Franco's ruthless pursuit of victory in the bloody Spanish Civil War alone guaranteed him fame and notoriety. The general went on to rule Spain for nearly 40 years with an authoritarian zeal that scarcely diminished in old age. Variously courted by the liberal democracies of Britain and France, the Fascist alliance of Hitler and Mussolini and then by anti-communist administrations in Washington, Franco played a major role on the world stage until his death in 1975.