Catholicism Versus Laicism: Culture Wars and the Making of Catholic National Identity in Spain, 1898–1931

Abstract

This article will argue that the ‘nationalization’ of the struggle between clericalism and anti-clericalism in Spain, which began during the revolutionary interlude of the ‘six years of democracy’ (1868–74), reached a climax during the first third of the twentieth century. Despite the variety of different political cultures which developed during the period, the main confrontation was between two great and mutually incompatible visions of the nation, which can be defined as adversarial nationalisms.