Franco and team were horrible and ser Spain back decades. The Republicans were a hodgepodge of strange bedfellows that never had the coordination or foreign support to truly wage a successful defense. Their only asset was the control of the Spanish Treasury (and gold reserves) which they couldn’t get anyone to take from them, except a good-ol Texas oil man who was happy to sell Spain oil under the table in spite of the US embargo.

The US was so concerned about the spread of communism that they couldn’t get behind the Republican cause, but didn’t have any love for Franco and the Fascists. Finally the Russians stepped in and filled a little bit of the void, but provided the Republicans with 50- year old surplus that couldn’t compete with the brand new equipment that Hitler provided Franco.

Horrible pre-cursor to WW2 that probably could have been avoided with a little better foresight from what would have become the Allies.

Spain still struggles from the burdens of the Civil War almost 90 years later