Session 2: Failed Nation-Building and the

Development of Peripheral Nationalism

► Catalan Nationalism in Comparative

Perspective

► IESBarcelona
► FALL 2007 PROGRAM

► Instructor: Andrew Davis

► e-mail: ad374@iesbarcelona.org
► Section 1) Ferdinand, Isabella and the
Habsburg Legacy
► Section 2) Bourbon centralization and
reform
► Section 3) The 19th century, failed
nation-building
 The roots of multi-national
Spain
► Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile
married in 1469. The conquest of Granada
(1492) and the incorporation of Navarre into
Castile (1515), consolidated the territory
which corresponds almost exactly with what
we now call Spain.

► HOWEVER – Ferdinand and Isabella reigned

separately over their respective kingdoms,
with separate institutions. It is only after the
Bourbon accession (18th cent.) that you start to
get common institutions.
Castile and Aragon 1470
 Castile before Isabella
► Castilewas a region shaped by the
reconquista. It was a society built
around the trails leading to and from
the increasingly smaller kingdom of
Granada, the last stronghold of the
Moors in continental Europe. It was
wrought around a wide-open, and
largely empty, stretch of land
populated by behetrías, or free towns,
not subject to feudal law but to a more
frontier-style egalitarian political
system.
 Castile before Isabella
► The institutional and juridical aspects of
Castile were centralized but weak.
► The cortes, or parliament, was an
increasingly dying institution by the 15th
century
► Nobility getting more powerful, monarchy
losing power
 it was the policy of early Castilian kings to award
nobility and land to those successful on the
battlefield. There was profuse civil war in the
decades up to Isabella’s ascension to the throne.
 Aragon before Ferdinand
► The union of Aragon and Catalonia in
the form of a confederation of
territories under Ramon Berenguer IV
in 1137.
► Kingdom expanded as they conquered
the Balearic islands (1229 – 1235), the
area of Valencia in 1238, Sicily and
then Sardinia at the turn of the 13th
and 14th centuries, and finally the
Kingdom of Naples in 1432.
► Catalonia was a commercial, trade-oriented
society. For this reason they had more
developed political institutions and a balance
of power between Crown, nobility, and
bourgeoisie

► There was a cortes (or corts in Catalan, a

parliament) in every region of the
confederation (Aragon, Catalonia, and
Valencia being the most important), in
Catalonia became known as the Generalitat.

► Itwas this complex network of interests that

created Aragon’s (particularly Catalonia’s)
contractist values (often referred to ask
 ► Castilian economy - 15th
Century
► Despite the political chaos, Castile was
a burgeoning power, enriching itself off
of the wool trade which had begun to
fortuitously boom on the continent and
in England.

► These profits were consolidated by a

powerful nobility and small,
subservient, and foreign-dominated
bourgeoisie. It was the nobility that
Isabella’s forces would seek to weaken.
 Aragonese economy - 15th
Century
► Aragon, by contrast, was an empire
which seemed at the back-end of its
greatness.

► Arrogance and overextension, plague

and mismanagement had all conspired
to slow the great Mediterranean
economy, which left all of the
respective classes in a state of
upheaval, and fighting for the scraps.
► Thus,two very different neighbors had
developed next to each other by 1479,
with different politics, different centers
of power, and economies which were
heading in exactly opposite directions.
► The reign of Isabel and Ferdinand marked
the beginning of a long history of what
would be ‘Spain’. But at the time, it was a
contractual relationship between Crown and
each respective region.
► It was a dynastic union, this meant that
there was no king of ‘Spain’. Ferdinand was
King of Aragon, while Isabella was Queen of
Castile. Even when Spain was ‘united’
under the Habsburgs, there was still no king
of ‘Spain’. Habsburg kings were
(separately) the King of Castile, of Aragon,
count of Flanders, Lord of Vizcaya, Duke of
Milan, etc….
► References to ’Spain’ begin with Philip IV
and Olivares, although institutions weren’t
streamlined (i.e. fueros not abolished), until
after the Bourbons take power in 1714.
 Definitions
► DynasticUnion – a union of territories via a
monarch. Often, the monarch is the only
link between the territories, and institutional
idiosyncrasies can remain quite different.

