no dices que estaba loco y era malvado eres un facha. Se ha dejado el raciocinio para otros países.
@@the_walking_man1234 no sé qué entiendes por malvado, pero bueno no era xd. Así que sí, si no dices que era malvado eres facha 👍🏻
And:
*When you ally with communists to defeat the fascists but decide to ally with fascists to defeat communists*
Almost like today with supporting some terror group against a regime, while supporting another regime against terrorists....politics is complicated.
Ussr 1939: *When you ally with fascists to defeat republicans but then ally with republicans to defeat fascists*
I don't know if it makes sense but, Spanish facist dictatorship and Portugal's dictatorship (Franco and Salazar) weren't as hard-line facist as Mussolini or Hitler. Don't get me wrong, they did a lot of bad stuff, but their facism was "softer"
@@carlosquintela2950 Not "soft" fascism but corporatism
@@carlosquintela2950 Well yes, as far as I know neither were pure fascism, I am unsure about Portugals form of it but I know Franco was a Falangist, which had a few key differences.
"
I'd rather have four teeth pulled than negotiate with Franco again..."
- Some weird Germany-Boi from Austria
is it that one?
I heard he got kicked out of an art school
@@Nathan-jh1ho He also had one testicle only.
Franco was being deliberately difficult.
@@gumdeo And it paid off for him
Franco didn’t have James Bissonete there to fund his military interests
Shut up
Very True
@@FirstnameLastname-cw8ok Someone get this guys mum he's having a temper tantrum.
Be quiet. And that’s not how you spell his name
Oversimplified and history matters both new videos, my favorite British history channels.
Edit:
Enjoy the video glad we talked about Argentina and often less talked about nation in history. I'd love to see more videoson other nations history and there's current position on the world stage keep up the good work.
Maybe one on why not all British colonies are in the Commonwealth, or the Indian revolution aftermath/ post world war 2
Franco has been wiser than Mussolini, didn't join WW2 and lived more than him and Hitler. In the end Franco probably knew that although nazi Germany was powerful it simply couldn't win against half Europe, USA and URSS combined. Or simply he wasn't too ambitious, he didn't even try to invade Portugal or France.
O Andorra.
When most of the negotiations between Germany and Spain took place (mid till end 1940), France was quickly defeated, USA was not in the game and USSR was allied with Germany. Franco surely did not knew Germany was losing. He did know Spain would lose at the very least most colonies and the canaries to the British if Germany would not help with gigantic amounts of ressources and fortifications. Which Hitler again wouldn't do.
Spain joining the axis and Portugal joining the alleys would have been mutually assured destruction
@@karlheisenberg2857Most of his economic aid was coming from the Western allies so he had no reason to rock that boat, add to that the split in his coalition domestically (The Traditional Catholic side were not fond of fascism, at least not enough to join the War.).
Or he realized his "regime" was a joke at the time and would have barely been able to maintain even the first month of an offensive war. He liked to say he was strong though which was adorable
Attlee holding a sign saying: "what part of no?" Is my new favourite sign
Germany: Spain we could really use some help right now!
Spain in 1945: I've never met this man in my entire life.
WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE
SIGO ESPERANDO A MIS ALIENS PAJEROS WUEY
Watafak dio
Hearts of Iron 4 Spain: I gotchu fam (instantly conquers half of france and forces the allies to a 2front war in the middle of france, as well as a new war in Africa)
@@stormsand9 Vic2 Spain: L⃟i⃟f⃟e⃟ i⃟s⃟ e⃟t⃟e⃟r⃟n⃟a⃟l⃟ p⃟a⃟i⃟n⃟
Spain as a non-belligerent served the interests of a lot of folks. It was a neutral meeting ground for the diplomats (& spies) of all the participants in the war. Many, many allied airmen the escaped made their way back to the UK via Spain.
1.Those "good relationships with Britain" weren't quite good as Churchill declared a naval blockade to Spain in hopes of drowning their food supply. The only country who didn't respect this blockade was Argentina as Peron sent tons of meat for stopping the famine outbreaks in Spain.
2. Spain had a strong resentment towards Japan due to the genocide of Filipinos and Spanish speakers in the Philippines.
Podrías recomendarme alguna lectura de este periodo? Me interesa bastante, y no conozco en absoluto el genocidio de filipinos hispanohablantes. De hecho, no tenía ni idea de que Franco hubiera ayudado contra Japón.
@@alejandrop.s.3942 Más que libros todo esto lo he ido leyendo en la sección histórico cultural del ABC (Te la recomiendo porque cada semana suben algo bueno) y en algún que otro documental de los que subía Canal Historia hace años.
Pd: Si te interesa, te recomiendo que busques cosas sobre el genocidio filipino que hizo EEUU en 1899, justo después de la expulsión de los españoles.
@@Angel_Gomez El genocidio estadounidense contra los filipinos hispanohablantes lo conozco, pero lo que usted ha comentado es que Franco habría querido ayudar a EE UU contra Japón por un supuesto genocidio japonés contra los filipinos hispanohablantes, cosa que me extraña sobremanera. ¿Cuál es la documentación que demuestra que Japón exterminara a los filipinos hispanohablantes en la segunda Guerra mundial? Que sepa yo, ocuparon Filipinas principalmente para controlar sus bases navales, al igual que hicieron con Papua, sin ninguna agenda étnica particular más allá de facilitar la colonización japonesa. Las masacres japonesas se dirigieron principalmente contra los chinos en la invasión de China.
