On The Churchill Government's Policy Towards Spain : 1940-1945

This thesis aims to investigate the foreign policies taken by British Churchill government towards Spanish Franco regime. Spain is rich in mineral resources and the strategic position of this country is rather important because the west of which is near Atlantic and the south borders on Mediterranean Sea. During the early days of World War II, the situation of war was rather bad for Britain, under such circumstances, Britain has made great efforts to maintain the neutrality of Spain so as to make sure that the Gibraltar Channel is open and the Atlantic sea route is safe. In order to realize such a tactic goal, the Churchill government had made some necessary concessions to appease Franco government in politics; at the same time, the Churchill government also tried to offer economical supports to Spain. In 1942, the situation of World War II changed, and the British Churchill government adjusted their policies on Franco regime accordingly. As the war was going on, the situation of war was becoming better for the Ally. From the end of 1943 to the early half year of 1944, Britain negotiated actively with Spain and the United States on the problem of export of Spain's tungsten. Finally, this problem was smoothly solved. During the Second World War, the Churchill government was in dilemma in dealing with the relationship with Franco government. On the one hand, Franco government was fascist autocratic regime and it had deep relations with Germany and Italy; on the other hand Spain had influential tactic position and Britain must protect its special interests in Spain. Finally, Churchill government placed their national interests on the first place, dealing with the relationship with Franco regime flexibly and striving at digging British benefits. This thesis tries to illustrate systematically the foreign policies taken by Churchill government towards Spanish Franco regime from 1940-1945, and to disclose the development and evolution of the British policies on Franco regime during the World War II, according to British governmental documents and many famous works of foreign scholars.The thesis is composed of introduction, body and conclusion.The introduction part introduces the situation of the research home and abroad, the purpose and significance of the research. The body of the thesis can be divided into four parts:The first part reviews the British policies on Franco regime. Firstly, the author reviews the policy of nonintervention taken by Britain during the Spanish Civil War. Secondly, the author analyzes the initial policy-making of British government towards Franco regime, and expounds the initial economic cooperation between Britain and Spain in the early days of the World War II. All this paves the way for the debut of Churchill government's policy towards Franco regime.The second part demonstrates the efforts made by British government in order to keep Spanish neutrality. This part is the stress of the thesis, mainly discussing a series of measures taken by Churchill government in order to avoid the involvement of Spain in the war. In June, 1940, France was defeated and the situation of the war was really bad for Britain. If Spain joined the axis powers after the failure of France. this means that in Western Europe all ports along the Atlantic were occupied by Germany and Italy. This was a great blow for Britain, which was a great naval power and which extremely relied on sea transport. And at that time, Spanish Franco regime contacted with Germany actively. Britain carried on a series of policies economically or politically, trying every means to prevent Franco regime to join the war.The third part describes the adjustments of British foreign policies towards Franco regime. Although Britain succeeded in preventing Spain to join axis powers to claim the war against allied forces from 1940 to 1941 through diplomatic and economic efforts, Britain in Spain intelligence institutions held pessimistic attitude towards the situation in Spain from 1941 to the early days of 1942. Britain has made the plan of, establishing an anti-Franco regime in Spain, in case that Spain was involved in the war, because the possibility that Germany forced Spain to attend the war through the improper means still exists. However, in order to implement the "torch" plan, Britain decided to lay "1942-free Spain movement" aside, and to appease Spanish Franco regime.The fourth part is the British policy on the problem of Spain's export of tungsten metals. In order to weaken Germany's productive ability of war industry, the Allies began to scramble for tungsten metals with Germany. In the end of January, 1944, the contest for tungsten upgraded. In order to protect the benefit of Britain, make sure that Britain continued to obtain strategic resources from Spain and maintain British economic benefits in Spain, the Churchill government on the one hand put forward the practical plan of limitation and negotiated with Spain; on the other hand, Churchill persuaded the president of the US to accept the plan. In the end, the problem of Spain's export of tungsten was solved, in the process of which the Churchill government gradually made postwar arrangement plan on Franco regime according to national interests of Britain.