Francisco Franco Bahamonde; was a Spanish general, dictator, and the Caudillo, the military and political leader, of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. He ruled Spain for 36 years. As a conservative and a monarchist, he opposed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic in 1931. With the 1936 elections, the conservative Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups lost by a narrow margin and the leftist Popular Front came to power. Intending to overthrow the republic, Franco and other generals staged a failed coup precipitating the Spanish Civil War. With the death of the other generals, Franco quickly became his faction's only leader. In 1947, he declared Spain a monarchy with himself as regent. Franco gained military support from various regimes and groups, especially Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy, while the Republican side was supported by Spanish communists and anarchists as well as help from the Soviet Union, Mexico, and the International Brigades. Leaving half a million dead, the war was eventually won by Franco in 1939. He established a military dictatorship, which he defined as a totalitarian state. Franco proclaimed himself Head of State and Government under the title El Caudillo, a term similar to Il Duce for Benito Mussolini and Der Führer for Adolf Hitler. Under Franco, Spain became a one-party state with a merger of the monarchist party and the fascist party that helped him during the war, the FET y de las JONS, while all other political parties were outlawed. Franco's regime committed a series of violent politically-motivated human rights abuses against the Spanish people, which included the establishment of concentration camps, the use of forced labor and executions, mostly against political and ideological enemies, causing an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 deaths, depending on how the deaths in the more than 190 concentration camps are considered. Although Franco's Spain maintained an official policy of neutrality during World War II, his regime helped the Axis in numerous ways. The German and Italian navies were allowed to use Spanish harbors from 1940 to 1943, the Abwehr gathered intelligence in Spain on Allied activities, and the Blue Division fought alongside the European Axis Powers against the Soviet Union. Franco's regime has been called a fascist one. By the 1950s, the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to a more authoritarian system with limited pluralism. During the Cold War, Franco appeared as one of the world's foremost anticommunist figures; consequently his regime was assisted by the West, and it was asked to join the United Nations and came under NATO's protection. By the 1960s Spain saw incremental reforms and progressive economic development. After a 36-year rule, Franco died in 1975. He restored the monarchy before his death, which made King Juan Carlos I his successor, who led the Spanish transition to democracy. After a referendum, a new constitution was adopted, which transformed Spain into a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco