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Spain Spanish Foreign Policy in the Post-Franco Period
Spain's political system underwent dramatic
transformations
after the death of Franco, but there was nevertheless some
degree
of continuity in Spanish foreign policy. The return of
Gibraltar
to Spanish sovereignty continued to be a foreign policy
goal, as
did greater integration of Spain into Western Europe. In
spite of
frequent ongoing negotiations, neither of these goals had
been
accomplished by the time Gonzalez came to power in 1982.
Foreign
policy makers also endeavored to maintain an influential
role for
Spain in its relations with Latin American nations.
Spanish opinion was more ambivalent with regard to
membership
in NATO and relations with the United States, although
defense
agreements, allowing the United States to continue using
its
naval and air bases in Spain, were signed periodically.
When
Spain joined NATO in May 1982, under Calvo Sotelo's
government,
the PSOE leadership strongly opposed such a commitment and
called
for withdrawal from the Alliance. One of Gonzalez's
campaign
promises was a national referendum on Spain's NATO
membership. In
1982 the role the new Socialist government envisioned for
Spain
in the West's economic, political, and security
arrangements
remained to be seen.
* * *
Stanley G. Payne presents a comprehensive general
introduction to the history of the Iberian peninsula in
his twovolume study, A History of Spain and Portugal.
Henry
Kamen's clearly written and amply illustrated Concise
History
of Spain provides a briefer treatment. The late
Spanish
historian Jaime Vicens Vives dealt with the dominant
questions of
Spanish historiography and analyzed the major
interpretations in
Approaches to the History of Spain. Whereas Vicens
Vives
emphasized the pre-1500 period in his work, Richard Herr's
Historical Essay on Modern Spain gives more
attention to
the country's evolution in recent centuries.
An excellent introduction to the Spanish Middle Ages
can be
found in Gabriel Jackson's The Making of Medieval
Spain.
Angus MacKay's Spain in the Middle Ages emphasizes
the
continuity between medieval and early modern Spain. J. H.
Elliott's Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 is an
insightful
account of Spain at the apogee of its empire as well as of
the
transition into the modern period. For a balanced study of
eighteenth-century Spanish reformism and the impact of the
French
Revolution on Spain, see Richard Herr's The
Eighteenth-Century
Revolution in Spain. Raymond Carr's Spain,
1808-1975
contains a definitive treatment of nineteenth-century
Spain.
There is an extensive, if not always balanced,
literature on
the Spanish Civil War. An excellent introduction to the
subject
is Gerald Brenan's The Spanish Labyrinth, which
offers a
lucid account of the social and political conflicts that
divided
the country. Hugh Thomas's comprehensive and thoroughly
researched study, The Spanish Civil War, is
considered the
standard work on the subject. The evolution of the
Nationalist
side receives thorough treatment in Stanley G. Payne's
Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism.
J. W. D. Trythall's biography of Franco, El
Caudillo,
provides an illuminating description of the regime's
politics,
while Brian Crozier's Franco deals more extensively
with
its wartime diplomacy. A more recent biography by Juan
Pablo
Fusi, Franco, presents the most balanced portrayal
of
Francoism to date. Another recent publication, Stanley G.
Payne's
authoritative and detailed analysis entitled The Franco
Regime: 1936-1975, is likely to remain the major
treatise on
the political history of Francoist Spain.
A concise, clearly written account of the
transformation of
Francoist structures into a democratic regime, with an
emphasis
on social and economic developments, appears in Spain:
Dictatorship to Democracy, by Raymond Carr and Juan
Pablo
Fusi. Paul Preston's The Triumph of Democracy in
Spain and
E. Ramon Arango's Spain: From Repression to Renewal
also
provide penetrating accounts of the transition period.
(For
further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1988
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