Nineteenth-century Spanish liberalism in front of Andorran independence

Abstract

In 1850 an agreement was signed between the government of Spain and the Andorran republic on the control of smuggling. The more doctrinaire liberal circles of the Madrid Court considered that the ratification of this agreement, although not novel, constituted a de facto recognition of Andorran sovereignty, and in order to prevent it, they promoted the publication, in 1851, of the pamphlet entitled El valle de Andorra, by professor Juan Sánchez de la Campa, a liberal activist then stationed in Lleida. The pamphlet presents a collection of historical and legal arguments, aimed at the political arena, which allows us to grasp the fallacies and contradictions of Spanish nationalist annexationism regarding Andorra.