Response of Militarized States

States in which military dictators ran the government tended to respond to internal conflicts in ways that made the conflicts even worse. Spain under Franco and Uganda under Idi Amin are two prominent examples.

The Franco Dictatorship in Spain The dictator Francisco Franco ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975. (See Topic 7.4.) He had come to power by overthrowing a popularly elected government that included many leftists. Franco’s fervent anti-communism made him an ally of the United States. It also led his government to execute, imprison, or send to labor camps hundreds of thousands of political dissenters. However, opposition to his authoritarianism remained. When Franco died, Spain took the opportunity to move toward democracy.

Intensified Conflict in Uganda under Idi Amin Few countries in the 1970s suffered as much as Uganda, a small country in eastern Africa ruled from 1971 to 1979 by Idi Amin, a military dictator so brutal he was known as the “Butcher of Uganda.” Although he was aligned with Western democracies early on, he was later backed by the Soviet Union and East Germany. He declared himself president for life and set policies that worsened ethnic tensions, denied people basic human rights, and undermined economic stability. Amin was unpredictable. He was for a time the chairman of the Organization of African Unity and even a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. But in 1972 he forcefully expelled 60,000 Asians from Uganda, most of whom were of Indian descent, and turned over their businesses to his supporters. He is believed to be responsible for up to 500,000 deaths among targeted ethnic groups during his reign. When he threatened neighboring Tanzania with attack, Ugandan nationalists joined forces with Tanzanian troops and forced Amin into exile.