Carlism and Nationalism

Abstract

No other political force in modern Spain - not even anarchism - seems so uniquely Spanish as Carlism. The Carlists were staunch defenders of tradition and of españolismo generally, which might be considered basic ingredients of a Spanish nationalism, and indeed Carlists have thus been sometimes considered the most extreme of Spanish nationalists. Yet Carlists very rarely called themselves nationalists and, though the modern term "nation" did enter their vocabulary during the middle of the nineteenth century, self-references to "nationalism" were normally absent from their discourse. Carlists constantly invoked the defense of patria - ultimately the leitmotiv of Carlist doctrine - and an implicit distinction between patriotism and nationalism would seem to lie at the heart of Carlist political thought.