Patriotic Volunteers in Defense of the Spanish Empire

This is a very good work about a very neglected subject in Spain's military history, the role of volunteers in defense during the latter nineteenth century. In addition to volunteers who served in the Moroccan War of 1859-1860, each of Spain's remaining colonies – Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and, Santo Domingo (restored to Spanish control 1861-1865) – saw volunteer militias organized, often by businessmen or landowners, to support colonial defense. These organizations drew recruits from a surprisingly broad social and racial spectrum,.

Padilla Angulo (Autonomous University of Barcelona), explores the motivations of these volunteers, notably loyalty to Spain, but also the threat of foreign – i.e. U.S. – encroachment, the hope of gaining identity as Spaniards, rather than as colonials, securing more political rights, and more. We also see how the Spanish Army viewed the volunteers, not always with favor, problems of organizing, equipping, and training, and, of course, their role in local defense.

Padilla Angulo covers the activities of the volunteers in both peace and war, notably during the independence movements in the several colonies. In each case the volunteers generally proved staunch opponents of independence. This was most important in Cuba, where the volunteers greatly outnumbered the insurgents, and played a major role in the defeat of the "Ten Years' War" (1868–1878) and a brief outbreak in 1879-1880, as well as to the stalemate of 1895-1898, which was only broken by the intervention of the United States.

While the translation from the Spanish original is occasionally clumsy, this is a valuable read about an unusual subject.

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Note: Volunteers of the Empire is also available in e-editions.

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