Los españoles de América. Nacionalidad y ciudadanía desde la segunda República hasta la España actual

Abstract

Spaniards in Hispanic America. Nationality and citizenship from the Second Republic to current Spain

Democratic citizenship in Spain was hard to build due to the pretension of establishing an imperial monarchy in two continents. Although this pretension had to be abandoned in the XIX century, Spain developed a substitute for the colonial rule to administer territories defined as overseas provinces until well into the XX century. Mass emigration to Hispanic America involved the creation of communities of Spaniards making up a niche of nationality preservation, citizenship building and especially Republican opposition to the monarchy and, since 1936, to the Francoist dictatorship. Subsequent to the recognition on the part of the Second Republic of the right to double nationality, for the first time Civil war exiles put forward the idea of extending citizenship to all Spanish expatriates although this was actually granted only by the 1978 Constitution.