Diplomacy with a story
Holy Innocent’s Day: Portuguese Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano’s fake trip to Tenerife
In the early seventies, the Portuguese Embassy in Madrid and the Portuguese Consulate in Tenerife woke up with the unsuspected...
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How Moroccan ambassador used Christmas to save an “unhappy” Spanish soldier’s life
In December 1779, the writer, historian, traveler and plenipotentiary ambassador of Morocco to Spain, Mohamed Ben Otoman Al Meknasi, decided
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The Christmas tree in Spain, a tradition that came in from the cold
As it is common in these cases, the origin of the Christmas tree includes all kinds of legends, from those...
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Immaculate Conception, a matter of state for 17th century Spanish diplomacy
The Spanish Kings in the 17th century intensified their diplomatic efforts and negotiations with the Holy See to have the...
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Thirty years of foreign “active and passive suffrage” in Spanish local elections
On August 27, 1992, exactly thirty years ago today, King Juan Carlos I sanctioned and promulgated the first reform of...
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Philip IV’s instructions on prostitutes and ambassadors of “evil life”
Philip IV, a king well known, among other reasons, for his frequent infidelities, love affairs and illegitimate children, was scandalized...
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History of Leon V, exiled King of Armenia and feudal lord of Madrid
Between the Cerro Almodóvar Park and the Vía Carpetana, in the Aluche neighbourhood in southwest Madrid, is the Leon V...
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Marx censored in Stalin’s USSR for “Russophobia”
In 1933, the Stalin regime decided to interrupt the publication of the complete works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels....
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British Cemetery in Madrid: the final resting place for “heretic” diplomats
Being foreign diplomat in Spain, and in Madrid to be exact, was not always synonymous with privilege. Until 1854, at...
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Spanish and international public diplomacy in Spain’s 1992 great events
Thirty years ago, the government of Felipe Gonzalez took advantage of the major events of 1992 to develop a whole...
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