Midday Music for Millennials -- Music feels history
Last edited Thu Mar 12, 2020, 03:54 PM - Edit history (1)
In 1936, Spain’s Popular Front coup failed (and General Francisco Franco with it), which precipitated the Spanish Civil War.
Franco took control of the Army of Africa, which he had air-lifted to Spain. With the death of the other leading generals, Franco became his faction's only leader and was appointed Generalissimo and Head of State in the autumn of 1936. By a Unification Decree in 1937 Franco merged all Nationalist parties into a single party, the FET y de las JONS. In 1939 the Nationalists had won the war, at a cost of half a million lives. The victory extended Franco's dictatorship over all of Spain. It was followed by a period of repression of political opponents and dissenters. Between 30,000 and 50,000 people died by this repression,[13] which employed forced labor, concentration camps, and executions.[14][15] Combined with the Nationalist executions during the war, the death toll of the White Terror was between 100,000 and 200,000.[16]
Franco continued to rule Spain alone with more power than any Spanish leader before or since, ruling almost exclusively by decree. He nurtured a cult of personality and the Movimiento Nacional became the only channel of participation in Spanish public life. During World War II he espoused neutrality as Spain's official wartime policy, but supported the Axis — whose members Italy and Germany had significantly supported him .... After the civil war, Spain was shunned and isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade.
During the Cold War Franco became one of the world's foremost anti-Communist figures. His regime was assisted by the West, particularly the United States. Spain had suffered chronic economic depression in the late 1940’s, early 1950's, but by abandoning autarky and pursuing economic liberalization, Franco presided over the "Spanish miracle". Economic authority was delegated to the technocrats of the Opus Dei, (hello, Wm. Barr) leading to tremendous economic growth.
Al Stewart. "On The Border” remix
(lyrics)
The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver
On the border
On my wall the colours of the maps are running
From Africa the winds they talk of changes coming
The torches flare up in the night
The hand that sets the farms alight
Has spread the word to those awaiting
On the border
In the village where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
No-one notices the customs slip away
Late last night the rain was knocking on my window
I moved across the darkened room and in the lamp glow
I thought I saw down in the street
The spirit of the century
Telling us that we're all standing
On the border
In the islands where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
It's just the patterns that remain
An empty shell
There's a strangeness in the air you feel too well
The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border
On the border
Bruce Hornsby and 2 Pac. “The Way It Is" “Changes” remix
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