Cultural Transformations in 19th Century Spain
3. Cultural Changes – Change in mentalities. The new urban society during the nineteenth century in Spain saw the power of the nobility and gentry, landowners, creating an aristocratic rentier social elite at the expense of the industrial bourgeoisie, as was common in other countries. That elite held old values in contempt, based on work and life on the basis of income. Only in limited industrial zones and business groups were founded, and a social conscience opposed to the former, who valued work, began to emerge. The social influence of the Catholic Church was still very important. The traditional religious rites and social rituals were used for the bourgeoisie. Only a liberal group suggested an end to the enormous influence that Catholic moral teachings had inculcated into society. The working class began to act against the Church, which started to connect with their social enemies, the ruling elite. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the growth of a modern urban society with the working class as protagonists was perceived. Although the rural population was still the majority, significant differences began to emerge between the ways of life and ideologies of rural and urban Spain. It is in this new urban society where social values innovated, along with lifestyle, leisure, and culture, which began to disperse to new social strata where illiteracy once reigned.
In this new society, wealth established a social order where the bourgeoisie and popular classes held different ways: on the one hand, the bourgeoisie developed their own ideologies, influenced by anarchists and socialists, and forms of entertainment, frequently attending bars, nightclubs, and arenas. For its part, the bourgeoisie proudly displayed their economic power through their clothes and houses. Of course, they did not frequent the same places as the lower classes, who began to attend new entertainments like opera, casinos, and theaters, where they mingled with people of their same social class.
Media Education – In the early twentieth century, many changes occurred, one of the most important being the progress of education. Liberals recognized the enormous importance of public and universal education, free from the intervention of the Church. They understood how crucial it was as a method of political and economic progress. The state had to promote education, regardless of the Church, which had always been the owner of education. Thanks to this Act, public education was created, and illiteracy was significantly reduced in a few years. This law divided education into primary, secondary, and university levels. Primary education was the only free public education, while high school and college required substantial economic resources from the upper classes. The state was forced to deliver primary and secondary education through private organizations due to budget problems, mainly private religious organizations. University education was controlled by the state, and teachers were government officials who lacked academic freedom, which oppressed the followers of Krausismo liberal. In response to this censorship of education, the Free Institution of Education was founded, pursuing free education for individuals, promoting free thought and scientific communication. The Krausist institutions had plenty of chairs. Society evolved in relation to education in extraordinary ways, spreading through many places, including museums, libraries, and academies. Improvements were made through printing publishers, driven by cultural demand for books and newspapers, making the latter a new medium of mass communication which, alongside the radio, encouraged the relationship between citizens and power. Through the press, opinions were shared that everyone could read, generating independent public opinion. The publishing world and the press were generally centered in Madrid, spreading throughout the country via train or mail.