Those who rose against the Republic did not have so much difficulty finding a single military and political leader. As of 1 October 1936, Francisco Franco was ‘Head of Government of the Spanish State’. His military colleagues who put him there thought that this post would be temporary, that the war would soon be over with the conquest of Madrid and that then would be the time to think of the political framework of the new State. However, after various frustrated attempts to take the capital, Franco changed his military strategy, and what might have been a rapid seizure of power became a long, drawn-out war. He was also convinced, particularly after the arrival in Salamanca of his brother-in-law, Ramón Serrano Suñer, who had managed to escape from the ‘red confinement’ in Madrid in mid-February 1937, that all the political forces needed to be united in a single party.

‘Head of Government of the Spanish State’, Caudillo, Generalísimo of the Armed Forces, undisputed leader of the ‘Movement’, as the single party was known, Franco confirmed his absolute dominance with the creation, on 30 January 1938, of his first government, in which he carefully distributed the various ministries among officers, monarchists, Falangists and Carlists. The construction of this new State was accompanied by the physical elimination of the opposition, the destruction of all the symbols and policies of the Republic and the quest for an emphatic, unconditional victory, with no possibility of any mediation.