Estrategias y actitudes del poder local ante la privatización de las tierras concejiles en la España interior (Ciudad Real, 1855-1910)

Abstract

Interest in the issue of communal land and the attitude of rural society and its elites to the disentailment process has increased in recent years. Much progress has been made in learning about what happened in various parts of Spain, but we know very little about the specific case of the interior. This paper aims to fill this historiographical gap through an examination of what happened in the province of Ciudad Real, a territory with important communal assets that virtually disappeared due to the disentailment process. Based on a wide range of sources that are mostly unpublished, this study focuses on the attitudes and strategies of local authorities in relation to the sale of municipal land. The findings indicate that there was no consensus among the local authorities; their range of actions was extremely variable and ranged from positions in favour of disentailment among the most powerful local elites to an attitude of resistance among mid to small-sized towns. The end result of this research offers a model that differs significantly from what happened in other parts of Spain.