Joaquín Costa: Social Reform and Regeneration in Spain

Posted on Nov 23, 2024 in History

The Regeneration

Joaquín Costa and the Social Question

  • References Author: Joaquín Costa (1846-1911), Aragonese notary and social reformer promoting regeneration.
  • Text Classification
    • Source: Primary historical source for understanding Costa’s ideas. Historiography is a secondary source for socio-economic context.
      • Subject Matter: Social.
    • Nature: Ideological, essayist, reformist.
    • Remote Historical Context:
      • Liberalism, introduced through military coups and maintained by corruption, failed to address the material misery of laborers.
      • Liberalism hindered economic development and mass media society due to widespread poverty and illiteracy (63.79% in 1900).
      • Liberalism led to de-Christianization and moral degradation, especially among leaders who disregarded traditional morality.
      • The social question arose from the poverty caused by liberal exploitation, leading to socialist and anarchist movements.
      • Paradoxically, illiteracy rates only decreased significantly under the dictatorships of Primo de Rivera and Franco.

Years

Million

Million Illiterates

%

1860

15.6

11.8

75.5

1877

16.6

11.97

72

1887

17.5

11.94

71.5

1897

18

11.8

63.8

1900

18.59

11.87

63.79

1910

19.99

11.86

59.39

1920

21.3

11.16

52.23

1930

23.67

10.5

44.47

1960

30.58

3.4

11.2

1970

33.95

1.9

5.7

  • Next Historical Context:
    • The crisis of 1898 forced an examination of conscience among politicians and intellectuals.
    • The Restoration system, the Constitution of 1876, and the monarchy aimed to stabilize the liberal revolution, but were plagued by electoral fraud and political bossism (caciquismo).
    • The rise of Regeneracionismo, epitomized by Joaquín Costa’s slogan “School and Pantry,” addressed the physical misery of hunger and mass illiteracy.
      • State intervention in the economy, including water policy and irrigation to increase production and lower subsistence costs.
      • Land redistribution and elevating laborers to landowners, unlike socialism’s call for property abolition.
      • Development of peoples’ lands and roads.
      • Social security for farm laborers, workers, and traders.
      • Expansion of foreign markets for agricultural products.
      • Municipal autonomy to combat centralized despotism.
      • Reduction of illiteracy through improved primary education and teacher status.
      • Strengthening ties with Latin American nations to counter US influence.
      • Costa advocated for an “iron surgeon” to implement these reforms.
      • His key work, Oligarchy and Despotism, critiqued Spain’s political system and called for urgent change.
      • Advocacy for Europeanization, while grappling with Spain’s perceived inferiority complex (the “typical Spanish” stereotype).
  • Meaning of the Text: Critiques liberalism’s failures but remains focused on material solutions.