Navalism and Panhispanism as Horizons of Imperial Regeneration in Spain (1814-1862)

Abstract

The article analyzes how, between the 1810s and 1860s, a series of Spanish intellectuals linked to ministerial decision-making and the Royal Navy identified the modernization and expansion of the navy as the key to the transatlantic regeneration of Spain’s geopolitical power. Spanish navalism, inspired by the pessimistic interpretation of the imperial past and the emulation of the British model, was imbricated with the ideological program of pan-Hispanism and motivated naval rearmament policies that culminated in the organization of the Pacific Squadron in 1862.