Spain and United States, mutual perceptions

Abstract

First I review the relations between Spain and the US during the two centuries since the “American Independence” to “Spanish Transition” (1783-1977) in order to identify the grounds of beliefs and experiences that characterized the mutual perceptions between Spanish and American in the years of Spanish Transition (1977-1982). In the second part I analyze the eighties and nineties of the last century (1982-1996) a period when a consensus was created in Spain on key aspects of its international position, the idea is to see if this process introduced changes in perceptions hither to dominant between Spain and the United States. The third part focuses on the decade 1996-2006 a period of turbulences in Spain’s relations with the United States, in search of its impact on mutual perceptions. In the fourth and last, qualitative judgments obtained in the previous three undergo contrast with quantitative data provided by a series of opinion surveys covering from 2002-2006, in order to confirm orrelativize what has been said above. Now I’m preparing another chapter for the decade 2006-2016.