He was a leader of a coup d'état against the Spanish Second Republic in 1936. After this uprising the Spanish Civil War started. Franco was supported by fascists, big businesses, the church, conservative people and Spanish nationalists. This was because the Spanish Republic had a socialist government that wanted to make businesses and the church less powerful. The Republic also set up local parliaments in the regions of Spain. Spanish nationalists thought this was wrong and would make Spain weak. Franco remained neutral during World War II as Hitler did not accept his conditions for Spain to take part in it with the fascist and nazi regimes. He let a group of volunteer soldiers join the German Army to fight the Russians between 1941 and 1943. They were called the "División Azul" (Blue Division)