The language of emotions in humanitarian narratives during the Carlist war, 1872-1876

Abstract

The last Carlist war (1872-1876) was the baptism of fire of the Spanish Red Cross (SRC) —founded in 1864, the very year when Spain adhered to the Geneva Convention— as well as the earliest major civil conflict in which the international movement of the Red Cross was involved. Despite the legal impossibility at the time that the Geneva Committee could intervene in civil wars, both sides agreed to respect the Convention’s principles, and the SRC —like other humanitarian associations, and singularly La Caridad, that was created by the insurgents— threw themselves in relief activities to the wounded and sick combatants.
This article explores the humanitarian narratives of two outstanding leaders of the SRC during the Carlist war: Nicasio Landa, a medical officer and its general inspector, and Concepción Arenal, a jurist, social reformer and the secretary of its Ladies Central Committee. It analyses their narratives in different primary sources (letters, reports, literary accounts, articles) by paying particular attention to their similitudes and differences each other with regard to four aspects: (i) their publics, purposes and strategies; (ii) their appreciations as to who deserved humanitarian aid; (iii) their concerns about the physic and emotional wellbeing of the sick and wounded combatants being looked after in varied spaces and transported by means of different procedures; and (iv) the identity of humanitarian actors. All this with the object of examining the role played by these humanitarian narratives in modelling citizen’s compassion towards the victims in civil wars, and the strengthening of the SRC.