Francisco Franco

Spain's involvement in the Second World War is noticeably absent from the record when we discuss it, despite the fact that the majority of us are aware that it involved practically all of Europe (save for a handful of countries that could manage to stay neutral, like Switzerland). It's not that it didn't want to pick a side; rather, it was just getting over a recent internal conflict that served as a microcosm of the larger conflict, at least in terms of the ideological orientation of the parties involved and the brutality, if not the magnitude.

Spanish Republicans, a loose coalition of anarchists, communists, social democrats, and other left-leaning groups supported by the Soviet Union, fought against aristocratic, nationalistic, and other conservative sections of the country that were supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the Spanish Civil War, which raged from 1936 to 1939. Although the exact magnitude of the destruction is difficult to estimate, records place the number of casualties at anywhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000.

The right-wing rebels won handily as a result, giving Italy and Germany the opportunity to practice numerous military techniques that they would later use, frequently with great success, during World War 2. Although most of us are aware that the Second World War covered nearly all of Europe, Spain's participation in it is conspicuously absent from the record when we debate it (save for a handful of countries that could manage to stay neutral, like Switzerland). It wasn't that it didn't want to choose a side; rather, it was still recovering from a recent internal struggle that was a miniature version of the larger one, at least in terms of the ferocity and ideological orientation of the parties engaged, if not in terms of scale.

The Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, was fought between the ruling Republicans and a loose alliance of anarchists, communists, social democrats, and other left-leaning organizations.