{"record":{"aliases":["Fernando de los Ríos Urruti","Fernando del Río Urruti","Fernande de los Rios"],"appointmentIds":["spain-410d060e608d14"],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/fernando-rios-412c4c7bcb/","countrySlug":"spain","entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/fernando-rios-412c4c7bcb/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Fernando de los Ríos developed his political outlook through the Institución Libre de Enseñanza and university study in Germany. He taught political law in Granada, joined the Socialist Party in 1919, and opposed its entry into the Communist International after visiting Soviet Russia. Under the Second Republic he held ministerial portfolios that included justice and public education.","During the Civil War, de los Ríos sought arms and international support for the Republic, first in Paris and then as ambassador in Washington. He defended the Republican cause through speeches, articles, and diplomatic work.","De los Ríos presented the war to American officials as an international assault on Spain’s legitimate government. In a note of 15 March 1937, he transmitted his government’s account of Italian military units fighting near Guadalajara. He cited testimony from captured officers and soldiers, supplied an order of battle, and argued that intervention without a declaration of war violated international obligations. He appealed to other governments to defend international standards and described the League of Nations as having fallen silent in the face of aggression.","On 2 June he followed a meeting with the secretary of state with a formal protest against German warships’ bombardment of Almería. He argued that German naval activity had violated the agreed nonintervention patrol arrangements and that Berlin should have referred its complaint to the international committee before retaliating. His memorandum attributed the initial exchange near Ibiza to German provocation, a contested sequence he advanced on behalf of the Republic.","After leaving the embassy on 31 March 1939, he accepted a teaching position at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 1945 he briefly returned to public office as foreign minister of the Republican government in exile. He died in New York in 1949; his remains were returned to Madrid in 1980."],"id":"spain:fernando-rios","identifiers":{},"legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-412c4c7bcb072c462a0d.html","name":"Fernando de los Ríos","notes":[],"paragraphSources":[["rios-foundation"],["rios-foundation"],["great-rios-italian-intervention-1937"],["great-rios-almeria-1937"],["rios-foundation"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-412c4c7bcb072c462a0d.html","relatedEvents":[],"relatedPeople":[],"relationships":[],"researchStatus":"reviewed","reviewedOn":"2026-11-02","revision":"9862b9fddca2c85e","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-10-29","date":null,"id":"rios-foundation","locator":"Biographical essay adapted from Historia 16, June 2000; education, politics, Washington, and exile","publisher":"fdelosrios.es","title":"Fernando de los Ríos Urruti — Fundación Fernando de los Ríos","type":"scholarship","url":"https://fdelosrios.es/biografia/"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"1937-03-15","id":"great-rios-italian-intervention-1937","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"en","representation":"published_translation","scope":"The English translation of de los Ríos’s Spanish note No. 133/19 of March 15, 1937, including the quoted Republican memorandum, was inspected. The FRUS heading explicitly says Translation. Italian troop and intervention claims are attributed to the Republican government; underlying originals were not inspected.","status":"document_inspected"},"locator":"FRUS 1937, volume I, document 157, pp. 251–253; note 133/19 and quoted Republican memorandum","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"Fernando de los Ríos to the secretary of state, 15 March 1937","translation":{"language":"en","originalLanguage":"es"},"type":"primary correspondence","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1937v01/d157"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"1937-06-02","id":"great-rios-almeria-1937","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"en","representation":"published_translation","scope":"The English translation of de los Ríos’s Spanish memorandum No. 156/15 of June 2, 1937, explicitly headed Translation, was inspected, including its five points and conclusion. The German bombardment argument remains an attributed Spanish protest; the unprinted telegraphic enclosure was not inspected.","status":"document_inspected"},"locator":"FRUS 1937, volume I, document 224, pp. 320–321; memorandum 156/15, five points and conclusion","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"Fernando de los Ríos memorandum on the bombardment of Almería, 2 June 1937","translation":{"language":"en","originalLanguage":"es"},"type":"primary correspondence","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1937v01/d224"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-d17ca4bb21762c82aa2d","locator":"","publisher":"","title":"Spain — U.S. Chief of Protocol incoming representatives","type":"Mission record","url":"https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/94445.htm"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-7596b500334365758009","locator":"","publisher":"","title":"Repertorio diplomático español","type":"Mission record","url":"https://www.exteriores.gob.es/es/ServiciosAlCiudadano/PublicacionesOficiales/Repertorio%20Diplom%C3%A1tico.pdf"}],"topics":["Spanish Civil War","Republican exile","Education"]},"schemaVersion":1}