Following the provisional phase represented by the
National Defense Junta formed after the death of
General Sanjurjo in an aviation accident, who was to lead the military directorate to govern the country after overthrowing the
Popular Front government, the rebel generals and leaders decided to appoint a single military and political leader. From 1 October 1936,
General Franco became the "Generalissimo" of the rebel forces and the "Head of the Government of the State." After the failure to capture Madrid (between November 1936 and March 1937) and with the prospect of a prolonged war, the "Generalissimo" Franco, with the help of his brother-in-law
Ramón Serrano Suñer, began shaping the political organization of the "New State." The first step was the
Decree of Unification in April 1937, merging all political forces supporting the "national uprising," particularly the
Falangists and
Carlists, who had contributed significantly with their militias, into a single party called
Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS. The next step was organizing the "New State," a task assigned by the "Generalissimo" to his
first government, appointed on 30 January 1938, replacing the
Junta Técnica del Estado. The construction of the "New State" was accompanied by the destruction of everything related to the
Republic. In the rebel zone, unlike the
Republican zone where the
revolution had unfolded, a "
counter-revolution" was carried out, involving "systematic repression of individuals, organizations, and institutions that, in any way, real or even imagined, could be linked to that revolutionary Republic, or in the hands of revolutionaries, which they claimed to combat." "In this path [of building the 'New State' and eliminating everything related to the Republic], Franco had the support and blessing of the
Catholic Church. Bishops, priests, and religious figures began treating Franco as a divine envoy to restore order in the
earthly city, and Franco came to believe he indeed had a special relationship with
divine providence."
National defense junta The death of
General Sanjurjo, exiled in Estoril, on 20 July due to an accident shortly after the takeoff of the plane piloted by Falangist
Juan Antonio Ansaldo, which was to take him from
Lisbon to
Pamplona to lead the uprising, left the rebel generals without their intended leader. To partially address the lack of a single leader, four days after Sanjurjo's accident, on 24 July, the rebel generals and leaders formed the
National Defense Junta in
Burgos, chaired by the highest-ranking and most senior general,
Miguel Cabanellas, head of the Zaragoza Organic Division, and including
General Saliquet,
General Mola,
General Dávila, Colonel Montaner, and Colonel Moreno Calderón (with
General Franco joining later). Its Decree No. 1 stated that it assumed "all the powers of the State" and, through subsequent decrees, extended the state of war declared by the rebels in each location to all of Spain (serving as the basis for subjecting opponents to summary
court-martials), outlawed
Popular Front parties and unions, and banned all workers' and employers' political and union activities "while the current circumstances persist" (Decree of 25 September). in an appearance in
Burgos on 27 August 1936, as reported by the German newspaper
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. Mola is on the right. The most urgent task was achieving military command unity. "With the failure of the swift military coup, Mola’s envisioned establishment of a Directory fell apart, especially with the death of the person who could have led it undisputedly [General Sanjurjo]. This raised the question of a possible monarchical restoration, which the military conspirators had not planned. (...) But any action inevitably required first choosing a single leader." It appears that General Franco (who had established his headquarters on 26 August at the Palacio de los Golfines in Cáceres, where Falangists organized a mass rally acclaiming him as leader and savior of Spain) requested a meeting of the rebel generals to address this issue. According to other historians, the proposal came from General
Alfredo Kindelán.
