SESSION 8 Spanish/American War

and Restoration Crisis

SPANISH CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE

CEA BARCELONA GLOBAL CAMPUS

SUMMER 2007 PROGRAMME

Instructor: Victor Lapuente Gine

e-mail: vlapuente@ceacs.march.es
 Session 8. Spanish/American War and
Restoration Crisis

OUTLINE OF THE SESSION

• The Spanish National Identity during

the 19th century (Alvarez Junco)

• The 1898 Spanish/American War

 Session 8. Spanish/American War and
Restoration Crisis

• The Spanish National Identity during

the 19th century (Alvarez Junco)

-Why Spain, one of the oldest political units in Europe (no

major changes in borders since the 16th century),
was not a nation-state?
 Session 8. Spanish/American War and Restoration
Crisis
How can be characterized the Spanish ethno-patriotic identity?

4 traits for Alvarez-Junco:

- A fusion of religious and political identity. The Church has an
important role even in the Cadiz Constitution
- A deep-rooted xenophobia, primarily anti-English & anti-
French
- Eurocentrism
- Defensive, self-pitying tone

What does Alvarez-Junco mean with these traits?

Do you think that any of these traits survives nowadays? Have

you found any proof of that during your presence in Spain?
 Session 8. Spanish/American War and Restoration
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Which factors threatened the success of the Spanish

national identity building?

1) The acute political crisis suffered by Spain throughout the

19th century

2) From an international perspective, Spain was a third-rate

power.

3) No ‘nationalization of the masses’

4) The state was chronically indebted. Limited to the

‘extraction-coercion’ cycle, typical of the early-modern
period in Europe.
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Crisis

5) Authorities were apathetic in relation to the intellectual elites’

effort to create a national identity

6) State service did not occupy an important place in the scale

of values of upper or upper-middle-class Spanish families,
contrary to the strong military tradition in Prussia-Germany
or the civil service in France

7) Lack of national symbols

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2) The 1898 Spanish/American War

 Session 8. Spanish/American War and Restoration
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-The Spanish political system at the time:

On the surface, the political system was based on a

democratic model similar to the British one. Liberals and
Conservatives alternated in power.

In reality, parties were just mere assemblies of notables

representing 2 factions of the oligarchy

It was a stable system but the price to pay was a weak

projection of the liberal state over its citizens and the
subordination of the liberal elite to the ideological remains
of the ancien regime.
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-The Spanish Public Administration:

Largely inefficient

Patrimonial Administration (contrary to the Bureaucratic

Administrations of France or Germany)

Inflation of positions at the top of both the Civil and the

Military Administration (e.g. one officer for each 5 enlisted
men in the army)
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-The Spanish-Cuban war (1895-98) and the war with the US
(1898) created widespread social discontent

In 4 years, over 200,000 troops were sent to Cuba &

Philippines, drawn mainly from the poorer classes because
the better-off could buy exemptions from military service.
Almost everybody lost somebody (Habaneras).

Which was the reaction of the Spanish nationalism?

Session 8. Spanish/American War and Restoration
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If the war lasts a long time Si la guerra dura mucho

The price of ham will fall Se abaratara el jamon

Because of the many yankees Por los muchisimos yankees

That the Spaniard will kill Que matara el espanol

Session 8. Spanish/American War and Restoration
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US: President McKinley
 Session 8. Spanish/American War and Restoration
Crisis

The Disaster of 1898 triggered a dramatic internal

reaction: the consensus among the intellectual
elite was that Spain was in mortal crisis

Many intellectuals blamed the Catholic Church

Why?