Support or resistance? Biscay society response(s) to the establishment of the «new state». 1937-1945

Abstract

This article explores social actitudes emerged in Biscay during the early post Civil War years. In this regard, in the first place it analyses the main two policies implemented by the Francoist regime in order to ensure the establishment of the «new state»: repressive and recruitment policies. The assumption here is that while repressive measures managed to neutralize political dissident and unite the group of rebels, recruitment policies pursued the legitimacy of the «new order». In this context, this article examines social attitudes evolution in Biscay during 1937 and 1945, such as, passive or active consent, collaborationism, resistance or integration attitudes. In short, this study, located at the academic debate that this issue —social attitudes in totalitarian contexts— has generated in Spain and in the international field, is a first approach to an important unknown area of the Basque Country history.