Windmills in Consuegra (Toledo). Don Quijote might have been here. These things have a fascinating low-tech system: windmill-keeper unlatches the shutters of the little windows under the conical roof, and whichever shutter starts banging indicates the wind direction. Then they put canvas on the armas, and using the pole you see from roof to ground, they spin the entire roof to face the arms into the wind.
OK, this is procrastination from studying. Technically right now I should be reading about the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939), fascinating topic, and I really, really want to complete that and maybe even the Civil War (1936-1939) before semester starts officially next Tuesday.
But. I did give myself permission to write more, correct? And this is a topic that has been on my mind, again inspired by my history classes.
So…. Who are we anyway? Nationally, that is. What is our national identity and why?
Here I’m going to start with Spain and a little bit of Spanish history and maybe extrapolate from there. Because maybe process is similar in different countries.
Spain wasn’t always Spain, you know. Under the Romans it was (mostly) unified, the Visigoths after the Romans (mostly) did the same thing, then came the Islamic invasion of 711, which quickly took over most of the peninsula, leaving just the far northwest corner in the hands of the Christians. In the process of what history has called the “Reconquest”, Christians reconquered the peninsula, and in the process created up to six different kingdoms, each with their own kings and own laws (Leon, Castilla, Navarra, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, if you are curious). Those kingdoms fought each other as much as against the gradually shrinking Islamic kingdom, but at same time, gradually consolidated into larger kingdoms by treaties or dynastic marriages or both, since treaties were often sealed by “and your son and my daughter will get married when they are of age”.
Some very strange marriages took place, too numerous and too strange to enumerate here. One of the last dynastic marriages was Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, which brought together almost all of the peninsula, even though each was full ruler in their own kingdom, they were only consort in the other. Their grandson Carlos finally did unite everything under one person – as well as the Americas and a lot of Europe. He was a Hapsburg (it’s complicated), and while he and his descendents meddled a lot in Europe, in Spain things went along as it had in the past, different kingdoms with their own identities, laws and customs, an almost federal system, even though not entirely voluntary, just happened because of all those dynastic deals.
But then…. In 1700, the last Spanish Hapsburg died without an heir, naming as his successor Phillip of Anjou from the French Bourbon dynasty. (as a side note, Phillip was grandson of Louis XIV, the “State is Me” king.) There was another contender from the Hapsburg line, a long war happened with meddling from European countries, and the French candidate won.
And one of the first things that Phillip did was punish the three kingdoms that backed the Hapsburg candidate. Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia lost their regional courts and traditional legal systems. Goodbye federalism, hello absolute monarchy. Navarra, on the other hand, had supported Phillip so they did not lose all their own laws.
But you cannot erase identity that quickly, probably even less if you try to impose the changes. Spain struggled to become a unified country, in spite of absolute monarchy. The first Bourbons were not great, Charles III was pretty good, then came the dysfunctional family of Charles IV and his awful son Ferdinand VII. Their family difficulties helped Napoleon to invade Spain, another war and…. Surprise! Fighting against the French invader helped Spain start consolidating a national identity.
End of crash course in Spanish history (almost), sorry, needed to get to this place to think / talk about how to create identity. So one good way is to have an important external enemy to deflect or defuse differences inside a country. In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful factors. In my fall history course, one theory of Spain’s lack of strong identity happened not only because of regional identities dating back centuries, but because the central government never made a conscious effort to create a unified identity.
And how to create a national identity, especially with such strong regional identities? According to this idea, the central government needs to create or promote symbols (flag and more), monuments, education, and (get this) obligatory military service, which if you can get past the initial shock does make sense: a joint right of passage for young men of all social classes and all regions. I would add to those things identity lore, not hard history, but the stories or legends that everyone from a nation or a region of a nation knows by heart. In Spain a lot of that lore is connected with the Reconquest: the Covadonga battle, the mythical start of the Christian “Reconquest” was probably not a big deal, and the lovely, heroic story of a man climbing Madrid’s city walls is just that, a lovely story (Madrid’s reconquest was a negotiated deal between the Christian “conqueror” Alfonso VI and his Muslim ally, ruler of Toledo statelet).
So yes, Spain now has a strong national identity, perhaps consolidated partly in the aftermath of Franco’s dictatorship – the “Transition” to democracy was complicated, but more people were invested in the idea than people opposed to the idea. But even today, Spain’s sense of “patria chica” (small fatherland), the place you and your family are really from, whether or not you really live there. It’s not as strong as it used to be; given increasing mobility of Spaniards, the “pueblo” might now be a few generations back instead of only one generation. But the feeling is still there.
(an amusing side note: the Spanish flag more or less belonged to the political right until…… Spanish sports had some important international successes: Rafa Nadal in tennis; and especially winning the soccer World Cup in 2010. Pride in those achievements allowed centrists and even lefties to proudly wave the Spanish flag.)
Are there any parallels here for other countries? Maybe – or not. The USA started with some truly revolutionary ideas for the 18th century – but with a clean slate to state who they (we) wanted to be, without all the baggage of countries with lots of history. And as the country grew, states signed up voluntarily (no dynastic marriages, whoop!), accepting the basic tenets of the nation. As immigrants arrived, most fleeing dramatic situations in their home country, part of the deal was and still is acceptance of most if not all the country’s basic identity, even without totally relinquishing their own national identities. Here really must share a wonderful quote from Jimmie Carter: “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”
That’s a really lovely way of viewing national identity. It doesn’t have to be one single, overwhelming, only-one-right-thing kind of thing, but a series of shared beliefs, allowing and even celebrating the diversity within the shared national identity.
Hmmm. Had another thought here about external enemies helping to create or maintain identity, but I like the Carter quote so much will just leave it there, and maaaaybe revisit this idea in the future.
Oh, and these ideas don’t have to be “just” on a national level. Group identities can work the same way….. something to ponder.