Abstract
Portugal and Spain emerge to the 20th century as decadent States and economically undeveloped. If on the one hand Portugal had been humiliated by its long date ally, England, when the latter demanded the evacuation of the Portuguese troops from the region of the Pink Map, nowadays Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi (English Ultimatum of 1890), on the other, Spain had been defeated in the Spanish-American war of 1898, loosing Cuba and the Philippines. In the peak of of the nationalist movements of the 19th century, a voice, among many, advocated that the solution for the Iberian development delay was the formation of a peninsular federation that would guarantee the respect to the local culture and greater municipal autonomy (once that the idea of federation is, by its nature, decentralized). Such was the project of Antero de Quental, a republican and socialist intellectual of the Portuguese left wing. Many were the proposals of an Iberic nationalism (influenced by the Italian, Belgians, polish, Germanic movements) that they went from a peninsular monarchy to a republican federation. Some were the barriers for the peninsular federation, such as the Portuguese colonization project in Africa, the Spanish africanism in Morocco, and their own local nationalist projects that were getting stronger, whether in Portugal, or in Spain, or even in the different nations that make up Spain (as Catalonia, Galicia, for instance). In the splendor of the nationalist movements of the XIX century, a voice, between many, advocated that the solution for the Iberian development delay was the formation of a peninsular federation that would guarantee the respect to the local culture and larger municipal autonomy (Once that the idea of federation is by its nature decentralized). That was the project of Antero de Quental, a Portuguese left wing intellectual, republican and socialist. Many were the proposals of an Iberic nacionalism (inspired by the Italian, Belgians, polens, Germanic movements) that went from a peninsular monarchy to a republican federation. Some were the barriers for the peninsular federation, such as the Portuguese colonization project in Africa, the Spanish africanism in Morocco, and their own local nationalist projects, that were getting stronger, been in Portugal, or been in Spain, or even in the different nations that make Spain (as Catalonia, Galicia, for instance). Based on what was exposed above, this scientific initiation project intends to answer the following questions: Was there a well made idea of Iberian federation in Antero de Quental? In case of existence, how did the Portuguese intellectual face the Portuguese colonization and the Spanish africanist projects? Was the colonialism of the XIX and XX centuries a fundamental element to the non accomplishment of the union? (AU)
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