Traumatic globalization : the fall of the Franco regime and the rise of the Big Four group in the years of the oil shocks (1973-1982)

Abstract

The world evolves in twists and turns, and not even the simplest of lives or the humblest of regions are spared from this evolution. Such is one of the lessons of contemporary globalization. Growing economic interdependence, the rise of international finance, or the shaking of post-Cold War international relations are all emblematic elements of a global order that is now destabilized and destabilizing. In the face of this reality, tracing the origins of contemporary globalization has been one of the central tasks of scholarship over the past decade. This dissertation follows in the footsteps of this current in its approach to Spanish history and Western multilateralism. It sets out to explain the fall of the Franco regime and international cooperation over Spain in the 1970s in the light of the radical new challenges confronting the world on the wake of the 1973 oil shock. One main conclusion stands out: it was the world economic crisis in the 1970s that led the Franco regime to its final crisis. It was also this force, and the exhaustion of the Cold War consensus in Europe, that compelled the American, French, West German, and British governments to work together on Spain. Why the Franco regime fell the way it did, what were the main challenges facing post-Franco Spain, why the Big Four group emerged to coordinate Western strategies toward Spain, and how this new form of cooperation evolved over time are all questions that this thesis explores by looking at the foundations of the post-war multilateral order and its demise in an increasingly globalized world. This is not a triumphalist story of globalization, however. Viewing Spain's recent past through the lens of capitalism and the Cold War seeks not only to understand Spanish history and international cooperation in a global light. Crucially, it also reveals how Spain's profound changes during the tumultuous 1970s lie behind many of the country's political and economic problems today.