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Nationalism, Regionalism and Micronationalism in Spain

1991; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/002200949102600307

1461-7250

Stanley G. Payne,

Nationalism and Cultural Identity

In most of Southern Europe, the epoch of modernization has been accompanied by intense nationalism. This has assumed such specific and sometimes extreme forms that it has given rise to several neologisms, ranging from Italian 'irredentism' to the Greek 'Megali idea' and what Myron Weiner has termed the 'Macedonian syndrome'. Such features are familiar enough from any reading of Italian or Balkan history. When, however, we turn to the other peninsula of Southern Europe, familiar signs of this nature largely disappear. Spain and Portugal were 'old' imperial powers of the first era of European expansion, which in fact they pioneered, but their modern history has largely seemed to be characterized by frustrated modernization and intense, imploding domestic conflict. Untroubled from without after the defeat of Napoleon's invasion, they have remained apart from the great wars of this century (with the sole exception of Portuguese participation in the last two years of the first world war). It is probably fair to say that in no other European country has nationalism been weaker than in Spain prior to 1936, and in very few so weak. Some of the basic reasons for this are obvious enough: 1. Spain has been independent since approximately the eleventh century and achieved the first true world Empire in human history, long maintaining the status of an established power. 2. The traditional Spanish monarchy was confederal in structure and never created fully centralized institutions. 3. Culture and tradition in Spain were identified with religion in a manner that was more exclusive than in most other Christian lands, creating a climate of national Catholicism that would resist secularization until the 1960s.