Regenerationism in history

Image: History of Spain

Between the 19th and 20th centuries Spain suffers a series of territorial losses that end the colonial empire that since 1492 had been forming. From a series of political and social events, the vast majority of the nation's scholars began to write about why Spain was in that situation. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you the definition of regenerationism in history to understand what this current is about.

Index

1. What is regenerationism in history
2. Historical context of regenerationism in Spain
3. The most important authors
4. Consequences of regenerationism

First of all, within our lesson on the definition of regenerationism in history, we must focus on the meaning of the word. It can be said that it serves to define the intellectual movement that occurred in Spain between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, both scientifically and objectively on the causes of the decline of Spain as a nation.

In most cases, we can find it related to the Generation of '98, although in reality they do not share so many points in common, since regenerationism uses documentary sources exact, while the generation of 98 used literature and art to express the pessimistic sentiment of Spain.

Continuing with our lesson on the definition of regenerationism in history, we have to know when this movement began.

The situation in Spain since the second half of the 19th century was disastrous, the political system imposed by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was almost destroyed; To this, they would add the various defeats suffered before other armies, as in the war of Cubaat the hands of the US who confirmed that the Spanish army was obsolete (technically speaking).

In this way, we will find a series of authors who, from a high point of society, and Through the use of documents, they carried out a series of works trying to make an exact explanation of why of the spanish failure. The most important points on which all the authors came to agree were:

• Lack of patriotism
• Contempt of one's own
• Absence of common interest
• Lack of the concept of independence
• Disregard for tradition

We can say that regenerationism ended the start of the Spanish civil war, although many of the thoughts that still exist today come from these authors.

In this video we discover the causes of the Spanish Civil War.

Image: Slideshare

To conclude the lesson we have to mention the most important authors within the Spanish regenerationist movement:

Lucas Mallada

One of the first authors to write about the ills of Spain and that served for Joaquín Costa to carry out his works. This author harshly attacked the educational institutions of the time, his best-known work being The evils of the homeland and the future Spanish revolution (1890).

Joaquin Costa

We are facing the true creator and leader of the Spanish regeneration movement. This person harshly criticized the illiteracy, education and pedagogy that was being carried out in Spain for decades, elements which in his opinion were creating terrible generations.

His most important works were:

• Agrarian collectivism in Spain (1898).
• Oligarchy and caciquismo as the current form of government in Spain (1901).

Rafael Altamira placeholder image

Originally from Alicante, he dedicated part of his work to defending the concept of the homeland, which had been discredited both from within the country and from abroad. In the same way, he would attack the other ills of Spain, seen previously. His main work was Psychology of the Spanish people (1902).

As the last step in the lesson on the definition of regenerationism in history, we will mention that the ideas collected by these and other authors were very well received by the conservative parties of Spanish society and by many private individuals, who saw how Spain was getting worse and worse.

However, it was of little use, since the historical evolution of Spain from the XIX S and during the XX S, was that of a spiral of economic crises and wars that have left a strong wound in the society. Likewise, many current actors would not hesitate to warn that the problems mentioned above remain active in the country today.

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