Weaponizing Historical Knowledge: the Notion of Reconquista in Spanish Nationalism

• Alejandro García Sanjuán ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Huelva

     Universidad de Huelva

     Huelva, España

     
• Localización: Imago temporis. Medium Aevum, ISSN 1888-3931, Nº. 14, 2020, págs. 133-162
• Idioma: catalán
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• Resumen

  • The notion of Reconquista is the product of 19th-century Spanish Nationalist thinking. Although developed as an academic concept, it played, at the same time, a crucial political and ideological role, thus holding a very powerful and potentially toxic ideological burden, chiefly consisting of the idea that Spain is a nation shaped against Islam. Its dual academic and ideological nature makes it a highly problematic concept that greatly contributed to produce a largely biased and distorted vision of the Iberian medieval past, aimed at delegitimizing the Islamic presence (al-Andalus) and therefore at legitimizing the Christian conquest of the Muslim territory. Over the last years and in the framework of the Clash of Civilizations doctrine, conservative and far-right scholarly and political outlets reignited the most ideological version of the Reconquista, thus raising a major challenge for academic historians.