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Spanish-American relations
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Spain – United States relations refers to interstate relations between the Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America.
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Spain – United States relations refers to interstate relations between the Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America. Its groundwork was laid by the colonization of parts of the Americas by Spain. The first settlement in Florida was Spanish, followed by others in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Louisiana. The earliest Spanish settlements north of Mexico (known then as New Spain) were the result of the same forces that later led the English to come to that area. The history of Spanish-American relations has been defined as one of "love and hate."
Spain and the American Revolution
Spain sided with France against Britain during the American Revolutionary War. After learning of the American victory in Battle of Saratoga, France had signed the Treaty of Alliance with the United States on February 6, 1778. Spain entered the war as an ally of France in June 1779, a renewal of the Bourbon Family Compact. Unlike France, however, Spain initially refused to recognize the independence of the United States Spain was not keen on encouraging similar anti-colonial rebellions in the Spanish Empire. Both countries had quietly provided assistance to the Americans since the beginning of the war, hoping to dilute British power.
Spain and the United States in the Late 18th Century
The United States' first ambassador to Spain was John Jay (but was not formally received at court). Jay's successor, William Carmichael, married a Spanish woman and is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Madrid. Some friendly ties were established: George Washington had established the United States’ mule-raising industry with high-quality mules sent to him by the King of Spain (as well as Lafayette).
Pinckney's Treaty, also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo or the Treaty of Madrid, was signed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial on October 27, 1795 and established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain. It also defined the boundaries of the United States with the Spanish colonies and guaranteed the United States navigation rights on the Mississippi River.
The Early Nineteenth Century
Spanish-American relations suffered during the 19th century, as both countries competed for territory and concessions in the New World. “Culturally, they misunderstood and distrusted each other,” James W. Cortada has written. “Political conflicts and cultural differences colored relations between the two nations throughout the nineteenth century, creating a tradition of conflict of a generally unfriendly nature. By 1855, a heritage of problems, hostile images, and suspicions existed which profoundly influenced their relations.”
The two countries found themselves on opposite sides during the War of 1812. By 1812 the continued existence of Spanish colonies east of the Mississippi River caused resentment in the United States. The Spanish arming of black militia alarmed slaveholders in the southern states of the US. With clandestine support from Washington, American settlers in the Floridas revolted against Spanish rule. Spain lost its West Florida colony. The Adams-Onís Treaty between the two countries was signed in 1819. The treaty was the result of increasing tensions between the U.S. and Spain regarding territorial rights at a time of weakened Spanish power in the New World. In addition to granting Florida to the United States, the treaty settled a boundary dispute along the Sabine River in Texas and firmly established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean in exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing its own claims on parts of Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas.
By the mid-1820s, Spaniards believed that the United States wanted to control the entire New World at Spain's expense, considering the independence movements in Latin America as proof of this. In 1821, a Spaniard wrote that Americans “consider themselves superior to all the nations of Europe.” In the United States, Spain was viewed as permanently condemned by the Black Legend, and as a backward, crude, and despotic country that opposed the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny. Nevertheless, travel literature on Spain sold well in the US, and the writings of Washington Irving, who had served as U.S. Minister to Spain, generated some friendly spirit in the United States towards Spain.
Mid-Nineteenth Century
Tensions continued throughout the 19th century. Isabella II of Spain, who reigned from 1833 to 1868, became a dominant figure in Spanish-American relations. She involved her country in several overseas wars and campaigns, including a war in Morocco and the Chincha Islands War (1864–1866), which pitted Spain against her former possessions of Peru and Chile. American Minister to Chile, Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, was involved in an attempt to arbitrate between the combatants of the Chincha Islands War. The attempt failed, and Kilpatrick asked the American naval commander Commander Rodgers to defend the port and attack the Spanish fleet. Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez famously responded with, "I will be forced to sink [the US ships], because even if I have one ship left I will proceed with the bombardment. Spain, the Queen and I prefer honor without ships than ships without honor." ("España prefiere honra sin barcos a barcos sin honra".)
During the mid-nineteenth century, one American diplomat declared:
In the years following the Amistad case, the Spanish government continually pressed for compensation. During the Chincha Islands War, Spanish Admiral Pareja imposed a blockade of Chile’s main ports. The blockade of the port of Valparaiso, however, caused such great economic damage to Chilean and foreign interests, that the neutral naval warships of the United States and the United Kingdom lodged a formal protest.
