Editing Foreign relations of Spain (section)

==History==
In 218 BC the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] invaded the [[Iberian Peninsula]], which later became the Roman province of [[Hispania]]. The Romans introduced the [[Latin language]], the ancestor of both modern-day [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Italian language|Italian]]. The Iberian peninsula remained under Roman rule for over 600 years, until the [[Decline of the Roman Empire|collapse of the Western Roman Empire]].

In the [[History of early modern Italy|Early modern period]], until the 18th century, [[southern Italy|southern]] and [[insular Italy]] came under Spanish control, having been previously a domain of the [[Crown of Aragon]].
[[File:Dominions House Habsburg abdication Charles V.jpg|thumb|275px|Dominions of the Habsburgs in 1556]]

===Charles V===
{{Main|Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor}}
Charles V (1500–1558) inherited vast lands across Western Europe and the Americas, and expanded them by frequent wars.<ref>Geoffrey Parker, ''Emperor: A New Life of Charles V'' (2019) [https://www.amazon.com/Emperor-New-Life-Charles-V/dp/0300196520/  excerpt]</ref> Among other domains he was King of Spain from 1516, and Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519. As head of the rising House of Habsburg during the first half of the 16th century, his dominions in Europe extending from Germany to northern Italy with direct rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and the Burgundian Low Countries, and a unified Spain with its southern Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. His great enemy on land was France, on the Mediterranean Sea it was the Ottoman Empire, which at times was allied with France.  England and the Papacy were sometimes part of the coalition against him. Much of his attention focused on wars in Italy. At the [[Diet of Augsburg]] (1547) he secured recognition that the Netherlands belonged to the Hapsburg domain. However Charles was intensely Catholic and the northern Netherlands  was Protestant. He and his Spanish heirs fought for a century against Dutch independence; despite the enormous cost they failed.<ref>Karl Brandi, ''The Emperor Charles V: the growth and destiny of a man and of a world-empire'' (1971) [https://archive.org/details/emperorcharlesvg0000bran  online]</ref>

===Philip II, 1556–1598===
{{Main|Philip II of Spain#Foreign policy}}

===Philip III, 1598–1621===
{{Main|Philip III of Spain#Foreign policy}}

[[File:The Somerset House Conference 19 August 1604.jpg|thumb|The [[Somerset House]] Conference between English and Spanish diplomats that brought an end to the [[Anglo–Spanish War (1585)|Anglo–Spanish War]] (1585–1604).]]

Philip III has a poor reputation in terms of both domestic and foreign policy. He inherited two major conflicts from his father. The first of these, the long-running [[Eighty Years' War|Dutch revolt]], represented a serious challenge to Spanish power from the Protestant [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] in a crucial part of the [[Spanish Empire]]. The second, the [[Anglo–Spanish War (1585)|Anglo–Spanish War]] was a newer, and less critical conflict with Protestant England, marked by a Spanish failure to successfully bring its huge military resources to bear on the smaller English military.<ref>Patrick Williams, ''The Great Favourite: the Duke of Lerma and the court and government of Philip III of Spain, 1598–1621'' (Manchester UP, 2006).</ref>

Philip's own foreign policy can be divided into three phases. For the first nine years of his reign, he pursued a highly aggressive set of policies, aiming to deliver a 'great victory'.<ref>Williams, p. 125</ref>  His instructions to his most important advisor [[Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma|Duke Lerma]] to wage a war of "blood and iron" on his rebellious subjects in the Netherlands reflects this.<ref>Williams, p.10.</ref> After 1609, when it became evident that Spain was financially exhausted and Philip sought a truce with the Dutch, there followed a period of retrenchment; in the background, tensions continued to grow, however, and by 1618 the policies of Philip's 'proconsols' were increasingly at odds with de Lerma's policy from Madrid.<ref>Paul C. Allen, ''Philip III and the Pax Hispanica: The Failure of Grand Strategy'' (Yale UP: 2000)</ref>
[[File:Europe c. 1700.png|thumb|right|300px|Europe in 1701 at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession]]

