ABSTRACT
Spain is probably the clearest case of failure in the attempt to build a large nation-state in Europe. Initially, from the sixteenth century on, the building of a broad Spanish empire, which expanded through Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, helped to create collaborative links among the several traditional kingdoms existing on the Iberian Peninsula. Especially important was Castile-Leon’s initiative towards Aragon-Catalonia, Navarre and Portugal. But the more modern attempt to build a unitary Spanish state and a Spanish nation under Castilian domination, from the eighteenth century on, clashed with resistance from several national groups and was fatally blunted by the weakness of the Spanish empire.