@@alejandrop.s.3942He didn't help. The United States defeated Japan.
There is an argument by historians that Mussolini could have survived WWII had he done like Franco and simply been neutral during the conflict. I'm not sure it's the same situation though since Italy was far more strategically relevant in WWII than Spain but it's an interesting hypothesis nonetheless.
As an Italian, yes.
Before he decided to join the war, the Allies admired him(except the Liberals, they’re tol based).
Mussolini hated Sh|tler, but eventually he had to either be neutral or join the Axis, as the Allies wanted to embargo him.
Italy was very useful for Germany to avoid Britain’s blockade, but the Germans were so selfish.
@Ferbujosbe yeah, upon signing Versailles the British only thought about their gain, ignoring Italy(which didn’t gain their territories as in London secret pact),Russia(which was engulfed in a civil war)and France(which wanted a divided Germany).
Also they still could’ve invaded Germany when Churchill made it clear that Sh|tler was rearming
@@Tortellobello45 Mussolini and Hitler admired one another. What are you talking about?
@@wimschmied3800 Sh|tler admired Mussolini, but Mussolini hated him.
He was about to ratify the Stresa Front with the Allies, he massed troops on the Austrian Border after the Anschluss and took a pacifist stand in the Munich agreement, gaining the respect of the Allies, but he wanted to rule the Mediterrean and Britain was an obstacle, while Sh|tler wanted Italian help in the war against UK in the colonies and wanted to avoid Britain’s blockade which costed the Kaiser’s Germany WW1.
It was only during the Spanish Civil War and after the accords which led Germany to renounce their claims in South Tyrol that the relations improved
@@Tortellobello45 Incorrect. Mussolini adopted many of Hitler's policies and had they mutual respect for one another's abilities. Italy and Mussolini was saved by Germany multiple times. E.g. The Greek war and the North African front, Hitler even sent men to rescue Mussolini out of loyalty and respect even though Mussolini had lost all official power. If they hated each other to the point you claim, they never would've been on the same side. As you said South Tyrol was recognised as Italian, Italy respected and accepted the anschluss. Hitler and Mussolini were arguably the most connected nations and men in Ww2 consisting their proximity and similar ideology and enemies. Calling Germany selfish is wrong considering it had to sacrifice valuable divisions to assist Italy in Greece even though it didn't even want to fight Greece for example.
We really need an episode about Salazar.
You called?
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sorry i can't help it xD
Julio Cesar Salazar at your service btw....
Yeah he was funny in Resident Evil 4. Oh wait, wrong one
Hitler : Why are you late ?
Franco : I was doing stuff
Salazar : I am the stuff .
Franco : Salazar No !
Hitler : Lmao Franco
@ᴇᴢᴇᴄʀɪs 305 i think there are also a video on portugal with some focus on Salazar... though there is still none about the person himself....
@@mohdadeeb1829
I don't get the joke. Can you explain it?
Because the Allies didn't go to the pastry section to spin three plates. They could have obtained sponsor money from Phil de Oink Oink.
I swear those Patreon names are fantastic.
He literally read off that name as I read this, little creeped right now
The person who name was epicfailure make me laugh 😂
Or gained the support of Spencer Lightfoot, and Izzy?.
@@jimtaylor294 or james bizzonet
Franco: 'exists'
French population: 'angry baguette noises'
dumb frog
@@eavyeavy2864 who are you refering to ? Pepe in the profile pic or the French ?
Dumb croissants
@@cebonvieuxjack both probably
@@cebonvieuxjack the french
Thanks for the video. Greatings from Spain!!!
TL;DR: franco played his cards right and the allies really couldn't be arsed.
If Franco had been in the Brexit talks... :-P
He also had a backup plan, at least on paper, to secure an anti-communist Spain after his death. By decreeing Don Juan Carlos, grandson of King Afonso and Queen Victoria Eugenie (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) as his heir in government, he held over the Spanish people a carrot of a restored monarchy. What he hadn't counted on was that, after Franco's death, King Juan Carlos would open the country to deep political reform moved towards democracy.
Franco was a son of.... but was a very smart guy. Someone stupid can't stand for so long in power.
And in fact, I have the feeling that Franco and Hitler didn't get along so well (maybe, for that, Franco was saved after WW2). It's knwon that Hitler despised Franco, and Franco, well, he was a military, a men how earn his place (he was also teacher from a military school, and that, after gaining medals of honor from the Morroco conflict some years ago), so the difference betwen both Hitler and Franco were enormous.
@@kellyvaters1689 yea that was kindof a bruh moment for franco, but it ended up going decently for spain once the dictatorship ended, though of course no country is without issues.
@@Frendlu Hitler was a soldier too in ww1
My Video ideas:
- When did Korea become christian?
- When did the Pope lose power over Europe and when was the last time Europe listened to Pope?
- Early History of HRE (from east francia to habsburg takeover).
- WW1 outside Europe.
- 7 Years War
WWI outside Europe is interesting
North Korea is mostly Atheist.
Wait since when is Korea Christian?
