British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Giuseppe Mazzini and the Globalization of Democratic Nationalism 1805-2005
Abstract
Mazzini and Democratic Internationalism in the Spanish World, 1849-1879
Guy Thomson, Warwick
The paper traces the 'politics of Italian enthusiasm' in Spain from the foundation of the Democrat Party and the Young Spain movement in 1849 to the end of the First Republic in 1874. Political persecution and prolonged periods of exile brought Spanish Democrats into close contact with Mazzini and other prominent members of the European democratic international. They found the Italian example, particularly the exploits of Garibaldi, peculiarly relevant to their predicament in Isabeline Spain. The paper explores the part played by Democrat newspapers and carbonari associations in attracting support among the middle class, workers and day labourers in towns and cities in Southern Spain. The reasons for the failure of a sequence of Democrat uprisings between 1857 and 1873 will be assessed. The paper will also reflect upon the part played by Italian inspired democratic ideology and political strategy in the appearance of conservative liberal politics during the 1860s, the beginnings of the Catholic revival and the Bourbon restoration. Finally, the paper will reflect briefly on why Mazzinian ideas of democratic internationalism had so limited an impact in Spanish America during this period.