The key to Spain’s eventual internationalisation can be found deep within the small print of Sanz del Río’s original travels to the great German institutions of learning in 1843, along with those later undertaken by Giner, Cossío, and various others. Working through the National Pedagogical Museum and seeking foreign partners for the ILE, the purpose of these trips was to learn first hand from the experiences of other countries, in order to then incorporate these educative practices into their own plans for reform. The Bulletin of the Free Institution of Education (BILE), the Spanish magazine of reference for educational, philosophical, sociological, and scientific material, collected and disseminated the results of this task.
The Junta para Ampliación de Estudios was created in January 1907 to provide funding for Spanish students and graduates looking to complete their studies at some of the finest universities in the world. Striving both domestically and internationally, another of the board’s key objectives was to articulate the work being done within the various fields of culture and living. Beginning for the first time in Spain, it was a political move capable of finally launching the country onto the international platform of scientific discussion.
Spurred on by the positive winds coming from a new liberal government, the JAE founded a new wave of institutes in 1910 (the Residencia de Estudiantes and the Centro de Estudios Históricos among them). Supported by the increasingly frequent interchange that occurred over the coming decades, these institutes paved the way for the formation of a new, modern scientific and artistic network.
The International Institute for Girls in Spain moved to Madrid during the early part of the century, where it swiftly became a beacon of cultural exchange between the peninsula and North America. In 1904 Archer M. Huntington founded he Hispanic Society of America, with this going on to play a vital role in the diffusion of Spanish culture within the United States.
Other prominent examples of this growing international relationship came in the field of the arts. The names of Fortuny, Zuloaga, and Joaquin Sorolla, the most internationally recognized Spanish artists of their time, became synonymous with all things good in Spain at the time. The famous dancer, La Argentina, was widely appreciated, as were those Spanish musicians whose works are successful worldwide; Albéniz, Granados, and Falla.
Ignacio Zuloaga con Auguste Rodin (sentado) y el coleccionista ruso Ivan Stchoukine durante un viaje por España, hacia 1905. Archivo Fundación Zuloaga.