https://nitter.1d4.us/simongerman600/status/1668742548548997120

  • CarmineCatboy [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    It's important to note that even taking these values at their face, Spain is not the highlight of this dataset. The dutch are. And one would probably not argue that the Dutch think their stint in Indonesia was cool and good just because they are rich. So are the Belgians. Wealth is also something relative to how your country is doing at the moment. Spain isn't poor, doesn't mean spaniards, especially young spanish people, don't feel like they have no future. Even if that is nowhere near the level of despair you should see in countries outside the golden billion.

    Historically, the Spanish and the Portuguese leaned hard on themselves as a 'civilizational force in the past' precisely because they were poorer and in crisis when compared to rest of Europe. That is what happened in the long 1800s, during their second attempt at Empire building. And it only started dying when places like Mexico stabilized enough to build up and open up their national archives, giving rise to a historiography that questions the whole shebang.

    But perhaps what is key is that I don't know where these numbers come from and how the questions were asked. 'Are you proud of the Spanish Empire?' and 'Do you think the Spanish Empire civilized the american barbarians?' are two very different ideas, and one can hold different stances on either. For an instance, they can hold the Empire in contempt for it's weaknesses and blame it for their relative poverty, while also having an underdog complex where they glorify aspects of Empire. In that same sense, a demographic breakdown would be interesting to see if there has been a change over the generations, further informed by someone who actually knows one thing or two about spanish secondary education during the Franco era and onwards.