Intra-European Imperialism and the Orientalization of Spain (1808-1848)

This central theme of this article is inter-European imperialism. It asks whether Britain and France adopted imperialist attitudes and policies towards Spain. In addition, it analyses whether a negative Orientalist discourse was applied in order to justify imperialist intervention. We argue that one can talk of an imperialism of intent. Under Napoleon France exercised formal imperial control. Britain, on the other hand, pursued an informal imperialist agenda and this was the route adopted by both Britain and France after Napoleon’s fall. The aim was to construct a political system which would align with their interests and attain economic and strategic advantages. During these years, within Britain and France, an Orientalizing discourse was also quite widely applied to Spain, with the argument that it was either “semi-Oriental” of “semi-African”. We uncover the complexity of this discourse, noting that it had both more positive Romantic and more negative post-Enlightenment strands. We conclude that in France it to a degree performed the function of backing imperialist intervention but that it was not adopted by all establishment figures. Imperialist strategies could be rationalized with the argument that Spain was lower down the European civilizational scale, without having to invoke any Orientalist characteristics. At the same time, we argue that British and French informal imperialism can be seen as an imperialism manqué. These countries were hampered by rivalry between each other, which led them to back different factions within the Spanish political elite, and they were either unable or unwilling to use coercive practices to bring Spain to heal. In these circumstances imperial designs were contested by actors within Spain, who, in large measure, stymied British and French policies. Hence, while Spain had to work with either Britain or France, dominant elites were to a significant degree able to follow their own path.