As Countries Began To Form Agreements Spain Allied With

While the dispute in Gibraltar with Britain is Spain`s best-known territorial dispute, it also has disputes with Portugal and Morocco. Alliances have been an integral part of Europe`s international system for centuries. For nearly 100 years, from 1814/1815 to 1914, they were used to manage the politics of the great power. Alliances could strengthen cooperation between all, or at least most, major powers, as in the case of the Quadrilateral Alliance, which would form the basis of the European Pentarchy and the concert of Europe. They could also become instruments of war, as in the case of France and Sardinia in 1858 or Prussia and Italy in 1866. After 1871, the alliances of the great powers created a certain sense of security at a time still marked by the concept of war as a legitimate political instrument. Formalized, treaty-based defense alliances and Britain`s less formal orientation toward France and Russia, based on agreements on colonial issues, structured international relations and rapidly changed due to economic, social, and cultural developments. Britain`s relative economic decline and accompanying rise of the United States, growing fears of social unrest and even revolutions, and the advent of public debate on foreign policy in most European countries challenged traditional conceptions of diplomacy and vital interests. Perceiving great power relations in the form of alliances has offered some predictability in the event of an international crisis and could offer a chance to contain conflicts. During the winter crisis of 1912-1913, when Germany repressed its ally Austria, the desiccaging potential of defense alliances was again manifested.

The London conference on the future of Albania testifies to the cooperation of the great power between states in opposing blocs of alliance. But as military experts have become accustomed to incorporating hypotheses about international developments into their strategic analyses, diplomats and politicians have become increasingly attentive to changes in military capabilities. Thus, the reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of alliances has favored the militarization of security policy within Europe`s cabinets. According to Franco`s own autobiography, on February 12, 1941, at Hitler`s request, he met privately with Italian leader Benito Mussolini in Bordighera, Italy. [11] Hitler hoped that Mussolini could persuade Franco to go to war. Mussolini, however, was not interested in Franco`s help after the series of recent defeats suffered by his armed forces in North Africa and the Balkans. [Citation required] Franco`s policy of open support for the Axis powers led to a period of post-war isolation for Spain, with trade with most countries having ceased. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, who had assured Franco that Spain would have no Allied consequences, died in April 1945. Roosevelt`s successor, Harry S.

Truman, and new Allied governments were less friendly to Franco. A number of nations withdrew their ambassadors and Spain was not admitted to the United Nations until 1955. [Citation required] After the war, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel said: «Instead of attacking Russia, we should have strangled the British Empire by closing the Mediterranean. The first step in the operation would have been the capture of Gibraltar. It was another great opportunity that we missed. [15] If this had been done, Hermann Goering proposed that Germany «. . .