Re: Addendum : Nationalism
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What do you say to someone who argues that democracy was in adolescence in [1808] but now it is somewhere between middle age and old age? If this is true, then the parallel doesn't work so well.
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Whether or not democracy was a regime that had already been tried in the United States (or even neighoring France) was obviously irrelevant to the Spaniards resisting Napoleonic modernisation. The Spaniards were offered tangibly better social and political conditions than those they had to endure under the monarchy and the Church -- yet the Spaniards denounced and refused the lot.
Their refusal had little, if anything, to do with "their lack of familiarity" with democratic concepts or with democracy's "young age". It had everything to do with the fact that those "better conditions" were offered by a foreigner, who was an invader and occupier to boot. End of story.
Notably, some years after this episode, the Spaniards did rebel against the autocratic and harsh regime of the (Spanish) King Ferdinand VII. But, this time, the rebellion was led by another Spaniard, the King's brother -- and a civil war ensued which lasted seven years.
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