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'Spanish Atlanteans': Crisis of Empire And Culture & History Digital Journal 4(2) December 2015, e022 eISSN 2253-797X doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2015.022 ‘Spanish Atlanteans’: Crisis of Empire and reconstruction of Spanish Monarchy (1672-1740) Pablo Fernández Albaladejo Departamento de Historia Moderna. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Avenida Tomás y Valiente, 1. Campus de Cantoblanco. 28049 Madrid. e-mail: [email protected] Submitted: 11 Junio 2015; Accepted: 9 Agosto 2015 ABSTRACT: As a result of a internal crisis, the Spanish Monarchy underwent a process of redefinition between the end of the seventeenth century and the decade of the 1740s. By synthesizing traditional Spanish historiography with the insights of an incipient brand of European modernity, Spanish authors crafted a peculiar account of the “un- known past” of their body politic. The Spanish atlántidas rose to become creators of a great empire and protagonists in the founding of European culture. A new national imaginary emerged that legitimized the task of redefinition. With variations, this concern with origins dominated Spain’s introspection in the eighteenth century. KEYWORDS: Identity; historiography; cultural history; José Pellicer, Spanish monarchy; early modern history. Citation / Cómo citar este artículo: Fernández Albaladejo, Pablo (2015). “‘Spanish Atlanteans’: Crisis of Empire and recons- truction of Spanish Monarchy (1672-1740)”. Culture & History Digital Journal, 4(2): e022. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/ chdj.2015.022 RESUMEN: Atlantes españoles: Reescribir los orígenes de la monarquía española (1672-1740).- Afectada por una profunda crisis interna, la Monarquía de España experimentó un proceso de redefinición identitaria entre el último tercio del siglo XVII y los años cuarenta del siglo XVIII. En una particular síntesis entre la tradición historiográfica propia y las propuestas que llegaban desde la incipiente modernidad europea, los autores de ese proceso configura- ron un primer relato del “tiempo desconocido” de ese cuerpo político. Los atlántidas españoles irrumpieron como protagonistas de un renovado imaginario nacional, como un pueblo instituyente de la cultura europea y creador a la vez de un imperio grandioso que legitimaba la propia tarea de reconstrucción. Con variantes, esa preocupación por los orígenes dominaría la reflexión del sigloXVIII . PALABRAS CLAVE: Identidad; historiografía; historia cultural; José Pellicer; monarquía de España; historia mo- derna. Copyright: © 2015 CSIC This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial (by-nc) Spain 3.0 License. Between the late seventeenth century and the 1740s, ‘unknown times.’ The Spanish Monarchy’s Ancient his- the Spanish Monarchy went through a process of identity tory and, especially, its origins, were at the centre of a re-definition. This process inevitably entailed the revision debate presided at its beginnings by the omnipresent fig- of some of the assumptions on which the account of its ure of José Pellicer de Ossau (Cepeda, 1992: 821-833; own history had been founded. This is especially true of Villanueva, 2004: 138-143; Arredondo, 2011: 150-161, those assumptions affecting its Ancient history. This peri- 264-292; Botella Ordinas, 2005a) and partially concluded od saw the publication of a series of works aimed at the by Francisco Huerta y Vega more than sixty years later. configuration of a new imaginary dealing with the remote Pellicer’s Población y lengua primitiva de España (1672) past of this political entity; the past that was signalled as and Huerta’s España primitiva (1738-1740) provide us 2 • Pablo Fernández Albaladejo with a time frame for analysis during which there were doms. The need to keep delving into the history of this other no less relevant proposals that will not be dealt with subject was a no less pressing requirement at the begin- in this article. Our aim is to draw attention to the conti- ning of the 1670s. His interest for the remote history of nuities present —in spite of their differences— in Pellicer Spain, his championing of the existence of Spain as a reli- and Huerta.1 Through a particular and personal interpreta- gious, political and cultural construct was offered as an tion of the proposals that stemmed from an emerging mo- unifying account on which to articulate the political land- dernity, both authors suggested the origins of Spanish- scape with certain guarantees of stability. A redirection of ness from a different perspective. This perspective was his research towards the origins under a European per- set apart from previous traditions and laid out a new ac- spective, as was beginning to be customary since the count of these origins. The most relevant