Los veteranos de la milicia y de los cuerpos francos: nacionalización de la memoria de las guerras civiles y coloniales (1839-1910)

Abstract

This article analyses the organisations of veterans of the militia and irregular army volunteer units, as well as their participation in festivities and commemorations, in order to observe how the narrative of the construction of the Liberal State was transformed. Gradually, with the incorporation of veterans' collectives into military culture, the army was given political agency in the foundation of the Restoration regime, based on the victories of the military, and forgetting the Liberal Revolution. During the final decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, veterans' organisations were used by different competing nationalisation practices. The case of the veterans of the African War shows how they went from representing progressive and even revolutionary liberalism to embodying Catholic conservatism and anti-Catalanist ideas.

Keywords

• Societies of Veterans
• National Militia
• Army
• Colonial Wars
• Battalions of Veterans
• Nationalising commemorations and practices