Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- General Introduction
- Part i The Politics of Ethnicity, Nationhood, and Belonging in the Settings of Classical Civilizations
- Part ii Paradigm Shifts and Turning Points in the Era of Globalization, 1500 to the Present
- 7 Colonial Expansion and the Making of Nations: The Spanish Case
- 8 The Reformation and National Identity
- 9 Europe’s Eighteenth Century and the Quest for the Nation’s Origins
- 10 Empire, War, and Racial Hierarchy in the Making of the Atlantic Revolutionary Nations
- 11 The Rise of the Charismatic Nation: Romantic and Risorgimento Nationalism, Europe, 1800–1914
- 12 Revolution and Independence in Spanish America
- 13 A Tale of Two Cities: The American Civil War
- 14 The Cycle of Inevitability in Imperial and Republican Identities in China
- 15 Colonial Subjects and the Struggle for Self-Determination, 1880–1918
- 16 The First World War
- 17 Anticolonialism and Nationalism in the French Empire
- 18 Patriotism in the Second World War: Comparative Perspectives on Countries under Axis Occupation
- 19 Decolonization and the Cold War
- 20 1968: The Death of Nationalism?
- Conclusion to Part II
- Index
- References
7 - Colonial Expansion and the Making of Nations: The Spanish Case
from Part ii - Paradigm Shifts and Turning Points in the Era of Globalization, 1500 to the Present
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2023
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- General Introduction
- Part i The Politics of Ethnicity, Nationhood, and Belonging in the Settings of Classical Civilizations
- Part ii Paradigm Shifts and Turning Points in the Era of Globalization, 1500 to the Present
- 7 Colonial Expansion and the Making of Nations: The Spanish Case
- 8 The Reformation and National Identity
- 9 Europe’s Eighteenth Century and the Quest for the Nation’s Origins
- 10 Empire, War, and Racial Hierarchy in the Making of the Atlantic Revolutionary Nations
- 11 The Rise of the Charismatic Nation: Romantic and Risorgimento Nationalism, Europe, 1800–1914
- 12 Revolution and Independence in Spanish America
- 13 A Tale of Two Cities: The American Civil War
- 14 The Cycle of Inevitability in Imperial and Republican Identities in China
- 15 Colonial Subjects and the Struggle for Self-Determination, 1880–1918
- 16 The First World War
- 17 Anticolonialism and Nationalism in the French Empire
- 18 Patriotism in the Second World War: Comparative Perspectives on Countries under Axis Occupation
- 19 Decolonization and the Cold War
- 20 1968: The Death of Nationalism?
- Conclusion to Part II
- Index
- References
Summary
It is habitual among scholars to suggest that European nations were formed during, and to some degree because of, the colonial expansion.1 Many argue that this expansion, which placed colonizers in opposition to the natives they sought to control, to other Europeans with whom they competed, and to the large African population that they enslaved, led to the emergence of new identities. In the Spanish case, it enabled the move from multiple local distinctions to a unitary national designation, allowing individuals originating from the different Iberian kingdoms (Castile, Navarre, Aragón, and so forth) to assume a single identity as Spaniards. While some scholars pointed to the formation of nations (or proto-nations), others concluded that the colonial experience led Europeans to think of themselves as participants in a community, members of which belonged to a particular race. Imagining themselves to be distinct from both natives and Africans, these Europeans refashioned themselves as “white.”2
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- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism , pp. 145 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023