How (not) to make a durable state

The great transformations brought by the age of revolution at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth resulted in the final dismemberment of the composite Hispanic Monarchy (monarqui?a espan?ola) and the emergence of over a dozen new states, which embarked on the process of creating nations. This was not only the case as regards the new republics that arose in the Spanish transatlantic possessions from Mexico to Chile but also with respect to Spain, which had to redefine itself and build a nation on the remains of an empire that still included the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines as well as territories in the mainland with important cultural and linguistic differences such as those found in the Basque country, Galicia and Catalonia. The key question was how to build a durable state. I argue that the way in which the Hispanic Monarchy was constituted by the amalgamation of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, with their histories of expansion and dynastic unions, as well as how the colonial enterprise was carried out resulted in deeply embedded systems of government and governance that created particular idiosyncrasies. The way in which the composite monarchy unraveled from the eighteenth century onwards and the attempts the new Bourbon monarchs made to stem this decline are also considered as they created some of the challenges with which the new states had to grapple in the nineteen century. By looking at Europe and America I hope to present a richer picture of the differences and similarities that characterized both areas in the national period.