Remembering Spain

[Sifonon]

Most of it is completely wrong. You need to do some serious reading about the subject.

[karthan]

War is terrible. Franco did remove a government that sympathized with the Communists, and then brought Spain under a uniform banner of Catholicism and the Spanish language. He also stayed out of WWII and assisted the USA against the USSR till power was changed over to a parliament. I think, with the communists beginning to dominate the politics of the country, the country had to choose between communism and fascism. Methinks it ended better than it would have if the Soviets took over Spain.

[Timerider3]

Well, with respect, I think that is an incredibly simplistic view of the situation. Do you mean to say that "unifying" Spain under catholicism and the spanish language was a good thing?

[karthan]

The Spanish population of the day was divided between four different languages. It, if I recall correctly, was a fairly difficult country to manage because of all that translating, multi-tiered schooling, multi-lingualism, racial divisions. By setting out a strict, uniform, and straight forward vision for education and what the main trade and communication language was to be, Franco made ruling over the country a heck of a lot easier than it would have been otherwise.

[karthan]

And Catholicism? Mleh. It was a tactical move that aligned him with the west and the 'people of faith' who were fighting Communism. Although it probably wasn't an actively made decision, the unifying force of religion versus the Soviets in the Cold War did place Spain in a position where it wasn't doomed to be destroyed by NATO for its fascist beliefs.

It was a good tool, in other words.

[Timerider3]

Well, seeing as the catalonians and the basque both wanted independence, I would agree that it was certainly a udeful tool for oppression but not a good thing. I am for self-determination, not imperialism so I suppose it is a matter of philosophy.

[karthan]

If I could only make comments longer than 500 characters. *sigh* Then I could make comments that wouldn't leave people with questions like this. I'm sorry Timerider3 for not making numerous comments communicating my thoughts on your wonderful video.

But, yes, I do think that unifying Spain under a sort of 'common ground' did assist the Spanish people.

[TheTollundWoman]

@karthan

Actually Franco brought Spain as close as it ever got to Communism. Fascism, as a form of totalitarianism, had infinitely more in common with Stalinist Russia than the democratic, moderate Second Republic. This is because both Communism and Fascism are irreconcilable with the very idea of democracy; it is no coincidence that both Naziism and Communism found their most consistent and committed opponents in democratic, open societies- and not in dictatorships like Franco's.

[gozumun]

nice