110 Franco, Francisco a gambler and drinker, so the upbringing of Francisco Franco and his four siblings was left to their mother, María, who raised the children as devout Roman Catholics Franco was six when the Spanish-American War broke out, and it was not long before he saw what was left of the once-proud Spanish navy limp back into El Ferrol following the loss of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico Franco’s application to the naval academy was rejected, so he went to the Infantry Training College at the Alcazar in Toledo, near Madrid There Franco was initially the smallest boy in his class, but he completed his time there in 1910, the youngest in his graduation year Commissioned as a lieutenant, he went to Morocco, where he served in the Regulares This unit, a forerunner of the Spanish foreign legion, was involved in some of the toughest combat against Abd el-Krim Promoted to major at the age of 23, Franco was badly wounded in the stomach but miraculously survived A later account had him threatening to shoot the doctor when the medic decided not to evacuate him because his wound was regarded as too serious Returning to Morocco in 1921, Franco led a brilliant action near Melilla, a Spanish-held town on the Mediterranean coast, and was promoted to lieutenantcolonel and then gazetted full colonel soon afterward In October 1923 Franco was asked by King Afonso XIII to escort him when the royal party toured Spanish Morocco Three years later Franco was promoted by a special decree to the rank of brigadier general, making him, at the age of 33, not only the youngest general in Spain but also the youngest general in Europe since Napoleon In 1927 the Spanish finally announced the defeat of Abd el-Krim, and Franco was appointed to head the General Military Academy in Saragossa The aim of the academy was to create a new Spanish army, and this enabled Franco to inspect a training school at Leipzig Franco was courted by the politician Primo de Rivera to stage a coup against King Alfonso XIII, but Franco declined Primo de Rivera died soon afterward, and when the king visited the academy at Saragossa he publicly embraced Franco and gave the school the right to fly the royal standard In April 1931 he abdicated the throne, and Spain became a republic The first elections during the republic saw a leftwing government come to power The new government wanted to reduce the influence of the army, and one of the leaders of the republic, Manuel Azana, ordered the closure of the Saragossa Academy In 1932 there was a plan to stage a military coup, but it never happened In the following year’s elections, a right-wing coalition government was elected By now Franco’s brother-in- law, Ramón Serrano Súđer, was a rising politician, and he helped Franco in his next assignment Opposing the conservative government, 40,000 miners in Asturias in the north of Spain went on strike, and Franco was sent to put down this revolt He used Moorish soldiers and brutally crushed the miners’ revolt—over 1,000 people died, and many more were thrown into prison Many Spaniards were worried by the treatment of the miners and also by the rise of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany In February 1936 the elections saw a new left-wing government elected, and the military prepared to stage a coup to bring down this Popular Front government The new republican government, worried about Franco, posted him to the Canary Islands On July 18 Franco was flown to Spanish Morocco, and the army there rose to support him as the generals openly proclaimed their aim to bring down the Spanish government With the outbreak of the Spanish civil war the republicans tried to prevent Franco and his men from reaching the Spanish mainland, but an airlift was organized by the Italians and Germans Franco then marched his men and their mainland supporters toward Madrid By the end of July Franco’s supporters, the nationalists, controlled a large swath of territory in northern Spain, a pocket around Cádiz, Seville, and Córdoba in the south, and Spanish Morocco Franco nearly reached Madrid but diverted his attack to rescue the besieged nationalists at the Alcazar in Toledo Although this action was highlighted as an “honorable” action in the foreign press, it did allow the republicans to reinforce Madrid and thus prolong the war for another three years In October 1936 Franco, by then one of the leading commanders of the rebellion, was proclaimed the supreme commander of the nationalist forces and the chief of state of a nationalist government with its capital at Burgos in northern Spain The original leader, General Sanjurjo, had been killed in a plane crash some months earlier Over the next three years of the war, Franco emerged as a political figure who united his forces into a unified command structure The Falange (Spanish fascists), monarchists, Carlists, moderate Catholics, and conservatives put aside their not inconsiderable differences to face the republicans, whose divisions and factional disputes became legendary With support from Germany and Italy, Franco’s soldiers gradually captured more and more territory from the republicans Adopting the title caudillo, he portrayed the war as a crusade by which he was to save Spain from Soviet communism, anarchists, and Freemasons Franco remained a conservative military commander and avoided taking risks As a result, he was