General franco, "generalissimo" and "caudillo" , and to his right is General . On 21 September, a meeting took place at a farm near Salamanca attended by the generals of the
National Defense Junta, along with Generals
Orgaz, Gil Yuste, and
Kindelán. They discussed the need for a single command of the rebel forces and appointed
General Franco for the role, as he led the army poised to enter Madrid (the Army of Africa was about to capture
Maqueda, just 100 kilometers from the capital) and had secured aid from
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. Other potential candidates were ruled out (Cabanellas for being a Mason; Queipo de Llano for being a republican; Mola for the failure of his columns’ advance on Madrid). Additionally, Franco was "the most cautious, least ideologized, and most neutral in terms of regime," according to historian Santos Juliá. However, while military command was settled, political leadership remained unresolved. All generals voted for Franco except
Miguel Cabanellas, who abstained and later remarked: Franco then made a "masterstroke": ordering the columns advancing on Madrid to divert to Toledo to
relieve the Alcázar, lifting the two-month siege of around a thousand civil guards, Falangists, and infantry academy cadets under Colonel Moscardó, who held "women and children of known leftist militants as hostages." "With their liberation, Franco gained immense political capital: the Alcázar was the symbol of Spain’s salvation, resurrecting like a martyr from the tomb to which its enemies had consigned it." "The capture of the Alcázar amplified Franco's legend. Moscardó’s famous phrase
no news at the Alcázar, repeated before Franco and numerous journalists two days after its liberation, was widely propagated. Franco was the savior of the besieged heroes, the symbol of an army determined to win the war at any cost." On 28 September 1936, the day the
Alcázar de Toledo was relieved, a second meeting of the generals in Salamanca decided the political leadership. Franco was chosen, named not only "Generalissimo of the national land, sea, and air forces" but also "Head of the Government of the Spanish State, while the war lasts." Franco accepted both appointments, stating: "You place Spain in my hands... I must take on all powers." However, when Decree No. 138 of the Junta de Defensa Nacional was published the next day, a significant change was made: the phrase "while the war lasts" was removed, and Franco’s appointment as "Head of the Government of the Spanish State" included "who will assume all powers of the new State." By using "Spanish State," the issue of the future regime after capturing Madrid and ending the war (expected in weeks or months) was sidestepped, but the republican apparatus was dismantled, and power passed dictatorially to Franco. The decree of 29 September 1936, became the basis of the "Generalissimo’s" legitimacy for the next 39 years. On 1 October 1936, in the , Francisco Franco took office as
Generalissimo of the rebel army and
Head of the Government of the State. This confirmed the administrative and military unity of the rebels, , headquarters of the
Junta Técnica del Estado. The day before, the Bishop of Salamanca
Enrique Pla y Deniel published a pastoral letter titled "
The Two Cities", presenting the war as "a crusade for religion, homeland, and civilization," providing new religious legitimacy to the rebel cause. Thus, the "Generalissimo" was not only the "leader and savior of the Homeland" but also the "Caudillo" of a new "Crusade" defending the Catholic faith and the pre-
Second Republic social order. Cardinal Primate
Isidro Gomá sent Franco a congratulatory telegram for his appointment as "Head of the Government of the Spanish State," and the "Generalissimo" replied, stating that "he could not receive better aid than Your Eminence’s blessing" and asking for prayers to "enlighten and give me strength for the arduous task of creating a new Spain, whose happy outcome is already guaranteed by the patriotic collaboration so kindly offered by Your Eminence, whose pastoral ring I kiss." Bishop Pla y Deniel lent Franco his episcopal palace in
Salamanca for use as his General Headquarters. The first law promulgated by the "Generalissimo" Franco created the
Junta Técnica del Estado (replacing the
National Defense Junta), chaired by
General Dávila (replaced in summer 1937 by the more efficient monarchist General
Francisco Gómez-Jordana). It included a General Secretariat of the Head of State, led by Franco's elder brother
Nicolás Franco. This administrative body, with seven Commissions acting as traditional Ministries, continued the social restructuring begun by the Junta de Defensa Nacional, addressing issues "from the counter-agrarian reform, returning estates to their former owners, to the purge of disloyal officials... The clear intention was to reverse all republican legislation, restoring things to their prior state." The headquarters of the Junta Técnica del Estado was established in
Burgos, making it the administrative capital of the new regime (though some departments were in other Castilian cities), but the political capital of "National Spain" was
Salamanca, where military power resided, as it housed the General Headquarters of the "Generalissimo" Franco. Salamanca became the power center of rebel Spain as it also hosted German and Italian diplomatic representations and some Junta Técnica del Estado departments.
