The authoritarian nationalist government of Francisco Franco aggressively pushed the idea that Spain was unified under a single religion, language, and culture. However, Spanish culture has always been varied, and possesses a great deal of influence from peoples considered to be deeply and fundamentally different – in particular, North African, Arab, and Muslim cultures. This influence has a long history, though Spanish nationalists in particular were inclined to present it as a brief foreign incursion that was ended by the Reconquista, which restored Spain back to its natural state. Similarly, the nationalist government itself possessed a significant variety of political thought. Through various texts written by representatives of the Nationalist government one can see the various narratives pushed in service of this authoritarian government, and more specifically how it handled aspects of history that were particularly inconvenient to what it wished to project.