How Spain (Narrowly) Became a Democracy

Somewhat surprisingly, Spain became a democracy only recently; up until the 1970s it remained a brutal dictatorship under the iron fist of Francisco Franco. So how did Spain get there and how did it finally save itself from autocracy?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Have a fancy historical idea you'd like me to cover? Drop a comment and let me know!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

A big THANK YOU to the selfless supporters of SideQuest for their limitless generosity:

JK, Leloo Wolf, pmck, Aradhya Khandelwal, dancingvulture, Ciaran Hassan, Gabriel, Jeanne Moss, Scott Gibbs, Adrien Maillet, Kevin O'Connor, Van Veen, FauxFowks, ShepHaveUTriedMeditation, ProfessorComrade, Ethan McCosby

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Further Reading:

[barleysixseventwo]

King: "I am the undisputed dictator of this nation, AND I WANT A DEMOCRACY!"
Fascists: "But...you can't...that's not...No!
King: "Disagreeing with the Dictator are you? That's awfully democratic for a so-called 'fascist'!"
Fascists: this isn't how its supposed to work!"

[ZebcastHistoria]

You could have mentioned Juan Carlos' eventual fall from grace and exile in August 2020. He is the regal personification of the saying "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain". Excellent video.

[fireaza]

Francisco Franco sounds like the sorta name you would come up with if you were suddenly placed on the spot and told to come up with a Spanish-sounding name.

[jacintovski]

The Spanish King could have also feared a similar fate that the Estado Novo in neighboring Portugal had. The Portuguese dictatorship heavily supported Franco. It collapsed in 1974 with revolution. This probably might have been a warning to the king of Spain that if he wanted to retain some power he would need to give most of it away or fear losing it all away.

[deancooper]

Is it just me or does anyone else get the sense SideQuest will be a big history Youtube channel one day

[Ninjasaucetoothbrush]

Fun fact about Franco's dealings with the US: He allowed them to build an observatory in the Canary Islands that NASA wanted to make for its space program. Franco only allowed it if they promised to build a university next to it at no Spanish expense so they could educate new astronomers right there. Both are still standing and used to this day

[kinnelyuwu]

How do you not have more subs, like genuinely? Your production value is so good

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

Jose Ortega y Gasset once wrote:

"We live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but he does not know what to create"

[petergriffin]

Note that you’re wrongly interchanging republic for democracy, Spain had been a constitutional monarchy since 1833 and was nominally a democracy albeit under the same circumstances regarding suffrage, similar to most European nations at that time.

[paprikooltu]

I always have respect for those YouTubers which don't censore Nazi Germany flag for fear of demonetization. History didn't deserve to be censored! No matter how cruel it is!

[MonsieurDean]

The way you say "boogaloo" tickles the ears.

[Haibing]

Everybody expected Franco's second in command, Carrero Blanco, to become the leader at the death of the generalísimo. But, something happened.

[teddyboragina]

I've been sharing these with friends; you guys need to hit a million subs by the end of 2022

[alicamilletti]

Amazing as usual! Your videos really do feel like those of the million-sub history channels.

[reeman]

I love the animation style. Also sidequest is going to be a big channel one day. I know it's going to happen.

[PhantomKING]

Very nice video! People even here tend to forget that qe never 'overthrew' the dictatorship, it ended through negotiation, and that is basically opposite to what happened elsewhere.

Still, Spain had had sorta-democracies before. As a reminder, Spain had the first parlamemtary entity (though the regime as a whole was faaar from a democracy, it was still an absolutist monarchy): the Cortes de León, back in 1188, which allowed dialogue between the priviledged (nobles and all that) and the unprivileged (peasants, or, more accurately, the representatives they chose).


Love from Spain! And thank you for explaining our history in a way one can wrap their head arround xd.

[enriquebenedicto]

1:31 actually, the anarchists and communists hated each other so much that during the civil war they started to fight between them. The war became a three-sided conflict that ended with the fascist winning. Also, there was another democratic period in the 1820s called "Trienio liberal". Finally, although Juan Carlos restored democracy here in Spain, he now is out of the country because he has stolen a lot of money from the Spanish government even while he was receiving a percentage of the taxes and was already rich. It's complicated to judge him because he stopped the coup of Tejero, saving the democracy in Spain. Anyways, the video is accurate and shows good the modern history of Spain.

[willip]

Great video, but I would like to point out that the transition to democracy wasn't just carried out by Juan Carlos alone, it was the will of the people, it was gaining momentum, it was basically inevitable.

[leedunning]

I wish my history classes in high school had been this interesting and fun.

[faletepower]

Ok, I must point out something: you missed another democratic chapter in spanish history: the Borbonic Restoration (I probably translated it wrong, it's "Restauración Borbónica" in Spanish). From 1874 (IIRC) to 1923, there was a democratic (though, extremely corrupt) regime under the monarchy of Alfonso XII, Queen Maria Cristina (when his son was too young) and Alfonso XIII. In 1923, King Alfonso XIII supported a coup d'etat made by the spanish army and lead by General Miguel Primo de Rivera (BTW, his son would be the creator of Falange during the 2nd Republic). In 1930 there was a 2nd dictator that didn't last very long because democrats, republicans and socialists agreed to create the 2nd republic, which lasted until the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).