@@bigpotato8 yup they are
@@bigpotato8 South Korea is 30% circa christians, higher than Buddhism. Yeah, Korea has Nearly 50% of Atheists/Agnosticism, but a big result notherless. Mostly because of the christan evangelism, which were also present in China and Japan, but got outlawed for élite interests.
Another key moment was the defeat of the Allies in Paris. The company that had spearheaded the Allied advance against the Nazis in France was made up of exiled Spanish Republicans and later enlisted in the French Legion, known as the Lecrec Division or "La Nueve". They hoped to count on the allied apollo to liberate Spain from Franco. His motto in fact was Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid indicating that this would be his war route. I do not remember well but I think it was Amado Granell, one of the leaders of the company, who, when attending a meeting between the Americans and the French, soon realized that the allies had no interest in Spain. According to his words, Patton said that he did not understand why those Spaniards were on his side.
0:41 Franco knew about the danger of weeaboos.
“France hated Franco for three reasons:
-First, he existed”
I like how Clement Attlee is easily recognized even though you never introduce him by name.
Where
Never heard of em
For those who don't know, Clement Attlee was the British Prime Minister from 1945-1951. At 1:47 he's the bald man with the long coat.
@@jorgeshaft1483 the labour party lasted that long 5 years? I thought after the war the labour party in the UK was going to have 2 terms in office with the big govt ideas being popular with the masses there.
@@attiepollard7847 Clement Attlee was a very popular PM who implemented a lot of the modern welfare state and nationalised many industries. However, Britain used the First Past the Post electoral system and in 1951, despite Labour gaining more votes then the Tories, the Tories won the election.
Ah yes. Spain in the 20th century. A beautiful tale of "If i do nothing then i cant do nothing wrong".
Edit: Really recommend reading the reply chain. Pretty interesting imo.
Well it kinda work, look at the cold war and 1973 oil thing.
@ Well fascism is all about ultra-nationalism and more, so fascism without revanchinism and expansionism is like communism without collectivization or democracy without voting, which at that point might as well just call them authoritarianism.
Besides, a non-expansionist fascist nation is still at it's core very racist and was all about racial supremacy. International relations would not improve just because they aren't aggressive. In fact, relationship between fascistic nations are purely for war purpose. Italy, Germany, and Japan (just to name a few) were really cautious against each other and at a few occassions were discriminative against each other.
@The Nova renaissance Communism at it's very core is an economic based ideology. It's radically left economic wise, so it's only natural that left wingers, even moderate ones, would not condemn communism as much as moderate right wingers condemn fascism. Communism is an idea that can be applicable and indiscriminative across any race and nation, and it only has the bourgeois as it's enemy. Even if you're right wing socially, you can still be a supporter of communism (Nazbolism is a ridiculous ideology that reflects this.)
Fascism, on the other hand, is a social based ideology. Even though it's naturally right wing, a fascist in Germany and a fascist in France would be fierce enemies. Fascism is all about racial purity and supremacy. The only reason Germany, Italy, and Japan were "allied" in WW2 were purely because they had the same enemies, and they realised that they have to compromise and set their differences aside for the duration of the war. Mussolini were very wary of Hitler at the early 30s, and Hitler considered the Italians and Japanese as lesser races to the Aryan race. In conclusion, Fascism is an ideology that naturally creates enemies, which is the reason why a wide range of people disapprove of such ideas. The attrocities they committed and their expansionism is just icing on the cake.
@The Nova renaissance My point is racial supremacists naturally attracts and makes enemies. Since there's no dominant race in the world, they're bound to be in the minority, and therefore have literally the entire world as their ideological enemy. The Nazis only got into power because of the hyper inflation and economic crisis plus a little bit of covert actions. Italy and Japan had a coup d'etat. The fascists had to play real dirty to get into power, and that just proves that the population doesn't support such an ideology enough to have them rule in the first place, which in turn disproves fascism "normality" in the 30s society.
@@Kreze202 But the Japanese were declared Honorary Aryans.
History has never been so much fun to learn. Gotta love the animation and the the grammar used.
This sounds like a classic example of the "my enemy's enemy is my friend," logic. The Franco regime didn't see eye to eye with Britain, France or America, but disliked the Soviet Union more, so after WW2 gradually improved relations with Western allies
Pretty much what the Soviets did in 1941. They hated the British empire with a passion but they needed it to help them survive, and it's not like the USSR has any moral advantage over Britain at all, the opposite is true.
actually, fascism and capitalism are the same shit with different names
sovnarkom communists claim that fascism and capitalism are the same
Capitalists (liberals, conservatives) claim that communism and fascism are the same ("totalitarianism")
Fascists claim that capitalism and communism are the same (tools for "jewish control")
Truth is, none of these are true
@@odim7960 i don't claim communism and fascism is the same. I state the well proven fact that they are so different from one another like the north and south poles, they are indistinguishable from one another.
And the fact that neither support freedom of speech, which if you don't have, you don't have anything at all.
@@odim7960 history shows that Capitalism and Fascism are more keen to work togheter than to fight. in fact, they worked togheter for an incredibly large portion of their historical coexistence.
Franco did not put non-Falangists in the power to please the Allies, he did it because the Falange was a problem for him. He tried to reduce its power narrower and narrower since the late civil war.
