How to Invent a Country - Spain

Thanks for the recommendation -- I like Misha Glenny's work and this looks like an excellent series!

Not to put too fine a point on it, but...

the 1898 war that saw Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines all break free...

I'm not sure a lot of Cubans, Puerto Ricans or Philippinos would say that they "broke free" in the 1898 Spanish-American war. Admittedly they were no longer part of Spain's empire after that, but still a long way from "free."

This sounds like a great program. Thanks for posting!

The first programme begins in the annus mirabilis of 1492, when the last Moors in Granada surrendered

I always felt bad for the Moors. I believe they had been in Spain for over 700 years before they were finally forced to surrender. To them, Spain was as much their home as anywhere else.

The U.S. is not even 250 years old, to put it in perspective. Columbus discovered "America" just over 500 years ago!

Thanks for sharing this info. I wasn't aware of these and they look great.

While these are indeed interesting documentaries, in regards of her covering of Spain, I am afraid Mr Glenny is misinformed about what a country is, as shown in her choice of 1492 as a key date in Spain's history as "a country".

Regardless the definition one wishes to use, among others, the Cambridge Dictionary "an area of land that has its own government, army, etc." or Collin's "a territory distinguished by its people, culture, language, geography...", it's clear that Spain as a modern state did not come to be until the defeat and disbandment of the Crown of Aragon in the 18th century, nearly 220 years AFTER the Moors were expelled from the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula, in 1492.

The Crown of Aragon was a sort of confederation formed by the Principality of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Valencia alongside its territories across the Mediterranean, from Sicily and Sardinia to parts of Greece. It had existed from the political union of these territories in the 12th century and each territory kept its sovereignty in all aspects (tax, currency, laws, armies) and its kings had to pledge alliance and obedience to the Constitutions of each territory, hence the reason it resembled what we'd refer to in modern times as a 'confederation'. This ceased to exist, five centuries later, after the military defeat of 1715 to the Spanish (Castillian) and French armies

The following year, in 1716, the Tratado de Nueva Planta, imposed by the Castillian king Philip the 5th, effectively abolished the sovereign government institutions, armies and Constitutions of the territories of the Crown of Aragon and submitted its citizens to the Castillian laws. Only after this forced uniformisation, one could "consider" (if so!) that Spain had been born as "a country", or rather a state. Thus, modern Spain, as per the accepted definition of the term "country" or "state", has just a little over 300 years, before that there were separate armies, government bodies, different laws, taxes and currency... key elements for 'a country' to be.

In regards of the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in the 15th century, which some take as the birth of the country, one should remember that it was a mere dynastic union, like many others in Europe's Middle Ages where royals/nobility married among them, but each other's territories kept its own independence including separate governing bodies, codes of law, taxation, customs, armies, currency, and often, languages too. Those dynastic unions did not form "countries", of course. A great explanation of this concept can be found in the Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_(polity)

The first maps published in Europe by prestigious mapmakers did not consider Spain as today's state until after the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1715), in which all the existing Western empires were involved, from England to the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Portugal... all supporting the Crown of Aragon, against the Kingdom of Castille and its only major ally, the Kingdom of France. One could consider this to be the first true "world war" -from the Western perspective, that is.

So, Spain pre-1716 could only be considered a sort of "confederation" at best, in which territories effectively operating independently pledged alliance to a common ruler, imposed by marriages, but can never be considered a "country"... as uniformity did not exist. After the uniformisation imposed by Spanish (Castillians) in 1716, some dreamed of a "united country", but as history shows, this doesn't seem to be so and in the 21st century, many Catalans and Basques continue claiming their sovereignty and independence.

But again, this thread is prone to become sooner than later a political debate, thus I will end my contribution here.

Oh boy, I probably must deserve to be hanged for such typo. For heaven's sake Bill, grow up!