Why is the history of Spain the most distorted of Western lands?
Stanley G. Payne
Department of History
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Published: 22/12/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/ahi.2023.2.7
ABSTRACT: This analysis argues that the history of Spain has been the most distorted in the West as a result of various factors, but above all because of its strangely countercurrent rhythm, beginning with the Arab conquest and the Islamisation of most of the peninsula, followed by the unparalleled experience of the Reconquest. The latter was a unique achievement, the only case in European history in which a country not only lost the greater part of its territory but also had its culture and religion replaced by different ones, yet afterwards were completely recovered by the original remnant minority, with the expulsion of the invaders. The worldwide expansion of Spain was accompanied by the highest development of traditional forms of Western culture, subsequently followed by their most notable decline. The extraordinary variations in Spain’s modern and contemporary history are especially complicated and difficult to understand, and all the while, have been accompanied by the formation of a series
of myths and images that have been unusually bold, intense, and extreme. Moreover, various important initiatives to accelerate and/or alter national structures in the contemporary era have functioned as a sort of boomerang, until the successful oasis of stable political modernization in 1977-2004.
KEYWORDS: Reconquest, Al-Andalus, Black Legend, Liberalism, Romanticism.
