Spanish nationalism


Spanish nationalism has its origins in Castilian-based culture. Its development runs parallel to that of the state-building process carried out by the Spanish monarchy, and to the surge in patriotic sentiment in the landlocked territories galvanized by the Reconquista — a period that began in what would eventually become the Kingdom of Castile and ended in the final conquest of Granada in 1492. This explains why the Castilian language became known universally as the Spanish language. Hence, Spanish nationalism is a historical corollary or synecdochal evolution of an expansionist phase in Castilian nationalism, much like the process by which early English nationalism came to define all of British nationalism, or by which Latin and Sabine political identity came to successfully assimilate all other ethnicities in the Italian Peninsula, sometimes forcefully, into becoming a single national entity.
In spite of the early Castilian genesis of Spanish nationalism, it must be emphasized that more recent stages of Castilian nationalism are sometimes indifferent or even inimical to Spanish unionism.

History

In many Western European nation-states, the shaping of an authoritarian monarchy, like those of the late Middle Ages, prompted a parallel secular development of the state and nation. This occurred in Spain under the Spanish Monarchy's successive territorial conformations. Like many nations before it, Spanish national identity and territorial dynamic gave rise to different outcomes. As a result of how the institutions responded to the changing economic and social dynamic, the idea of nationalism did not fully flourish into its contemporary frame until the had succumbed. At the time, the clearest identification factor that existed throughout this ethnic-religious period in Spain was the form of "Old Christian" status. By the end of this period at the 18th century, the linguistic identification factor had gradually revolved around the Castilian with new institutions such as the Spanish Royal Academy.
Historically, Spanish nationalism specifically emerged with liberalism, during the Spanish War of Independence against Napoleon I of France.
Since 1808 we speak of nationalism in Spain: ethnic patriotism became fully national, at least among the elite. This was unmistakably the work of liberals. The modernized elites used the occasion to try to impose a program of social and political changes. Their method was to launch the revolutionary idea of the nation as the holder of sovereignty. This idea of sovereignty is believed to have mobilized the Spanish victoriously against a foreign army and against collaborators of José Bonaparte, regarded as non-Spanish. The Spanish liberals turned their victory on the battlefield to an feverish identity of patriotism and the defense of liberty: as the Asturian deputy Agustín Argüelles when he presented the Constitution of 1812, "Spaniards, you now have a homeland."
José Álvarez Junco

Since then, Spanish nationalism has often changed in meaning and its ideological and political proposals; specifically doceañista, esparterista, even briefly iberista. The Carlism, which was a defensive movement of the Old Regime, did not regard the adjective "national" with any esteem and considered it a term used only by liberals.
However, what truly shaped Spanish nationalism came in the twentieth century from the frustration of the disaster of 1898, that has been called regenerationism. It assimilated from movements very opposite one another such as the ruling bourbon-family dynasty, the republican opposition and even the military influence of the 1917 crisis and dictatorships of Miguel Primo de Rivera and Francisco Franco. Under the movement of panhispanism, which refers to the movement focused on the unity of Hispanic-American nations, whose origins are rooted during the period of Spanish colonization and imperialism, refers in this case to the movement that emerged after the crisis of 1898. Panhispanism was influenced by the regenerationism movement and the Generation of '98, whose authors came from the Spanish periphery and agreed to consider Castile the representation of "Spanish". These philosophers, ideologues and authors, like Ramiro de Maeztu, Ramiro Ledesma and Onésimo Redondo, founders of the JONS, and José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Falange, expressed a generation frustrated with Spanish society and politics at the time. During this period, this form of nationalism incorporated a traditionalist component that could be traced back to a century old belief of traditional monarchy or Catholic monarchy. It is not lay nor secular, but Roman Catholic, which would define in Francoist Spain the term, National Catholicism.
Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist José Ortega y Gasset defined Spain as an "enthusing project for a life in common''. Meanwhile, the Fascist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera preferred the definition of a "unity of destiny in the universal" and defended a return to the traditional and spiritual values of Imperial Spain. The idea of empire makes it universalist rather than localist, this is what makes it singular among other forms of nationalisms, but closer to others.
The authoritarian Spanish nationalism 21 century.

Modern

The political transition which occurred in Spain, together with social and economic changes rooted in a detailed sense of modernization, began at the end of Franco's time in power and lasted until the creation of current institutions. This also produced a strong reversal of the social uses for Spanish symbols of national identification.
Peripheral nationalisms have acquired a significant presence and territorial power, especially in Catalonia and the Basque Country. The numbers are substantially lower in comparison to Catalonia and Basque country, but these nationalisms are still present in Navarre and Galicia too. The Canary Islands, Andalusia and other autonomous communities also have less obvious nationalism and are often grouped as regionalisms, based on linguistic or historical differential facts no less distinct than the previous ones.
In comparison to other nationalisms, "Spanish nationalism" is often referred to as españolismo, an equivalent to centralism. Usually with a controversial political purpose, it may be identified with conservative nostalgia for Franco's regime or with alleged state oppression in those territories, which in extreme cases is used as justification for terrorism that sees itself as armed struggle for national liberation. By contrast, none of the major political parties affected by such designation of españolistas or "Spanish nationalists", self-identify as such. Instead, they use the phrase non-nationalist to separate themselves from the nationalist, which is how they usually designate the so-called "periphery" or outliers.
From the majority point of view, in social, territorial and electoral terms, the identification with Spain, its symbols, and its institutions have become more characteristic of constitutional patriotism or civic nationalism. It seeks to respect the different visions of Spain and fit it into a pluralistic framework, inclusive and non-exclusive. Concepts which often coincide the majority's political parties, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and People's Party, the minority's, United Left, Union, Progress and Democracy,and other regional or nationalist parties sometimes called moderate, despite maintaining deep political differences.
Since 2017 constitutional crisis over the Catalan issue, it is seen that Spanish Nationalism is growing.

The authoritarian Spanish nationalism Modern

Discussion in the Assembly of Madrid 7/11/2019 for a law to ban parties in favor of the self-determination presented by vox and
Approved by Vox, Popular Party and Citizens.
Rejected by PSOE, Más Madrid and Podemos
He recalled that "there is no judicial conviction" and not even "a formal accusation" against the Committees for the Defense of the Republic for what has caused them to be claiming that the Executive convicts them "without trial."
In addition, regarding the illegalization of parties, Morano has argued that the above is based on "a legal regulation of Franco and Mussolini",

Parties

Current