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Brothers in Arms? The Spanish Army as a Factor of Nation-building in the Long Nineteenth-century: Galicia as a Case-study
| Armies have traditionally been considered one of the classical nation-building instruments, both by liberal states through the notion of the “nation in arms” and by historiography. This paper deals with the case-study of Galicia, where the compulsory military service met the fiercest resistance of all the Spanish regions during the long nineteenth-century under different forms: draft evasion, self-mutilation or riots. However, that does not mean that the yearly enrollment of thousands of young men had no effects in social and cultural terms, and it is questionable that the only or main motivation behind the rejection of the military service was the lack of identification of the predominantly rural population with the Spanish State. A wide array of sources will be analysed in order to approach this subject.
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