 | This article'sfactual accuracy isdisputed. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page. Please help to ensure that disputed statements arereliably sourced.(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Spanish irredentism mainly focuses on claims over the British overseas territory ofGibraltar, whose long-standing territorial vindication as a British colony is enshrined in the Spanish foreign policy.
Along history, other minorirredentist proposals have claimed territories such as the whole ofPortugal,Andorra, parts ofNorthern Africa, theRoussillon (includingCerdanya) and theFrench Basque Country (includingLower Navarre).
A Spain holding all of theIberian Peninsula became a topic inSpanish nationalism beginning in the 19th century, with proponents idealizing historicalRoman Hispania when all of the Iberian Peninsula was united under the same rule.[1] The identification of a unified Hispanian cultural heritage both encompassing Portugal and Spain had been developed centuries earlier with the publishing ofJuan de Mariana'sHistory of Spain (1598), in which Mariana supported a Hispanian identity based on theReconquista, on both countries' Roman-Visigothic heritage and their common Catholic and monarchical polities.[1]
There has been strong Spanish objection to the separation of Gibraltar from Spain since British acquisition in theTreaty of Utrecht (1713) in the aftermath of theSpanish War of Succession.[2] During theSpanish Civil War, theCarlists and theFalange (prior to the two parties' unification in 1937) both promoted the incorporation of Portugal into Spain. The Carlists stated that a Carlist Spain would retake Gibraltar and conquer Portugal.[3] The Falange, both prior to and after its merger with the Carlists, supported the unification of Gibraltar and Portugal into Spain. During its early years, the Falange produced maps that showed Portugal as a province of Spain.[4] After the victory of theNationalist faction led byFrancisco Franco in the Civil War, radical members of the Falange called for the incorporation of Portugal and theFrench Pyrenees into Spain.[5] Franco in a communiqué withGermany on 26 May 1942 declared that Portugal should be annexed into Spain.[6]
The years ofWorld War II were fertile in the projection by several authors of irredentist fantasies across theStrait of Gibraltar (after all the Strait was to become the "neuralgic point of nationality" to them):[7] according to theAfricanistTomás García Figueras "Spain and Morocco are like two halves of the same geographical unity".[8] HistorianJaume Vicens Vives (1940) talked about a "vital space" conceptualised as a "geopolitical basic unit".[9]Rodolfo Gil Benumeya traced the links back to theNeolithic Era, pointing to a commonIbero-Berber people living on both sides of the Strait.[10] Gil Benumeya andHernández Pacheco stressed the strengthening of those links due to Morocco once being "Mauritania Tingitana", part of the RomanDiocese of Hispania. Some of these authors, transcending historical arguments, even pointed at the Spanish-African union during "theTertiary Epoch" when the Strait did not exist.[11]
To a lesser extent, territories adjacent to Equatorial Guinea were also subject to irredentist rhetoric in this time.[12] Claims were also made about the Spanishness ofAndorra,Roussillon,Cerdanya,Lower Navarre, and theFrench Basque Country.[13][14]