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STATE BUILDING AND NATIONAL IDENTITY. CENTRE-PERIPHERY RELATIONS IN SPAIN (1876-1945) dos —— JULIO PONCE ALBERCA ABSTRACT The 19"-century state-building process is well known, and the role played in the process by the development of national identities is likewise recognised. Many cases reflect the existence of some kind of national identity predating statehood, mainly based on language, traditions and customs originating in years of life in common. Yet there is no doubting the key role of the state in forging the cohesion of national communities. The successful effects of such action can be verified in states in which a sense of national pride was instilled in most of the population (Britain and its empire). Yet similar feelings were present in other countries despite less-than-satisfactory statebuilding processes. In this paper we aim to analyse the case of Spain to verify whether the state-building process (and its local administration) fostered the emergence of national identities at the regional level. Keywords: state-building, nation, identity, Spain, 19" and 20" century history INTRODUCTION There can be little doubt that the concept of ‘nation’ is hugely important to a number of social sciences, as shown by even a cursory glance at the vast literature concerning nation building, national sentiment, purported identities resulting from membership in a given community (or ‘nation’) or the proliferation of nationalist movements. Historical studies have been particularly fertile in this area, among other reasons because any nationalism worth its salt rests on an ad hoc interpretation of a community’s past to justify its present and future ambitions. Spain is no exception to this trend. A search of the Spanish ISBN database yields hundreds of titles including + 77 +
