Science in Hispania: Spain and Portugal on the main route again

Abstract

If we identify Science and Scientific Research with what has been called Modern Western European Science, it is evident that the Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula were not involved significantly in its inception and spread (Basalla, 1967). This might appear to be paradoxical, since the huge Hispanic Empire (which included Portugal and its ultramarine possessions from 1580 to 1668), although already declining during the second half of the XVII Century, was still at the time the major power in the world. But, there were several reasons for this decline, many of them being causes which had been operating for centuries before they became visible...