Salvador de Madariaga

Who was Salvador de Madariaga?

Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo was a Spanish diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist. He had two daughters.

He graduated with a degree in engineering in Paris, France before gaining a Masters of Arts at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He then went to work as an engineer for the Northern Spanish Railway Company but abandoned this work to return to London and become a journalist, writing in English, for The Times. At this time he began publishing his first essays. In 1921 he became a press member of the Secretariat of the League of Nations and became chief of the Disarmament Section in 1922. In 1928, he became Professor of Spanish at Oxford University for three years, during which time he wrote a book on nation psychology called Englishmen, Frenchmen, Spaniards. In 1931 he was appointed ambassador to the United States of America and a permanent delegate to the League of Nations, a post he kept for 5 years. Between 1932 and 1934 he was Ambassador to France. In 1933 he was elected to the National Congress, serving as both Minister for Education and Minister for Justice.