Franco’s Spain and the European Integration Process (1945-1975)

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The Francoist dictatorship had a highly complex relationship with the European integration process started after 1945. On account of its authoritarian profile and pro-Axis policies during the Second World War, Spain was barred access to the new European institutions and organisations created in the postwar era. As a result, the Spanish regime adopted an official attitude of contempt towards the European integration process up to 1957. But the creation of the European Economic Community forced a marked change in its policies because Spain could not afford to be left out of the Common Market. The consequent search for some sort of Spanish participation in the European process was a persistent aim for the regime since February 1962 (first demand for full integration in the EEC) up to June 1970 (Preferential Agreement between Spain and the EEC). But the final aim of integration became a fantasy and wishful thinking because a persistent problem and obstacle active until 1975: the authoritarian political structure of Francoism prevented any real progress for Spanish integration into the EEC.

“An impossible quid pro quo”: Representations of Tomás de Torquemada

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The name Tomás de Torquemada has become synonymous with the Holy Office of the Spanish Inquisition, and a symbol of religious fanaticism, hatred, oppression of minorities, and even sadism. Throughout the centuries since his death, he has been co-opted by writers and artists as a representation of cruelty and persecution. Although contemporaries praised him (albeit somewhat carefully), and he certainly enjoyed the favor of his monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand, after his death Torquemada quickly gained a nefarious reputation as a fanatical zealot and a torturer, a characterization which lingers today. How did an (admittedly) austere Dominican come to so powerfully embody and personify the Black Legend? This paper will explore the historiography of Tomás de Torquemada, attempting to understand and explicate these cultural representations of the man which continue to thrive.

Beyond Cultural Imperialism: Rethinking Americanization, National Identity, and “Difference” in Post-Franco Spain

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It was in the 1980s that Americanization became seen as a real cultural danger in Europe, especially in France and West Germany. While this resistance to American cultural influence has been well established in the existing scholarship, Spain’s reaction has remained far less clear. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the Spanish response, especially in light of the French reaction. The main argument of this paper is that Spain may be somewhat of an exception to the European norm. Spaniards often welcomed American investment, business know-how, and cultural products with open arms. In these cases it appears that they were comfortably willing to accept American cultural products to serve their own ends, namely economic development, international prestige, and a feeling of full European integration. It is possible that a relatively secure sense of national identity contributed to this positive response as well. In other words, and in contrast to the French, Spaniards exhibited little fear of American cultural imperialism during this period. Based on evidence from both the press and academic literature, it appears as though Spain’s reaction to Americanization differed significantly from that of the rest of Western Europe, at least in the 1980s.

Arma “nacional”, arma patria. La Hispanidad franquista (1936-1943)

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La importancia del concepto e ideas sobre la Hispanidad tuvieron, durante la guerra civil y el primer franquismo, un gran asidero y prontamente se transformaron en un vehículo de legitimación de los sublevados. La Iglesia y la Falange lucharon por la manipulación del concepto de Hispanidad desde vertientes diversas con el objetivos de ocupar espacios de poder y, paralelamente, sacralizar al “caudillo”.

Before Highway Maps: Creating a Digital Research Infrastructure Based on Sixteenth-Century Iberian Places and Roads

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It is frequently difficult to write a geographically-integrated history of Portugal and Spain prior to the late nineteenth century because researchers often lack a means by which to identify the locations of historical places on the basis of the geographic coordinates of their modern counterparts. This article presents a free, downloadable digital gazetteer, which the authors have founded on a 1546 traveler’s guide to 139 major routes in “Spain” (as the Iberian Peninsula was then known), in which the author, Juan Pedro Villuga, listed each stopping place along each route and indicated the approximate distance between each of them. The authors explain the technical problems of gazetteer and database design and of associating historic placenames with their modern equivalents and geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, and of visualizing them in geographic information systems (GIS). In the gazetteer, the authors link the sixteenth-century Iberian place names with more modern ones, which were largely solidified in the modern country of Spain by the territorial organization in 1834. More importantly, the authors offer suggestions about how this type of research infrastructure can be used to address various historical problems in Portuguese and Spanish history, which are related to geographic space, topography, and distance.