Yeah, he was never really a huge fan of them. But the only other large conservative faction that was even remotely acceptable to him were the Carlists, but Franco wasn’t going to restore the monarchy while he was alive, so he just need ultra-conservative ministers
I mean that sounds like a case of killing two bird with one stone, consolidating his power while simultaneously pleasing the Allies without sacrificing much
The Most underrated history channel on youtube!!!
Greetings from Tunisia 🇹🇳
The Spanish considered declaring war on Japan. Now that is a good one!
Yes, after the Japanese massacred the Spaniards living in the Philippines.
Would be interesting to see Spanish troops fighting in the Pacific Theater.
Spain: SIII RECONQUISTA EL TIEMPO-
USA: N O
Philippines: N O
Spain: ...lo siento
@@blackpowderuser373 do you suffer brain damage?
Actually, we DID informally declare war on Japan because of their massacres of Spanish citizens in the Philippines.
Hirohito: Before we start…
Franco: Jesus Christ…
Hirohito: I said. Before. We. Start!
Franco: HOLY SHIT!
Hirohito: Would you kindly let me explain?
Franco: Oh yes! I’d love to know why you killed all the Spanish in the Pilippines!
Hirohito: They weren’t Asians.
Franco:…THEY WEREN’T ASIANS?!?!
Hirohito: They. Weren’t. Asians!
Franco: Well I guess they should get out!
Hirohito: Well, too late. ‘Cause we killed ‘em.
Franco: Great! So what are we supposed to do now?!?
Hirohito: Well, off to the Co-Prosperity Sphere they go!
Franco: UUUUURRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!
Hirohito: Yep. Can’t see any other option.
Franco: How about any other options?! Any other options at all?!?
Hirohito: No use trying to put the brakes on this! It’s going down!
Franco:…You planned this.
Hirohito: What?!?
Franco: You planned this! I know you did!
Franco: You…You honestly don’t trust me?
Jose Laurel: Master! The Archipelago has been secured! Unfortunately a few Philippinos are resisting, but-oh.
Hirohito:..You won’t BELIEVE how cheap this guy is! He’s a lawyer!
Franco: HIROHITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Hirohito: BITCH, LET ME HAVE MY JAPANESE EMPIRE!
Quick answer: Franco wasn’t fighting the allies, and when the Cold War started, another anti-communist ally wasn’t anything to cry over.
Besides, after all the effort that UK put in facilitating Franco ascend to power while pretending they were pro democracy it would have been a shame to put him down, don't you think?
@@rena-mq2bg The UK never supported Franco, happens that the guys in the other band became openly supporters of Stalin so UK by 1937 was cutting the help. But the Uk putted zero effort in favor of Franco.
@@gerardsotxoa they actively prevented any european intervention during the civil war. Meanwhile fascist Italy and Portugal were freely interfering. Without the British reluctances the French government would probably have helped the Republicans at some point, even if it wouldn't have mobilized the army for it.
@@joadg6592 LMAO, this is so insane.
France was taking all the spanish gold and shipping it to Odessa Ukraine, they allowed to gather all the soviet equipment in french soil, French army empted their 1st Reserve warehouses which hindered them badly in May of 1940, also hosted the voluntary support troops including Red Army officials. and you say the UK prevented any European intervention??? WTF
France remained out because they thought an open support could backfire with a communist insurrection in France. As i said before, the spanish ''republicans'' were way too red for the taste of UK and worldwide diplomats. Maybe if the ''republicans'' hadn't murdered the ''burgoise republicans'' with such a pride and cockery, maybe then diplomats and politicians in UK and France wouldn't hesitate so much to aim for an open intervention.
@@gerardsotxoa Yes, the Brits did prevent meaningful intervention on the Republic's side by keeping up the farce of the Non-Intervention Committee while turning a blind eye on the super obvious involvement of Germany and Italy
“One thing I am sure of, and which I can answer truthfully, is that whatever the contingencies that may arise here, where ever I am there will be NO communism”
Franco
Is this true?
Based
michael m8 - Yes
A good man
@@DISTurbedwaffle918 Well not really but at least he wasn’t communist
Franco: Oh mighty conch shell! What must I do to remain in power
Conch shell: Nothing
Franco: The conch has spoken!
@@helend7542 what? never seen classic spongebob?
Interesting note: In Spain we are told in school that Spain was not "neutral" but "non belligerent" during WWII.
We did send the "Blue Division" to Russia to support the Germans after all ^^;
And Franco used the German bombers against the republicans
Volunteers
I still see that as neutral, especially as it was basically just paying back a debt to the Germans
That was the same status Sweden declared in the Winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union.
In practise "non-belligerant" equals to neutral. It's true that a small group of Spanish volunteers helped Germany although they only fought in the Russian front vs the comunists (also some Spaniards fought vs Gemany on their own).
There were also volunteers who fought for the allies, in fact more fighters than the blue division. Although it was against the wish of the government, of course.
I believe that head of the Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, played a crucial role in ensuring that Spain remained neutral despite Hitler's overtures. Canaris, who spoke fluent Spanish, was a longtime opponent of the Hitler regime and a close friend of Franco. He was forced to retire in early 1944 and arrested after the failed attempt to kill Hitler in July 1944. He was executed on April 8, 1945. His secret diaries would probably have been one of the great sources on German underground opposition to Hitler had they not been discovered and destroyed.
