La diplomacia y el «Otro» musulmán

Abstract

The extension of the Spanish diplomatic and consular networks in the Mediterranean, beyond the limits of Christian Europe, bears witness to a late process of secularization that did not affect only diplomacy. Due to the controversial public debates they gave rise to in Spain, the military expeditions against Algiers during the 1770s and 1780s and the negotiation of the peace treaties with the regencies of Tripoli (1784), Algiers (1786) and Tunis (1791) contributed to the formation of a secularized political sphere. The reorientation of Spanish diplomacy puts in evidence the specific norms of the legal space created through the negotiations between Europeans and Maghrebis. The representatives of the Catholic monarchy, which up to this date had refused to recognize this legal space outside the Res publica christiana, had to go through a difficult learning process. The lack of experimented negotiators affected especially the negotiations with Algiers.

Keywords

• Cultural History
• Diplomacy
• International Law
• Maghrib
• Secularisation
• Spain