Introduction: Possible monarchies: the political and cultural modernisation of Spanish liberalism

Abstract

An institution central to the political, social, and cultural construction of the modern nation-state, European monarchy played a founding role in the birth of liberalism, as well as in liberalism's development into a mature political current formative of the modern State. This chapter outlines the political and cultural context of Spain's nineteenth-century monarchy, with particular reference to liberalism and construction of the modern nation-state. In 1840, progressive politician Joaquin Maria Lopez gave a course in constitutional politics at the Ateneo de Madrid following the custom of these spaces of political education and socialisation. The monarchy of the Spanish Bourbons broadly followed dynamics and problematics that were very similar to those of its European cousins. The cultural history of politics offers analytical possibilities from multiple methodological perspectives. From the 1860s public appearances of Spain's kings increased to an extraordinary degree, resembling other contemporary monarchies in this regard. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.