► Fueros are privileges and charters given by

the crown in return for various duties in non-
Castilian Spain, either to an individual, a
place or an entire class (most relevant in the
Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia).
 SESSION 5 The Birth of a New State & Spanish
Empire

Ferdinand and Isabella’s goal:

• Strong monarchy

• Weaken the nobility and the

bourgeoisie

• Centralize authority

• Common Identity – ‘creating Spain’

There is one particular year you
should remember: which is? 1492.
Why?

• The defeat of Granada,

• Expulsion of the Jews,
&
• Columbus (not OHIO!)
Granada means:

• The end of the Reconquista

(remember that this started about the
VIIth Century) and the union of what
today is Spain under the same
authority and the same religion

• The expulsion of the Moors

Expulsion of the Jews
• as long as the Jews remained in
Spain, the fear was that they would
influence the tens of thousands of
recent Jewish converts to Christianity
to continue practicing
• Goal was restore all of Spain to
Christianity
• Figures are not clear but about
100.000 and 200.000
Columbus…
• Isabel financed the voyages and
she got the land and the wealth…

• Consequently, the empire was a

Castilian adventure.

• Catalans / Aragonese prevented

from participating. Still customs
borders between parts of ‘Spain’.
The Habsburg Inheritance
• Isabel and Castile had the Canary
Islands & America
• Ferdinand and Aragon: possessions
in the Mediterranean such as:
Sardinia, Sicily and Naples
European Empire
Global Empire
 Habsburg Spain 1516-1700
► Daughter (Juana la Loca) of Ferdinand and
Isabella married Charles, who became
Charles I of ‘Spain’ and Charles V, Holy
Roman Emperor.
► The Habsburg dynasty, involved in a war at
an almost continuous rate throughout the
16th and 17th centuries.
► Hugely expensive to organize and equip a
standing army for an indefinite time is a
complicated task
► What changes?
 Early end to colonial riches
► Because the empire coincided with a
federalized Habsburg political structure, the
incentives were to maintain the empire
Castilian.

► Otherterritories were excluded from empire,

but they were also left alone – fueros intact

► Butthe Spanish colonial zenith – mostly in

terms of treasure in the form of precious
metals – is around 1600. This creates…
► Habsburg king turns to domestic
politics for first time – turn to peripheral
territories for both taxes and
conscripts.

► Thekey to survival for the monarchy:

Spain MUST BE CONSOLIDATED.

► Count-duke Olivares writes to his king

(Philip IV) the following message:
► YourMajesty should have as the most
important objective of your Monarchy to
make yourself King of Spain. By that I
mean, sire, that you should not be
content with being king of Portugal, of
Aragon, of Valencia, count of Barcelona,
but that you should work and contrive
by secret and careful planning to reduce
these kingdoms of which Spain is
composed to the laws and practices of
Castile…. and if Your Majesty succeeds,
you will be the most powerful prince in
the world.
► Habsburg king turns to domestic politics for
first time – turn to peripheral territories for
both taxes and conscripts

► Catalan and Portuguese revolt – 1640

► Olivares attacks French on Catalan soil to

force Catalans to get involved. The segadors
(segadors were rural laborers) eventually
joined them, and they took Barcelona, killing
royal officials, including the Viceroy as he
tried to escape. Thus began the guerra dels
segadors.
 Habsburg legacy in the
construction of Spain
► Great while it lasted: siglo de oro,
empire and domination of Europe
► All of it was built on a house of cards –
American wealth
► With diminishing returns from American,
the Habsburgs never fully grasped was
that no amount of cajoling was going to
get the peripheral territories to fully
participate in ‘Spanish’ foreign policy
without fundamentally changing their
stake in the empire
 From Habsburg to Bourbon
rule
► 1700 - Charles II dies without a direct
heir presented a problem for the
Spanish empire. Wills Spain to the
Bourbons.

