Francisco Franco ruled the nation of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975, initially as a General following an extended coup and eventually as a king. After starting his career as a military hero, Franco participated in a failed coup against the left-wing Popular Front government that eventually transitioned into a full-blown civil war. Franco's Nationalists were victorious, leading to his seizing control of the Spanish government in 1939 and his formation of an authoritarian regime soon after.

The Spanish Civil war lasted from July 17, 1936, when it was kicked off by a Nationalist military uprising and a series of political assassinations, until the Franco took control over the nation on April 1, 1939. Some small-scale guerrilla fighting did continue in the Spanish countryside after this time. The warring factions came to be known as Republicans (who supported the deposed, legally-elected Popular Front government), and the Nationalists, fascists who supported Franco. The number of overall casualties remains disputed, but is considered to be somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million, not counting those who died from problems associated with an extended period of civil war, such as famine.Britannica: Spanish Civil War Many of these deaths involved people being captured and executed, particularly in the early days of the war. These casualties most likely included the famed Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca.

Spain remained officially neutral during the Second World War. Hitler had invited Franco to join the Axis but was unable to meet Franco's elaborate demands, which included both requests to material aid and ownership of Gibraltar and sections of Northern Africa. Nevertheless, after the fall of France to the Nazis in 1940, Spain indicated essential solidarity with Hilter's regime, even going so far as to send volunteer troops to aid the Nazis against the Soviets on the Eastern Front. Counter-intuitively, Spain remained a safe haven for Jewish refugees throughout the war.Stanford.edu: Did Franco want to bring Spain into World War II?