Geography constitutes a key structure in any territorialization process of nation-building characterized by the increasing ability of the State to exercise its control over a bounded territory, regulating and integrating social practices. As Braudel (1988) and Weber (1976)
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emphasise with reference to France, geography conditioned how human action transformed what originally was a conglomerate of loosely connected peoples, once subjects of one king, into a modern community of citizens with equal rights and duties, conscious of constituting a nation. The role played by geography in Spain can be examined along the same lines. Juliana Ricart (2012) argues that Spanish nationalization has been weakest on the periphery, in what he calls “España foral” and “España asimilada” (Figure 3.2).
Figure 3.2.
España uniforme, España foral and España asimilada (Source: Juliana Ricart, 2012)14
Spain shares with Portugal the Iberian Peninsula, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay and separated from France by the Pyrenees. Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe after France, with a total area of 505,370 sq.
14
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km15. Figure 3.3 shows the map of the Iberian Peninsula. Whereas the Pyrenees practically sever Spain from France with their imposing height, there is no apparent natural border between Spain and Portugal. Far from that, the Iberian Peninsula appears as a distinct and yet highly complex unit, as Spain and Portugal share rivers, mountain ranges, climates and a similar rural structure. This geographical substratum can be analysed in connection with the opposing tendencies towards political unity and atomization present throughout history in the context of a problematic historical process of Spanish nation-building.
Figure 3.3.
Physical geography of the Iberian Peninsula16
In fact, the Iberian peninsula had already been identified as a geographical entity throughout Antiquity under a variety of names (Benito Ruano, 1998): Anaku, Meschesch, Tarschisch,
15
The world Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency 2012 (retrieved on 18-5-12)
16
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Hesperia, Ophioussa, Iberia, I-schephan-im and eventually, in Roman times, Hispania, divided into three provinces around 27 B.C (figure 3.4) and later on into five provinces (figure 3.5).
Figure 3.4.
Roman Hispania circa 27 B.C.17
17
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Figure 3.5.
Roman Hispania between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D.18
The concept of Hispania also appears in early narratives like Isidore’s Laus Hispanie where the virtues of a land blessed by nature inhabited by noble people are exalted in the context of an identification of Hispania with the Regnum Gothorum, a connection also found in the works of bishop Julián de Toledo (circa 642-690) (García Moreno, 2005). The idea of la pérdida de España19 after the Muslim invasion in 711 and the Re-conquest initiated with the legendary battle of Covadonga reinforced the identification between Hispania and Visigoth Spain proclaimed in the Chronicon Albeldensis and the Chronicle of Alfonso III, where the Kingdom of Asturias is considered the continuation of the Visigoth monarchy (Suárez Fernández, 2005; Benito Ruano, 2005). In view of this, it has been suggested that this geographical concept of Hispania dating back to ancient times could constitute the basis for defining complex historical realities like that of Spain as it is understood nowadays (Ladero
18
Source: www.regmurcia.com/servlet/s.Sl?sit=c,373,m,2916&r=ReP-26546-DETALLE_REPORTAJES
(retrieved on 19-5-12)
19
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Quesada, 1994; 1998). This is the argument of those scholars associated with a perennialist conception of nationhood, claiming that a certain idea of Spain as a historical and cultural community was already present in people’s minds, at least amongst an elite, long before the modern Spanish Nation-State emerged (Castro, 1954); (Marías, 1985); (Comellas & Suárez Fernández, 2003); (Bueno, 2005).
As discussed before (pp. 17-18), much of the evidence presented in support of this evolutionary view of nationhood comes from the analysis of how the concept of Spain was formulated in the medieval chronicles of the different kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula (Maravall Casesnoves, 1954); (Suárez Fernández, 2000; 2005); (Valdeón Baruque, 2005). González Antón (2007) argues that the formulation of such a concept was by no means univocal. Rather, its nature was often overarching and polysemic, usually referring to a particular kingdom which was considered part of a broader historical and cultural reality pre-dating the Muslim invasion. In other words, the medieval Spanish kingdoms tended to be perceived as parts of a diverse Spain where political, juridical and cultural differences reigned. Interestingly, the fact that Portugal was an integral part of Hispania is conveniently overlooked in many perennialist accounts of Spanish nationhood where history is seen as an uninterrupted continuum and crucial differences between periods are usually minimized, if not blatantly ignored. In fact, in the last 1,300 years, we only see a relatively brief period of political union of all the territories once constituting Hispania: when the kingdoms of Castile-Leon, Aragon, Navarre and Portugal were ruled by the same kings between 1580 and 1640. Although the discourse of a hypothetical Iberian Union has resurfaced from time to
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time among Portuguese and Spanish groups over the last two hundred years or so,20 the fact that such union never materialized, and also the fact that Spanish nationhood remains a controversial issue within Spain, can partly be explained by this tension between unity and diversity rooted in Iberian geography.
Despite enjoying a certain sense of unity derived from its relative geographical isolation from the rest of Europe, there are also features in the geography of the Iberian Peninsula which inhibit communication, favouring diversity and fragmentation: the average altitude of the peninsula, 660 meters compared to France’s average of 340 meters, makes Spain the
second highest territory in Europe after Switzerland (López Gómez 1998). This no doubt conditioned the development of an efficient transportation system in Spain, as the markedly different profiles of the railway connection between Paris and Madrid illustrate (figure 3.6).
Figure 3.6.
Topographic profile of the railway Paris-Madrid via Irun (López Gómez, 1998)
20
The last time it was a survey conducted at the University of Salamanca where one out of three Spaniards and almost 40% of the Portuguese asked would support an Iberian Union. Source:
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Similarly, inland communications have traditionally been inhibited by a lack of navigable rivers and failed canal-building projects during the 18th and 19th centuries, due to poor planning or financial problems. If we add to this the fact that Spain’s modernisation process lagged behind the general trend in most European countries during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, to be discussed later on, one may assume how this combination of geographical and economic factors played a significant role in the comparatively weak nationalization of Spain. As Ruiz explains:
Look at a map of Spain and you will see a series of subregions in which political, linguistic, social and cultural boundaries run parallel to the geographical contours of the land. Follow the slopes of the mountain ranges, the edges of the great plains and the courses of the rivers, and you will find the topographical features sorting themselves into subdivisions which often (but not always) coalesce into particular political entities, or which, in an age of fragmented political autonomy, become individual Spains within the larger context of the peninsular State (Ruiz, 2001, p. 11).
3.2. Early State-building and the emergence of the national mode of organisation