► Pretenders from both the House of

Habsburg and Bourbon claim the right
to the throne.
The War of Spanish Succession 1700-
1714
► Castile supports the Bourbons
► Aragon changes its support to the
Habsburgs, fearing the absolutist
ideals of the Bourbons.

► Habsburgs supported by England, the

Netherlands and Portugal. They did
not like the idea of France and Spain
uniting under same dynasty.
► Habsburgallies abandon the Catalans.
Bought out. Barcelona falls
September 11th 1714.

► Thisis still the most important day of

the year for many Catalans. Why?
The first act passed by the new autonomous
Parliament of Catalonia when it was created in
1980 declared September 11th as the Catalan
national holiday
 Bourbon changes –
Enlightened?
► Elimination of nearly all fueros (Catalans in
1716 under the Nueva Planta decrees)
► Use of Castilian in all state-related business
and judiciary
► Elimination of internal customs (Spain and
colonies slowly becomes a vast free-trade
area).
► Monetary unification
► Sows seeds of Catalonia’s industrial takeoff
► Losing many European territories allowed
concentration on Americas.
► 18thCentury Enlightenment meant
absolute power used in a
(theoretically) altruistic way; it is used
to change and improve the living
conditions of the people but without
considering their opinions.
► Creates a slight distance from Church -
Inquisition-banned books circulated
(Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau)
 Some of the reforms are popular:

► Creation of a sewer system in Madrid

► Publicly lit streets
► paved streets
Others were progressive:
► Philosophy began to incorporate
modern physics and astronomy
(heretofore rejected)
 Bourbon’s Social Changes
Regulating the Arts and Sciences:

► Royal Academy of Language (1714)

► Royal Academy of History (1738)
► Royal Academy of Fine Arts (1744)
► Royal Academy of Medicine and
Surgery (1737)
Legacy of the Carolinian reformers I

► Precursors to the liberals of the 19th

century. NOT democrats, but were
precursor of liberal reforms of the 19th
century
► Like their predecessors and the
liberals who came after them,
however, their reforms largely
remained unfinished. Many reforms
also were more in theory that in
practice
Legacy II
I Spain at the end of the 18th
c.
Economically: Overall Spain is growing, but
divided:
► An underdeveloped interior
► Agrarian and oligarchic Andalusia
► Prosperous periphery of North and East.
Politically: Freed of Habsburg Baggage, but…
► Spain much more centralized than with
Habsburgs. It is now Bourbon, and therefore
an ally of France
► The problem, though, comes from abroad:
what is going on in 1789?
The French Revolution (1789-1799)
was a period of major political and
social change in the political history
of France and Europe as a whole.

Most importantly for our purposes -

the French governmental structure,
previously an absolute monarchy with
feudal privileges for the aristocracy
and Catholic clergy, underwent
radical change to forms based around
ideals of democracy, citizenship, and
inalienable rights.
 French Invasion by Stealth
►February 1808 Under the pretext of
reinforcing the Franco-Spanish
army occupying Portugal, Napoleon
enter Spain, later Napoleon drops
the charade and the French troops
were ordered to abandon their
march and seize key Spanish
fortresses
 Spanish War of Independence
(or Peninsular War) Begins

► Napoleon later removes the royals,

forces them to abdicate, giving the
throne to his brother Joseph. Provokes
a popular uprising that would
eventually spread throughout the
country. Citizens of Madrid rise up in
rebellion against French occupation on
May 2, 1808
The War of Independence (1808-
1814)

With the help of the British and the

defeats of Napoleon in Europe, the
French abandoned Spain in 1813

The son of Charles IV, Fernando VII, el

deseado, restores the Bourbon rule in
1814
SESSION 7 The 19th Century
 Napoleon’s gone – now what?

