Spanish nationalism

[2] A by-product of 19th-century Spanish nationalist thinking is the concept of Reconquista, which holds the power of propelling the weaponized notion of Spain being a nation shaped against Islam.

In this sense, it is the historical result of well-known political-ideological-economic interests,[weasel words] in the minds of some pressure groups, among which he mentions many elites of the "Hispanic peoples".

[14] As put by José Álvarez Junco, insofar we speak of nationalism in Spain since 1808, the Spanish nationalist enterprise was a work of liberals, who turned their victory "to a feverish identity of patriotism and the defense of liberty".[15][n.

[16] The menéndezpelayista nationalist construct was well defined in its Catholic matrix (Catholicism would end up becoming the keystone of the reactionary right wing in the 20th century) yet more nuanced in other regards accounting for both a staunch rejection of alternative nationalisms and separatisms and a recognition of the internal plurality of Spain.

[22] While this reaction was not initially identified per se with the right,[23] (several of the representatives of the literary nationalism of the 98 were actually close to socialist or anarchist stances early in their life)[24] many of the most prominent noventayochistas espoused ideas compatible with the conservative thought and several of them eventually evolved towards non-liberal forms of Conservatism,[23] and a group of them would have a substantial intellectual influence in the moulding of the later Fascist ultranationalism.

[25] After continued incidents, in October 1859 the First Moroccan War began, with a patriotic enthusiasm to imitate the French colonial advances in Algeria, and the dazzle by the opportunities.

[26] Numerous speeches were also made, such as that of Francisco Javier Simonet at the Ateneo de Madrid, in 1859, legitimizing the right to assist Spain in its civilizing mission, given that in his opinion, North Africa was populated by two great races, Tamites (Arabs) and Semites (Berbers), both in a state of ignorance and barbarism.

[30] Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist José Ortega y Gasset defined Spain as an "enthusing project for a life in common" (proyecto sugestivo de vida en común).

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.

Article 2: When the authorities present themselves in the vicinity of their homes and the personnel who are inside before the arrival of the force do not come out with their arms open in the air shouting VIVA ESPAÑA they will be passed by the weapons in the act (...)

Even the influential lawyer and politician José Antonio Primo de Rivera wrote an essay titled "Germans against Berbers", with clear racial connotations.

Several Francoist scientists and intellectuals proposed racial selection, such as Antonio Vallejo-Nájera:...the race received parasitic Hebrew and Arab elements, which continued to adhere to it, despite the exile of Jews and Moors.

With the practical absence of Jews from the peninsula, except for the community in Catalonia,[citation needed] which was made up of Sephardim who returned after the First World War, the Francoist regime abstractly redirected the violence towards those Spaniards who were alleged to have physical features which were considered "Semitic remains".

Another target of the Francoist regime was the segment of the Spanish population which was alleged to have physical features which were considered "Moorish racial remnents", Kabyles they were called, since they were still reeling from the defeats in the Rif War.

The Castilians sought to purge individuals who had Semitic and Berber racial traces, despite the ancient expulsion of Jews and Moors, and they were also opposed to communism and separatism (the name which was given to the catalanism).

[37]another by Antonio Vallejo-Nágera, who believed that the war should be waged in an environment that allowed a selection without neglecting the Christian mandates:In racial politics, two criteria can be followed: the geneticist and the behaviourist.

Geneticists advocate the selection of good quality biotopes and the elimination of biological inferiors .... Behaviorists act by modifying the environmental conditions that affect the biotype, in order to achieve its progressive improvement over the generations.

The degeneration of the Hispanic race – in regard to the loss or decrepitude of ethical racial values specific and acquisition of moral flaws embedded in the genotype- comes from the noxious spiritual environment ....

The anvil of war is an appropriate instrument to forge select groups, because it eliminates from the ranks of combatants those with a bad temper of spirit and negligible biological quality.

Selection of the best at the front; then forge in the rear so that they return to combat with the responsibility of command .... Military Academies are the ideal way to train the eugenic aristocracy that we advocate in our "Racial Hygiene Program.

[37]and another from Juan José López Ibor, years after the warIt has felt .... Spain, broken at the very core of its history, and .... positive and negative forces have collided on its surface, in a purer way.

Thus, the Spaniard, in that terrible purification of war, has been able to purify himself as a people and as destiny, and after the dark night of a life without depth, dedicated to remedying his daily needs, he has felt the sudden illumination of his own essence.

Now I hope you understand what do we mean by the regeneration of Spain .... Our program consists ... in exterminating a third of the male population of Spain.The purge pointed to tens of thousands of individuals throughout the State, but also special attention to the peripheral territories that had been independent from Castile: Galicia, the Basque Country, the old Al-Andalus[clarification needed] (Andalusia and Extremadura), where the repression was brutal, and especially the catalan language zones of the Crown of Aragon, where the repression was continued over time until it was consolidated as state policy.

[37] Francoism seen from a broad biopolitics, which includes the artificial dynamics of populations, applied as a eugenic action, the theft of tens of thousands of children of republicans and the adoption of them by fascist families, and the prevention of their degeneration, so they could be controlled with ease and taught to grow up to become loyal followers of Franco.

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 (Spanish Constitution of 1978 and Statutes of Autonomy).

The Canary Islands (Coalición Canaria), Andalusia (Partido Andalucista) 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.

Usually with a controversial political purpose, it may be identified with conservative nostalgia for Franco's regime[55] or with alleged state oppression in those territories, which in extreme cases (particularly ETA in the Basque Country and Navarre) is used as justification for terrorism that sees itself as armed struggle for national liberation.