Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Spain and the Middle East
Spain has had a long and complex relation-
ship with the peoples of the Middle East. In
the broadest sense this would even include
the period when these regions formed part
of the Roman Empire. A new phase began
with the rise of Islam and its dominance
over most of the modern Middle East, even
extending to the Muslim conquest of Spain,
from which the “Moors” were not expelled
until 1492. Indeed for more than a century
after the
CONQUEST
OF
G
RANADA
Spain con-
tinued to war with the Turkish sultan and
other Muslim leaders along the shores of
the Mediterranean. During the late 19th
and early 20th centuries conflict flared up
again, particularly in M
OROCCO
, part of
which was subjected to Spanish control.
F
RANCISCO
F
RANCO
, who had spent much of
his military career in North Africa and
launched the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
from its
shores in 1936, sought to bring about a new
special relationship between Spain and the
governments of the Middle East during his
dictatorship (1939-75). All his successors
attempted to preserve this relationship by
promoting cooperation with countries rang-
ing from Turkey to Algeria, even at the risk
of weakening their credentials as propo-
nents of democracy. It was particularly awk-
ward when attempts were simultaneously
being made to end Spain's long estrange-
ment from the Jews. Some Muslims did not
appreciate the “honest broker” role Spain
tried to play at the Madrid Conference in
1991 in working for an Israeli-Palestinian
peace. Even the profound and sincere apol-
ogies made by King J
UAN
C
ARLOS
in 1992
for the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in
1492 was taken amiss by some Muslims.
Many of the most awkward moments in
post-Franco Spain's efforts to keep the spe-
Spain, had little respect for that country
and its people in general. Yet it was Franco's
Spain that survived World War II and Ger-
many and Italy that collapsed. Joseph Stalin
of the Soviet Union, who had backed the
Spanish Republic, did everything in his
power after 1945 to exclude Spain from the
community of nations. Britain and France
were also resentful of Franco's pro-Axis
neutrality but found the United States more
ambivalent. In the cold war alignment that
quickly emerged after the fall of the fascist
powers Washington valued Franco's anti-
communism and eventually entered into
agreements with him, which the United
States induced colleagues in London and
Paris to support. Ironically Spain had
emerged undamaged from the decline and
fall of the European Great Power system.
The members of that “club” had either been
reduced to underlings of the United States
or overshadowed by the new global rivalry
of the cold war superpowers who paid more
attention to competing ideologies than to
traditional European concerns. As a protégé
of the United States, Spain was grudgingly
readmitted into the Western “family.”
Since Franco's replacement by a demo-
cratic monarchy in 1975 Spain has played
an increasingly important part in the new
pattern of European politics, in which the
activities of the European Union have
replaced the old struggle for mastery. Spain
has even reached out into a wider world
by reestablishing cultural and commercial
contacts with its former colonies. Its par-
ticipation in international military opera-
tions and involvement with the terrorist
phenomena of the early 21st century have
given Spain a greater visibility and a
greater influence than it had known for
many generations.
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