Majorca is a popular Spanish holiday destination, but many don’t know the island was almost handed over to Italy.
Before becoming ambassador to France in 1936, Luis Araquistain was the Second Republic’s ambassador to Germany.
He was responsible for purchasing arms for the Republican army during the Civil War. He held this position during the Battle of Guadalajara in March 1937, when a Republican victory seemed possible and could have turned the tide of the war in their favour.
However, that outcome did not occur. Nonetheless, the Battle of Guadalajara was significant because the Italians, fighting alongside Nationalists, experienced a humiliating defeat.
Luis Araquistain wrote memoirs in exile, explaining that the Italian loss supported the idea that Mussolini and Hitler would have preferred to get soldiers out of Spain. This view held out for at least a year later.
The Republican Government thought of a way to give both the Italians and Germans an exit plan and one that would have stopped Franco.
It was thought that neither Mussolini nor Hitler supported Franco because of his ideologies but more so saw an opportunity for colonialism, and the plan involved giving up parts of Spain – the Canaries for Germany and the Balearics for Italy.
Of course, the plan didn’t go through, but it was carefully thought out, revealing how the politicians viewed the islands. To them, the Balaerics were significant to Spain, and handing them over wouldn’t have been a big deal.
So, while the islands may have seemed irrelevant back then, that view changed dramatically when mass tourism hit in the 1960s.
The islands have a flourishing economy that, according to Majorca Daily Bulletin, has been the only region of Spain, apart from Madrid and sometimes Catalonia, to make a net contribution to the regional financing system for many years.
While the geographical separation has impacted the relationship between the mainland and the islands, the Balearic Islands are becoming more appreciated.
Additionally, the islands are loved by travellers around the world, so it would have been a shame for Spain to have lost out on all the island’s significant contributions that it provides because there was a time when it once seemed insignificant.
