ABSTRACT
The construction of nation-states during the long 19th century encompassed almost the entire western world, including Spanish America. It was a process with different temporalities, although triggered by the dynamics of the revolution. One of its peculiarities in the region was the adoption of the modern one-state, one-nation formula at the same time states were being built based on republican arrangements as a rule. This chapter presents the transnational circulation of a three-component traveling policy: schooling, State and the national. The development of this policy in Spanish America showed a change in the articulation of these components given the central place occupied by the configuration of the nation-state. As a result, different assemblages emerged during the long 19th century but withheld common trends: the idea of future as a link between identity-building, nation and education, and the need for the state’s organizational capacity to guarantee schooling. The chapter uses primary sources as school acts and secondary sources linked to the state cultural machinery reared towards nation-building – i.e., schooling enrolment and expenditure. Considering the vastness and diversity of Hispanic America, the analysis is based on the identification of general trends with reference to cases when needed.
