ABSTRACT

This article analyses how electricity and electrical technologies were used to generate a whole series of narratives about national regeneration in a context of national (and imperial) decline. It will follow the debates that the advent of the “electrical era” triggered among a group of Spanish engineers that in 1902 published the book La ciencia y la industria eléctrica en España al subir al trono S.M. el Rey Don Alfonso XIII. The publication acted as a memorandum addressed to the young monarch aimed at encouraging the promising applications of electricity in Spain. As members of an international community, engineers embraced the alleged universal promises of electricity but adapted them to Spain’s local conditions. Accordingly, through the pages of the book they used technologies of electrification and electricity as cultural resources to refashion national identity and establish the foundations of a new modernity. By analysing how Spanish engineers conceived the relationship between energy and the future of the nation, this article aims at enriching the historiography of Spanish nationalisms through the lenses of the history of technology (particularly, histories of techno-nationalism) and cultural histories of electricity and energies.

摘要

本文分析了电力和电气技术如何在国家（和帝国）衰落的背景下产生一系列关于国家复兴的叙述。它将遵循“电气时代”的到来在一群西班牙工程师中引发的争论，这些工程师于 1902 年出版了《西班牙电气工业》一书。. 该出版物作为一份致年轻君主的备忘录，旨在鼓励西班牙有前途的电力应用。作为国际社会的成员，工程师们接受了所谓的普遍的电力承诺，但根据西班牙当地的情况对其进行了调整。因此，通过这本书，他们将电气化和电力技术作为文化资源来重塑民族身份并为新的现代性奠定基础。通过分析西班牙工程师如何构想能源与国家未来之间的关系，本文旨在通过技术史（特别是技术民族主义史）和电力文化史的视角丰富西班牙民族主义的史学和能量。