Personalities of Modern Spain 51
From 1492 to 1568 we have a rapid rise; then from 1568
to 1898 comes the long period of dreary decline, as Spain
lost her colonies, one by one, until nothing was left of the
great empire.
We can explain this “gesture” when we show that it is
based on two ideas, as I said in the beginning—the theme
of heroism and the theme of chivalry—that mediaeval
chivalry which you find as the basis of the Spanish character.
Unamuno had this in mind when he said: “I feel my soul
is mediaeval, and that the soul of my country is mediaeval;”
that is the cry of the mystic—that the soul may be touched
and Spanish mediaevalism be restored; that is the cry of the
Middle Ages against the modern, and it is characteristic
that it should be a Spaniard who utters it today. The Span-
ish Empire, that wonderful empire of Ferdinand and
Isabella, was based on the idea of chivalry possessed by the
Spanish knights. It was a wonderful drama but it was not
economic.
From a study of the history of the Spanish Empire it is
evident that those explorers or Conquistadores did not
work from an economic standpoint; it is true that they went
where gold was to be found, but it only served to build won-
derful cathedrals and there was no attempt to create an eco-
nomic nation. This has been shown by various historians
who have written to prove that the whole system was waste-
ful because it tended to sacrifice one class, the nobles, without
touching the mass of the Spanish people. That is where you
find the weakness from the beginning in the Spanish Empire
and this weakness caused it to be an extraordinary gesture
made by the band of nobles headed by the King, and whose
lives were dominated by the idea of honor and chivalry.
Another point to be noted in the Spanish character is its
sense of antithesis which makes it contradictory. All