Was Spain Fascist under Franco?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Fascist is a catchall term for almost any reactionary political movement now, similar to Tory in the 18th century on both sides of the Pond.

That being said, I wouldn't consider Monarchism for instance to be fascist, though many monarchists did support fascists in various countries because of shared objectives/common opponents. However, it seems off from an academic standpoint because it would be like calling Louis XIV a fascist and while it is less ridiculous than calling him a socialist, its just a hard no for me.

Fascist is a radical movement that tends to absorb traditionalist, reactionary and conservative elements of support into itself but also tends to have less regard for other elements of tradition that get in the way and often are led by people from lower rungs of the social hierarchy. Furthermore, if you go the next step towards Nazism, you have all sorts of co-option still but also a lot of small r Republican sentiment (Which is to say opposition to Monarchism), even more disdain for the top of the pyramid, you have the cultist religious practices and rituals, and so on.

I would certainly agree with use of the terms Nationalist, authoritarian, Right-wing and Reactionary and I would certainly say that he had fascists in his government in the early period and had the support of fascist governments to obtain power. However, rather than these elements being incorporated under a fascist umbrella like in Italy, the fascists were incorporated under a nationalist and traditionally right wing (high ranking military figure with a Monarch as designated successor) umbrella instead.