La primera reacción del Estado Español a la aparición de Rusia como una gran potencia. Instrucciones de Felipe V al conde de Bena, ministro plenipotenciario en Rusia (1741)

Abstract

This paper analyses a document which has not been considered adequately by researchers. The aim of this paper is dual: firstly, to make unambiguous some details concerning the topic. Secondly, it unveils the fact that —as can be detected from the instructions by Philip V to count Bena— the leaders of the Spanish foreign affairs as early as in 1740-41 were able to perceive a new element of contemporary political reality, that is the appearance of Russia as a Great Power when this fact still was not so evident. Perhaps this recognition motivated Spain to make a repeated attempt to establish direct Spanish-Russian diplomatic inter-state relations in connection with the actual European continental conflict, the Austrian War of Succession.