Spanish nationalism is the social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, political and ideological movement which has shaped Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

's national identity

National identity

National identity is the person's identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one's citizenship status....

 since the 19th century.

Spanish nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 is not an irredentist nationalism per se, the only territorial revindication identified as actually being "national" as such having been Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 (as of the 18th century), all other territorial revindications having historically been colonial

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

 or imperialist (in the 19th century, against the independence of Spanish America, and in the 20th century, concerning the Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...

). Nor has this been a centripetal nationalism (to have been aimed at unifying communities of Spaniards under the yoke of other sovereignties) but it has, indeed, been witness to the birth of peripheral nationalisms which have been operating as centrifugal nationalist movements (aimed at shaping alternative national identities) since the late 19th century.

Just as in all other Western European nation-states (Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

), the shaping of an authoritarian monarchy as of the late Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 gave rise to the parallel secular development of the State and Nation in Spain under the Spanish Monarchy

Spanish monarchy

The Monarchy of Spain, constitutionally referred to as The Crown and commonly referred to as the Spanish monarchy or Hispanic Monarchy, is a constitutional institution and an historic office of Spain...

's successive territorial conformations. As occurred in each one of these cases, the national identity and the territorial structure proper gave rise to many different outcomes in the end, but always – and also in the case of Spain – as a result of the way in which the institutions responded to the economic and social dynamic (at times despite these very institutions) and not fully flourishing in their contemporary aspect until the Old Regime had succumbed. The clearest-cut identification factor existed throughout this ethnic-religious period in the form of "Old Christian

Old Christian

Old Christian was a social and law-effective category used in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th and early 16th century onwards, to distinguish Portuguese and Spanish people attested as having cleanliness of blood from the populations categorized as New Christian, mainly persons of partial...

" status. At the end of this period (18th century), the linguistic identification factor was gradually accentuated revolving around the Castilian

Crown of Castile

The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...

 with new institutions such as the Spanish Royal Academy.

Historically, Spanish nationalism emerged with liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

, and in the Spanish War of Independece

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

 against Napoleon I

Napoleon I

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 of France.

Since 1808 we can talk about nationalism in Spain: ethnic patriotism became fully national, at least among the elite. This was unmistekabily the work of liberals. The modernizing elites used the occasion to try to impose a programme of social and political changes, and the method was to launch the revolutionary idea of the nation as the holder of sovereignty. The national myth was mobilising against a foreign army and against collaborationist with José Bonaparte

José Bonaparte

José Fernando Bonaparte, Ph.D. , is an Argentine paleontologist who discovered a plethora of South American dinosaurs and mentored a new generation of Argentine paleontologists like Rodolfo Coria...

, regarded as non-Spanish (afrancesado

Afrancesado

Afrancesado was the term used to denote Spanish and Portuguese partisans of Enlightenment ideas, Liberalism, or the French Revolution, who were supporters of the French occupation of Iberia and of the First French Empire.-Origins:...

s). The Spanish liberals resorted to the identification between patriotism and the defense of liberty: as the Asturian deputy Agustín Argüelles

Agustín Argüelles

Agustín Argüelles was a Spanish liberal politician.He studied Law at the University of Oviedo and worked as secretary of the bishop of Barcelona. In 1809 he was appointed secretary of the patriotic Royal Junta of the Treasury and Legislation...

 while presented the Constitution of 1812, "Spaniards, you now have a homeland."

Since then, it has often changed its contents and its ideological and political proposals: successively doceañista

Spanish Constitution of 1812

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...

, esparterista, even briefly iberista (advocating union with Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 in the dynastic crisis of 1868

Glorious Revolution (Spain)

The Glorious Revolution took place in Spain in 1868, resulting in the deposition of Queen Isabella II.An 1866 rebellion led by General Juan Prim and a revolt of the sergeants at San Gil barracks, in Madrid, sent a signal to Spanish liberals and republicans that there was serious unrest with the...

