6533b7d1fe1ef96bd125c10c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Constructing the Centre from the Periphery

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During recent decades, scientific activity in the Spanish Enlightenment has attracted the attention of many historians of science. The policies of enlightened governments have been regarded as an important step in the process of modernisation of eighteenth-century Spanish society. At the beginning of that century, a new Bourbon dynasty was established in Spain and its policies have been regarded — mainly by conservative historians — as an attempt to introduce “foreign” ideas and practices into Spain. These policies have also been considered as a major effort to “modernise” a supposedly traditionalist country isolated from the rest of Europe and under the control of the powerful Catholic Church. Due to this caricatured image, enlightened Spanish governments have been very appealing for a group of politicians and historians who actively participated in the recent so-called “Spanish transition” from dictatorship to democracy, as they considered themselves engaged in a process of modernisation very similar to that initiated by their eighteenth-century forerunners. This trend reached its apex during the commemorations of the bicentennial of Carlos III, the most outstanding representative of Spanish enlightened despotism. One of the most important parts of the so-called modernisation process, then and now, was science. According to this view, the isolated Spain scarcely participated in the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and enlightened governments tried to solve this problem by implementing three main policies: (a) Reforming the recalcitrant universities, which were anchored in old scholastic ways of teaching, or, to avoid opposition, founding new scientific establishments in which new science could be taught and cultivated; (b) Appointing foreign scientists in some of the new institutions, so that they could introduce new ideas into Spain and train disciples; (c) Sending young students — pensionados l— abroad in order to improve their scientific background in the most famous European academic centres. Scientific trips are therefore considered a key part of Spanish enlightened policies and are mentioned in almost every study concerning eighteenth-century Spanish science.2