world war one never happened, but WW2 did happen as it did historically, with the following exceptions. Austria-Hungry never split apart, and was still unified as a nation at the beginning of WW2. this also left the Balkans virtually as is before the Great War. Austria-Hungry still somewhat of a powerful nation, could not be easily swallowed up by Hitler's Germany. Hitler while he did attempt to regain Austria was unsuccessful and realized that he could not take Austria without a major war which he could not afford at this time. The other change in history was the assassination of Hitler, which was successful and allowed Germany to sue for a separate peace with the allies. During this time Roosevelt had died earlier than he had in history, which allowed Truman to accept the peace overtures from Germany as well as convince the allies ( with some diplomatic arm twisting) to accept. The only nation which did not accept was the Soviet Union. By accepting an armistice with Germany, this allowed the allies to focus on Japan.
Technically at war, the Soviet's soon realized that with the West's betrayal, Germany could now focus all her remaining military might against mother Russia, and the war could drag on for years. Even Stalin could recognize the warning sign, and accepted Germany's peace proposal.
Franco's dream begins five years after the end of the fighting in Europe. Germania agreed to withdrawl from the rest of France, Italy and gave the Soviet Union back its territory she held before the war, but refused to give back Poland. The allies tired of war turned their back on the Polish people and allowed Germania to swallow Poland and make it apart of Germany. Side note the Middle East still followed its historical path with Israel gaining her independence in 1948.
The Spanish civil war did occur as it did historically. Spain was able to stay out of WW2, but dreamed of uniting all of the Iberian peninsula under Spanish rule. The risk of this causing a wider European war once again was very high. Great Britain who was allied with Portugal began threatening Spain if she went to war. This is where our scenario begins.