). The Carlism

Carlism

Carlism is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain seeking the establishment of a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. This line descended from Infante Carlos, Count of Molina , and was founded due to dispute over the succession laws and widespread...

, who was a defensive movement of Old Regime, did not regard the adjective "national" with any esteem (national sovereignty

National sovereignty

National sovereignty is the doctrine that sovereignty belongs to and derives from the nation, an abstract entity normally linked to a physical territory and its past, present, and future citizens. It is an ideological concept or doctrine derived from liberal political theory...

, National Guard national properties... were the vocabulary of liberals, particularly since more progresistas

Progressivism

Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

). However, the Spanish nationalism that demonstrated to be decisive in the twentieth century came from the frustration due to the disaster of 1898

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

, that has been called regenerationism

Regenerationism

Regenerationism was an intellectual and political movement in late 19th century and early 20th cemtury Spain. It sought to make objective and scientific study of the causes of Spain's decline as a nation and to propose remedies. It is largely seen as distinct from another movement of the same time...

, claimed from movements very opposite one another: the ruling bourbon-dynastics (Francisco Silvela, Eduardo Dato, Antonio Maura), the republican opposition (that only had a contradictory and brief stay in power

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

) and even the army (1917 crisis and dictatorships of Miguel Primo de Rivera

Miguel Primo de Rivera

Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...

 and Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

).

Specifically, under the name of panhispanism

Panhispanism

Panhispanism is a political trend aimed to achieve social, economic, and political cooperation of the Spanish speaking countries, principally those of Latin America, due to the distance between Spain or Equatorial Guinea and the Americas. It focuses principally on the former Spanish Empire's...

 (more properly referred to a movement focused on the unity of hispanoamerican nations) understood as Spanish imperialism

Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

, it is used to refer specifically the movement emerged after the crisis of 1898, within the broader context that included the regeneracionism and the generation of 98 (whose authors, coming from the Spanish periphery, agreed to consider Castile

Castile (historical region)

A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...

 the expression of "the Spanish"), expressed in its more clear way by the second phase of Ramiro de Maeztu

Ramiro de Maeztu

Ramiro de Maeztu y Whitney was a Spanish political theorist, journalist, literary critic, occasional diplomat and member of the Generation of '98....

. Its ideologues and politicians were Ramiro Ledesma and Onésimo Redondo

Onésimo Redondo

Onésimo Redondo Ortega was a Spanish Falangist politician, founder of Juntas Castellanas de Actuación Hispánica , a political group that merged with Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista and...

 (founders of the JONS

Jons

JONS is a Spanish acronym for Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista. See FalangeJons is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France....

) and José Antonio Primo de Rivera

José Antonio Primo de Rivera

José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...

 (founder of Falange

Falange

The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....

); using an expression that has its origins in José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist working during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. He was, along with Nietzsche, a proponent of the idea of perspectivism.-Biography:José Ortega y Gasset was...

, defines Spain as a unity of destiny in the universal, defending a return to traditional and spiritual values of Imperial Spain

Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....

. The idea of empire

Empire

The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....

 makes it universalist rather than localist, what makes it singular among certain nationalisms, but closer to others (especially the Italian fascism

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

). It also incorporates a component resolutely traditionalist (with notable exceptions such as the vanguardism

Vanguardism

In the context of revolutionary struggle, vanguardism is a strategy whereby an organization attempts to place itself at the center of the movement, and steer it in a direction consistent with its ideology....

 of Ernesto Giménez Caballero

Ernesto Giménez Caballero

Ernesto Giménez Caballero , also known as Gecé, was a Spanish writer, film director, diplomat and pioneer of fascism in the country difficult to classify as an European citizen and philosopher as he can be thought as one of the Spanish surrealists not far from Russian- Polish-Italian- "French"...

