‘La EspaÒa Ultramarina’: Colonialism and Nation-Building in Nineteenth-Century Spain

Abstract

This article seeks to introduce colonialism into recent debates over the construction of Spanish nationalism in the nineteenth century. First, it reappraises the importance of the major colonies that Spain maintained in the aftermath of the Spanish American revolutions: Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. It shows that Cuba figured significantly in the political economy of Spanish liberalism between two moments of decolonization. Moreover, Spanish politicians and business leaders considered the colonies to be integral parts of the `national market', defending the core institutions of the colonial economy vigorously. Second, this article turns to the intersection between colonial and national historiographies in liberal Spain. Building on a deep early-modern intellectual and institutional inheritance, Spanish patriots in the nineteenth century wrote colonial history as a vital chapter of Spain's national history. Thus, `La Espala ultramarina' occupied a prominent role in the political economy of Spanish liberalism and the political imagination of Spanish nationalism.

Spain and Portugal and the Loss of their Continental American Territories in the 1820s: An Examination of the Issues

“…As Christopher Schmidt-Nowara tells us, 'the diminished colonial regime played a central role in the construction of Spanish national identity and symbols'. 57 Civil wars in Portugal and Spain obscured the loss of continental America but the survival of other imperial territories delayed the construction of new national identities and structures. In both Iberian countries, early constitutional experiments failed to preserve imperial unity on the basis of a theory of trans-continental national identity.…”

Struggling Against Independence: Loyalist Exiles’ Views on Imperial Rule During and After the Spanish American Revolutions

“…Cf. : Fradera, 2005Schmidt-Nowara, 2004 To see how the Spanish Empire devoted to expanding slavery in the 19 th Century, Fradera; Schmidt-Nowara, 2013; Schmidt-Nowara, 2016; Marquese; Parron;Berbel, 2016. 16 Fradera, 2012 Maruschke, 2021; Adelman, 2008;Paquette, 2013.…”

Invenciones institucionales: el sistema de patentes en las colonias españolas durante el siglo XIX

“…A pesar de la riqueza de las economías coloniales y de la consideración de estos dominios como parte central de la nación, las elites criollas estuvieron en gran parte excluidas de las reformas políticas liberales llevadas a cabo en los decenios centrales del siglo (Schmidt-Nowara, 2004). La metrópoli tampoco pareció tener especial interés en estimular la industria e innovación tecnológica en las colonias.…”