Search results for "Enlightened absolutism"

Constructing the Centre from the Periphery

2003

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 Chu…