The Spanish Enlightenment: Reform and Progress in 18th Century Spain

Spanish Enlightenment: Context and Characteristics

The spread of Enlightenment ideas in Spain was relatively slow and late, although it presented essentially the same features as elsewhere in Europe. Enlightened thinkers (ilustrados) were always a small minority among the Spanish population, and their actions were often more theoretical than practical. Despite this, they drew attention to significant problems. They cannot be blamed for the absence of a powerful bourgeoisie capable of adopting their ideas.

Characteristic Features of Spanish Enlightenment

The characteristic features of this ideology include:

• Employment of reason and criticism as a method for analyzing and improving social reality.
• Promotion of the national economy, seen as necessary for social transformation, improving societal welfare, and strengthening the monarchy's power.
• Development of scientific knowledge and education as the foundation for technical and economic progress.
• Dissemination of progress and happiness to the largest possible number of individuals, considered the ultimate goal of Enlightenment theory, practice, and reform.

Limitations and Legacy

This movement aimed to reform the economic, social, and political structures of the Ancien Régime. However, its main achievement was creating ideas and programs that would ultimately be superseded in the nineteenth century. A key limitation of the Enlightenment was its proposal for reform within the existing system, which inevitably conflicted with the interests of the privileged classes of the Ancien Régime. The ilustrados themselves would not fully implement their most radical ideas. This task would fall to the nineteenth-century liberals, who would ultimately dismantle the Ancien Régime.

Development and Key Figures

The first Spanish Enlightenment thinkers (such as Feijoo and Olavide), deeply concerned by Spain's decline, questioned its causes and proposed initial ideas for reform. During the 1730s and 1740s, they paved the way for a new generation of enlightened thinkers, who had closer contact with foreign ideas and received solid support from King Carlos III.

A central tenet of the Spanish Enlightenment was the elevation of the country's culture and education as indispensable means to overcome backwardness and achieve prosperity. Figures like Feijoo, Jovellanos, and especially Carlos III and his ministers, worked to implement useful, practical education, making it mandatory in the early stages for both sexes.

Institutions for Reform

To improve the economic situation, Enlightenment thinkers established new avenues for study and reform proposals, such as Academies, the Economic Societies of Friends of the Country (Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País), and consulates.

Economic societies quickly emerged in most provinces. Within these societies, social distinctions were generally disregarded. Their mission was to promote agriculture, trade, and industry; translate and publish foreign works; and foster scientific education with practical applications. Through these organizations, Physiocratic and liberal economic ideas were disseminated and, in some respects, applied by the mid-century.