Le relazioni franco-spagnole nei primi anni della Restaurazione (1815-1819). Una retrospettiva sull'egemonia francese nell'Europa del XIX secolo

Franco-Spanish Relations in the Early Years of the Restoration (1815-1819). A Retrospective on
French Hegemony in Nineteenth-Century Europe
This article aims at investigating Franco-Spanish relations in the early years of the Restoration as
the testing ground for the influential French role in managing political crises in Europe and the
Mediterranean in the decades that followed. The article will start by focusing on marriage policies
to ensure Bourbons would remain on both thrones, the first factor Louis XVIII paid attention
to in strengthening the Franco-Spanish alliance. Then, the divergent French and Spanish policies
concerning political criminals will be explored as a concrete field of experience in the French
perspective: such policies made the French government conscious of the Spanish reactionary
regime and stimulated French intervention in Spanish domestic policies. Lastly, French diplomatic
mediation in the Spanish American colonial crisis will be analysed. The research draws upon the
diplomatic correspondence at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives at Paris-La Courneuve.