A civic role-model with a life of its own. The national militiaman during the first half of Spain’s 19th century

Abstract

During the nineteenth century, the national militiaman was both a figure of civic identification and political controversy. By drawing on parliamentary debates, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and archive material, this article analyses the debate about the figure of the Militiaman during the first half of Spain’s nineteenth century. Its first part focuses on Spain’s early constitutional phase (1812-1814 and 1820-23). The National Militia, which was initially imagined as an abstract player in a system of checks-and balances, became alive through civic initiative. The Militiaman thus became a civic ideal of radical liberalism. The second part of this article centres on the early reign of Isabel II (1833-1844). It underlines how progresista politicians emotionalized and radicalized the images associated with the National Militiaman to conquer a dominant position in the political conflicts of the time. However, this radicalization could not be controlled. These results show, first, that high political discourse and its popular appropriations were mutually reinforcing factors and demonstrate, secondly, how civic imaginaries broadened the scope of justifiable actions.