Political Uses
of
History in Spain
PEDRO
RUIZ
TORRES
Politics has always been closely bound up with history, which in turn has
often been used for political purposes.'
Hi
story is currently playing an
important political role in many different societies.
Where
the shaping
of
a
national identity remains a problem
or
where old conflicts still linger,
setting peoples
or
nations against
one
another, it occupies the centre
of
political debate and serves to justify a wide variety
of
actions
and
opinions.
But
even where there are no such problems, history is strengthening its lies
with politics.
Hi
storians,
or
at
least some
of
them, are beginning to become
known for their repeated appearance
in
the media when it
comes
to matters
of
internal
or
international politics. A considerable number
of
history hooks
and memoirs and publications
of
a popularizing nature reveal
clear
political
motivation, not to mention the debates that they provoke. But it is
undoubtedly in commemorations that the increasing politicization
of
history
is seen
mo
st clearly. Historical commemorations sponsored hy a wide range
of
governments follow hard
on
eac
h
other's
heels.
In
Spain,
1998
was
the
year
of
commemorations
par
exce/l
e11ce,
just
as
1995 had been in the countries that
celebrated
the
fiftieth anniversary
of
the
end
of
World War II. Spain had not
taken
part
in that
war
- although
the then recently established dictatorship
of
Franco
had
shown
t
hat
it
favoured Nazi Germany and
Mussolini's
regime - and was therefore in
no
po
sition to recall the
defeat
of
fascism,
but
in 1998 it
wa
s faced with a
very special occasion.
Several
commemoration
s
coincided
that
year.
The
first was the
centenary
of
Spain'
s military
defeat
at
the
hands
of
the
United
State
s in the
Spanish-American
War, which
brought
about
the loss
of
the
last remnants
of
the colonial
empire
in
America
and the Pacific
islands.
In
1898 that
empire
disappeared completely,
plunging
Spain into
a '
decline'
against which a
reaction
came
from a
group
of
intellectuals -
the
so-called
Generation
of
'98
-
who
were highly critical
of
the political
system
of
the
monarchy
of
the time.
This
wa
s in a way
an
awkward,
inopportune
commemoration
for the
current
rulers,
but
in
the
same year
another
com
memoration
came
to their aid: the
quarter
centenary
of
the
en
d
of
the
extremely
long reign
of
Philip
IT,
the king
who
raised
the
Spanish
empire
to
its highest
point
in Europe and America. Also in 1998,
the democratic constitution that governs the current political system
MEDIT
E
RRAN
EAN
H I
STOR
ICA L REVIEW
c
ele
brated its twentieth anniv
ersar
y,
so
methin
g wit
ho
ut pr
ece
de
nt
in the
en
tire hist
ory
of
Sp
ain.
Th
ese
are
not
th
e only historical dat
es
lo
ha
ve been sp
ec
ially
co
mm
emo
rat
ed
in Spain
du
ri
ng the
pa
st decade. Going back to the
Socia
list peri
od,
in 1988 th
er
e was the
ce
leb
ra
tion
of
the bic
ent
enary
of
the death of Charl
es
m, a
moment
u
sed
for official
exa
lta
ti
on of
th
e
reformist
wo
rk of the
ve
ry moderate enlig
ht
ene
d
Spa
niards,
co
ntrasting
with the s
li
ght interest aroused a
year
later by the bi
ce
nte
nar
y
of
the
French Revolution. In the
sa
me y
ear
, 1
98
8, the na
ti
ona
li
st autonomous
gove
rnment
of Catalo
nia
rrom
oted the celebration
of
the
'mill
e
nnium
of
the
Catalan
nation', and in 1992 it placed
sp
ecial e
mpha
s
is
on
the
ce
nten
ar
y of the Bases de Manresa, representec.1 as the o
ri
gin of modern
rolitical
Cat
alanism. None
of
those
ev
ents
cam
e an
yw
h
ere
ne
ar
achieving
the imp
act
of
the gre
at
c
ommemoration
par excelle
11
ce, the quinc
ent
enary
of
the 'discove
ry'
of America, promoted in this case by
th
e national
governmen
t
at
the h
eig
ht
of
the Socia
li
st era. Jn the 1
990s
th
ere
w
er
e al
so
co
m
memora
tions
of
l
ess
subst
an
ce
an
c.1
without much
off
i
cia
l s
upp
ort
which
did not
pene
t
ra
te deeply into pub
li
c
op
inion but
served
to r
eca
ll
, for
exa
mple, the figure
of
the d
ic
tator
Fr
a
nc
o I
00
yea
rs
afte
r his birth ( 1992),
a
nc.1
the
co
mpletion
of
20 years since the beginni
ng
of
the transition to
de
m
oc
ra
cy
( 1995) and 60 years since the start of the Civ
il
War (I 9
96
). In
19
97
, with the ri
ght-
wing gove
rnment
of the
Po
pular Party having
r
ece
ntly a
ss
umed po
wer
, official interest in
hi
sto
ri
cal
co
mm
emorations
b
ec
am
e ·
app
are
nt
once again.
