Early Francoism and Economic Paralysis in Catalonia, 1939-1951

The entry of General Franco's 'liberating' Nationalist army into the city of Barcelona in January 1939 was the prelude to a wave of violent repression across the Principality of Catalonia. In addition to the New State's persecution of the language, culture and national personality of Catalonia, fascist zealots also clamoured for the dismantling of the region's factories and mills. Whilst it was often asserted that the Franco dictatorship systematically discriminated against Catalonia for its treachery in supporting the defeated Second Republic (1931-39), the aim of this article is to present new arguments in defence of the revisionist case that the resulting economic paralysis of Catalonia during the period 1939-51 was not so much the result of the bloody-mindedness of the victors in the Spanish Civil War as the New State's obsession with autarky and interventionism.