La semántica del término comunidad, el cambio institucional en las ciudades y las interpretaciones del conflicto comunero

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the different meanings of the term community during the War of the Communities of Castile and to carry out an analysis of the institutional transformations that occurred in the urban governments during this conflict. It is argued that the semantic content of the term community is central to interpretations of the communal conflict. Moreover, a misinterpretation of the term has led to consider it as representative of the privileged agent of the conflict and the explanation of the institutional changes in the cities. A contextual analysis of the meanings of the term shows, however, that these institutional changes derive from evolutions of already existing structures and have to do with the prominence acquired by the urban political community as a whole during the conflict.

Keywords

• War of the Communities of Castile
• community
• urban institutions
• Crown of Castile
• Revolts
• 15th century