>republicans stop the coup in 1936 and force the nationalists to struggle for 3 years to achieve a victory
>numerous republicans refuse to surrender and continue a guerilla war that lasts up to the 1950s, even attempting to invade Spain with a large force from France at the end of ww2
>before the last maquisards have even left the mountains, a new generation of radicals emerge from university campuses in late 1950s that havent even fought in the civil war and start clashing with police frequently, along with miners holding strikes
>late 1960s those same students start creating different anarchist and communist groups who carry out bombings, bank roberries and kill police officers
>ETA emerges spontaniously and carries out literally thousands of attacks (im not even joking look it up)
>groups in exile do the same thing attacking embassies and a yacht gets sucesfully hijacked and extorted for freedom for political prisoners
>riots, bombings and general violence force the state to imprison and execute people, causing the international community to shun Spain and pull out embassies and investments
>ETA kills Blanco and leaves Franco without a heir
>even the fucking catholic church turns their back on Franco
>Franco ACK!-s and overnight all the former republican parties and movements reconstitute politically and lead Spain to democracy
This all happened even though Spain was literally Fascist the whole time and liberally used arrests,executions, torture, and states of eception. Hell they even did human experiments trying to find a way to genetically prevent people from becoming leftists. How did other "Authoritarian" governments, whether Left or Right in Europe at the time manage to root out militant opposition within years of taking power and the Spanish resistance continue from the first to last day of the dictatoeship, even though they were ultimatelly not a major threat to the government, it is impressive to me how consistently radical it remained for the duration of the regime.
Because it was operated from the french borders,you said it in your post
It helped that Franco wasn’t an ideological fascist so much as a pragmatic conservative army officer who kept the other factions, particularly the Carlists and the Falangists, in check. In fact, he deliberately engineered a system that kept them competing and fighting among themselves to prevent any one faction from becoming too powerful. His ultimate plan was to groom the future king into his vision of a conservative monarch(he did this by sending him to military school and thought that would be enough) who would preserve his legacy. That plan backfired spectacularly, because the king he raised turned out to be a liberal who promptly dismantled much of Franco’s bullshit.
>>2929984Franco was very much a fascist, just one that was smart enough not to invade other countries or openly align with the Axis Powers.