Borja DE RIQUER, Gemma RUBI, Laura CANALIAS I Oriol LUJÁN, Catalan Deputies and the Great War (1914-1918), Lothar Höbelt (ed.), European Parliaments in World War I, Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis. Series Historica, vol. XII / 2015, p. 159 - 178, 2015
This article focuses on the action of the Catalan deputies in the Spanish parliament during the F... more This article focuses on the action of the Catalan deputies in the Spanish parliament during the First World War. It analyses the measures of pressure they developed in relation to social and economic consequences of the conflict, the evolution of their position in the debate between pro-allies and pro-central powers, as well as the parliamentary speeches about political and economic autonomy for Catalonia. Although the option of deciding on neutrality was widespread among Catalans, there was no unitary position. On the contrary, Catalan politicians joined for other reasons. They wanted to protect not only from the negative impact of war and profit from its benefits, but also they wish to take advantage of the situation to make visible, in an international sphere, their willingness to obtain the political autonomy for their region. Despite Catalan demands for autonomy found no concessions, the international context and the requests that had been made helped to visualize the so-called Catalan question. The Spanish Congress and the country on the whole were completely weakened after the war. However, the expectation for change and regeneration was closer than ever as the First World War had accelerated the crisis of the political system of the Restoration.
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had already abandoned this course of action since the independence
processes of its American colonies. From its erstwhile vast empire, there
it retained only Cuba, where slavery brought forth huge benefits both
for slave traders and for sugar cane (and to a smaller extent coffee and
tobacco) planters, as well as for the shrunken metropolitan coffers.
Corruption was usually the main reason for secession according to
independentist and autonomist partisans themselves. On the 19 July
1887, Víctor Balaguer drew a terrible picture of the colonial administration: “In a relatively short period of time bonds, pay slips, drawbacks,
stamps, bank notes, files, minutes, certifications, university degrees, relations
… lottery tickets have been forged.1 All these forgeries have been made to
dilapidate the public purse (…)”. Balaguer was an overseas minister who
put all of his energy into the fight against corruption; maybe the only
politician who risked his very career in this endeavour. This experience
was the background of reforms which tried to introduce his successor,
Antonio Maura (1853–1925), between 1892 and 1894. In contrast,
corruption remained a major player in Cuban economic and political life
until independence. It is necessary to wonder as well whether the kind
of rent-seeking and moral turpitudes that happened on the island were
similar to the very metropolitan corruption, or different in nature. Were
the governmental challenges in Cuban society and other colonial empires
alike? Moreover, was corruption considered a major or minor challenge
back then? What did happen was that Spain used budgetary and tariff
policies as instruments of economic subordination
meanings inherent in the semantic family associated with the concept
of political corruption adopted in nineteenth-century Spain. We analyse meanings that appeared in the legal, philosophical, and purely political spheres. In so doing, we take into account the historical, institutional and political context of each one. We review parliamentary speeches, the press and the political treatises, and highlight the arguments used to legitimise good government and its antithesis.
Keywords: political corruption, history of concepts, history of ideas
and political culture, good government, nineteenth-century Spain.
Resum L'article planteja, a partir de recerques originals, algunes claus per interpretar el paper jugat per la corrupció política a la Catalunya contemporània. En primer lloc, analitza la participació dels homes de negocis catalans en la construcció de l'estat liberal espanyol. Seguidament, s'endinsa a explicar com va funcionar el caciquisme durant la Restauració borbònica, i com aquest fou denunciat principalment pel catalanisme polític. Finalment, l'accent es focalitza en les pràctiques corruptes dels franquistes catalans i en els vincles que desenvolupà Francesc Cambó amb la corrupció sistèmica a l'Argentina mitjançant l'empresa CHADE. Unes breus reflexions sobre la corrupció política espanyola actual precedeixen unes conclusions que intenten establir una hipòtesi interpretativa en molts sentits vàlida per comprendre tant la corrupció política espanyola com la catalana.
This hypothesis is indissolubly linked to a new historiography that, in several European countries, considers corruption as a complex phenomenon that deserves to be analysed. This is true for the practices themselves, for what they reveal about the profound changes in our societies, and finally for the modification of public value systems that these issues have the capacity to generate.
The article aims to cover a twofold historical void: on the one hand, to inform on the power relations within the ecclesiastic class, specifically between the canons and the beneficiaries, focused on the basilica of the See of Manresa, and the position that the Bishop of Vic took in this conflict. Secondly, to shed more light on the politicisation of the Catalan clergy during the Napoleonic War, as well as analyse it within the setting of the unequal power relations present within that religious community in a crumbling conjuncture of the Ancien Régime which the war accelerated and revealed with all its harshness.
Paraules clau: Guerra napoleònica, poder eclesiàstic, Manresa, diòcesi de Vic.