Liberalism vs. Conservatism in the 19th century

► Liberalism’s upsurge would upset the delicate

balance of monarchy, Church, and aristocracy,
and would initiate a struggle for control of the
country which lasted, it could be argued, until
Franco’s demise.

► The challenge to democrats would be to create

a functioning democratic centralism out of the
failed enlightened centralization of the previous
century.
Democracy’s uphill struggle
► Liberaldemocrats would spend the next 2
centuries fighting a protracted battle to
establish democracy against the wishes of a
small but powerful group of entrenched
interests (monarchical, aristocratic, and
ecclesiastic), as well as on a largely
uneducated, hesitant, conservative rural
population.

► Butboth democrats and the entrenched

interests agreed (for the most part) on one
issue - CENTRALIZATION
 Centralization never reality

► High Political Instability - The

tradition of military uprisings
(pronunciamientos) that either
changed the political regime or the
government.
► These rebellions were regularly the
response to Monarch’s inability to
maintain the equilibrium among the
main political forces.
 Period I: 1814 - 1833
► Rule oscillates from nascent democracy to
absolute rule under Ferdinand VII
► First Constitution of Cadiz is created during
the midst of the War of Independence
(1812).
► In many ways, it continued Carolinian
reforms. But now, reforms were justified in
different terms: civil equality, personal
liberty, the rights of property, and freedom
of contract.
► Highly unstable period.
 Period II: 1833 – 1876
Carlism
► Ferdinand VII, before his death, had
changed the rules so that his daughter,
Isabella II, would become queen, which in
theory offended interests in traditional
leadership
► First Carlist War breaks out (1834-39) –
oppose Isabella’s inheritance of throne and
centralizing Bourbon policies. War ends
without a solution.
► The six-year war showed both the nature of
the disarray in Madrid, and the alienation of
the periphery towards it.
 Carlism II
► Reactionby traditional rural society
against the secular, centralist and
modernizing efforts of liberal and
republican regimes.

► Reactionary traditionalism with return

to local-self rule under the king.

► Centered in the rural areas of

Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque
 Ideological division in Spain
► 19th century represents fighting between
different views on the world:
 Carlists want decentralized state linked to the
Vatican
 Conservatives want different versions of either
an absolute monarchy to a weak parliamentary
monarchy
 Progressives fighting from everything from a
strong parliamentary monarchy to Republican
federalism.

► The mob – created by economic crisis

► Central government, weakened by Carlist
wars, unable to respond.
 Territorial Division in Spain
► Periphery gives up on the center
► Spanish state was ‘Weak, yet heavy’
► Exasperated peripheral interests to
take an ever-larger role in developing
both civil and societal organs which
the center was unable to engender,
and lead to drastically different levels
of organized civil society within Spain.
 The Results
► Forty-three pronunciamientos between
1814 and 1923, 11 of which were
successful.
► Many liberal constitutions (1812, 1820,
1836-1837, 1854 and 1868-1869) but
little chance of success or stability
 In Catalonia
► Linztheorizes that regionalist
sentiment, and later regionalist
parties, start as religious cleavage
against liberalism. This is one piece of
the puzzle.
 Periphery gives up on the
center
► Spanish state was ‘Weak, yet heavy’
► Exasperated peripheral elites must
take an ever-larger role in developing
both civil and societal organs which
the center was unable to engender,
and lead to drastically different levels
of organized civil society within Spain.
► This is the second piece of the puzzle.
Both rural Catalonia and merchant
Catalonia turns against the state.
 Successful and failed attempts
at nation-building

► Thebuilding of the nation-state in

Spain did not end as it did in France,
Portugal, or even Germany or Italy.
Why?
 Why Spain failed at nation-
building
► Linzargues that Spanish state-building
went on before the age of
nationalism….

► …..and that the age of nationalism

coincided with a period of crisis of the
Spanish state, bitter ideological
conflicts, loss of empire and economic
troubles.
 Why Spain failed at nation-
building II
► In other words, during the 19th century,
the ‘era of nation building’, Madrid had
little to offer, and few tools available
to fully Castilianize the periphery.