Decree of unification of April 1937 The next step in consolidating the new "Caudillo’s" power came after the failure to capture Madrid (November 1936 – March 1937), necessitating a "single party" modeled on the
Primo de Rivera dictatorship, merging
Carlists and
Falangists. Both groups had their own visions for the new State being built in the rebel zone. In the "absence" of
José Antonio Primo de Rivera, imprisoned in Madrid's Modelo Prison from 14 March 1936, and later transferred to Alicante's prison on 5 June 1936, a Provisional Command Junta was formed in
Valladolid led by
Manuel Hedilla, "a politician of limited stature—perhaps chosen for that reason—" who lacked Primo de Rivera's prestige and soon strained relations with Franco's power circle. "The news of José Antonio’s death [executed in Alicante on November 20, 1936], reported by Republican and foreign press, was concealed in rebel Spain. Franco used the cult of the
Absent to leave the party leadership vacant and manipulate Falange as a mechanism for mobilizing the civilian population." flag with the
Cross of Burgundy. As for the
Traditionalist Communion Carlist leader
Manuel Fal Conde tried to maintain his organization's and
Requetés militias’ independence, but his significant move in December 1936 (attempting to create a Royal Military Academy of Requetés, separate from military academies and thus outside the Army's structure) prompted a swift response from the "Generalissimo" Franco: face a court-martial for "treason" or leave Spain. Fal Conde chose exile in Portugal. On 20 December 1936, Franco decreed the militarization of Carlist and Falangist militias. From the General Headquarters of the Generalissimo, Franco's new advisor
Ramón Serrano Suñer (his brother-in-law and former CEDA deputy who had escaped the "red zone" to Salamanca) facilitated a rapprochement between the
Traditionalist Communion and
Falange Española y de las JONS for their merger, but their ideological and political differences (separating
traditionalism from
fascism) were nearly insurmountable, and another non-negotiable obstacle was that the "single party" would be led by Franco himself. Both sides had to accept that the new political formation would be subordinate to the "Generalissimo’s" personal power. To promote this, the slogan "
One Homeland, One State, One Caudillo" was spread from Salamanca's Headquarters, copying the Nazi slogan "
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" (‘one people, one state, one leader’). Contacts between Falangists and Carlists occurred but failed, creating tensions within both parties, resulting in the Falangist "
Salamanca events" of April 1937, where several Falangists died in clashes between merger supporters (led by
Sancho Dávila and
Agustín Aznar) and opponents (led by
Manuel Hedilla). Franco's Headquarters acted decisively, and on the day Falangist opponents held a National Council electing Manuel Hedilla as "national leader," Sunday, 18 April, Franco announced the
Decree of Unification for the next day, merging Falange and the Traditionalist Communion under his direct leadership as "national leader." Franco not only failed to inform Hedilla but had him arrested a week later (along with other dissenting Falangists) when he refused to join the new party's Political Junta as a mere member and instructed his provincial leaders to follow only his orders. Franco kept Fal Conde and other Carlists away from the power center. Most senior military figures, including Mola and Queipo de Llano, accepted this with varying reluctance, while most political organization members (including prominent Carlist leader
Count of Rodezno) also accepted and served the new leader. . The decree creating the single party
Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS was announced with a speech by the "Generalissimo" Franco from the balcony of the General Headquarters (the Episcopal Palace lent by Bishop
Enrique Pla y Deniel) on the night of 19 April. The decree included a long preamble and three articles, creating "a fascist-style single Party, called a
movement, placing Franco at its head, and conceiving it as the State’s support, intermediary between society and a State designated as the
New Totalitarian State." "To leave no doubt about the location of power in what was beginning to be called the New State, the national leader of Falange, Manuel Hedilla—along with other comrades reluctant to join the new party’s Political Junta—was tried and sentenced to death for his
manifest act of indiscipline and subversion against the sole and indisputable Command and Power of National Spain. It had to be clear to all that military unity of command would, in the future, be political unity of command." Following advice from the "Absent’s" sister
Pilar Primo de Rivera (leader of Falange's "pure" sector), Serrano Suñer, and German ambassador , Franco pardoned Hedilla, who spent four years in prison and was sidelined from politics upon release. The single party's statutes, published on 4 August, established that the "Caudillo" was accountable only "to God and History." Two months earlier, on 3 June, during the
Northern Campaign,
General Mola, the "Director" of the military conspiracy that launched the July 1936 coup starting the Civil War, died when his plane crashed on a hill in
Alcocero, near Burgos. Mola frequently used planes for travel, and no evidence of sabotage exists, though his death clearly favored
Franco by eliminating a rival.
Consequences of the decree In October 1937, the "Generalissimo" Franco appointed the 50 members of the
National Council of FET y de las JONS, half of whom were Falangists, a quarter Carlists, plus five monarchists and eight military figures, including
General Queipo de Llano. The Council remained a merely advisory body. with its newspaper,
Arriba, becoming a mere appendage of the Army. In 1974, near the end of the
Francoist dictatorship, a gravely ill Franco confessed to his personal doctor: "Falangists, in the end, are just rabble-rousing thugs." However, Falangist leaders occupied many key administrative and party positions. Besides half the National Council members being Falangists, the new party secretary, appointed by the "Caudillo" in early December 1937, was
Raimundo Fernández-Cuesta, the most prominent surviving "old shirt" Falangist, who had just arrived in the rebel zone after being exchanged for Republican
Justino de Azcárate. Major national delegations of the new party were also held by Falangists: the
Sección Femenina by
Pilar Primo de Rivera; the by .
