Urban Expansion in 19th-Century Spain: A Deep Dive
The Expansion of Cities
One of the most significant events of the nineteenth century was the growth of cities. The city became the symbol of modernity and the epicenter of social transformations and economic, political, and cultural change.
Spanish Urbanization
Urbanization in Spain was considerable during the nineteenth century but did not reach the heights of European industrialized countries. The process in Spain resulted in almost the same growth as other Mediterranean countries. The growth of the urban world was closely linked to the changes effected by the new liberal regime of industrialization and, in Spain, was also enlivened by successive confiscations.
The Function of the Liberal City in the State
From the political standpoint, the role of the city was different:
- Moderates saw a key town in the central gear of the basic state, as it controlled the main cities through civil rulers and mayors who were appointed by the government.
- Liberals and Democrats attached to the city a margin of autonomy in political preference, a function of the neighbors.
Local authorities were taking on multilateral functions that would have been the responsibility of the central state. They hired laborers on strike at the end of the period and carried out social policies. This assumption of responsibility by the municipalities resulted in the financial difficulties of the state, their weakness, and the manifestation of the fragility of the nationalizing project of nineteenth-century liberalism.
The Reform of Urban Spaces
By the mid-nineteenth century, the population increase and urban structure became untenable. The liberal revolution and the confiscation created the conditions for urban planning to be designed. The city broke definitively, establishing fences and walls around them and extending their space beyond the traditional centers.
The urban expansion of the second half of the nineteenth century forced the development of infrastructure. Public transport and sewage were established, lighting was changed, habitable conditions in the city were improved, the quality of life was raised, and health and hygiene improved, thus reducing the high mortality rates.
Urban Development
The urban renewal process was particularly important in the construction of urban development. It was a planning system designed as a response to the scarcity of land for development, trying to organize the urban layout. The expansion was defined by a plan devised for geometric and balanced growth. The widenings tried to reconcile the social and economic specialization of cities, segregating the population into different areas according to their social class.
Ildefonso Cerda authored the widening of Barcelona. In 1860, the plan to widen Madrid was approved, developed by the engineer Carlos Maria de Castro. The capital needed to create a modern space that would serve as a symbol for the new liberal state. The expansions boosted the real estate business, becoming a source of great wealth and creating a demand for manpower that made it possible to absorb migrants from rural areas. But the original plans were altered, and speculation modified the initial budgets.