contribution newly established Republic of Letters had emerged, was was the establishment of a first and constituent people now necessary. Afflicted by the tortuous religious conflict who, incarnated in the Spanish Atlanteans, was imagined that was dividing Christendom, the members of this re- as the real source of European culture and the originator, public anxiously debated about the primitive moment of at the same time, of an empire including the Indies from such origins. This group of erudite men reviewed and which the majority of western kingdoms had emerged. verified concrete places and peoples appearing in Biblical The subsequent loss of credibility of this proposal at the geography, questioning for the first time its cartographies, hands of its enlightened critics in no way diminished its its genealogies and its chronologies. The Protestant Sam- position as a point of departure for that identity recon- uel Bochart’s Geographia Sacra (1646), which included struction; that rethinking of the origins which dominated theories about the primitive population of the Iberian the second half of the century of the Enlightenment. Peninsula, was one of the most relevant examples of this Neither the time when this reconstruction appeared trend (Pouloin, 1998: 106-128, 223-234; Grell, 1995, I: nor the questions that stemmed from the process were 851-890). In ‘Phaleg’, the first part of the Geographia fortuitous. They belonged to a broader context in which, dealing with the postdiluvian dispersion, Bochart named abandoned the old order of Christendom, a new scenario Tarshish (son of Javan and grandson of Japhet) as Spain’s emerged. This landscape was configured in European first settler, taking that role away from Tubal (grandson of terms —as an idea of the new political order— and pre- Noah and Tarshish’s uncle). sided by the logics of reason of state. The development of This displacement was not irrelevant. Aside from the renewed historical imaginaries occurred as the same time removal of one of the most commonly assumed themes as a reorientation marked by an atmosphere of nationist concerning Spain’s first settler, the reclaiming of Tarshish conflicts in which Spain found herself in an especially implied —according to the division established by Ja- delicate situation. In particular, the failure of the universal van—a populating mission different from that entrusted hegemonic policies initiated with the establishment of the to Tubal (Lida de Malkiel, 1970; Fernández Albaladejo, House of Habsburg loomed large over the kingdoms of 2007: 287-321). These were the foundations for a new Spain. This failure was crudely emphasised by the peace narrative account. Well-informed, as was usual in him, treaties of Westphalia, the Pyrenees and Lisbon between Pellicer immediately perceived the possibilities that 1648 and 1668. It was apparent in certain sectors of the would emerge through this. Interpreting and responding court of Madrid that there was an anti-imperial climate. A to that moment, with his Población y lengua primitiva de need was felt to review the sense of maintaining an alli- España (1672) he tried to immerse himself in the primi- ance which had, in the most dangerous times of crisis, ig- tive times, enquiring about the first settler and the peoples nored ‘the links of blood and unity’ which supposedly that may have eventually populated Spain. This search operated in both branches of the family. Furthermore, the was accompanied by a vehement call in favour of a dif- convoluted process of Portugal’s separation and inde- ferent reading and evaluation of the sources. For the same pendence accentuated a feeling of despair within the pen- reasons, it proposed a new methodology when studying insular context. As a consequence, some voices started to the ‘remote times’; that is, the periods called adelon and demand the adoption of a political discourse that could be mythical which went further back than the frontiers of termed Iberian. It involved the restitution of the strategic historical times (Botella Ordinas, 2005b; Grell, 1995: importance of the territories of the Iberian Peninsula 422-429 y 791-820). Rejecting a closed proposal, the op- within the Monarchy, thus emphasising the importance of tion offered by Noah’s great-grandson presented an origi- the Hispanic identitarian background (Fernández Al- nal parentage of Spain which, although impossible to be baladejo, 2014). ‘affirmed absolutely’, still appeared as more likely than It is unsurprising that Pellicer, acting as an organic in- that offered by Tubal. In a more strategic turn, it also ab- tellectual, took a leading role in this context. He was sup- solved the history of the country from the loss of credit ported by a formidable erudition, as not many could ac- fostered by
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