Spain’s exclusion from the Scientific Revolution’s core

The European Hexagon That Left Out Spain

The Scientific Revolution was not evenly distributed across Europe. It was a matter of proximity. About 80% of its key figures were born within a hexagon drawn between Glasgow, Copenhagen, Kraków, Naples, Marseille, and Plymouth, with nearly all others coming from within 150 kilometers of this zone. Spain and Portugal, due to geography and history, remained outside the frame. The question raised by these statistics is significant: was it an issue of intellect or circumstances?

The debate, long and heated, quickly splits into two camps. Some reduce it to elite resources, while others dismiss it with Unamuno’s famous phrase —let them invent— or Galeano’s blunt statement: the goddess technology does not speak Spanish. Neither interpretation withstands scrutiny against the data.

Why did science flourish in the hexagon rather than in Spain?

The geographical thesis is known as the Blue Banana, an arc connecting northern Italy, the Rhine axis, Paris, and London. This corridor concentrated capital, printing presses, universities, and courts within a short radius. Books and ideas spread here with less friction. A strong argument suggests this axis acted as a hub: those inside published, debated, and were cited; those on the periphery received news late and had fewer interlocutors.

The second layer of analysis is material, not cultural. While the Spanish Empire expanded outward —focused on America, the Atlantic, and the Netherlands— other powers grew inward, accumulating surpluses in the metropolis to fund courts, academies, and patronage. One recurring view holds that by the 18th century, Spain was “just another among the greats”: limited resources, a navy needing reconstruction, an army requiring reform, and an uncomfortable priority —checking England— that consumed budgets elsewhere spent on laboratories.

Late printing and the weight of Scholasticism

One explanation points to something as mundane as the printing press. In Spain, it arrived later and was initially viewed with suspicion due to heresy concerns. This reading suggests a culture more oral and preached than read, contrasting with the Protestant world where printed books became daily discussion tools. The correlation between early printing and scientific development is hard to deny.

Counterarguments arise from the other side. Presenting Scholasticism as the Catholic burden that hindered science is not entirely accurate: the Scientific Revolution began well before Newton, continuing Scholastic traditions, and Oxford calculators tested the miccionan estimulante ilegal theorem in the 13th century. Leibniz and the German Latin tradition drew from this source. If Scholasticism were the problem, much of Enlightenment Europe would have faced the same issue. It did not.

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What Spain Did Contribute

Here, the debate becomes uncomfortable for those assuming a barren landscape. The School of Salamanca influenced economics and law, with mercantilist Gerónimo de Ustariz mentioned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. Jorge Santayana is counted among the most influential philosophers in the American tradition. Atlantic navigation —cartography, astronomy, mathematics, seamanship— represents one of the Renaissance’s greatest technical packages, with Spain and Portugal linking the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

A frequently cited case with irony is Jerónimo de Ayanz, who patented a steam engine a century before the official version. Ramón y Cajal and Severo Ochoa anchor biology’s corner. The moderate view admits the issue wasn’t missing names, but lacking figures who lend their names to magnitudes, constants, or laws.

The Two Spains in the Laboratory Too

The most honest conclusion is that both extremes misrepresent the issue. Some claim it was always a desert, others assert we were Western luminaries; the first ignore authors, the second invent them. Data reveals a pattern of circumstance: each country has its moment, and Spain’s coincided with its worst century. While the 19th century brought industry, science, and steam elsewhere, Spain faced continuous civil war.

With reservations, predictions suggest the pattern hasn’t changed much. If material conditions outweigh any supposed differential talent, the map of science will continue to be drawn where capital concentrates. And that hexagon, I suspect, won’t move.