In many ways, the Spanish civil war was the opening act of WWII. Comment.

Spanish civil war was fought in 1936 between the fascist rulers of the Spain and the democratic and communist forces backed by the liberal powers like USA and western communists who championed liberty and opposed fascism.

Spanish civil war acted as the first battleground between the axis (totalitarian power) Allied Germany and Italy which backed the fascists in the spain, and had friendly treaties with them. While the rebels were backed by the countries like UK and USA are the fight against the fascist. Spanish civil war was the best conflict between the ideology of facism that promoted authority and dictatorship at the cost of that promoted liberty and equality. This proxy war led to increased strange between Germany and rest of the europe and leaders of se Germany and Italy in europe which eventually led to invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 and start of world war II.