Modernity Versus Tradition: Beyond the Ideological Dispute

International Journal of Historical Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-024-00768-0 Modernity Versus Tradition: Beyond the Ideological Dispute Gorka Martin‑Echebarria1 Accepted: 11 November 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract The process of implementing the liberal-bourgeois revolution was a transcendental event in Western history. The liberal revolutions of the eighteenth and, especially, nineteenth century, gave birth to a new world that sought to impose itself upon the traditional world, that of the Ancien Régime. The arrival of liberalism was not without conflicts, controversies, and dichotomies, which, on more than one occasion, were resolved on bloody battlefields and wars, both international and civil. The conflict between liberals and reactionaries generated a distinct material culture that amply illustrates the clash between these two worlds. This article delves into the effects this process had on the material culture of the time. To this end, several case studies of the Spanish nineteenth-century civil wars are presented, known as the Carlist Wars. We analyze the material culture of various archaeological sites comparatively with similar cases. The article concludes with a discussion of several of the aspects addressed: the conflict’s material expression, the dialectics between modernity and tradition, and its inherent contradictions. Keywords Spain · Modernity · Contemporary History · Conflict Archaeology · Civil Wars Introduction One of the events that marked nineteenth century history was the progressive implementation of the liberal-bourgeois revolution (Hobsbawm 2014). It was an extremely complex, global process with rhythms and particularities specific to each territory and country. It was also a dynamic transition deeply marked by violence, in which resorting to arms was an oft-taken solution. Revolutionary waves were countered by reactionary agents, faithful defenders of the Ancien Régime. In Europe, * Gorka Martin‑Echebarria 1 Faculty of Letters, Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), C/Tomás y Valiente s/n C.P. 01006, Araba, Vitoria‑Gasteiz, Spain Vol.:(0123456789) International Journal of Historical Archaeology absolutist monarchies confronted revolutionary France first, and then the Napoleonic war machine. In the American continent, the dialectic of revolution against reaction was a central tenet in the emancipatory processes of the former colonies. This gave rise to the first liberal experience in history, the independence of the United States of America between 1776 and 1783. Subsequently, and throughout the middle decades of the nineteenth century, most of the countries of the Old and New World experienced constant conflicts between those who supported the liberal program and the defenders of the traditional world (Osterhammel 2015). Thus began the long, bloody, and bitter civil wars over the political configuration of states. In the Spanish case, the tension between revolution and reaction dominated the entire nineteenth century, leading to civil war on several occasions. The Carlist conflict was the most significant. Although the casus belli were a dynastic dispute, the crux of the matter lay in the confrontation between those who supported moderate liberalism, known as liberals, and those who defended the Ancien Régime under the banner of Spanish pretender Carlos María Isidro, hence the term, Carlists (Canal 2023). There were three main conflicts, the First Carlist War (1833–40), the Guerra de los Matiners (War of the Early Risers: 1846–49), and the Second or Last Carlist War (1872–76). Similarly, there were three main war theaters: the north (Basque Country and Navarre), the Center (southern Aragon and northern Castellon), and Catalonia (Fig. 1). On all occasions, the Carlist army was defeated and their leaders were forced into exile. Thus far, these conflicts have been studied solely and exclusively from written sources. However, since 2015 a purely archaeological line of research has developed providing a much broader reading of these historical events Fig. 1  Main Carlist areas during the civil wars of the nineteenth century International Journal of Historical Archaeology (Roldán-Bergaratxea et al. 2020). The trajectory, main contributions, future potential and limitations of this archaeology are addressed by Martín-Echebarria, EscribanoRuiz and González-Ruibal (2024). These conflicts constitute central events in the modern history of Spain, with their development and outcome leaving a deep imprint on society that is still felt on today’s sociopolitical configuration. In the present-day, echoes of those conflicts can be traced in different areas such as in various territorial legislations, ruined fortifications of the era and in folk memory. These conflicts, particularly the military operations, generated specific material contexts. This article presents the main results of archaeological research on the Carlist Wars, this is then compared to analogous cases from the international sphere (Table 1). Therefore, we have selected different case-studies from the Americas, including the US Civil War (1861–65), Argentine Civil Wars (1814–80), Saltpeter War (1879–84), and the US-Cuban War (1895–98). This selection has been made for two main reasons. First, because these are cases with an important academic output, crystallized in research of great interest (Geier and Potter 2001; Geier et al. 2014; Landa and Hernández de Lara 2014, 2020). Secondly, because in these cases we have been able to observe similar dynamics when compared to the Carlist Wars: the same materiality, same chronology, and same type of war – civil. The focus of our analysis then is delving into the controversies, dialogues, and effects that the struggle between revolution and reaction had on the material culture within battlefields of the time. Revolution Versus Reaction: A Century of Wars The nineteenth century was an era of revolutions. Politics were understood, more than in any preceding era, in revolutionary terms. Unlike at other times, where only certain existing conditions were sought to be modified, the American (1775) and French (1789) revolutions, and those that followed, sought to overthrow the old order, ushering in a completely new one. This new order sought to seized power by force, given the existence of a social class that held economic power but did not hold political power due to the sociopolitical machinations of the Ancien Régime. In this sense, the boots of the Napoleonic soldiers spread revolutionary ideas throughout Europe (Osterhammel 2015:731–748) and this revolutionary fervor did not cease with the defeat of the emperor and the return of the Bourbon monarchy to the throne of France in 1814. Despite repeated attempts by the various absolutist powers to return to the old Ancien Régime, liberal ideas impacted throughout certain sectors across most European countries. Th (...truncated)