When Diplomacy Fails Podcast
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PhD Thesis: Episode 1.2
🕑 Added 2024-01-22 06:30:01 +0000 UTC[PATRONS]
Welcome back to the thesis! Here we continue the first chapter of the thesis, specifically my analysis of British obligations during the Portuguese and Spanish Civil Wars. These conflicts were messy, rife with complications, and British involvement was far from rewarding. Yet, there was still a lot of rhetoric used regarding the nature of Britain's obligations to its Iberian allies, and Palmerston was adamant that such obligations necessitated the support of the liberal cause.
But this position was by no means free of controversy. Perhaps because of this, Britain's actual involvement in Iberia during the 1830s looked like a series of indirect military actions, and this struck some contemporaries as wholly dishonourable. Was it not better to fight directly, and honestly, to preserve one's national honour? Perhaps, but as we'll continue to learn here, the apparent demands of national honour were guaranteed to conflict with the interests of the British government.