Franco: "If I stay very still the Allies won't see me as a threat"
condensed history says yes. Franco is Alan Grant of early 1940s.
That question never arose in my mind for the very reason you gave: Franco was a bulwark against the spread of Communism.
Spain remained a right-wing dictatorship well into the 1970's...
Except if there was a Communist dictarship full of Soviet naval and terrestrial bases in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and controlling the Straight of Gibraltar.
@Вхламинго One of the eternal whises of the russian powers, the access to warm waters. Whichever it is in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic ocean behind all NATO allies, controlling all the trade and oil that passes towards the Straight and in front of Britain.
Ghost Napoleon saying “would nit advise” is golden 😂
So Spain was Fascist, West wanted it to be Democratic, East wanted it to be communist, but they decided to bring back Monarchy.
Parlamentary monarchy, so technically the west won, sorta.
But yes
@@Ander-5187 Parliamentary monarchy that joined NATO, so yeah the West won
Spain doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the West
and all the former Nazi's resident in Spain (along with a lot of others wanted for war crimes in WW2) basically got a PASS, or a route through the rat line to Argentina, with Spain as a backup plan. Nice. We can that the western alllies for that??
@@Dwightstjohn-fo8ki And the communist war crime?
There was heavy pressure on Spain in the immediate postwar period. Spain was not even allowed to join the UN until 1955. There were multiple attempts to create an effective insurgency in Spain sponsored by countries like France after the war, but they all failed. The French attitude was largely driven by the influence the French Communist Party had in the government in the immediate postwar period.
Franco attempted various measure to improve the situation. He marginalized the actual fascists (the falange) in his government after the war and replaced them with more traditional conservative politicians. He also moved to (in theory) restore the monarchy eventually.
There was always uncertainty about going too far with Spain. There was a belief that no insurgency would be strong enough to actually overthrow Franco in a clean way. That any support for an insurgency would effectively lead to a resumption of the civil war and quite possibly lead to events that would be difficult to predict or control.
What changed everything was the outbreak of the Korean War. US Policy changed in the direction of supporting any country that seemed friendly and useful.
Does your surname "Tuner" signify anything?
"There was a belief that no insurgency would be strong enough to actually overthrow Franco in a clean way. That any support for an insurgency would effectively lead to a resumption of the civil war and quite possibly lead to events that would be difficult to predict or control. "
Lessons that the west recently forgot with their adventures in Lybia and Syria
@Underdog History The French Attitude in the later 1940s was very much influenced by the role of the French Communist Party (the PCF) in government. The PCF was regularly drawing a quarter of the French national vote. The PCF was generally the largest party within the coalition French governments between 1945 and 1947. Supporting the overthrow of Franco was one of the major priorities of the PCF at that time.
The entry of 146 Spanish soldiers into Paris the night before the rest of the allied formations entered paris in 1944 was of no significance.
@@shashwatsinha2704 The name is an alias I created without very much thought a long time ago. Its effectively meaningless.
@@Jim-Tuner Oh, that possibility never crossed my mind.
Just a thought:
When you hit a million subscribers, how about celebrating it with an interview with James Bisonette? (Not sure if I spelled his name right.)
I know, right?
because he's the only one that matters right?
@@PANZERFAUST90 no. All lives matter! Phil the oink oink, gustav swann, marcus aznar, kelly moneymaker, rashid ali, is he? , david silverman, and list goes on.
@@houssamassila6274 DON'T FORGET MOE! 🙌🙌🙌🙌
How bout 600k subscribers and we hear from Kelly Moneymaker?
Fascinating - I did always wonder about this - and now I KNOW. Muchas Gracias.
*VIDEO SUGGESTION:*
How did the other European powers react when Napoleon III became The Emperor Of France and founded The Second French Empire? Weren't they at all worried that he would do the same things that his uncle did, and start a repeat of The Napoleonic Wars?
They were, but Napoléon III whole reign was basicly trying to prove to everyone that he was a good guy.
@@clementlefevre5384 By bringing Liberal reforms while remaining a traditionalist, Conquering Africa, invading Mexico, losing to the Prussians, and so on
@@elharvey5032
I'm pretty sure losing to the Prussians ended Napoleon's rule...
The main reason is : he was nothing like Napoleon.
He prefered proxy-wars, helping the rise of other allied nations (Italy, and failed Mexico) than personal conquest (which is a smart move). He switched from authoritarian empire to liberal empire (mainly because France was a shitstorm), and he seemed much more concerned with the developpment of economics and industrialisation than military conquest. He was, overall, not very intimidating to the neighbouring nations (Victor Hugo called him "Napoleon the Small", but i believe he actually had a positive impact on his country, unlike his "great" predecessor).
That being said, he brought some new territories to France (Nice and Savoy), which if i recall correctly were given to him by the new Italian king as a thank you gift for helping him win the italo-austrian war (and remaining neutral concerning the italian-papacy conflict, which was crucial for the italian unification).
@@FrancoisMarchant im pretty sure napoleon (the predecessor one) also had a positive impact on France like where would France be if it kept that ineffective government it had before his rise to power i also imagine napoleon had a big impact on French national pride
Allies: *win the war
Franco:
...
*i respect you*
*I like you*
*I cooperate with you*
Laughed hard when I saw Napoleon I as a ghost and just: "Please dont, not a smart choice..."
