Bérard-Jordana Agreement


The Bérard-Jordana Agreement, also called Berard-Jordan Agreement in English, was a political treaty signed by France and Spain in Burgos on 25 February 1939. Its name is based on the two principal signatories, Léon Bérard for France and General Jordana for Spain.

Background

The Spanish Civil War that had begun between the left-leaning Republicans and the right-leaning Nationalists on 17 July 1936 had by January 1939 decisively turned in favor of the Nationalist side, with major Republican defeats at the Battle of the Ebro in November 1938 and the Catalonia Offensive of 1938–1939 and the fall of Barcelona. In the meantime, Germany advanced its foreign policy goals on France's other flank, achieving the Remilitarization of the Rhineland and the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936, and the Anschluss of Austria and the Munich Agreement in 1938. The Spanish Nationalists, who accepted German and Fascist Italian assistance against the Republicans, did not desire to be drawn into a potential conflict between Germany and France, and signalled to the unofficial French envoys to the Nationalist leadership that they would maintain strict neutrality in Germany's expansionist designs.
The left-leaning French government of Léon Blum, which had tentatively supported the Republicans, was now faced with more than 400,000 refugees that attempted to escape the Nationalist advance and crossed the border into France, as well as with the diplomatic prospect of Spain being ruled by Francisco Franco, who was diplomatically aligned with France's rivals, Germany and Italy. As a result, the French government was forced to clarify its relationship with Francoist Spain to both deal with the refugee crisis and to prevent a Spanish military alliance with Germany and Italy which might be aimed against France. The new Francoist government in Spain on the other hand desired to maximize its own political and diplomatic legitimacy by normalizing the relations with France and the United Kingdom as soon as possible. The Spanish leadership was willing to grant France's request to prevent permanent German and Italian troop presence in Spain, which the Francoists had not intended to allow anyway, but in return demanded that France deliver all goods of the Spanish Republic currently in France, including art collections, financial assets and military equipment.
Meetings took place between the French senator Léon Bérard and General Jordana, Franco's leading advisor on foreign policy and later foreign minister, in February 1939. The first meeting started on 5 February, the second one on 18 February, and the final convention, at the end of which the treaty was signed between Bérard and Jordana, started on 23 February. France accepted almost all of Spain's demands for the diplomatic relationship and was unable to secure any major concessions from the Spanish in return. The agreement was signed on 25 February 1939. It remained secret until two days later, when the French government publicized it on 27 February.
The French legislature had held the vote to confirm the recognition of Franco on 24 February, voting in favor of Édouard Daladier's desire to normalize relations with the new Spanish regime with a margin of 323 to 261.

Content

The agreement contained a political declaration, a declaration of good neighborly relations, and a declaration on the Spanish assets in France. Furthermore, Jordana gave verbal assurances on the refugee situation in France.

Political Declaration

The French government recognized the Franco government as the legitimate government of Spain. Spain and France affirmed that they would practice cooperation in Morocco.

Declaration of good neighborly relations

The two governments agreed to undertake every necessary measure to closely supervise any activity directed against the tranquility and security of the other party. The French government promised to take specific measurements to prevent subversive activities of Spanish nationals in France direct against Spain.

Verbal assurances by General Jordana regarding the refugee question

The Spanish government declared its willingness to receive all refugees, without distinction between men, women and children, that had gone to France. However, the Spanish government reserved itself the right to prosecute in Spanish courts any of the refugees for any crimes they might have committed.

Declaration on the Spanish assets in France

The French government promised to return to Spain Spanish property of the following types:
The French and British governments recognized Franco's leadership of Spain on 27 February 1939. Philippe Pétain, who later became the leader of the collaborationist Vichy regime in France, became French ambassador in Burgos on 2 March. He would oversee the repatriation of the Republican gold reserves and the paintings of the Museo del Prado from France to Spain. The Spanish Civil War ended on 1 April 1939 in Nationalist victory. Franco, who abstained from intervention in World War II, would remain Spain's caudillo until his death in 1975. Following the British and French recognitions of the Franco government, the government of the United States followed suit on 7 April 1939.
Spain continued its policy of diplomatic ambivalence between the western democracies and the European fascists, and joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, initially formed by Germany and the Japanese Empire in November 1936, on 27 March 1939. Spain was however appalled by the German cooperation with the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, as the USSR was formerly a supporter of the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War against Franco. Subsequently, the Spanish government abstained from participation in World War II on either side and denied the German aims for an Axis attack on British Gibraltar under the German military's proposed Operation Felix, although it allowed Spanish volunteers to fight in the German Wehrmacht as part of the 250th Infantry "Blue" Division. The entry of Spain into the Anti-Comintern Pact resulted in a Spanish buildup against the western democracies, including in colonial Morocco, which directly went against the terms of the Bérard-Jordana Agreement, in which France and Spain promised each other to maintain good neighborly relations and to act cooperatively in the two countries' Moroccan colonies.

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