Cuba
But it was the issue of Cuba that dominated relations between Spain and the United States during this period. At the same time that the United States wished to expand its trade and investments in Cuba during this period, Spanish officials enforced a series of commercial regulations designed to discourage trade relations between Cuba and the U.S. Spain believed that American economic encroachment would result in physical annexation of the island; the kingdom fashioned its colonial policies accordingly.
In a letter to Hugh Nelson, U.S. Minister to Spain, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams described the likelihood of U.S. "annexation of Cuba" within half a century despite obstacles: "But there are laws of political as well as of physical gravitation; and if an apple severed by the tempest from its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union, which by the same law of nature cannot cast her off from its bosom."
In 1850, John A. Quitman, Governor of Mississippi, was approached by the filibuster Narciso López to lead his filibuster expedition of 1850 to Cuba. Quitman turned down the offer because of his desire to serve out his term as Governor, but did offer assistance to López in obtaining men and material for the expedition.
In 1854 a secret proposal known as the Ostend Manifesto was devised by U.S. diplomats to acquire Cuba from Spain for $130 million. The manifesto was rejected due to objections from anti-slavery campaigners when the plans became public. When President Buchanan addressed Congress on December 6, 1858, he listed several complaints against Spain, which included the treatment of Americans in Cuba, lack of direct diplomatic communication with the captain general of Cuba, maritime incidents, and commercial barriers to the Cuban market. “The truth is that Cuba," Buchanan stated, "in its existing colonial condition, is a constant source of injury and annoyance to the American people.” Buchanan went on to hint that the US may be forced to purchase Cuba and stated that Cuba’s value to Spain “is comparatively unimportant.” The speech shocked Spanish officials.
Santo Domingo
Another source of conflict and rivalry was Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic), an independent republic that Spain annexed at the request of Pedro Santana in 1861. The U.S. and Spain had competed with one another for influence in Hispaniola in the 1850s and 1860s; the U.S. was worried about a possible military expansion by Spain in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico (which would make it harder to acquire Cuba).
Spain and the American Civil War
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Union was concerned about possible European aid to the Confederacy as well as official diplomatic recognition of the breakaway republic. In response to possible intervention from Spain, President Lincoln sent Carl Schurz, whom he felt was able and energetic, as minister to Spain; Schurz's chief duty would be to block Spanish recognition of, and aid to, the Confederacy. Part of the Union strategy in Spain was to remind the Spanish court that it had been Southerners, now Confederates, who had pressed for annexation of Cuba. Schurz was successful in his efforts; Spain officially declared neutrality on June 17, 1861. However, since neither the Union nor the Confederacy would sign a formal treaty guaranteeing that Cuba would never be threatened, Madrid remained convinced that American imperialism would resume as soon as the Civil War had ended.
The Spanish-American War
Spain and the United States went to war with one another in the Spanish-American War. It began in April 1898. Hostilities halted in August of that year, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in December.
In June 1897, President William McKinley had appointed Stewart L. Woodford to the post of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. Spain had severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. on April 21, 1898 and Woodford left his post the same day.
The war began after the American demand that Spain peacefully resolve the Cuban fight for independence. This demand was rejected, though strong expansionist sentiment in the United States may have motivated the government to target Spain's remaining overseas territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and the Caroline Islands.
Riots in Havana by pro-Spanish "Voluntarios" gave the United States a reason to send in the warship USS Maine to indicate high national interest. Tension among the American people was raised because of the explosion of the USS Maine, and "yellow journalism" that accused Spain of extensive atrocities, agitating American public opinion. The war ended after decisive naval victories for the United States in the Philippines and Cuba.
Only 109 days after the outbreak of war, the Treaty of Paris, which ended the conflict, gave the United States ownership of the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam.
Spain had appealed to the common heritage shared by her and the Cubans. On March 5, 1898, Ramón Blanco y Erenas, Spanish governor of Cuba, proposed to Máximo Gómez that the Cuban generalissimo and troops join him and the Spanish army in repelling the United States in the face of the Spanish-American War. Blanco appealed to the shared heritage of the Cubans and Spanish, and promised the island autonomy if the Cubans would help fight the Americans. Blanco had declared: "As Spaniards and Cubans we find ourselves opposed to foreigners of a different race, who are of a grasping nature... The supreme moment has come in which we should forget past differences and, with Spaniards and Cubans united for the sake of their own defense, repel the invader. Spain will not forget the noble help of its Cuban sons, and once the foreign enemy is expelled from the island, she will, like an affectionate mother, embrace in her arms a new daughter amongst the nations of the New World, who speaks the same language, practices the same faith, and feels the same noble Spanish blood run through her veins." Gómez refused to adhere to Blanco's plan.
