Franco's Victory (1940)

This map, drawn by cartoonist Francisco López Rubio, was published as part of the historical series Hispanic Cartography around 1940.

The map, which is clearly propaganda, shows the victory of Francisco Franco and the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War. To this end, it makes extensive use of the Spanish flag, marking the date on which the Nationalist army took the cities that were Republican after the coup d'état of 1936. The author also marks the location and date of the most important battles, in the eyes of Francoism, with flags of different colours depending on the year: yellow for 1936, red for 1937, grey for 1938 and blue for 1939.

In the lower right-hand corner, the author accompanies the main map with eight smaller maps showing the advance of the national troops from the coup d'état on 18 July 1936 until the end on 1 April 1939.

The map is also accompanied by terminology with a strong propaganda slant that would be repeated throughout Franco's dictatorship: it refers to Republican territory as a “red stain”, calls the civil war the War of Liberation, treats all Francoist generals (in the upper left corner) as heroes, and uses the term national uprising instead of coup d'état.

Milhaud Maps

Franco's victory (1940)

Sources