The
reas
on that year was the
ce
ntenary
of
the
assassination of
th
e C
on
servative leader Antonio
Ca
n
ovas
d
cl
Castillo, the
archit
ec
t in 1874
of
th
e restoration
of
the
monar
chy
and
the c
on
so
lidation
in
Spain
of a
mod
erately liberal parliamentary r
eg
ime that, nevertheless,
subsequently r
rovec.1
incapable
of
evolving t
owa
rc.l
s tru e democ
ra
cy
.
Imm
ed
ia
tely a
ft
er
wa
rds
ca
me I
99
8, as noted,
and
the
commemo
rati
on
of
the 1
00
ye
ars since the
co
lonial 'disast
er'
and
400
yea
rs since Philip
II
's
deat
h.
T
he
commemora
tions
ju
st mentioned are
exa
mples
of
a
new
ki
nd
of
politi
ca
l u
se
of
history. Today the myths cultivated by
na
tional
/C
atholic
fu
ndamentalism have become things
of
the
past
, as
ha
s the ideological
co
mb
at
that
co
nditioned the d
ev
elo
pm
e
nt
of
Spanish histo
ri
ogra
phy for
m
os
t of the twentieth
ce
ntur
y.
Tbe n
ew
pol
iti
cal
u
ses
of
history are
of
a
diff
ere
nt kind.
Mos
t often th
ey
h
av
e the supp
or
t
of
hi
sto
ri
ans and
an
academic backing tbat mak
es
them professiona
ll
y 'respectable' . Criticisms
of
the motivation for
th
ese
institutional initiatives rarely achieve public
notice.
Th
e installation of dem
oc
racy led to a weakening
of
the old myths
and great id
eo
l
og
ies
ag
ainst the background of w
hi
ch a tradition
of
'scientific history' had laboriously be
en
cre
at
ed
. Politically
co
mmitt
ed
POLITICAL
USES
OF
HISTORY
IN
SPAIN
97
academic activity
began
to
be
abandoned, and
mo
sl professional historians
attached a
high value to the cultivation
of
aseptic monographs and
professional debate among specialists as natural ele
ment
s
of
their work. In
many
cases
this attitude then bec
ame
compatible with
an
evident
se
nse
of
plea
sure
in initiativ
es
of
an
ins
titut
i
onal
nature that
presented
the
appearance
of
'scientific professionali
sm'.
The
socia
l impact
of
the
se
initiatives conferred
on
history a useful
ne
ss
all the more appreciable as the
weight
of
th
e old discipline in our current educational
system
diminished.
At the same time, history increasingly
beca
me a targ
et
of
political
exploitation, although in a new way.
The
politics
of
history in
Spain
at
present
cannot
simply
be reduced to
the
conntry's
inten
se
involvement
in official
commemorations
during
the
past decade.
In
a
quite
different
context
we
must
also
refer
to
the role
played by legal proceedings
of
international
scope
such
as
tho
se
that
elu
ci
dat
ed the participation
of
Franco's
gove
rnment
and
ceriai
n
Spaniards
cl
ose
to
it in the plundering
of
Jews
during
World War II,
or
magistra
te
Balta
sa
r
Garzon's
action
agains
t
Pinochel
for
his
responsibility
in
connection
with the lorture
and
murder
of
Sp
ani
sh
citizens,
among
ot
hers,
in
Chile
a
ft
er the milit
ary
coup
again
st
Salvador
Allende's
democ
ratic
government.
