ABSTRACT
The Azores agreement with Portugal was the last hurrah for British diplomacy so far as the Iberian peninsula was concerned in the Second World War. Increasingly, the weight of the United States in the Allied war effort brought on its role in foreign policy-making towards Franco Spain. This led to British resentment, fuelled by a quickly emerging trade rivalry. Perhaps because there was no need to manifest unity on any battlefield the economic strains in a war effort going beyond Britain’s means showed up early in Spain.
