Every now and then, a terror attack is perpetrated by radical religious extremists, followed by another public announcement of condolence and rejection done by authorities, just another day in impunity for those trying to conquer the Old World with fear and refugee occupying forces. Europe seems to be lost in those moments, buried by the inefficiency of liberal democracy, and aside from the countries at the shores of the Danube, where paradoxically, illiberalism rules free and works as a safeguard for culture and sovereignty, there could be no turning back.

The New World is no better either. The Anglosphere, and its leading power, the United States, are facing a moral crisis greater than any other in history, only like the downfall of Rome. Progressivism has divided the country, has conquered political power in very contested elections, and has made of institutions the tools of harassment and persecution for dissident voices. 

This is not new, as back in the day, not even a conservative executive power had the means (or maybe the will) to turn the tide in a culture war where the Left controlled the media, the education and the permanent bureaucracy, and where convicted thugs were sanctified as the faces of the revolutionary uprisings of looters and arsonists. Moreover, in a very unfortunate turn of events, the popular Right tried to do the same as their ideological opponents, and ended up branded as a domestic threat, and censored by the very class of capitalists they used to innocently support.

But in this sea of disappointment and desperation, there might be a light shining for hope as Europeans and Anglo-Saxons drown in the consequences of their blurred enlightened policy, full of tolerance, democracy, and entropy. In a sense, I believe the future of global conservatism lies with ultramarine westerners.

For those unfamiliar with the term, “ultramarine” is a somewhat unknown word nowadays, because it refers to an era of extraterritorial conquest and exploration, and that reminds our progressive friends of an imperial idea they are trying to make the Western world to forget.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ultramarine means “something that comes from the other side of the sea”, or “that belongs to the land on the other shore”. 

For Europeans, back in the Age of Exploration, it referred to the territories and the peoples that formally belonged to their European homeland but were in another continent, most usually, the Americas. 

British, French, Portuguese and most importantly, Spaniards, all had their ultramarine provinces and in these territories lived their ultramarine citizens, trading and connecting from shore to shore with their respective metropolitan lands.

In a fashion like religious or ethnic diasporas, “ultramarine” can also refer to those nationals, called expatriates, living in a foreign land across the ocean. This is particularly true for descendants of non-conquering powers, such as Italians or even Germans, but they tend to get diluted in the cultures of each place in which they settle.

The ultramarine concept is paramount, because with the current decadence of civilization in the Western developed world, a new civilization could take its place, given an opportunity to work out the right conditions to do so. This civilization could be the Hispanosphere.

In his famous book, The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington considered the Hispanic Americas as a tributary and subordinate civilization to the Christian West, sometimes part of it, sometimes a separate one, but I think he failed to see its potential as a worthy successor of the true Western tradition, most probably because of his bias towards liberal democracy as the greatest political development in the West, something that would become the basis for the his colleague Francis Fukuyama in The End of History and The Last Man.

And, while it is true that Hispanics have had a tendency in the past to be seduced by socialist and communist ideologies, most usually introduced to us by French intellectuals and Soviet and Chinese agents, Latin America has always been a stronghold of the Christian civilization that preserved the Greek and Latin legacies. This is so important to the spirit of the Hispanic peoples that even clergymen had to be corrupted and convinced with liberal interpretations of the Church teachings to have a real chance at promoting leftism.

Catholicism and the Spanish legacy have a lot to do with this, as their historical and continued presence in the region, as explained by Spanish philosopher Gustavo Bueno in España frente a Europa, has shaped the Hispanic civilization as one of public freedoms, strong political traditions, and resilience against chaos and entropy, even when balkanized and reduced to a few small countries, dependent on foreign aid and foreign trade.

One can look at the current regional situation and think that the Hispanic Americas are a lost cause in the grand scheme of things, that no region as deeply submerged into leftism as this one, where one country manages to turn right only to have its neighbor turn left, can have a chance at preserving the Western civilization, as this also could reflect the state of affairs on the Iberian Peninsula, but there might be some chances of turning the tide and sparking a conservative reaction all around the region.

Recent history has proven this to be right, as the Hispanic support for Donald Trump’s reelection campaign went to be at an all-time high, due to the adequate policies his administration applied to support this group, despite not winning the Electoral College. 

Very recently, in Spain, the center-right Partido Popular managed to expel the Socialist coalition from power in the Assembly of Madrid, and on the international scale, the Vox party has worked on establishing an international alliance of patriotic movements to counter the influence of the progressive Foro de Sao Paulo, receiving endorsement from right wing politicians and personalities from each and every one of the regions countries. 

Furthermore, the progressive agendas pursued by leftist governments in both Venezuela and Argentina had created a strong conservative opposition locally, and abroad their failures have been used as cautionary tales, which in some cases, like in Ecuador, have proved to be enough to get a center-right movement elected to power. 

From these examples, it seems that ultramarines are working better at resisting and fighting revolution than their Europeans and Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and this is by no means a coincidence. 

The wealthy West has forgotten the meaning of traditions, the importance of order, the need for liberty. It has taken all for granted given that their economy was doing well and has neglected the public and civic virtues that made their countries and their civilization great.

Ultramarines, on the other hand, by suffering instability, tyranny, and poverty, have taken a liking on strong institutions and realized the importance of an ordered society to preserve freedom and tradition, with these as their hopes to develop wealth and overcome the problems of their past.

The West must focus on strengthening the Hispanic countries and their peoples, because once Europe is lost to the conquering East, and the Anglosphere has collapsed unto itself with the weight of progressivism and decadence, there will be no place to go except their former ultramarine territories.

Maybe it is time to stop undervaluing the Hispanics and their culture and start recognizing them as equals in the struggle for freedom and civilization.

So, which way, Western man?