Spain A Unique History Stanley G. Payne THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS Publication of this volume has been made possible, in part, through support from the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States Universities The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street. 3rd Floor Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059 uwpress.wisc.edu 3 Henrietta Street London WCE 8LU, England europanbookstore.com Originally published in Spain as España: Una historia única, copyright © 2008 by Stanley G. Payne, Jesús Cuéllar (trans.), Ediciones Temas de Hoy, S.A. (T.H.) English edition copyright © 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Payne, Stanley G. [España. English] Spain: a unique history / Stanley G. Payne p. cm. Originally published in Spain as España: una historia única, c2008. ISBN 978-0-299-25024-9 (pbk: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-299-24933-5 (e-book) I. Spain — History. 2. Spain — Historiography. I. Title. DP63.P1913 2011 946-dc22 2010015039 To the memory of Francisco Javier de Lizarza Inda (1928-2007), most loyal of friends Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication List of Maps List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Image of Spain Part I The Formation of a Hispanist Part II A Reading of the History of Spain 1 Visigoths and Asturians: "Spaniards"? 2 Spain and Islam: The Myth of Al-Andalus 3 Reconquest and Crusade: A "Spanish Ideology"? 4 Spain and the West 5 Identity, Monarchy, Empire 6 Spain and Portugal 7 Decline and Recovery 8 The Problem of Spanish Liberalism Part III Dilemmas of Contemporary History 9 Republic ... without Democrats? 10 Who Was Responsible? Origins of the Civil War of 1936 11 Moscow and Madrid: A Controversial Relationship 12 The Spanish Civil War: Last Episode of World War I or Opening Round of World War II? 13 Spanish Fascism a Strange Case? 14 Francisco Franco: Fascist Monster or Savior of the Fatherland? 15 In the Shadow of the Military 16 Controversies over History in Contemporary Spain Notes Maps The Hispanic Peninsula in 800 The Hispanic Peninsula in 1300 Provincial divisions of modern Spain Abbreviations Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (Association ARMH for the Recovery of Historical Memory) BOC Bloque Obrero y Campesino (Workers and Peasants Bloc) Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (Spanish CEDA Confederation of Autonomous Rightist Groups) CNT Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labor) ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) FAI Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Iberian Anarchist Federation) FET Falange Española Tradicionalista (later Moviento Nacional) ICGP International Conference Group on Portugal INI Instituto Nacional de Industria (National Institute of Industry) JSU Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas (United Socialist Youth) NDH Independent State of Croatia Organización Regional Gallega Autónoma (Autonomous Regional ORGA Organization of Galicia) PCE Patido Comunista de España (Communist Party of Spain) PNV Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Workers' Party of Marxist POUM Unification) PSOE Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (United Socialist Party of PSUC Catalonia) SSPHS Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies UCD Unión de Centro Democrático (Union of Democratic Center) Introduction The Image of Spain All history is specific and singular, and therefore in key respects unique. Though certain similarities may be observed, all history is also in some sense "different," just as all human beings have many things in common yet in every case remain different individuals. At a certain level of comparison and abstraction many common factors and characteristics maybe identified in the histories of diverse countries, yet the history of every land also remains individual and in important ways different from all others. Some histories have seemed more singular, more different from the supposed norm, than others, and in western Europe the history of Spain has for several centuries been considered the most unique. What has often been called "the problem of Spain" first emerged in the seventeenth century with the decline in military and economic power, accompanied by an early failure in "modernization," even though issues of unity and stability were resolved in terms of maintaining the status quo. After the great work of Juan de Mariana was published in 1602, Spaniards virtually ceased to write general histories of Spain, an activity that became increasingly the work of French and British authors during the eighteenth century. Foreign historians tended to see Spain's history as different from the supposed western European norm and also as problematic. Although the nationalist historiography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries claimed to resolve the problems, many have not agreed. Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, for example, was one of the greatest Spanish medievalists during the twentieth century. He lived half his life as a Republican émigré in Buenos Aires, but he was also a practicing Catholic and ardent Spanish patriot. When he published a massive two-volume interpretation of his nation's history in 1956, he titled it España, un enigma histórico. Attitudes toward major aspects of Spanish history have generally been more negative and critical than to any other west European country. This begins with the evaluation of the Visigoths, often seen as divided, inept, and quickly decadent. The medieval kingdoms have been viewed as peripheral and backward, the Reconquest as dubious, conflictive, and long delayed. While the relative tolerance of a large and thriving Jewish community in the Middle Ages