Download or read book German Policy Toward Neutral Spain, 1914-1918 (RLE The First World War) written by Ron Carden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume describes and analyses the methods Germany used to reinforce Spain’s independence thereby preventing Madrid’s entry into the war on the Allied side. While there have been many studies dealing with the wartime economic histories of Holland, Switzerland, Denmark and Iceland, Spain, physically large and strategically situated has been largely ignored, with little American study of Spanish relations with the European belligerents having been done. Particular attention is paid to the forceful personality of Spanish King Alfonso XIII, who shrewdly used his special friendship with Kaiser Wilhelm II for Spanish profit: he remained a Francophile who shrewdly manipulated the Germans into thinking he favoured their side. At the same time Alfonso fended off the embrace of the Entente.