The Wedding Processions of the Dukes of Braganza (1633) and Medina Sidonia (1640): Power and Fiesta in Portugal and Spain

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This article explores the political meanings of the symbolic languages of the nobility of the Hispanic Monarchy. Specifically, it analyzes the ceremonies and festivities organized by two prominent dukes —Medina Sidonia in Andalusia and Braganza in Portugal — on the occasion of their weddings in 1633 and 1640, respectively. In both cases, those noblemen organized a grand procession to collect the two brides. The symbolic language of power they displayed in that occasion – language that was strictly seigneurial – is analyzed in this article mainly from a political point of view, taking into account the rebellions that both dukes planed in 1640 (Braganza) and 1641 (Medina Sidonia). Through that language, these two seigneurial houses laid claim to their power and made clear their conception of the place they occupied within a political order they were, however, going to challenge soon.

Prince Baltasar Carlos´s Chamber in Las Meninas

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In order to be a good ruler, one had to attain three kinds of prudence: Self prudence, the control of body and soul; Domestic prudence, to rule the family; and Political prudence, to rule the republic or monarchy. The third kind of prudence that the children had to learn was political. In this article I will analyze the third prudence in direct relation to Las Meninas and, refer beyond it, to the training that royal children received.

A justiça dos governantes, lógicas de serviço e benefício em “O panegírico fúnebre a d. Afonso Furtado”, de Juan Lopes Sierra (1671-1675).

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No presente artigo, pretendemos traçar, a partir de uma trajetória individual, uma interpretação acerca de determinada práticas vinculadas ao poder político no âmbito do governo-geral do Brasil, sobretudo quanto à articulação entre ser cabeça política, e o exercício da justiça com autonomia relativa, que era própria dos oficiais régios, sobretudo dos governadores-gerais. A investigação partirá de um panegírico fúnebre, escrito no século XVII, na Bahia, dedicado ao falecido governador-geral, Afonso Furtado. Dessa maneira, partiremos da análise do documento para entender o modo pelo qual determinados fundamentos políticos e sociais relacionados ao exercício da justiça aparecem ao longo do discurso do panegirista.

“Bewitched”: Africa as a Determinant in the Career of Henrique Galvão, 1927-1970

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Henrique Galvão (1895-1970) was a Portuguese soldier, writer, colonial theoretician and administrator, politician, Africanist, humanist and self-proclaimed man of action. Following his maiden voyage toAngolain 1927-29 Galvão became a decided colonial idealist whose deep seated personal attachment to the Portuguese African territories was to determine the course of his life and career. The African colonies, their administration and significance to Portugal provided the main motivation for Galvão’s adherence to and break from the New State regime (1932-1974) headed by António de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970) as well as his subsequent dissident activism during the last two decades of his life. The predominance of African and colonial matters is clearly discernible in Galvão’s trajectory from chief colonialist-Africanist and administrator for theNewState(1932-45) to dissident (1945-49) and finally fierce anti-Salazarist and critic of what he perceived as premature decolonisation (1950-70). Unwavering commitment to an idealised Portuguese Africa and refusal to join the prevailing general condemnation of colonialism ultimately turned Henrique Galvão into an ostracised oddity whose last years were spent in Brazilian exile.

The Tragedy of Alcazarquivir: The Collapse of Kingship, Empire and Narrative

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After the death of King Sebastian in the Battle of Alcazarquivir (1578), Portugal lost its independence, and the Avis dynasty ended. Many chronicles recounted the defeat, especially as the unwise Sebastian was said to have survived and imposters soon appeared. This article describes the intersection of two genres, epic poetry and poetic historiography, and how their conjunction in the Alcazarquivir chronicles, which were copied and modified for decades and centuries (in Spanish more than in Portuguese), shaped subsequent narratives. The chronicles also were a way of assessing good kingship, conspicuously absent in the case of Sebastian. Features from classical literature such as advice ignored, speeches on the eve of battle, letters of warning, natural omens, physical symbols of hubris, and bad news that cannot be believed are all prominent in the chronicles, which in many ways were collections of set pieces and stock characters. The accounts made order out of chaos and helped explain how the once glorious Portuguese, not well-loved by their Spanish neighbors, lost their African empire in a tragic reversal of fortune.