Franco remarkably escaped twice, once when he didn't aloud Germans to attack Gibraltar , twice after the war! For a military man , he was a very capable politician !
Mabey he was caplable, but he was actually a dictator, and he also made concentrations camps, and made like 700.000 spanish people die from hunger.
@@carmugon In reality, all types o Governments need a type of Democratic allowance! You can't run a Country you and few hundreds of your friends its impossible! In Democracy you get this allowance by voting, in Dictatorship you get it by the collaboration of the key players in State mechanisms and the fact that people in general stay quiet . More importantly when you examine Dictatorships which stayed in power for decades. I of course condemn Dictatorships, I believe its better for the people to have Democracy but on the other hand I can't accept that a dictator who managed to stay in power that long wasn't a good politician! His long stay in power made him politician even if at the beginning was just a Dictator and nothing more. And one more thing. Even capable politicians are committing crimes, the fact that he was capable politician doesn't make him innocent for his crimes.
@@carmugon Franco is still based -From a Spaniard
@@requiem5151as a brit all I can say is he seemed a damn sight better then the alternative so he may as well have led
The USA to Franco: Perhaps i treated you too harshly.
1:26
Francisco Franco's spain: *exists*
France: You know the rules and so do I Say goodbye
Except britain says *WHAT PART OF NO*
@@Ander-5187 true
Allies: be gone Franco
Franco: uno reverse card
Hitler: And that’s how we won world war 2
cringe.
..worthy.
Quality Hoi4 meme
@The Nova renaissance I need see this video xD
Thanks for the concise explanation 👍
Can you cover Salazar's (Portugal) position in the second world war? Would be cool to contrast to Franco.
it was kind of similar. friendly with germany at start of war but than more friendly with allies since he figure it out germany wont win
@@jebise1126 I've heard the opposite, given Salazar's disgust with racialized fascism.
@@SPVRINNA he was pretty happy to let germans use portugal islands in atlantic. only let allies used it after 1943
@@jebise1126 Fair enough, I suppose I'm showing my need for a video on the subject then huh, lol
there were also a treaty between portugal and spain that said they would both join the same side if they were to pick a side. And during the ww2, the alliance between britain and portugal was still going on, so portugal accepted britain used some of its island as a naval base in the atlantic, even tho they let the german used these same bases before.
Small mistake @0:33 - Portugal was neutral in ww2. Actually, Salazar had an attitude similar to that of Franco, and even lowered the portuguese flag the day Hitler died.
Portugal was pro allied and allowed the allies to use Portuguese bases. That is why Portugal was helped via the Marshall plan. Portugal has always been the most pro English Latin country and has had long term alliance with England.
@@wonjubhoy it is true that by the end of 1944, Portugal allowed the US to use Azores air force base - having access to that military base was a wish of both the allies and the axis since 1939, but Portugal only made the decision of allowing one of the sides to use the base by the time that it became clear that Nazi Germany was pushing Spain and Portugal out of neutrality so to push forward a plan of occupying the peninsula, and secure a solid occupation of the north of Africa (which would have radically changed history). That said, Portugal maintained neutrality in the war because a) it was not a relevant war for Portugal as long as no country would try to invade one of its colonial territories - on the contrary, neutrality was economically interesting as they were selling wolfram to both allies and axis, b) so to justify they were keeping the historical alliance with England (which would have surely been broken if the UK had thought of demanding Portugal for military support fulfilling the alliance), while they would keep an ideological alliance with far-right powers, which Salazar hoped and believed would represent the political future of Europe, even if he personally had a degree of intellectual disdain for Hitler, Mussolini or Franco (Salazar was a rather arrogant person who would believe that he was smarter than any other European leader; he was equally arrogant as a university professor, believing to be the top expert on political economy, while in reality he was just a professor of fiscal law); c) Portugal was really far more worried about the Soviet Union than any other political force. That last point is also the reason why Portugal joined the western powers as a founding member of NATO, and that is the real reason why Portugal received a small amount of money from the Marshall plan (which initially Salazar refused claiming that Spain should also receive Marshall funds, and did so for the same ideological reasons that lead to maintaining a neutral position in the war and a sympathetic stance towards Nazi Germany).
@@wonjubhoy It´s been more than 20 years since the last time I saw someone calling southern european countries (such as Portugal, or Spain, or Italy - or even France) a "Latin country". How old are you, Sir? Americans imposed that "latino" is a derrogative word for Latin America, and formerly known Latin coutries in Europe now are just "Europeans" (try calling anyone from those countries above a "latin" and see what happens)
@@CarlosEduardo-rz5wwbut like... aren't majority of people from Latin America ethnicly either Spanish or Portuguese? Ok yeah there is also many people whose relatives were previous slaves from Africa but still, I always find it wierd why people in America think that previous English men and previous Spanish men are so different, but in Europe both Spanish people and English people are called Europeans
He had mastered the art of standing so incredibly still that he became invisible to the eye.
Thank you. I had been thinking about this sometime ago and now it seems clearer to me. Thank you.
