The Spanish Civil War is considered a watershed moment in 20th century European history because it tipped the balance of power in favour of the Fascist movement.
In 1929 the military dictatorship that had been ruling Spain collapsed. Two years later the King of Spain abdicated when the left-wing Republicans came to power.
It set in motion a bitter battle for power that was to be played out in the deeply divided country over the next seven years.
The Valley of the Fallen, the mausoleum holding the remains of Francisco Franco, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, outside Madrid
When the army rebelled in 1936, the country slipped into all out civil war, with the Nationalists, made up of landowners, business owners, the gentry and the church, on one side, against the Republicans, comprising the workers and peasants, on the other.
Led by General Francisco Franco and supplied with weapons by Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, the Nationalists had the upper hand.
Although the Republicans were assisted by Communist Russia, they did not receive the same level of support.
More than 500,000 people were killed during the Spanish Civil war between 1936 and 1939 and a further 450,000 fled the country.
Those killed included more than 200,000 men and women who were murdered extra-judicially or executed after a ‘flimsy’ legal process by the fascists, according to author Paul Preston, who wrote ‘The Spanish Holocaust’.
Mass executions took place in bull pens, sometimes with music playing.
The Civil War drew in fighters from across the world and journalists keen to cover the war first-hand, including the likes of Ernest Hemingway.
Ultimately it was the Nationalists, led by General Franco, who claimed victory in the conflict in March 1939. Afterwards, approximately 20,000 Republicans were executed.
Franco was to rule the country with an iron grip for 36 years between 1939 and 1975 and survived the fall of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany after the Second World War. His regime had remained neutral throughout the conflict.
He effectively ruled Spain as a dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975, abolishing all other political parties and making himself the Head of State and Government under the title El Caudillo – a typically insulting term meaning ‘dictator’ or ‘strongman’ that he proudly claimed as his own.
During his rule up to 400,000 dissenters and political opponents are thought to have died through the use of forced labour camps, concentration camps, and executions.