The birth of the "new state" celebrating the second anniversary of the war's start, with an arch repeating Franco's name multiple times. In January 1938, during the
Battle of Teruel, a significant step toward the "New State’s" definitive configuration, which had been forming in the "National Zone" since Franco's proclamation as "Head of the Government of the State" on 1 October 1936, was taken with the promulgation by the "Generalissimo" of the Law of the Central State Administration, establishing a ministerial administrative structure, "a further step toward political normalization of a situation with no power source other than Franco’s person and the Army’s unanimous support." According to
Julio Gil Pecharromán, the law "sanctioned the principles of power unity and function concentration typical of the
totalitarian single-party system being built in National Spain," with articles 16 and 17 granting Franco absolute powers, including "the supreme authority to issue general legal norms" and placing ministers under his sole authority. This law, along with another issued by Franco shortly after the war, formed the legal foundation of his long dictatorship. On 30 January, the "Generalissimo" appointed his first government, assuming the
Presidency himself, while
Francisco Gómez-Jordana (former president of the
Junta Técnica del Estado) was vice president and
Minister of Foreign Affairs. Fidel Dávila, still commanding the Francoist Northern Army, was Minister of Defense;
Severiano Martínez Anido, a veteran military figure and prominent repressor of Barcelona's anarcho-syndicalism in the 1920s, held the
Public Order portfolio. However, the most prominent figure was
Ramón Serrano Suñer, Minister of the Interior and Franco's
cuñadísimo. , accompanied by General
Sagardía, received by Himmler (September 1940). The first Franco government featured "a distribution balancing the weight of permanent suppliers of high political and administrative personnel: military [4], Falangists [2], Catholics [1], monarchists of dual Alfonsine [2] or traditionalist [1] loyalty, and some independent technicians [1]." "Each sector controlled areas closest or dearest to them: military and public order ministries for the military; syndicalist movement and ‘social’ ministries for Falangists; economic ones for technical experts, lawyers, or engineers; and education and justice for Catholics, traditionalists, or former
Acción Española members." Notably, Falangists and Carlists had minimal weight in this government. However, in lower ministry ranks, there were more members from key parties, especially Falange, prefiguring the ideological blend that would define
Francoism. The Unification-created Party had little connection to the State's executive. (...) The only true common ground was their
traditional conservatism and
reactionary rightism." This government initiated the "New State’s" institutionalization: On 9 March 1938, the
National Council of FET y de las JONS, meeting for the first time, drafted the "" based on the Italian fascist
Carta del Lavoro, establishing principles of "
vertical syndicalism" (the "" was created by decree on 21 April but only functioned post-war) and State economic intervention. Approved by Franco, who held not only State and Government leadership but legislative power, the "Fuero del Trabajo" was the first of seven
Fundamental Laws of the
Francoist Dictatorship that served as the regime's "constitution." On 5 April 1937, the
Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1932 was repealed, and in the following months, a series of orders and decrees banned the use of the
Catalan in public documents and private conversations. On 9 April 1938, a Press Law subjected newspapers to prior censorship and granted the government the authority to appoint newspaper directors. On 5 July 1938, the death penalty, which had been abolished by the Republic, was reintroduced. On 20 September 1938, a
Secondary Education Law guaranteed the
Catholic Church absolute autonomy in secondary education. This law also introduced what the
Minister of National Education,
Pedro Sainz Rodríguez, called the "classical baccalaureate," which he feared other ministers approving the law might consider "absurd due to the heavy emphasis on Latin and Greek studies." According to
Julián Casanova,
fascism and
Catholicism were the two ideologies upon which the "New State" was built. The process of fascistization was evident in the exaltation of the leader, the "Caudillo," akin to the
Führer or
Duce; the raised-arm salute established as the "national salute"; Falangist uniforms and symbolism; and more. Simultaneously, Catholic religious rituals and manifestations proliferated, such as processions, field masses, and politico-religious ceremonies imitating supposed
medieval forms. == Foreign intervention in support of the rebels==