2:24
I died with the fictitious "La presidenta" just standing there and Britain "this is all your fault" XD
France: aw shit
USA: Ive done all I could do
Franco played a brilliant game with Hitler. He kept stalling Hitler off, avoiding involvement in the World War. Unlike Mussolini he had no extra-territorial ambitions. After WW2 he held a strategic position and could guarantee stability in Spain. He was a dictator and remained so, but it was quite possible that had he failed an even more brutal Communist dictatorship might have replaced him. Now Spain is a democracy. History forces some tough choices.
@ggg No, what you say is possible,but given Stalinist support it is more likely that show trials, denial of personal liberty, installation of a dictatorial leadership and a tyrannical and inefficient bureaucracy would be the actual result.
@ggg you really need to open a book, or at least, watch economic videos on youtube
@@trajan75 Because Stalin was the only helping the republic, hell even England blocked France from help the country at the same time a coup is getting a shitton of help from everywhere. You yanks and english love to talk about democracy but as long as it benefits you, you don't give a shit.
You need to do some more study. Historians are doubtful whether Franco was that clever. Far from not having territorial ambitions his proposals to Hitler included ceding large parts of French colonial Africa to Spain. Franco more likely was persuaded by his generals, suborned by Churchill paying them large amounts of gold, and Admiral Raeder who privately urged Franco not to get involved. Raeder had a close relationship with Franco going back to their cooperation during the civil war.
@@mrstxx2048 In France the Popular Front of Leon Blum still sent weapons and supplies to the Republic through the Pyrenees frontier, but secretly during the first years of the war. No one, except maybe Britain and US, followed up the Non Intervention Pact.
As a spanish I have to say this video is really accurated. Great job and thank you!
So you are glad Franco won the civil war because Spain would have become a Communist state.
As bad as Franco was the alternative is even worse.
@@bighands69Spain could have become a democracy after the war, like Germany or Italy did in the same period. But unlike Germany or Italy, here in Spain fascism won the war and no foreign country helped to overthrow Franco, so there was repression and lack of liberty until the 80s.
These are facts, not opinions. Denying it is like denying the holocaust or the covid.
@@jaimemozas2452 Pretty dumb comment.
@@jaimemozas2452 dilooo
Just a bold guess without having watched this video: Franco was "useful" in that he kept the number of communists down in Spain. That's certainly how a whole slew of military juntas in South America were given a carte blanche in regards to their own internal politics. Let's say that totalitarian regimes such as Franco's and others were more than just condoned during the Cold War.
The British establishment was pro-Franco even during the Civil War. They resisted any French measures to provide even non-military aid and looked the other way when the Germans airlifted Franco's core Moroccan troops to Andalucia, avoiding the Spanish (Republican) Navy. They were only more anti-Fascist than anti-Communist for a brief period of time: World War II.
Though the idea of the French being afraid of a Spanish invasion any time after 1800 is kinda funny.
If Hitler allowed Spain to join the axes France would have not been able to repel a Spanish invasion as it's troops would be stationed in the east
@@christianweibrecht6555
Probably not. Franco was never going to join the Axis due to his focus being as far away from military as possible.
He wanted to stabilise and rebuild his nation after the civil war, something that would be made harder if he prepared for a war with France, which would be unpopular due to the embargos that the Royal Navy would impose on Spanish Imports.
Additionally, the Spanish Army, after the Civil War, would be in no shape to take something like Gibraltar which had been fortified and had enough supplies to last for a year under siege, with the Spanish having no way of stopping the Royal Navy from bringing in more supplies.
@@youraveragescotsman7119 Robert Murphy seems pretty convinced that Franco could have easily taken Gibraltar (Diplomat among warriors, page 144). True that he was not on the british side, but since this was part of the african plan I assume he must have had some relevant information.
@@MrAngryCucaracha
I can say this: Gibraltar was fortified to hold against siege for 1 year without supplies.
Franco, with a barely standing military, destroyed country and all the problems recovering from the civil war, would have no chance of managing to take Gibraltar within an acceptable timescale. If the Germans got involved, maybe, but they have no way to stop the Royal Navy from sending men, supplies and weapons to Gibraltar. Sure, the Luftwaffe can attack the convoys, but there is an Airbase at Gibraltar than can send up RAF squadrons to guard supply convoys.
It'll be another Tobruk, but the British are better dug-in.
@@christianweibrecht6555 Hitler allowed xD
02:17 The palapable embarrassment when Britain talks you out of regime change
Franco portrayed with so much hair makes me weirdly uncomfortable for some reason
Male baldness pattern sucks
I'm glad you covered this. Also impressed you used the works of the late William A. Pelz as a reference point. Very nice.
I like how half a minute he mentiones his patreon supporters
Stalin: How about we remove Europe's last fascist dictatorship
Allied: how about no
More like Britain saying no, as France and the US were up for it
Franco did that himself. By the 1950s there were no fascists left in his government.
and replace it with a communist one?
FRANCO👏WASNT👏FASCIST👏
@@sdsd2e2321 It's honestly questionable how "fascist" Franco's government was to begin with, considering he was actually still able to purge the fascist elements that went in while he was being friendly with Germany. His regime was a right-wing dictatorship, sure, but not every right-wing dictatorship is fascist. Meanwhile, the Soviets were in the habit of calling a lot of regimes and insurgent groups opposing them "fascist" for propaganda purposes, regardless of reality or nuance.