El 20 d'octubre de 1814 el canonge Antoni Abardia de la col·legiata basílica de la seu de Manresa es queixava amargament de la dràstica reducció de compo nents que havia patit el capítol de canonges arran de la invasió napoleònica: de dotze que eren en començar la conflagració bèl·lica havien passat a sis, tres dels quals no estaven en condicions d'oferir les misses pels aniversaris ni d'atendre convenientment les necessitats del culte a la parròquia manresana. La reivindicació al monarca Ferran VII, tan desitjat i pel qual havien lluitat, era ben clara: la reposició d'almenys tres canonges tot respectant el privilegi de nomenament que estava reservat als monarques. No només s'havia reduït el personal que integrava el capítol, sinó que el patrimoni-fins i tot amb la casa dels canonges reduïda a runes arran de l'incendi perpetrat entre el 30 i el 31 de març de 1811-i les rendes de la col·legiata havien experimentat una notable ensulsiada, fos per les cremes i saquejos propinats pels francesos o bé per les contribucions extraordinàries a què els eclesiàstics estigueren subjectes, o bé per la no recaptació de les rendes enmig del desgavell
Margarita Barral (ed). Alfonso XIII visita España. Monarquía y Nación, Granada, Comares, 2015.
had already abandoned this course of action since the independence
processes of its American colonies. From its erstwhile vast empire, there
it retained only Cuba, where slavery brought forth huge benefits both
for slave traders and for sugar cane (and to a smaller extent coffee and
tobacco) planters, as well as for the shrunken metropolitan coffers.
Corruption was usually the main reason for secession according to
independentist and autonomist partisans themselves. On the 19 July
1887, Víctor Balaguer drew a terrible picture of the colonial administration: “In a relatively short period of time bonds, pay slips, drawbacks,
stamps, bank notes, files, minutes, certifications, university degrees, relations
… lottery tickets have been forged.1 All these forgeries have been made to
dilapidate the public purse (…)”. Balaguer was an overseas minister who
put all of his energy into the fight against corruption; maybe the only
politician who risked his very career in this endeavour. This experience
was the background of reforms which tried to introduce his successor,
Antonio Maura (1853–1925), between 1892 and 1894. In contrast,
corruption remained a major player in Cuban economic and political life
until independence. It is necessary to wonder as well whether the kind
of rent-seeking and moral turpitudes that happened on the island were
similar to the very metropolitan corruption, or different in nature. Were
the governmental challenges in Cuban society and other colonial empires
alike? Moreover, was corruption considered a major or minor challenge
back then? What did happen was that Spain used budgetary and tariff
policies as instruments of economic subordination
meanings inherent in the semantic family associated with the concept
of political corruption adopted in nineteenth-century Spain. We analyse meanings that appeared in the legal, philosophical, and purely political spheres. In so doing, we take into account the historical, institutional and political context of each one. We review parliamentary speeches, the press and the political treatises, and highlight the arguments used to legitimise good government and its antithesis.
Keywords: political corruption, history of concepts, history of ideas
and political culture, good government, nineteenth-century Spain.
Resum L'article planteja, a partir de recerques originals, algunes claus per interpretar el paper jugat per la corrupció política a la Catalunya contemporània. En primer lloc, analitza la participació dels homes de negocis catalans en la construcció de l'estat liberal espanyol. Seguidament, s'endinsa a explicar com va funcionar el caciquisme durant la Restauració borbònica, i com aquest fou denunciat principalment pel catalanisme polític. Finalment, l'accent es focalitza en les pràctiques corruptes dels franquistes catalans i en els vincles que desenvolupà Francesc Cambó amb la corrupció sistèmica a l'Argentina mitjançant l'empresa CHADE. Unes breus reflexions sobre la corrupció política espanyola actual precedeixen unes conclusions que intenten establir una hipòtesi interpretativa en molts sentits vàlida per comprendre tant la corrupció política espanyola com la catalana.
This hypothesis is indissolubly linked to a new historiography that, in several European countries, considers corruption as a complex phenomenon that deserves to be analysed. This is true for the practices themselves, for what they reveal about the profound changes in our societies, and finally for the modification of public value systems that these issues have the capacity to generate.
The article aims to cover a twofold historical void: on the one hand, to inform on the power relations within the ecclesiastic class, specifically between the canons and the beneficiaries, focused on the basilica of the See of Manresa, and the position that the Bishop of Vic took in this conflict. Secondly, to shed more light on the politicisation of the Catalan clergy during the Napoleonic War, as well as analyse it within the setting of the unequal power relations present within that religious community in a crumbling conjuncture of the Ancien Régime which the war accelerated and revealed with all its harshness.
Paraules clau: Guerra napoleònica, poder eclesiàstic, Manresa, diòcesi de Vic.
El 20 d'octubre de 1814 el canonge Antoni Abardia de la col·legiata basílica de la seu de Manresa es queixava amargament de la dràstica reducció de compo nents que havia patit el capítol de canonges arran de la invasió napoleònica: de dotze que eren en començar la conflagració bèl·lica havien passat a sis, tres dels quals no estaven en condicions d'oferir les misses pels aniversaris ni d'atendre convenientment les necessitats del culte a la parròquia manresana. La reivindicació al monarca Ferran VII, tan desitjat i pel qual havien lluitat, era ben clara: la reposició d'almenys tres canonges tot respectant el privilegi de nomenament que estava reservat als monarques. No només s'havia reduït el personal que integrava el capítol, sinó que el patrimoni-fins i tot amb la casa dels canonges reduïda a runes arran de l'incendi perpetrat entre el 30 i el 31 de març de 1811-i les rendes de la col·legiata havien experimentat una notable ensulsiada, fos per les cremes i saquejos propinats pels francesos o bé per les contribucions extraordinàries a què els eclesiàstics estigueren subjectes, o bé per la no recaptació de les rendes enmig del desgavell
Margarita Barral (ed). Alfonso XIII visita España. Monarquía y Nación, Granada, Comares, 2015.