Beyond the Nation. Religion, Philosophy of History and Humanity in 19th Century Spain

Abstract

Historiography as well as the Social Sciences have paid close attention to the Nation-state as an essential subject of the dominant discourses in the 19th century. In the Spanish case, that discourse was reinforced by liberalism and by the great influence that Catholicism maintained in the political, social and cultural spheres. However, there other discourses relativized the importance of the nation as a historical instance that would be overcome in the inevitable course of the history of Humanity. Although this concept, Humanity, was initially associated with the Christian sense of unity, fraternity and universality, it was acquiring new meanings and uses in the accounts of the Philosophy of History and Universal History, of increasing influence. The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of this new and alternative supranational discourse and its gradual secularization during the second half of the 19th century in Spain. In order to do so, the main works and authors that built a historical account underpinning a democratic project of society based on a gradual universal and peaceful federation of nations within Humanity are analysed.