Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Decimonónica

Volume

2

Issue

1

Publisher

Decimonónica

Publication Date

2005

First Page

69

Last Page

94

Abstract

In 1898 the Spanish Empire experienced the final stage of its collapse when it lost the last of its colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. A crisis within the Spanish nation ensued, prompting peripheral regions of the Iberian Peninsula to campaign actively for autonomy. Regionalist activists from Galicia, Valencia, the Basque provinces, Catalonia, and Andalusia interpreted the end of Spanish imperialism as Madrid's failure to let an empire of regional differences thrive—be they Cuban or Catalan. They considered that if Cuba could be “liberated” from Madrid's centralized rule, then Catalonia, for example, should also be granted independence (González Antón 517). Thus, they decried their position vis-à-vis the central power, and they conducted campaigns for regional autonomy—even separation—on the basis of political, cultural, racial, and linguistic differences.

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