 Due to the international political climate at the time, the war had many facets and was variously viewed as class struggle, a war of religion, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, and between fascism and communism.It has been frequently called the "dress rehearsal" for World War II.The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.