In Spain, a new cultural wave called the Generation of 1898 originated as a response to the trauma caused by this disastrous war, marking a renaissance of the Spanish culture.
Spanish American Relations: 1898-1936
The war left a residue of anti-American sentiment in Spain. However, in the post-war period, Spain enhanced its trading position by developing closer commercial ties with the United States. The two countries signed a series of trade agreements in 1902, 1906, and 1910. These trade agreements led to an increased exchange of manufactured goods and agricultural products. American tourists began to come to Spain during this time.
Spain, under Alfonso XIII, remained neutral during the First World War, and the war greatly benefited Spanish industry and exports. At the same time, Spain did intern a small German force in Spanish Guinea in November 1915 and also worked to ease the suffering of prisoners of war. Spain was a founding member of the League of Nations in 1920 (but withdrew in May 1939).
During the 1920s and 1930s, the United States Army developed a number of color-coded war plans to outline potential U.S. strategies for a variety of hypothetical war scenarios. All of these plans were officially withdrawn in 1939. "War Plan Olive" was for Spain. The two countries were engaged in a tariff war after the Fordney-McCumber Tariff was passed in 1922 by the United States; Spain raised tariffs on American goods by 40%. In 1921, a “Student on tariffs” had warned against the Fordney Bill, declaring in the New York Times that “it should be remembered that the Spanish are a conservative people. They are wedded to their ways and much inertia must be overcome before they will adopt machinery and devices such as are largely exported from the United States. If the price of modern machinery, not manufactured in Spain, is increased exorbitantly by high customs duties, the tendency of the Spanish will be simply to do without it, and it must not be imagined that they will purchase it anyhow because it has to be had from somewhere.”
In 1928, Calvin Coolidge greeted King Alfonso on the telephone; it was the first use by the president of a new Transatlantic Telephone Line with Spain.
Culturally, during the 1920s, Spanish feelings towards the United States remained ambiguous. A New York Times article dated June 3, 1921, called "How Spain Views U.S.," quotes a Spanish newspaper (El Sol) as declaring that the "United States is a young, formidable and healthy nation." The article in El Sol also expressed the opinion that "the United States is a nation of realities, declaring that Spain in its foreign policy does not possess that quality." The Spanish newspaper, in discussing the relations between Spain and the U.S., also argued “that the problem of acquiring a predominant position in the South American republics should be vigorously studied by Spain.”
In 1921, Luis Araquistáin had written a book called El Peligro Yanqui (“The Yankee Peril”), in which he condemned American nationalism, mechanization, anti-socialism (“socialism is a social heresy there”) and architecture, finding particular fault with the country’s skyscrapers, which he felt diminished individuality and increased anonymity. He called the United States “a colossal child: all appetite...” Nevertheless, America exercised an obvious fascination on Spanish writers during the 1920s. While in the United States, Federico García Lorca had stayed, among other places, in New York City, where he studied briefly at Columbia University School of General Studies. His collection of poems Poeta en Nueva York explores his alienation and isolation through some graphically experimental poetic techniques. Coney Island horrified and fascinated Lorca at the same time. "The disgust and anatagonism it aroused in him," writes C. Brian Morris, "suffuse two lines which he expunged from his first draft of 'Oda a Walt Whitman': "Brooklyn filled with daggers / and Coney Island with phalli."
United States and the Spanish Civil War
When the Spanish Civil War erupted after the failed right-wing coup, Secretary of State Cordell Hull moved quickly to ban what would have been legitimate arms sales to the democratically elected Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, forcing the Popular Front to turn to the Soviet Union for support.
The Nationalists, led by Francisco Franco, received important support from some elements of American business. The American-owned Vacuum Oil Company in Tangier, for example, refused to sell to Republican ships and at the outbreak of the war, the Texas Oil Company rerouted oil tankers headed for the republic to the Nationalist controlled port of Tenerife, and supplied gasoline on credit to Franco until the war's end. American automakers Ford, Studebaker, and General Motors provided a total of 12,000 trucks to the Nationalists. After the war was over, José Maria Doussinague, who was at the time undersecretary at the Spanish Foreign Ministry, said, "without American petroleum and American trucks, and American credit, we could never have won the Civil War."
