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• Enlightenment ideas


  Had an influence in Spain
• Enlightenment despots

  • Promoted the publication of books
  • Protected some Enlightenment authors such as Augustinian monk Jeronimo Feijoo, who wrote Teatro Critico Universal
• Some advances made in scientific revolution, such as Copernicus's heliocentric theory, were still not known by the wider public
• Enlightenment thinkers

  • Formed part of the political and cultural elite
  • Believed that Spain's backwardness was the result of its historic lack of development of science with practical applications
• Academies


  • Important institutions
  • Protected by the king to protect aspects of culture
  • Examples are the Academia de la Lengua Española and the Academia de Bellas Artes
• Crown


  • Sponsored various scientific expeditions, such as the ones by Malaspina in South America, to gather geographical and botanical data