Spain's Transformation: Economic Growth and Francoist Repression (1940-1970)

The money that migrants sent to their families (remittances) was an important factor for the economic development of Spain during those years.

Social and Economic Transformation in Francoist Spain

The Transformation of Society

After years of war, during which society had remained very traditional, the 1960s saw accelerated social change.

Improvement of Living Standards

Agricultural mechanization and industrialization resulted in a drastic decrease of the rural population and a considerable growth of the urban population. Industry dedicated to services also grew. Spain embraced the so-called consumer society, although with less intensity than other Western countries.

A More Open Society

The arrival of tourism, the opening of borders, and the ability to travel allowed Spaniards to make contact with the exterior. This opening brought changes in the mentality of the population, especially among younger generations. New generations who had not experienced the war changed dramatically and slowly began to spread a broad social movement in favor of the democratization of Spanish life.

Social and Educational Reforms

The new political and economic orientation of the Franco regime was reflected in several laws that helped to improve the welfare of Spanish society:

• The Law on Social Security (1963): Proclaimed the right of workers to Spanish Social Security.
• The Press Act (1966): Abolished prior censorship.
• The Law on Religious Freedom (1967): Established a margin of relative tolerance towards other confessions.

The culmination of these changes came with the educational General Law on Education of 1970, which made elementary education free and general.

Opposition and Repression Under the Franco Regime

The Harsh Repression of the Post-War Years

The early years of the dictatorship were marked by the repression of the defeated. The President of the Republican Generalitat, Lluís Companys, was arrested by the German Gestapo while exiled in France. He was handed over to Franco's authorities and executed at Montjuïc on October 15, 1940.

The crackdown also targeted Catalan linguistic and cultural identity. The Catalan language was officially prohibited from public use and was restricted to the family sphere; even education in Catalan was banned.