Will of Empire. Hispanidad in fascist thought during the Second Spanish Republic

Abstract

This research studies the influence that the ideas incorporated by the authoritarian monarchism in the Hispanidad doctrine had in the thought configuration of Spanish fascism in the context of the Second Republic. Hispanidad as a neo-traditionalist interpretation of history and an anti-liberal project was taken up almost entirely by the nascent groups close to fascism, which in this way served as an ideological link with a radical right from which, however, fundamental differences separated them. In this study we have pointed out the two main discrepancies between the concept of Hispanidad of neo-traditionalism, represented to a large extent by the counterrevolutionary group of Acción Española, and the various representative movements of Spanish fascism: the Catholic element as the inseparable essence of Spanish being and imperial aspirations. To develop this idea and demonstrate it, we have used a set of sources, among which the essays and periodicals of the time in which these conceptions were formulated and disseminated stand out.