Hi Jay Fallon! I’m happy you know so much about Spanish history :) I actually learned a lot of Spanish History in school (we do not study Global History, or World War 2 much as Spain was not involved).

We had a civil war till 1939 and you are right, our economy was really bad. We had a bigger growth during the 1950s. Spain did not live out of loans, but EEUU paid Spain a lot of money to use some military bases during the Cold War.

And, leaving History aside, if you ask any Spanish person, it is common knowledge that Economy with Franco was great. I remember studying that the countries with the biggest GDP growth at that time were Japan and Spain. People in the extreme-right always talk about how great would Spain be if we had continued with Franco’s laws.

After Franco died, our King decided to allow a democracy instead of having a dictatorship. In 1978 we created our “Constitucion” (I never read it, so I am not sure how economic policies changed). Spanish people had also a cultural revolution called “La Movida” in Madrid. Spain was a “full-democracy” in 1978, but we had to change a lot before they allowed us to enter the European Economic Community in 1986.

I know some of the difficulties that Spain had was the over-controlled system that Franco created. I remember studying this in school.