While not supported officially, many American volunteers such as the Abraham Lincoln Battalion fought for the Republicans, as well as American anarchists making up the Sacco and Vanzetti Century of the Durruti Column. American poets like Alvah Bessie, William Lindsay Gresham, James Neugass, and Edwin Rolfe were members of the International Brigades. Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Randall Jarrell, and Philip Levine also wrote poetic responses to the Spanish Civil War. Kenneth Porter’s poetry speaks of America’s “insulation by ocean and 2,000 miles of complacency,” and describes the American “men from the wheatfields / Spain was a furious sun which drew them along paths of light.”
During and after the Spanish Civil War, members of the brigade were viewed as supporters of the Soviet Union. Through the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact, Communist Lincoln Brigade veterans joined with the American Peace Mobilization in protesting U.S. support for Britain against Nazi Germany. During and following World War II, particularly at the height of the Second Red Scare, the U.S. government considered former members of the brigade to be security risks. In fact, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover persuaded President Roosevelt to ensure that former ALB members fighting in U.S. Forces in World War II not be considered for commissioning as officers, or to have any type of positive distinction conferred upon them.
World War II
Spain was officially neutral during World War II. While officially non-belligerent during the Second World War, General Franco's Spanish State gave considerable material, economic, and military assistance to the Axis Powers. Meanwhile individual Spaniards and tens of thousands of exiled Leftist Republicans, contributed to the Allied cause. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee operated openly in Barcelona.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had assured Franco that Spain would not suffer consequences from the UN. However, with new governments voted in in Allied countries and the fact that the Soviet Union was one of the victors, a number of nations withdrew their ambassadors and Spain was not admitted to the United Nations until 1955.
The United States and Franco
With the end of World War II, Spain suffered from the economic consequences of its isolation from the international community. This situation ended in part when, due to Spain's strategic location in light of Cold War tensions, the United States entered into a trade and military alliance with Spain as part of the policy of containment. This historic alliance commenced with United States President Eisenhower's visit in 1953 which resulted in the Pact of Madrid. Spain was then admitted to the United Nations in 1955. American poet James Wright wrote of Eisenhower's visit: "Franco stands in a shining circle of police. / His arms open in welcome. / He promises all dark things / Will be hunted down."
American President Richard Nixon toasted Franco, and, after Franco's death, stated: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States."
Military facilities of the United States in Spain built during this era include Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base, and an important facility existed at Torrejón de Ardoz. Torrejón passed under Spanish control in 1988. Rota has been in use since the 1950s. Crucial to Cold War strategy, the base did have nuclear weapons stationed on it for some time, and at its peak size, in the early 1980s, was home to 16,000 sailors and their families. The presence of these bases in Spain was resented by many Spaniards; there were occasional protests against them, including a demonstration during Reagan's 1985 visit to Spain.
Post-Franco Era
Franco died in 1975. In 1976, Spain and the United States signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation (Tratado de Amistad y Cooperación), coinciding with the new political system in Spain, which became a constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos I, with Carlos Arias Navarro as prime minister. Juan Carlos had already established friendly ties with the United States. As prince, he had been a guest of President Richard Nixon on January 26, 1971. Nixon toasted the visit with these words:
In 1987, Juan Carlos I became the first King of Spain to visit the former Spanish possession of Puerto Rico. In the same year, Juan Carlos dedicated a statue of Charles III of Spain by Federico Coullaut-Valera in Olvera Street, Los Angeles. Charles had ordered the founding of the town that became Los Angeles.
An Agreement on Defense Cooperation was signed by the two countries in 1989 (it was revised in 2003), in which Spain authorized the United States to use certain facilities at Spanish military installations. On June 7, 1989, an agreement on cultural and educational cooperation was signed.
Iraq War
Prime Minister José María Aznar actively supported US President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in the War on Terrorism. Aznar met with Bush in a private meeting before 2003 invasion of Iraq to discuss the situation of in the UN Security Council. The Spanish newspaper El País leaked a partial transcript of the meeting. Aznar actively encouraged and supported the Bush administration's foreign policy and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, defending it on the basis of secret intelligence allegedly containing evidence of the Iraqi government's nuclear proliferation. The majority of the Spanish population, including some members of Aznar's Partido Popular, were against the war.
