Spain, Europe and the World

Mainly Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and the Marianas-Palau-Carolinas Archipelagos.

An interesting example were the declarations of former Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during his first meeting with former French President Chirac and German Chancellor Schroeder after winning 2004 Spanish General Elections. After a tumultuous time, due to the support by former Conservative Prime Minister Aznar to the US invasion of Iraq and the 3/11 Madrid bombings, Zapatero affirmed, “Spain has return to Europe”. Zapatero proclama que “la vieja Europa está como nueva” (2004, September 14). El Mundo https://​www.​elmundo.​es/​elmundo/​2004/​09/​13/​espana/​1095098831.​html Zapatero escenifica con Chirac y Schröder la vuelta de España ´al corazón´ de Europa (September 14, 2004). Ultimahora https://​www.​ultimahora.​es/​noticias/​nacional/​2004/​09/​14/​642315/​zapateroescenifi​ca-con-chirac-y-schroder-la-vuelta-de-espana-al-corazon-de-europa.​html

There are several authors, not only Spaniards but also Europeans, Hispano-Americans and North Americans denouncing and criticising the Black Legend narrative, but these studies have been mostly ignored or dismissed until now, despite their documental veracity in the arguments by mainstream media History in Europe and the United States. For instance, see the 1914s book of Julian Juderias La Leyenda Negra y la verdad histórica. Arnoldsson, S. (2020), Los orígenes de la Leyenda Negra española. El Paseo. Powell, P. (1971), Tree of Hate. Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States’ Relations with the Hispanic World. Basic Books; García Cárcel, R. and Mateo Bretos, L. La Leyenda Negra, Anaya, 1990. Payne, Stanley (2017), En defensa de España: desmontando mitos y leyendas negras. Espasa.

For instance, Spain during the last century has never suffered a default, not even after the Spanish Civil War and the Post-WWII blockade to Spain; UK suffered one in 1976. Germany obtained several removals and debt remission along twentieth century, above all thanks to the 1954 London Agreement.

Spanish monarchs were not properly emperors, except for some monarchs in the Middle Ages who were primus inter pares among other kings, such as King Alphonse VII of Castile. Imperator totius Hispaniae is a Latin title meaning “Emperor of All Spain”. In the twelfth century, Phillip II’s father, Charles V, was Emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire until he died in 1558. Then, Phillip II inherited all the different territories of the so-called Catholic monarchy, except for that title. Linking longevity (300 years) and size (more than 20 million sq. km), it has been the most essential and enduring empire in the West since the Roman Empire. At his peak, the territories composing the Spanish Catholic Monarchy swept across the world. They included South Italy (Naples, Sardinia and Sicily), the Franche-Comte, the Dukedom of Milan, and Flanders (Holland, Belgium and Burgundy)—besides the alliance with the Habsburgs in the Roman Holy Empire (after the abdication of Emperor Charles V)—and some territories in North Africa and the Mediterranean. In the Americas, Spanish possessions ran from Patagonia to Oregon and Florida in today’s United States of America. They included the Philippines, Guam, and the Caroline Islands in Asia. Besides, from 1580 to the mid-seventeenth century, the “Union Iberica” linked the Spanish monarchy with the Kingdom of Portugal and its overseas possessions in Sud-America (Brazil), Africa and Asia. They created the first truly global (and globalised) empire: “El imperio donde nunca se pone el sol” (The empire on which the sun never sets).

Although before this new wave, Jesuit, academic and writer Fernando Garcia de Cortazar, Pr. Ricardo García Cárcel or Pr. Maria del Carmen Iglesias, Director of the Spanish Royal Academy of History, was, among others, one of the historians who prepared and initiated this movement. Maria Elvira Roca Barea has probably published the most notable and essential works. Imperiofobia y leyenda negra. Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos y el Imperio español. (27th ed. 2020), Siruela; and Roca Barea, M. (2019) Fracasología. España y sus élites: de los afrancesados a nuestros días. Espasa; and in the same year, by Argentinian Marcelo Gullo, Madre Patria. Desmontando la leyenda negra. Desde Bartolomé de las Casas hasta el separatismo catalán. Espasa; also María del Carmen Iglesias, M. (2008). No siempre lo peor es cierto. Galaxia Gutemberg. Among the philosophers, Bueno, G. (1999) España frente a Europa. Alba; Insua, P. (2023) 1492. España contra sus fantasmas. Ariel 2018; Cuando España echó a andar. Ariel.

It is very interesting the accusation towards him, despite his thinking was greatly influenced for Marxism. Bueno also defends the thesis that Spain was born as an Empire, and it was only in the nineteenth century, at the end of the Empire and, as a product of his abruption, it appeared as nation-state.

Some authors argue Black Legend is embedded in the narrative of the European History since Modern Age. Without it, would be impossible to explain and justified certain developments in some countries, or even the creation of their foundational myths and their identity.

For instance, the words of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2004. “Zapatero afirma en el Senado que nación es un concepto”. (2004, November 18) ABC. https://​www.​abc.​es/​espana/​abci-zapatero-afirma-senado-nacion-conceptodiscutid​o-y-discutible-200411180300-963494244952_​noticia.​htm

For instance, the position of Franco’s regime in the 1962 US Cuba Blockade, the Spanish nuclear military programme, or the UCD’s First Democratic Government attempts to approach the Non-Aligned Movement.

This is a position against most of the Spanish academic (and, to a certain extent, political elites) doctrinal posture on the Europeanisation of the Spanish Foreign policy (in which usually this doctrinal posture includes this development of security and defence), despite the continued support, commitment and participation in CSDP and PECOS. Moreover, Spain, during Franco’s years, was vetoed by some European powers from entering NATO and other Western Security arrangements (such as the Western European Union, WEU), using the argument of being an authoritarian regime. Meanwhile this was not a problem with Portugal and Turkey’s membership, to be a founder member (1949) and a quick accession (1952), respectively. In this vein, the only link to Western security and defence during the Cold War was the US-Spain agreements since 1953.

It was a policy started and carried out by Franco’s “reformist” technocratic governments in the 1960s by Minister of Foreign Affairs Castiella to balance the dependence on the United States, crowned by the 1970 ECC-Spain Preferential Agreement.

Unavoidable here are the echoes to the thesis of Samuel Huntington and his denigrated 1993 “Clash of Civilizations”.

Moreover, it was issued almost while the Russian invasion of Ukraine, vastly reducing its value as a reference document and guide due to a completely different context.

Paradoxically, in economic terms, Franco’s Spain in 1970, according to the OECD ranking of most industrialised countries, was placed in the 10th position, and his national debt in 1974 was only 6.8%. Meanwhile, in 1976, the UK suffered, in fact, a default and asked for a $3.9 billion ($17.2 billion in 2018) package from the International Monetary Fund.

Spain had to abandon this option even though it was on the verge of creating its nuclear military capability. However, the pressure of the Carter Administration in 1977 and the accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1986 finally prevented Spain from obtaining this capacity.

The Ten Points established the following guidelines for Spanish security and defence policy: no participation in the NATO’s integrated military structure, continuing US-Spain Defence Relations, but with a progressive reduction of the US military presence in Spanish territory. No nuclear weapons presence in Spain and accession to the NPT; integration in the Western European Union; Spanish presence in international disarmament institutions; reinforcement of bilateral defence relations with other Western European countries; and a Joint Defence Plan creation.

Although the US Department of Defence started to think in a review of the US forces deployment in Europe, the State maintained certain assets in Europe despite the negotiations with the USSR, and finally, the wing was re-deployed to Aviano in Italy.