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Article: Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón: 1938
Article from:Contemporary Hispanic Biography
Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Juan Carlos de Borb
ó
n y Borb
ó
n: 1938
—
: King of Spain
Spain's King Juan Carlos I has ushered his country through an unusual political evolution: handpicked by military dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco to succeed him, the new monarch quickly moved to restore Spain to a democratic constitutional government in the late 1970s. In doing so he gave up much of his own power, and within a decade had brought the Iberian Peninsula nation into the pan-European political community. "The transfer of power in Spain was a model," observed
UNESCO Courier
writer Ram
ó
n Luis Acu
ñ
a, "a source of inspiration for guiding democratic changes not only in a number of ...