Bachelor thesis Europe’s colonial past backfiring into the regions: Spain and Catalonia Wouter Hunnekens S4626508 Bachelor Thesis Human Geography Radboud University Nijmegen Bachelor Thesis Europe’s colonial past backfiring into regions: Spain and Catalonia The changing relationship between European countries and their regions in a postcolonial Europe Author: Course: Mentor: Wouter Hunnekens Bachelor thesis Human Dr. O.T. Kramsch S4626508 Geography [email protected] Nijmegen School of Management Radboud University Nijmegen 12th August, 2016 2 Preface Finally, this is my bachelor thesis. It was difficult to figure out want I wanted to investigate. I wanted to combine history and geography with something modern and present. Something that everybody hears about on the news, something that is a real problem in present Europe. Then two components came together: Europe’s colonial past and the constantly news reports on the Scottish referendum and Catalonia’s independence strive and the way. These two components came together to formulate my hypothesis that Europe’s colonial past is in some way ‘backfiring’ into its own nation states. I have always thought that the current map of Europe would not change because I haven’t seen the border change like my parents or grandparents have. I haven’t seen and live through the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unification of East and West Germany and the breakup of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Europe’s borders are not and have never been steady or a fact. That’s why I wanted to investigate a new threat to Europe’s borders, the threat from the regions inside Europe’s nation states to seek greater autonomy or independence, just like Indonesia, India, Congo, Algeria and other colonies once did. Spain is the country that I am using in this thesis to extract my hypotheses on and gain inside if Catalonia is a colony of Spain and if Europe’s past is repeating itself. As one of the most diverse countries in Europe, within Spain there is a powerful region who wants to separate themselves and create an independent Catalonia. This research will especially focus on Spain, because Catalonia’s independence struggle is currently on a boiling point. Furthermore, the aim of this research came together with the help of Olivier Kramsch, who supported my idea, hypotheses and philosophy on this matter. I want to thank my supervisor Olivier T. Kramsch for his professional and academic guidance and for directing me right direction. I wish you a pleasant reading. Nijmegen, August 11 2016, Wouter Hunnekens 3 4 Inhoud 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Historical framework ............................................................................................................... 9 1.1.1 The Spanish case............................................................................................................ 10 1.2 Research goal ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.3 Research question ................................................................................................................. 12 1.4 Relevance .............................................................................................................................. 14 2 Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................. 15 2.1 Michael Hechter’s theories ................................................................................................... 15 2.1.1 The diffusion model of national development .............................................................. 15 2.1.2 The internal colonialism model ..................................................................................... 16 2.1.3 Internal colonialism on the Spanish case ...................................................................... 16 2.2 A Europe in crisis ................................................................................................................... 17 2.3 The “backfiring” Europe’s colonial past ................................................................................ 19 2.4 Conceptual model ................................................................................................................. 21 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 23 3.1 Literature study ..................................................................................................................... 23 4 The history of Spain ....................................................................................................................... 25 4.1 Al Andalus and the Reconquista ............................................................................................ 25 4.2 The beginning and fall of Spain’s empire .............................................................................. 27 4.3 The loss of the colonies ......................................................................................................... 29 4.4 Civil Wars ............................................................................................................................... 30 4.5 From Franco to Juan Carlos I ................................................................................................. 31 5 The development of Spain’s national identity .............................................................................. 33 5.1 The core and the region ........................................................................................................ 34 5.2 Industrial Revolution in Spain ................................................................................................ 35 5.2.1 Success factors of the Industrial Revolution in Britain .................................................. 35 5.2.2 The industrialisation of Spain ........................................................................................ 36 5.2.3 Spain’s industrialisation delay, unequal industrialisation and national development . 40 5.3 The formation of a national identity ..................................................................................... 43 5.3.1 Early Spanish state and decentralisation ...................................................................... 43 5.3.2 Centralising the Spanish state ....................................................................................... 44 5.3.3 Franco state ................................................................................................................... 45 5.3.4 Towards democracy ...................................................................................................... 46 5 5.4 National development and regionalism ................................................................................ 47 5.5 Conclusion chapter 5 ............................................................................................................. 50 6 Europe’s past backfiring: decolonisation within Spain.................................................................. 53 6.1 A Europe in crisis: growing regionalism ................................................................................ 55 6.1.1 A Europe in crisis: a chance? ......................................................................................... 58 6.2 Europe in the past: identity crisis’s ....................................................................................... 59 6.3 Present Europe: Colonialism shaping Europe ....................................................................... 61 6.3.1 Colonialism and imperialism as the foundation of modern Europe ............................. 61 6.3.2 Western imperialism in Europe ..................................................................................... 63 6.4 Internal colonialism in Spain ................................................................................................. 65 6.4.1 Michael Hechter internal colonialism theory ................................................................ 65 6.4.2 Catalonia as an internal colony of Spain ....................................................................... 68 6.4.3 Not an internal colony? ................................................................................................. 69 6.4.4 Conclusion chapter 6 ..................................................................................................... 74 7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 75 8 Reflection....................................................................................................................................... 79 9 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 81 6 Summary Several historical elements heavily hampered the Spanish national development process to establish a solid, unitary nation state and the creation of one identity towards the people from the peninsula could relate to. With the end of the Reconquista and the marriage of the two Catholic Monarchs, Spain became one of the first ‘modern’ day nation states in Europe. It was still during this time, that the