Catalonia in the Spanish Nation-Building Project, 1815–68

Abstract

In this chapter we will build on the analysis undertaken previously on the articulation of liberal Spanish nationalism. The period between the 1830s and 1860s was marked by the establishment of liberal institutions in Spain and — as in other western European countries — by what may be seen as the first phase of liberal ‘nation-building’ by the state and intelligentsia. The chapter therefore opens with an analysis of this process in Spain as a whole. Subsequently, our attention will turn to the impact of nation-building in Catalonia. Particularly important in this respect will be the reception and reinterpretation of this discourse by Catalan elites and by wider sectors of the population. In nineteenth-century Europe, in major urban conurbations local political and cultural elites were not passive recipients of measures introduced by central government. Rather they reworked them in line with their own cultural traditions and interests. As comments in Chapter 1 emphasize, such a tendency would be particularly pronounced in Catalonia, given factors such as the territory’seconomic weight, the sense of cultural identity and historic specificity amongst elites, and the apprehension with which centralization was viewed in some quarters.