France hated Franco for existing. Sounds like French foreign policy in a nutshell both back then and today. For France the world is divided into three parts. France, former French colonies that are somewhat France, and Not France
You forgot one more category: Britain
I love that sometimes the best option genuinely is just "wait, but like, strategically"
*2:42* You forgot to color in Georgia as a part of the U.S.S.R.!
It's hard being neutral when the place is on fire all around you, and everyone wants a piece of you, or want you to support them. Sweden, Spain, and Turkey needed to tread carefully diplomatically. Play along well with every side.
Allies: we're taking you out of the government!
Franco: but i didnt do anything!
Allies: hmmm... Good point
He did a genocide, destroyed his own country and kept it under poverty and oppression for nearly 40 years
@@c_brigante Don't take it so seriously, man
I've read "why didn't the aliens get rid of Franco" ;_; I'll go get some sleep.
The video sumarise in a sentence: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
I'm early let me make a joke
James Bissonette
Oh that's rich
Get it?
Normie
sublime
69 likes, nice
This bit of history is so terribly fascinating and really tells so much about how we tell ourselves our history to look like the good guys. Really wish to study this subject more.
The allies were the good guys and so was the west in general. There is no getting around that fact.
@@bighands69 yeah, I agree, and probably it has been the only one time that allies were the good ones xD
I've read a bit of history and honestly this is the first time I have even heard of this. Spain had just finished a civil war between two odious sides and wanted nothing to do with a world war. Who would decide what type of government would replace the existing one? How could it have any popular or unpopular support? Powers only start to worry about other countries when they begin to show tendencies to invade other countries.
Had a chuckle at the British guy with the sign saying "What part of no?!"
As a Spanish, I can say the reason why Franco wasn't ousted was the Cold War. Simply because the Gov made a deal with the USA and allowed a USA military base in Rota, Cádiz (which is still in use today) and three more bases, to control the Mediterranean exit to Atlantic Ocean, so the Soviet Navy can't go through there (it was effective, the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea had a hard time leaving the Mditerranean and they went through the Artic Ocean which is frozen most part of the year). And Franco was a hard anti-communist, something the rest of Western Powers saw as a good point in Franco's favor.
More like the USA paid Franco millions/billions of dollars for it aka “ humanitarian aid”.
I forgot about the French making Teddy Roosevelt's ghost their president after WW2 🤣🤣
You left out the part where the UK helped Franco seize power and supported him during World War II as detailed in the book Franco’s Friends by Peter Day. This is from the review in The Guardian:
But it was not until the second world war that Franco really started coining money out of his British friends. The British could have tried to profit from the fact that Franco's government was full of jealousies and faction-fighting. Instead, Churchill's policy was to keep Spain out of the war by lavish bribes to key people in Franco's government, including Franco's brother-in-law and perhaps Franco himself. A huge slush fund was administered directly by the British embassy under Sir Samuel Hoare, and the regime, which was corrupt as well as brutal, made itself rich and unassailable at the expense of the British taxpayer.
Western capitalists always hated communists more than Nazis. Just check out The First Casualty by Phillip Knightley.
😂😂😂 if u believe a single word from The Guardian u are just dumb enough to defend what u just posted here, mate.
The Guardian has always been against Spain and it's History. It's just ridiculous propaganda.
Even Spanish communists admit Franco seized power despite the british, french, soviets, canadians and the US, which all them fought against Franco through the Brigadas Internacionales and the Makis. It was long after the 50's where they decided to stop isolating Spain since it was an anticommunist country, and without a single loan from abroad nor invading any lands, Spain escalated up to 8th World Power in 10 years.
Dude, stop reading The Guardian and start reading books.
Except that they allied with Communist Stalin against Nazi Hitler. That undermines your assertion that they always hated communists more. A more reasonable conclusion would be that they hated both, but were willing to tolerate whichever they thought was the smaller threat at any given time if it helped oppose the bigger threat.
@@bradhombre6912 they might have allied with Hitler against the Soviet Union were it not for the fact that Hitler started fighting them first. But generally your consensus is right. Post WWII and to this day, communism was the bigger threat because nazism lost the Second World War. It could’ve been the other way around, and perhaps we might even say it should have been. Hard to really decide which is worst, but I’d say communism is worse than nazism because it has actually been more successful.
Or the even more relevant and more problematic fact that Stalin and the capitalists allied in undermining the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War. George Orwell details this quite neatly in his Homage to Catalonia, which chronicles his personal experiences in war against the Spanish fascists. The most effective fighting force against the fascists in the civil war were the anarchists, and international capital opposed them because they of course had no respect for the property rights of foreign investors, and Stalin opposed them because… well, a lot of reasons, all of them having to do with Stalin being a piece of shit, but particularly involved with Stalin being fully opposed to worker control and revolution to that end - much like the USSR in general post-1921.
What the Spanish situation shows us is not only that liberals are more scared of socialism than fascism, but also that “communists” are more scared of socialism than fascism. Stalin, Lenin before him, and every “communist” leader in the world today are LARPers who have no intention of either advancing socialism themselves or even allowing others to advance it for them.
That sounds like a good idea to me.
1:12 why he didnt inserted earth
2:24 IS THAT A DOLORES IBÁRRURI REFEFENCE?!
YASSS
Why do you think that?
Funny, informative and brilliantly put together. Love Francos wee worried look
"First: He existed" I find that so funny