), rooted in a millennial history: that of traditional monarchy or Catholic Monarchy (although often is indifferent on the specific form of state) and, most importantly, it is not lay or secular, but expressly Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, which will define (in the first franquism) the term National Catholicism

National Catholicism

National Catholicism was part of the ideological identity of Francoism, the dictatorial regime with which Francisco Franco governed Spain between 1936 and 1975...

.

The political transition

Spanish transition to democracy

The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...

 which, together with social and economic changes in a profound sense of modernisation, was brewing since last franquism until the building of the current institutions (Spanish Constitution of 1978

Spanish Constitution of 1978

-Structure of the State:The Constitution recognizes the existence of nationalities and regions . Preliminary Title As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution...

 and Statutes of Autonomy

Statute of Autonomy

Nominally, a Statute of Autonomy is a law hierarchically located under the constitution of a country, and over any other form of legislation...

), produced a very sharp reversal of the social use of Spanish symbols of national identification, while peripheral nationalisms acquired a significant presence and territorial power, which becomes electorally majoritary in Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 (Convergence and Union, Republican Left of Catalonia) and Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

 (Basque Nationalist Party

Basque Nationalist Party

The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...

, EA

Eusko Alkartasuna

Eusko Alkartasuna is a Basque nationalist political party operating in Spain and France. The Basque language name means Basque Solidarity and abbreviated as EA. The party describes itself as a Basque nationalist, democratic, popular, progressive and non-denominational party...

 and so-called abertzale

Abertzale

Abertzale in the Basque language means "patriot", and it is mainly used to mean "Basque nationalist". It comes from the fusion of aberri with the suffix -zale .Although the term is synonym of "patriot", its common use...

 left) and substantially lower in Navarre

Navarre

Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

 (Nabai) and Galicia (Galician National Bloc). Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

 (Coalición Canaria), Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

 (Partido Andalucista) or other autonomous communities have less obvious nationalisms (often described as regionalism

Regionalism (politics)

Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system...

s), based on linguistic or historical differential facts no less marked than the previous ones.

From the field of peripheral nationalism, is often speak of "Spanish nationalism" or españolismo as equivalent to centralism, usually with a controversial political purpose, for identifying it with the extreme right nostalgic for Franco's regime or with an alleged oppression from state

National Oppression

National oppression is the mistreatment of people depending on what their nationality is. When analyzing national oppression, the difference between a country and a nation must be set apart. A country is a territory of a nation is defined by geographical boundaries...

 on those territories, which in extreme cases (particularly ETA

ETA

ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...

 in Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

 and Navarre

Navarre

Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

) is used as justification for terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

 that sees itself as armed struggle for national liberation. By contrast, none of the major political parties affected by such designation of españolistas or "Spanish nationalists", self-identifies as such and often, instead, use the phrase non-nationalist to separate themselves from the nationalist, which is how they usually designate the so-called "periphery".

From the majority point of view, in social, territorial and electoral terms, the identification with Spain, its symbols and institutions has become more characteristic of constitutional patriotism

Constitutional patriotism

Constitutional patriotism is a concept associated with the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, yet originating from political scientist Dolf Sternberger. He used it first as the heading of the leader for German national newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 23 May 1979 - the day the German...

 or civic nationalism

Civic nationalism

Liberal Nationalism is a kind of nationalism identified by political philosophers who believe in a non-xenophobic form of nationalism compatible with liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, and individual rights. Ernest Renan and John Stuart Mill are often thought to be early liberal...

, which seeks to respect the different visions of Spain fits in a pluralistic framework, inclusive and non-exclusive, concepts in which often coincide the majority political parties (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...

 and People's Party

People's Party (Spain)

The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...

) or minority (United Left

United Left (Spain)

The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain...

, Union, Progress and Democracy

Union, Progress and Democracy

Union, Progress and Democracy is a Spanish political party founded in September 2007.It is a progressivist party, between social democracy and social liberalism. One of its goals is to build a federal system for Spain and European Union, with clear responsibilities distributed among local...

, other regional parties or nationalist parties sometimes called moderated), despite maintaining deep political differences sometimes expressed in a very strong way.