The civil war began when a group of right-wing generals led an uprising against the democratically elected government of Spain on July 17th, 1936. They seized control of most of Spain with little opposition from any other country. The only major power that openly supported them was Italy (Fascist), which sent troops to help them occupy Madrid and Barcelona. The Italians also blocked food supplies into Spain so that civilians would starve to death if there was no peace agreement soon made between both sides of the conflict.
The war was fought mainly in Spain, but also in Morocco and Portugal. The great majority of the deaths occurred on the Nationalist side, and there have been many arguments about whether or not the coup-to-war was a battle between democracy and fascism.
The other major powers which played a role in this conflict were Great Britain (non-interventionist) and France (non-interventionist). Both countries did not want to get involved in another European war so they stood back from helping either side in this civil war because they felt that if they interfered then they would be drawn into other conflicts like what happened with World War I.
Franco’s victory brought about an authoritarian regime known as National Catholicism. This regime would rule Spain until 1975 when Franco died of natural causes.
