The Conquest of History: Spanish Colonialism and National Histories in the Nineteenth Century (review)

During the nineteenth century, more consciously and systematically than in most other periods, nations and peoples affirmed their collective identities. They did so through the expansion of nation-states; the production of national literary and artistic traditions; the discovery, study, and invention of local costumes and folklore; the establishment of scientific, cultural, and educational institutions; the building of monuments and staging commemorations; and other means. The interpretation and re-interpretation of history was also central to nation and group identity-building efforts. Schmidt-Nowara’s historiography examines the complexity of these efforts in the case of Spain and its last colonies. Counter to the European pattern of imperial expansion in this century, Spain underwent a two-step process of decolonization. After losing most of its American colonies at the beginning of the century (1810–1825), the country had to reassess the relationship with its remaining colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines) until their break-up in 1898. Whereas under the early liberal project of the Cortes of Cádiz, the colonies were meant to become an integral part of the Spanish nation as equal provinces, the political participation of the colonies, and particularly of their non-white members, was limited, and their inclusion in the nation’s imagination problematic.

In its efforts to (re-)write its national history, Spain had to deal, on one hand, with its ambiguous imperial legacy and, on the other, with the historical work of intellectuals from the colonies who contested Spain’s visions of a benign empire as they re-examined the past of their own emergent nationalities. Against most traditional interpretations (and those of hispanismo in particular) which sustain that Spain largely ignored the colonies until after it lost the last of them in 1898, Schmidt-Nowara argues that the colonies were indeed central to Spain’s self-conception as a nation throughout the century. Spanish historians challenged the Black Legend and instead pointed to its colonial enterprise in the Americas as being both exceptional (as all modern empires do), and superior to that of other European powers. In particular, they noted the fact that its colonies became part of the Spanish nation, through assimilation and miscegenation, and by adopting its language and religion. While some colonial intellectuals could accept this “white legend,” fewer were able to accept its corollary, an implicit and sometimes explicit proposition of most metropolitan histories, namely, that the history of the colonies began with Spanish conquest and was inconceivable without Spain.

In their efforts to reinterpret their national histories, both Spanish and colonial historians had access to a greatly enhanced and growing historical archive and, in addition, used other scientific disciplines, such as archeology and anthropology, to rethink the past. Starting in the eighteenth century, historians and other intellectuals published for the first time or re-edited an immense number of unpublished or little known chronicles, histories, and a wide range of historical documents. This practice accelerated in the late 1800s and expanded to include monuments, exhibitions, national celebrations, newspapers, and pamphlets. While Spain, even after decolonization, strived to maintain its imperial legacy through discursive and cultural practices, colonial historians and intellectuals used similar means and the same historical archive to deny legitimacy to this colonial enterprise and to affirm local identity without necessarily aspiring to national sovereignty. The differing historical interpretations led to heavily contested uses of history and the historical archive in the two parties’ efforts to assert the authority and legitimacy of their claims.

The book’s core first chapter, “Spain between Decolonizations,” is enhanced by detailed studies on how the figures of Columbus and Las Casas, as well as the “pre-history” of Cuba and Puerto Rico (chapters two, four, and three, respectively) were used in these historiographical struggles to affirm national and local identities. A sixth chapter examines Spain’s legacy in the Philippines, focusing on the writings of...