There
has also been a very
significant
response
in the
media
to
certain polemics,
such
as
those focu
sing
on
the nature
of
the
Franco
reg
ime
and its similarities and differences
with
respec
t to fascism,
1
the
pros
and
co
ns
of
a transition n
ot
as
exemplary
as
we
had
been
led
to
beli
eve,
' and. recently,
the
controversy
over
the
role
of
certain
outstanding
intellectuals in the
1940s. supporters
of
the
dictatorship
at
t
he
time
and
later
outstanding
points
of
referen
ce
in the
opposition
to
it.'
The
educational function
of
history
has
become
the
subject
of
intense political
d
eba
te.
~
and
two university
events
have
evoked
politically uncomfortable
memorie
s: the reception and tribute given to s
ur
vivors
of
the International
Brigad
es
in the auditorium
of
the
Univ
er
sity
of
Valenc
ia
and
the
conference
on
the Maquis
(the
Republi
ca
n
guerrilla
forces
that
co
ntinued
ar
med resi
sta
nce against
Franco
's
di
ctato
rs
hip
after
the
end
of
the
Civil
War)
also
organized within
that
university.
The
political role currently played by history in Spain is not comparable
to the part it played in
th
e time
of
Franc
o's
dictatorship, but equally
it
con
trasts with the silence and forgetfulness promoted during
the
transition
to democracy
by
political
111ea11
s (parties, government)
and
for
political
purposes (to help
to
bring
about
a peaceful transition from dictatorship to
democracy after
Franco's
death in 1975).
The
desire to achieve a peaceful
so
lution supported by a
bro
ad consensus
made
certain questions about the
pa
st awkward.
The
political
climate
of
the late 1970s and
early
1980s
tended to favour forgetfulness with the aim
of
encouraging concord
and
98
MEDITERRANEAN
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
reconciliation
among
Spaniards.
The
transition
to
democracy
was
accompanied by fear
of
remembering the immediate past; the future counted
more than a history full
of
failures which
some
might use
as
weapons
against others. Directly
or
indirectly, the great catastrophe
of
the Civil War
continued to weigh upon the conscience
of
most Spaniards. However, as
democracy became established and the intensity
of
the changes turned
Spaniards away from fratricidal conflict and as those who had lived through
the Civil War moved
out
of
the public
eye
or
disappeared, the
amn
esia
ceased to have the political meaning conferred upon it by the
'agreed
-upon'
transition to democracy. In the
new
atmosphere
of
the late 1990s we begin
to
see
signs
of
a personal and
co
ll
ective need to recover the past in a
different way, far removed from the
commo
nplaces promoted by the
old
ideologies and from the oblivion that falsely closed the wounds
of
the past
during the transition.
THE
POLITICS OF HISTORY AND NATION AL IDENTITY
Of
all collective identities, national identity is by far the one that has
predominated in the past two centuries. A certain tradition
of
memory and
history crystallized around the nation as
a new hegemonic collective
identity. The France
of
the Third Republic
is
the supreme example
of
th
e
process
of
constructing a tradition
of
memory
(Jes
lieux de memoire) and a
science
of
history that remained in the hands
of
professionals speciali
ze
d in
its study and convinced that they were employing the
'sc
ientific method'
and had the ability to convert documents into
'o
bjective evidence' derived
from the past. The u
se
of
that tradition
of
memory and science
of
history for
political ends (to legitimize, unite, and perpetuate the nation-state) and the
close link between it and nationalist ideology have been pointed
out
on
numerous occasions. However, there are
other
aspecl<;
of
the relationship
between politics, memory, and history that deserve to be taken into
consideration and that arise only when the frame
of
reference is not the
process
of
bnilding a strong hegemonic national identity at the prompting
of
the state,
in
the style
of
France, but the manifest weakness
of
the state when
that objective has been achieved.
