Scrabble?! FRACKS

Definitions of FRACKS in various dictionaries:

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; Spanish: [fɾanˈθisko ˈfɾaŋko]; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939, after the nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain. During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera 1923-1930, Franco was promoted general at age 33, the youngest in Europe. As a conservative and a monarchist, Franco opposed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a democratic secular republic in 1931. With the 1936 elections, the conservative Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups lost by a narrow margin, and the leftist Popular Front came to power. Intending to overthrow the republic, Franco followed other generals in launching a coup that failed to take control of most of the country and precipitated the Spanish Civil War. With the death of the other generals, Franco quickly became his faction's only leader. Franco gained military support from various authoritarian regimes and groups, especially Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while the Republican side was supported by Spanish communists and anarchists as well as the Soviet Union, Mexico, and the International Brigades. In 1939, Franco won the war, which claimed half a million lives. He established a military dictatorship. Franco proclaimed himself Head of State and Government under the title El caudillo. In April 1937, Franco merged the fascist and traditionalist political parties in the rebel zone (FE de las JONS and Traditionalist Communion), as well as other conservative and monarchist elements, into FET y de las JONS. At the same time he outlawed all other political parties, and thus Spain became a one-party state. Upon his rise to power, Franco implemented policies that repressed political opponents and dissenters, as many as 400,000 of whom died through the use of forced labor and executions in the concentration camps his regime operated. During World War II, he espoused neutrality as Spain's official wartime policy. However, he provided military support to the Axis in numerous ways: he allowed German and Italian ships and submarines to use Spanish harbors and ports, the Abwehr operated in Spain, and the Blue Division fought alongside the European Axis against the Soviet Union until 1944. Although Franco's Spain is often identified as fascist, most scholars consider it as conservative and authoritarian, rather than truly fascist.Spain was isolated by the international community for nearly a decade after World War II. By the 1950s, the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to an authoritarian system with limited pluralism. During the Cold War, Franco was one of the world's foremost anti-Communist figures: his regime was assisted by the West, and it was asked to join NATO. After chronic economic depression in the late 1940...