PATRIOTISM OR BLACK LEGEND? THE RECONQUISTA IN THE 19TH CENTURY

In the 19th century, the idea of Spain as the antithesis of modern Europe modernity was not only a weapon of anti-Spanish propaganda, an expression of the Spanish inferiority complex or an article of the progressive creed: It was the leading premise of Spanish identity, shared by even the most hispanophile and conservative authors. This article examines a variety of 19th century texts which attributed Spain's backwardness to the Reconquista, insisting that the long wars with the Moors made the Spaniards less inclined to tolerance, industry and science than other Europeans. It thus shows that writers of that time, regardless of ideology, not only believed in the reality of Spanish backwardness, but associated it with the very origins of the Spanish nation.