Spain
is
different from other Mediterranean countries in a number
of
ways. The use
of
history has also played a fundamental political role here
in
ideological conflicts,
espec
ially
in
the conflict that arises from the
construction
of
a 'state-centred' national identity.
At
the heart
of
that
proce
ss
and with that conflict as a setling, memory and history have been
used in an uncritical, simplistic way for purpo
ses
of
ideological propaganda.
In
Spain as in France and Portugal, the
modem
stale
goes
back to a very
early date, and therefore in the origins
of
this state both history and politics
POLITICAL
USES
OF
HI
STORY
IN
SPA
IN
99
were
subordinated to the interests
of
certain social sectors
an
d corporations
wit
h their
par
ticul
ar
p
ri
vileges.
Th
e modern state
aro
se in Spain,
as
in
France and
Portugal, long before the existen
ce
of
a public sphere favourable
for the exerci
se
of po
lit
ics as we understand it now or of a specific
professional environment for the cultivation
of
history.
It
was, therefor
e,
a
state that preceded nationalist ideology, a state that
ove
r several cen
tur
ies
acquired m
ode
rn features which did not,
ho
wever, in
clude
co
nsidering the
i
mp
osition
of
a national
id
entity.
What
is characteristic
of
Spain, however,
is that the state
so
ught to l
eg
itimize
it
se
lf
through an ideology, that
of
the
Catholic empire, which, while not
yet
strictly nationalist,
wa
s later able to
evolve
towards a kind
of
nationalism that
ha
s l
eft
a Jong, deep
mark
on o
ur
co
nte
mp
orary
hi
story.
Two further characteristics are provided by t
he
fa
ct
that during the
period
of
nationalisms Spain, in
con
trast to France, lacked a strong,
in
controvert
ible national
id
en
tity and a history to s
upport
it in a
prof
essional, 'scientifi
c'
way.• Throughout the t
we
ntieth century the weak
es
tablishment in Spain
of
that identity a
nd
that type
of
history was link
ed
with the emergence
of
t
wo
kinds
of
conflict: conflict b
etwee
n various
concept
ions
of
Spanish national identity, which
pr
eve
nt
ed
the d
eve
lopment
of
a hegemonic n
at
i
ona
l
co
nsciousness, and
co
nfli
ct
between those w
ho
suppo
rt
ed
a Spanish i
de
ntity a
nd
those within the state who rejected that
identity and
defended the
co
n
st
ructions
of
na
tional
ident
iti
es
other than
th
e
Spanish. These
co
nflicting identities
cr
ea
ted their
ow
n images
of
the p
as
t
and advocated different kinds
of
history.
As a resu
lt
, no strong hegemo
ni
c tradition
of
a nation-state variety
of
memory/history emerg
ed
in
Spain. History that identifies nation with state
and provi
des
them with a
co
mmon nation-state-
ce
ntr
ed
identity recognized
as bel
ong
ing to them by
mo
st citizens - the 'classical' or 'traditional'
history capable
of
forming
or
reinforcing a national consciousness th
at
coincid
es
with the territorial limits
of
the state - has had little social
influence.
Still Jess, lherefore, have there been the
co
nditions
ne
cessary for
using that memory/history
to
cr
ea
te a
na
tional critical histor
y,
the ki
nd
of
history that Pierre
No
ra h
as
proposed in France, starting fr
om
the
co
nce
pt
of
lieux de
111e111oi
re
1
and
seeking to adapt national history
to
the n
ew
scientific and civic ne
eds
of
our time.
The
o
dd
study on 'places of memory'
ca
n be found
in
Spain,
8
but
the
co
untry lacks a tradition
capa
ble
of
establishing
iL
'i
elf
in the academic world and in public
op
inion in such a way
as
either
to
maintain interest in a traditional kind
of
na
ti
onal history
or
to
propose a n
ew
national history setting
out
from the alterna
ti
ve
proposal
of
I ieux de memoi r
e.
Th
at
there is no strong h
ege
monic tradition
of
a n
atio
n-state
va
ri
ety
of
mem
ory/
history in Spain
at
pr
ese
nt
can
be verified in
thr
ee ways. First,