HIS106Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 39: Bourbon Reforms, Spanish Empire, Alessandro Malaspina
Document Summary
Despite stereotypes of being anti modern, urban people across spanish america engages with the major debates of the enlightenment. The enlightenment was an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries. The use of reason freed from tradition and authority. The search for natural laws and knowledge through observation and experimentation. A sense of optimism in progress and the potential of humanity. Spread of enlightenment ideas in spanish america: conversations with spanish and foreign travellers and settlers. Theology had been the main subject of study, now incorporating more science and reason. Access to expanding school libraries and building new public libraries, first one in havana. New schools opened dedicated to medicine and mining based on rational pursuit of knowledge. Access to periodicals like the mercurio peruano and the gaceta de mexico, newspapers that were now available in the new world.
