The Image of Russia in the Spanish Historical Diplomatic Discourse of the Second Half of the 18th Century: Frame Modelling

Frame modelling has been widely used to analyse various types of discourse; however, the historical and diplomatic discourse remained beyond the purview of special studies until recently. This paper aimed to consider the linguopragmatic and ontological characteristics of the image of Russia in the Spanish historical and diplomatic discourse of the second half of the 18th century from the perspective of frame modelling. An interdisciplinary approach was applied, including the methods of comparative, lexicosemantic, discourse, and frame analysis. The frame “Russia” modelled by the author on the basis of the prototypical frame “state” represents linguistic units that actualize the image of Russia in the discourse under study as well as changes in this image that occurred during the given historical period. The material included 84 historical documents from Spanish archives, namely, official diplomatic correspondence dating back to the period of exploration of the New World by Russia and Spain and consolidation of their state rights on this territory. The studied correspondence, consisting of reports of Spanish envoys to Russia, letters of governors of New Spain and diaries of Spanish seafarers, is one of the main sources of the formation of the image of Russia as part of the Spanish linguistic worldview of the 18th century. Based on the semantic, discourse and frame analysis of Spanish diplomatic documents of the second half of the 18th century, it is concluded that the image of Russia in the Spanish linguistic worldview is rather ambiguous: Russia is portrayed as a large empire with rich land and human resources planning expansion into North America, while having corrupt officials and an uncivilized indigenous population in Eastern Siberia. The results of this study can be of interest to linguists, historians and diplomatic officials.

The Victoria: An example of Basque maritime technology that enabled the first circumnavigation of the globe, 1518-1522

Using unpublished documentation collected from Spanish archives located in Seville, this article establishes the Basque origin of the Victoria, protagonist of the first circumnavigation of the globe. The article also assesses the suitability for transoceanic voyages of a Basque vessel of the early sixteenth century through a comparative analysis of the five ships that participated in the expedition.

WARTIME AND POST-WAR RAPE IN FRANCO'S SPAIN

By examining the experience of rape in Spain in the 1930s and 1940s, this article explains how the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship dramatically increased the likelihood of women becoming victims of sexual assault. Contrary to what historians often assume, this phenomenon was not the result of rape being deliberately used as a ‘weapon of war’ or as a blunt method of political repression against women. The upsurge in sexual violence was a by-product of structural transformations in the wartime and dictatorial contexts, and it was the direct consequence, rather than the instrument, of the violent imposition of a fascist-inspired regime. Using archival evidence from numerous Spanish archives, the article historicizes rape in a wider cultural, legal, and social context and reveals the essential albeit ambiguous political nature of both wartime and post-war rape. The experience of rape was mostly shaped not by repression but structural factors such as ruralization and social hierarchization, demographic upheavals, exacerbation of violent masculinity models, the proliferation of weapons, and the influence of fascist and national-Catholic ideologies. Rape became an expression of the nature of power and social and gender relations in Franco's regime.

Untribing the (Post)-Colonial Spanish Archives: Material Records, Boundary-making and Linguistic Diversity within Northern Morocco’s Berberophones

This paper analyses the linguistic diversity among the Berberophones in northern Morocco in the period of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco (1912–1956). To do this, I focus on the documentary materials kept in digital archives, which allow us to go deeper into the knowledge of how Spaniards may have shown interest in Berberophony. In particular, I centre my analysis on the recognition of linguistic diversity and on the process of recognising linguistic borders enacted in the colonial era. I add some reflections on the persistence of colonial discourses in the postcolonial era.

System prawny archiwów hiszpańskich

The legal system of the Spanish archives This article presents the legal system of the Spanish archives. Due to the specific nature of Spanish legislation, the article begins with a short introduction characterizing the sources of the Spanish law which regulate the activity of archive facilities. Since certain legal acts introduced back in the 19th century have an impact on statutes and decrees today, the main part of the text is preceded by a short historical analysis discussing legal acts devoted to archiving. The next part of the article analyses applicable nationwide legislation, starting from the Constitution of 1978, which identifies 17 autonomous regions and divides the competences to manage archives between central and regional authorities. Due to the decentralization of the Spanish archive network, the central archive network managed by the state administration and autonomous networks were characterized separately. The text is based on the available source literature and legal acts passed by the central government and autonomous authorities in Spain.

A long way to Russia: Agustín de Betancourt

A lot has been written about Agustín de Betancourt, his life in Russia, his contribution to the architecture, construction and organization of the transport system in the Russian Empire, as well as his life, his training and his professional career in Spain. However, little is known about when, how and why he makes the decision to leave his country permanently and settle in Russia. According to the documentation found in both Russian and Spanish archives, it has been shown that it is the Russian ambassador to Spain, Ivan Muravyov-Apostol, who, shortly after his arrival in Spain, at the end of 1803, after personally meeting Betancourt, proposes its contract to Saint Petersburg. Once the approval is obtained, the proposal is transferred. Also, the discrepancies between Manuel Godoy and Betancourt are studied in detail for the work of channeling the Genil river and the intervention in Soto de Roma, Royal Site owned by the minister, which marked the deterioration of the relations between both and took the engineer to consider, negotiate and accept the offer to settle in Russia. Both facts are studied within the framework of his professional career in Spain.

The Manila Galleon, Macao and international maritime and commercial relations, 1500–1700

Formal and informal trade were key elements in the establishment of global connections. Using data collected from Portuguese and Spanish archives, as well as the secondary literature, this article examines the early modern Southeast Asian Iberian communities of Macao and Manila, their weakness and resilience. Far from the centres of political decision-making they relied on their own resources and abilities to manage maritime connections with China, Japan and Spanish America through the voyages of the ‘Macao Ship’ and the ‘Manila Galleon’. The rarely mentioned intervention of the Macanese traders in the Manila Galleon route constitutes a central part of this research.

Edwin Lutyens in Spain: the Palace of El Guadalperal

ABSTRACTAlthough the work of Edwin Lutyens has received careful scholarly study since the 1980s, his projects in Spain remain very little known. Unfortunately, Lutyens was unable to complete his Spanish commissions, mostly because of the deterioration of country's economy and social order in the 1930s, and this has played a major role in keeping these projects in the dark. Furthermore the devastation caused by the Civil War obliterated most of the evidence once held in Spanish archives.This paper focuses on Lutyens's main commission in Spain, the palace of El Guadalperal, designed for the eighteenth Duke of Peñaranda as a country house on his estate in south west Spain. This decades-long commission, lasting from 1915 to 1934, represents a very significant and original work in Lutyens's output. The first version for the palace shows his capacity to adapt his architecture to the local climate and architectural traditions, while the second would have been, if built, his largest country house, approaching the grandeur and magnificence of the Viceroy's House in Delhi.