NOTE: I realize that most of this is too long and informationally pregnant for any of you to actually read it and care, or retain any useful information, and I guess for those of you who feel obligated to read it, I apologize, but I guess I'm mostly doing this for myself and I think it's sort of funny to blow right through generations of kings and queens. Maybe I'm wrong. Point being, I write too much, but I'm having a great time and I hope I'm not the only one. But seriously I don't really expect anyone to read every single one of my posts...okay! Onto the history!
Those of you Americans and those of you who know anything about Spain know SOMETHING about Isabella and Ferdinand, aka los Reyes Católicos, aka those who financed Columbus’ fateful voyage in 1492, aka those who unified Spain (well, at least Castilla and Aragon) with their marriage, aka those who conducted that whole thing called the Inquisition. Those fun people! No but seriously they were hugely important. Look them up on Wikipedia if you want to know more about them, but I’ve basically summarized the important stuff, as far as I know. Heh.
Not the cutest couple ever, but oh well. Here is a nicer image of Isabella.
This super-important couple had a crazy daughter called, appropriately, Juana la Loca (siblings=Maria and Catherine of Aragon, who you’ve probably heard of), who married a Flemish dude named Philip the Handsome. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe somewhere around here began the Hapsburg (Austria) family chain of reign (ha) in Spain. Anyway, Juana and Philip had a son named Carlos V who later married Isabella of Portugal (we’re in the early 1500s here). Their son Philip II was king of Spain until 1598. He married 3 times, once to Queen Mary I of England and once (4th wife) to his niece. Ooh! Delightful. Anyway, he was succeeded by his son Philip III (son of his 4th wife) who married Margaret from Austria (we’re in the mid-1600s now) who was succeeded by Philip IV (so creative with the names, people!). Carlos II was the only living son of his dad’s second wife (and niece! Again with the nieces!) Mariana of Austria (still in the Hapsburg family). People thought he was bewitched (including himself) because of his physical and mental disabilities (inbreeding will catch up with you sooner or later!).Anyway, if you followed any of that….Philip V then showed up in the early 1700s (grandson of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Spain) and started off the Bourbon family reign that has lasted until today. So after Philip V we have Ferdinand VI, Carlos III, Carlos IV (whose wife Maria Luisa of Parma caused quite a ruckus with her supposed and definitely obnoxious lover, Godoy)…
Carlos IV is the old dude and Maria Luisa is the ugly dark-haired woman in the middle. This is their family as painted by Spanish artist Goya (the more I write in here the more I realize I’m leaving out….crap). Anyway, so after Carlos IV we have Joseph Bonaparte (yes, Napoleon’s brother) who decided to rule Spain between 1808 and 1813 (yes, this caused problems, no, I’m not going to get into it). Ferdinand VII (son of Carlos IV and horrible Maria Luisa) succeeded him until 1833 when Isabella II took over. Ferdinand VII’s brother Carlos wanted the throne and there were wars known as the Carlist wars where Spaniards fought over Carlos vs. Isabella. Some strange Italian dude named Amadeus ruled for 3 years. Then there was the First Spanish Republic from 1873-1874 (with 5 presidents in that time! Kind of unstable…which is why the second republic is way more famous) and then Alfonso XII took back over the monarchy. His son Alfonso XIII (grandpa to Juan Carlos, current Spanish king!!) took over in 1885.If I had any dead Spanish history professors they would be rolling over in their graves right now…sorry….
While Alfonso XIII was in charge there was the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera from 1923-1930. Then began the Second Republic in 1931 and Alfonso XIII left the country. The 2nd republic was super progressive and gave women the vote, approved the right to divorce, separated church and state, and many other liberal things, much to the joy and utter relief of about half the country (and then lots of republican supporters killed priests and nuns and burned convents, but in their defense, traditionalists/carlistas/soon-to-be-fascists were fighting right back once the civil war started).
Here is the flag of said Republic. Can you see the differences between this flag and the current flag (not just the colors...)?
There are families around Salamanca that still fly this flag, but usually in their windows (not out on flagpoles or anything TOO prominent). So the 2nd republic had the misfortune of existing during a time of extreme tension in Spain, a time of poverty and instability and strong political action (citizens really did care about what was going on, they participated, etc).
So the Guerra Civil or Spanish Civil War (brother vs. brother, neighbor vs. neighbor, just like the American civil war only this time with way more dangerous weaponry and help from dictators like Mussolini and Hitler on the side of the nationalists aka sublevados aka Franco’s side aka Falange Española aka the fascists) lasts from 1936-1939. During this time the Basque city of Guernica is bombed by the Germans (who used the war as an opportunity to practice for WW2), inspiring famous Spanish artist Picasso to paint this impressive (in style and in size!) and emotionally wrenching painting that you’ve probably seen before.
The war ends right as WW2 is about to begin (literally less than 6 months beforehand) and this man takes power for the next 36 years.
Ah yes, the fascist dictator and leader of his very own personality cult, Generalissimo and Caudillo Francisco Franco.
He was an intense Catholic, Fascist, Conservative, Homophobe and Anti-Semite as well as a strong believer in the unity of Spain (aka anti-autonomous communities or regions like Catalonia, Galicia, and Basque Country, even though he was from Galicia himself). Among other things, he eliminated all political parties except for his own, the fascist Falange Española; restored Napoleon’s Civil Code from 1804 which did such lovely things as state that women were minors, couldn’t vote, couldn’t divorce, had no power over their earnings or family money, and that their husbands could take away their kids without their say; took all of the infrastructure and housing plans from the 2nd republic and turned them into his own (apartments all around Salamanca today still have the Franco plaque on them that say that they were constructed under the Ministry of Housing or whatever from his dictatorship),
Fun fact about Franco—he died on my birthday in 1975. He was sick for a while before he finally kicked the bucket (is that rude?) and my parents told me that on SNL they had a running thing on the news where they’d be like “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.” As Kat says, some people were/are mad that he died in bed and some are mad that he died at all.
You won’t be missed, at least not by me, Franco. Sorry. Except not really. Even though I’m grateful to you for providing a probable topic for my impending independent study/honors project.
So Franco dies in 1975 and thus begins the transition to democracy. Keeping things simple, Juan Carlos (grandson of Alfonso XIII, king before the 2nd republic kicked him out…remember???) becomes king, founds a parliamentary monarchy, works along with the country to essentially forget Franco and not worry too much about reconciliation or about punishing anyone involved in his regime (v different from South Africa’s transition from Apartheid in 1990), which in and of itself is wicked interesting, at least to me, and will probably feature prominently in my project. The current constitution was ratified in 1978 and things have been generally pretty calm since then. Depending on whom you ask.
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