ABSTRACT
The Spanish-Cuban War of 1895—1898 and the war with United States in 1898 exposed the fragility of the Restoration Settlement. As the demands of war grew, most of Spanish society was mobilised in support of the war effort. The official symbol of the United States, the eagle, was too powerful an image for Spanish jingoism to contemplate and, in several cities, the crowds tore it down from the entrance to American consulates in Spain. The Spanish state was no longer able so easily to draw upon traditional images of national identity to re-establish its authority or to create a popular base for a new nationalism based on military and commercial penetration into Africa. Republican nationalism, somewhat chastened and tempered by the Disaster, sought to give a populist dimension to traditional nationalism, stressing the innate virtues of the Spanish masses in contrast to the decadence of the rulers.
