Iberian and American national and transnational identities in a world at war (1914–1918)

Abstract

The Great War activated and reactivated national and transnational processes of identity formation and transformation. The belligerents’ war effort rested – mainly – in the active engagement of societies mobilised by war cultures anchored in identity issues. Self-representations and enemy’s images legitimised the conflict and acted as the driving force behind the vast mobilisation of the warring societies (Horne, Citation1997; Pedriali & Savettieri, Citation2020). However, in recent years the historiography of the First World War has contributed to make evident its global impact and enlarge the geographical spectrum of war mobilisation. The so-called ‘peripheries’ – neutrals or latecomers – were also active in building social experiences and representations of the conflict. Facing their States’ dilemma between belligerency and neutrality, their societies were shaped by social and cultural belligerence, understood as a cultural mobilisation (Compagnon & Purseigle, Citation2017; Pires et al., Citation2021). Neutral societies needed to legitimate themselves within total war by establishing new identity topographies and at the same time calling for the power of agency of their states and fellow citizens within political, economic, social and cultural spheres.Footnote1 The respective national representations served as agents of identity and otherness creation in sceneries peripheral to the conflict’s hotspots and frequently developed in a transnational framework...