===War of the Spanish Succession and after 1701–1759===
{{Main|War of the Spanish Succession|Philip V of Spain}}
The [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–1714) saw Spain in a nearly helpless position as multiple European powers battled for control over which of three rivals would be king.  At first most of the warfare took place outside of Spain. However, in 1704 Spain was invaded by the Germans (officially by the [[Holy Roman Empire]] including [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg Austria]] and [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], as well as other minor German states), Great Britain, the [[Dutch Republic]], the [[Duchy of Savoy]] and Portugal. The invaders wanted to make the Habsburg candidate king instead of the incumbent [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]] who the grandson of France's powerful king [[Louis XIV]] and candidate of the [[House of Bourbon]]. Spain had no real army, but it defense was a high priority for Louis XIV who sent in his French armies and after a devastating civil war eventually drove out the invaders from Spain.<ref>John Lynch, ''Bourbon Spain 1700–1808'' (1989) pp 22–77.</ref><ref>J.S. Bromley, ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 6: The Rise of Great Britain and Russia, 1688-1715/25'' (1979), pp 343–380, 410–445.</ref>

After years of warfare and changing coalitions, the final result was that Philip V remained king. In practice his wife [[Elisabeth Farnese]] ruled Spain from 1714 until 1746, and was more interested in Italy than Spain. Spain was not even invited to the peace treaties ([[Peace of Utrecht]]); they forbade any future possibility of unifying the French and Spanish crowns. Britain was the main winner; it blocked France from becoming too powerful. Britain acquired Minorca and Gibraltar from Spain, as well as the right to sell slaves to Spanish colonies. Britain also gained Newfoundland and Nova Scotia from France. Spain kept its American colonies but lost its European holdings in Italy and the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium), mostly to Austria. Spain briefly regained some Italian holdings until the British sank its fleet in 1718. Elisabeth Farnese succeeded in recapturing Naples and Sicily. She put her son on the throne there. He abdicated in 1759 to return to Madrid as King [[Charles III of Spain]].<ref>Lynch, ''Bourbon Spain 1700–1808'' (1989) pp 110–113, 125, 131–133, 193–195, 247.</ref><ref>Henry Kamen, ''Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492–1763'' (2004) pp. 442–454.</ref>

===American Revolutionary War: 1775–1783===
{{Main|Spain and the American Revolutionary War}}
Eager to gain revenge on the British for its defeat during the Seven Years' War, France offered support to rebel American colonists seeking independence from Britain during the [[American War of Independence]] and in 1778 entered the war on their side. They then urged Spain to do the same, hoping the combined force would be strong enough to overcome the British [[Royal Navy]] and be able to invade England. In 1779 Spain joined the war, hoping to take advantage of a substantially weakened Britain. Distrustful of republics, Spain did not officially recognize the new United States of America.<ref>Thomas E. Chávez, ''Spain and the Independence of the United States'' (U. New Mexico Press, 2002) pp 213–222.</ref>

A well-organised force under [[Bernardo de Galvez]] operating out of [[Spanish Louisiana]] launched repeated attacks on  British colonies in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. They were easy winners against weak British garrisons, and were planning an expedition against Jamaica when peace was declared in 1783.

Spain's highest priority was to recapture Gibraltar from Britain using the [[Great Siege of Gibraltar]].<ref>René Chartrand, ''Gibraltar 1779–83: The great siege'' (Osprey, 2006).</ref> Despite a prolonged besiegement, the British garrison there was able to hold out until relieved and it remained in British hands following the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]]. Unlike their French allies (for whom the war proved largely to be a disaster, financially and militarily) the Spanish made a number of territorial gains, recovering Florida and [[Menorca]].<ref>Chávez, ''Spain and the Independence of the United States'' (U. New Mexico Press, 2002) pp 198–212.</ref><ref>Richard B. Morris, ''The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence'' (1965).</ref>

=== 20th century ===
{{expand section|date=April 2022}}
A neutral country during [[World War I]], Spain was not invited to take part in the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|1919 Paris Peace Conference]], owing to the country's relative low profile in international affairs.<ref name="dalmau">{{Cite journal|year=2022|doi=10.1017/S0960777321000680|title=Catalans and Rifis during the Wilsonian Moment: The Quest for Self-Determination in the Post-Versailles World|journal=[[Contemporary European History]]|first=Pol|last=Dalmau|volume=32 |pages=131–145 |s2cid=247287848 |doi-access=free|hdl=10230/56201|hdl-access=free}}</ref> It was however invited to join the [[League of Nations]] as a non-permanent member and it formally did so on 14 August 1919.<ref name="dalmau" /> During the so-called [[Wilsonianism|Wilsonian moment]] in international relations, forces adversarial to the Spanish State such as the Rifis vying for international recognition of [[Republic of the Rif|their proto-republic]] and the Catalan separatist movement emboldened.<ref name="dalmau" />