Based on five years of archival research, this book offers a radical reinterpretation of Britain and Spains relationship during the growth, apogee and decline of the British Empire. It shows that from the early nineteenth century Britain turned Spain into an informal colony, using its economic and military dominance to achieve its strategic and economic ends. Britains free trade campaign, which aimed to tear down the legal barriers to its explosive trade and investment expansion, undermined Spains attempts to achieve industrial take-off, demonstrating that the relationship between the two countries was imperial in nature, and not simply one of unequal national power. Exploring five key moments of crisis in their relations, from the First Carlist War in the 1830s to the Second World War, the author analyses Britains use of military force in achieving its goals, and the consequences that this had for economic and political policy-making in Spain. Ultimately, the Anglo-Spanish relationship was an early example of the interaction between industrial power and colonies, formal and informal, that characterised the post-World War Two period. An insightful read for anyone researching the British Empire and its colonies, this book offers an innovative perspective by closely examining the volatile relationship between two European powers.

Nick Sharman is a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham where his subject is the economic and political relationship between Britain and Spain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has had a career in business and in local and regional government and has written widely on strategic regeneration policy issues and more recently, on the history of the Anglo-Spanish relationship.

 

Foreword.-PART ONE: British Informal Imperialism and Spain.-Chapter One: Informal Imperialism and the British Empire.-The Spanish Reaction to Britains Informal Imperialism.-Chapter 2: Britain, Free Trade and the Spanish Liberal Monarchy, 1833 to 1856.-Chapter 3: Britain, Spain and the War of Africa, 1859-1860.-Chapter 4: The Disaster of the Spanish American War of 1898 and the Algeciras Conference of 1906.-Chapter 5: Informal Imperialism and Total War: Britain and Spain in the First World War.-Chapter 6: The Second World War: revival and demise of Britains informal empire in Spain.-PART TWO: Spains Response to Britains Informal Imperialism.-Chapter 7: The Spanish Challenge to Britains Free Trade Imperialism.-Chapter 8: The Rise of Economic Nationalism.-Chapter 9: Economic Nationalism to Autarky.-Chapter 9: Economic Nationalism to Autarky.-References.-Index