A transatlantic Iberian Peninsula: exhibiting the nation through the commemoration of renaissance voyages of exploration in Spain (1992) and Portugal (1998)

Abstract

ABSTRACT After two challenging processes of democratisation, Spain and Portugal decided to celebrate their new democratic national identities through similar mega cultural events. Following the end of the Cold War, in 1992, Spain commemorated the Fifth Centenary of the first voyage of Columbus to the Americas, overlapping the event with the Seville Expo; six years later; Portugal planned a universal exhibition in Lisbon whose slogan was “The Oceans: a heritage for the future”. The shared desire to connect their current liberal democratic identity with a past of male transatlantic maritime expeditions is not accidental. This article aims to address the socio-cultural links among national representation, domestic political circumstances and international connections within the Iberian Peninsula after the long-lived European dictatorships. First, I will consider the entangled relations between the two Iberian countries and their former colonies. Second, I will disambiguate to what extent this postcolonial present helped in the construction of neo-liberal and cosmopolitan self-perceptions and identities. This was in accordance with the globalisation trends, the rhetoric of modernisation and urban regeneration within a post-industrial era. Third, I will analyse the two world's fairs in light of the process of European integration.