Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the identity dimensions of the Iberian world were the subject of intense debate. Many people devoted themselves to rethinking the identity traits, in the Iberian Peninsula, in other parts of Europe, in the Americas and even in Asia.

During these years of great change, marked, from 1668 onwards, by the political separation between Portugal and the Spanish Monarchy, the attributes (religious, corporate, jurisdictional, national, ethnic, linguistic, etc.) of not only the Castilians and the Portuguese, but also the Aragonese, the Catalans, the Biscayans, the various Creole groups from the Castilian Indies or the inhabitants of the various parts of Portuguese America were discussed, sometimes with great intensity. The ‘backdrop’ of these debates was the disintegration of the great Catholic project of universal domination, as well as the development in northern Europe of new models of social and political organisation, directed at both the Old World and the colonial territories.

The studies compiled in this book address this issue. By analysing a wide range of debates on the identifying features of the Iberian world, this body of works reveals the relational and processual nature of the notions of identity, as well as the disputes and negotiations that these notions gave rise to, in and beyond Europe, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Repensar a identidade. O mundo ibérico nas margens da crise da consciência europeia, David Martín Marcos (org.), José María Iñurritegui (org.), Pedro Cardim (org.), Lisboa: CHAM, 2015, 342p., (Colecção Estudos & Documentos, 23).

ISBN

Read Alexander Ponsen's review published in the "e-Journal Portuguese History" (.pdf)
Available at RUN - Repositório da NOVA (web)