Welsh Journals

SPANISH NATIONALIST PROBLEMS THE European War has left Spain out of its turmoil. But over and above the clashing of arms, ideas have been deeply stirred throughout the whole Continent, in this, as in all the other vast upheavals which have emphasised the moral unity of Europe. Although Spanish public opinion is far from unanimous on the subject of the causes of the war, it can safely be assumed that the majority under- stand it to be a struggle for European hegemony, on the part of Germany, and a war of defence against any supremacy, on the part of the Allies. The theories of German thinkers on the rights of the supernation and the superstate (obviously their own nation and their own state) and the doings of German statesmen and soldiers, all point the same way, viz., the denial of the nationalist principle, defined as the right of peoples to organise themselves in nations according to their free natural tendencies. The Allies, on the other hand, have publicly pledged themselves to a nationalist policy, of which the colonial history of Great Britain offers at the same time an example and a guarantee. Both the German attack and the Allied defence have contributed to revive nationalist claims in Spain. The unity of the Spanish Monarchy was gradually attained throughout the Middle Ages by the fusion of the numerous Christian kingdoms born during the long struggle against the Moors. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the pro- cess of amalgamation had culminated in the formation of two great kingdoms Aragon, which included the formerly separate kingdoms of Navarra and Aragon, the County of Catalonia and the re-conquered Moorish kingdom of Valencia and Castile, which comprised the kingdoms of Leon, Asturias, and Galicia, the County of Castile and the southern territories won from the Moors. It was at that time that the marriage of Fernando, King of Aragon, with Isabel, Queen of Castile, completed the unity of Spain. But this unity was purely external. The geo- graphical and historical causes which had given rise to the separate kingdoms continued to exist under the Catholic Kings," and to maintain sharp differences in usages, laws, language, and even political tendencies. In spite of a policy of unifica- tion very energetically inaugurated by Fernando and Isabel, and ruthlessly enforced by their successors, Charles V. and Philip II., and of the fact that this centralising effort has never relapsed up to the present day, these differences between the old kingdoms remain. Even the administrative division of Spain, on French lines, planned with a view to a remodelling of the national map. has failed to destroy the old boundaries the language has not recognised the existence of the official map, and the people are still referred to as Catalonian, Aragonese. Castilian, etc. Galicia, the Basque Provinces, Catalonia, retain their own laws, especially those referring to land and succession; the Basque Provinces keep jealous watch over their fiscal privileges. which, to a certain extent make them autonomous of the National Exchequer while in Valencia, there is an ancient Water Court which settles all questions arising from irrigation matters in a primitive but efficient manner, much to be recommended to more elaborate judicial institutions. As is generally the case, the main social fact which accounts for the survival of the nationalist con- sciousness in these Kingdoms is the language. It provides a natural argument de facto for the existence of the nation as a separate entity, and gives it a bond of union, an instrument for propaganda, and a precise aim for which to fight, namely, the official recognition of its own rights. The language known to the world as Spanish is in Spain called Castilian." There are four more Spanish languages; Catalan, Valencian, Galician, and Basque. Nationalist feeling is not very deep in Valencia and Galicia, but it must be noted that in these two kingdoms public opinion is as yet but little interested in political issues, and that the growth of their popular consciousness is likely to follow nationalist lines. This is particularly the case in Galicia. where most praiseworthy efforts for the economic education of the peasants have been made by a nationalist institution, "Solidaridad Gallega." In the Basque Provinces, the nationalist movement is stronger, but the reactionary character of the majority of its supporters, who seek in it a means for keeping the peasantry in a state of Catholic fanaticism by proscribing the Castilian language as being the vehicle for liberal ideas, deprives Basque nationalism of all intellectual help. This is the more remarkable from the fact that many of the best minds of contem- porary Spain are of Basque origin Unamuno, Baroja, Maeztu. The most important nationalist movement in Spain is in Catalonia. It claims to possess strong historical roots. Among the kingdoms of mediaeval Spain, Catalonia certainly had features of its own, sharply different from the spirit of the Castilian crown. The policy of Castile was perforce more military and peninsular, whereas the Count of Barcelona early developed a commercial and political life on a wide international field, across the Pyrenees