GRIS19

Grup of research on nineteenth century. Reform and revolution in Europe and America (1763-1918)

Detail Research lines Projects Publications Collaboration Theses

Date of inception 27 February 2017

Within the framework of a new cultural, political and social history, it is unavoidable to justify the creation of a Study Group focused on the European and American 19th century in the Department of Contemporary History of the Faculty of Geography and History. It is even more necessary if it is taken into account the history of the Department itself in the historiographical renewal of studies related to the crisis of the Ancien Régime, the subsequent revolutionary/counter-revolutionary upheavals and the development of the different political cultures of the nineteenth century. The chronological scope refers, albeit rather loosely, to what Hobsbawm called "the long nineteenth century"; loosely because, although 1918 fits in with the end of an "era", the beginning of that era is traditionally placed in France in 1789, whereas we place it at the end of the Seven Years' War in 19763. This was the starting point of a process of change that would sweep along with it the main European monarchies (Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, etc.) and their colonial territories. The consolidation of Great Britain as a major European power until almost the end of World War I was accompanied by the decline of other empires and monarchies, which had unusual and far-reaching effects on the international order. But the great changes, and thus the beginning of the contemporary era, did not only affect the European continent. The American territories were simultaneously the scene and protagonists of the processes of "reform and revolution" that have so often been approached from a unilateral Eurocentric perspective. This motivates us to carry out the historical analysis from two perspectives: firstly, by integrating the contextualised study of discursive proposals with that of plural political practices and, where possible, with the actors' own experience. In a complementary way, secondly, by incorporating a comparative history in which, as we have already pointed out, the American approach is naturally integrated into the study of the historical processes of that long century. All of this from an interdisciplinary academic orientation that allows us to broaden the perspective of study to other areas of knowledge related, for example, to literature and its particular relationship with history. In this sense, cultural history, conceived in a broad sense, makes it possible to think about reality in a more complex and integrating way.