After the Spanish general election in 2004, in which the Spanish socialists received more votes than expected as a result of the government's handling of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero succeeded Aznar as Prime Minister. Before being elected, Zapatero had opposed the American policy in regard to Iraq pursued by Aznar. During the electoral campaign Zapatero had promised to withdraw the troops if control in Iraq was not passed to the United Nations after June 30 (the ending date of the initial Spanish military agreement with the multinational coalition that had overthrown Saddam Hussein). On April 19, 2004 Zapatero announced the withdrawal of the 1300 Spanish troops in Iraq.
The decision aroused international support worldwide, though the American Government claimed that the terrorists could perceive it as "a victory obtained due to the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings". John Kerry, then Democratic party candidate for the American Presidency, asked Zapatero not to withdraw the Spanish soldiers. Some months after withdrawing the troops, the Zapatero government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti to show the Spanish Government's willingness to spend resources on international missions approved by the UN.
Bush and Zapatero, 2004 – 2008
The withdrawal caused a four-year downturn in relations between Washington and Madrid. A further rift was caused by the fact that Zapatero openly supported Democratic challenger John Kerry on the eve of the U.S. elections in 2004. Zapatero has not been invited to the White House since taking office, nor has Bush been invited to La Moncloa. Aznar had visited Washington several times, becoming the first Spanish prime minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, in February 2004. Bush's fellow Republican, and candidate for the 2008 US presidential election, John McCain, refused to commit to a meeting with Zapatero were he to be elected.
Spain under Zapatero turned its focus to Europe from the United States, pursuing a middle road in dealing with tensions between Western powers and Islamic populations. In a May 2007 interview with El País, Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, commenting on the overall relationship between Spain and the United States, stated: “We work together very well on some issues. I think the Spanish-American relationship can develop more. I think some Spanish officials are knowledgeable and very skilled professionals and we work with them very well. I would like to see Spain active in the world, working through NATO, active in Afghanistan. You're doing a lot in the Middle East because Moratinos knows a lot about it. But Spain is a big country and your economy is huge. I think Spain can be a force for security and peace and freedom in the world. I believe that Spain has that potential, and that's how I would like to see Spanish-American relations developing.”
Cuba
In 2007, Condoleezza Rice criticized Spain for not doing more to support dissidents in communist Cuba. American officials were irked by the fact that Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Minister of Foreign Affairs, chose not to meet with Cuban dissidents during a visit to the United States in April 2007. "There is no secret that we have had differences with Spain on a number of issues, but we have also had very good cooperation with Spain on a number of issues," Rice remarked. Moratinos defended his decision, believing it better to engage with the Cuban regime than by isolating it. "The U.S. established its embargo,” he remarked. “We don't agree with it but we respect it. What we hope is that they respect our policy," Moratinos remarked. "What Spain is not prepared to do is be absent from Cuba. And what the U.S. has to understand is that, given they have no relations with Cuba, they should trust in a faithful, solid ally like Spain." On the relationship between Cuba and Spain, Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, has commented in 2007 that:
Venezuela and Bolivia
In addition to policy differences towards Cuba, the United States and Spain have been at variance in their dealings with Venezuela under Hugo Chávez and Bolivia under Evo Morales. Spain under Zapatero was initially friendly to both regimes. However, Morales’ plan to nationalize the gas sector of Bolivia caused tension with Spain, as Repsol, a Spanish company, has major interests in that South American country. In regards to Venezuela, Zapatero also took issue with Chávez’s elected socialist government Spain's relations with Venezuela were further worsened by the November 10, 2007 incident at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, in which Juan Carlos told Chávez to shut up.
However, despite its waning support for Chávez, Spain stated in May 2007 that it would pursue a €1.7 billion, or $2.3 billion, contract to sell unarmed aircraft and boats to Venezuela.
A new era for bilateral relations, 2009 – present
Three days after Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States, he had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Zapatero in what aides say was introductory in nature and about 5 or 10 times in length. Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos visited Washington to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just a month after the new American administration was inaugurated. After this meeting, Moratinos told reporters that Spain was ready to take some prisoners from the closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp, provided that the judicial conditions are acceptable. Moratinos also commented that "a new stage in relations between the United States and Spain is opening that is more intense, more productive".
See also
Sources
- Beevor, Antony, The Battle for Spain, Penguin Books, 2006.
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