Technology, Novelty, and Modernity: Spanish Perceptions of the United States in the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The paper analyses public discourse in late-nineteenth-century Spain surrounding a series of 'images' of North American innovations and technological advancement which prevailed among literate, predominantly liberal Spaniards in order to examine the complex and often ambivalent responses of Spanish elites to the image of the United States as the world's pioneer in inventing, constructing, and accumulating wealth. In particular, the paper focuses on the symbol par excellence of the US's apparent ability 'to annihilate space by time' through technological development — the railway network. The United States seemed to epitomize novelty in the 'modern' age because it was constantly inventing and innovating in the fields of technology, science, engineering, communications, and industry. It appeared young, pioneering, advanced — and consequently rich. Of course, behind these tropes and stereotypes lay ambivalent evaluations of the implications of their discoveries and innovations for contemporary and future societies. Whilst discoveries like electricity and developments in communications such as the extension of the railways seemed 'wonderful' and 'marvellous' to Spaniards, in the true sense of these words, these sentiments were accompanied by more ambiguous and even hostile responses. North American technological developments provoked distaste, borne from what some saw as the incompatibility of technological progress with 'Spanish' values of art, aesthetics, and beauty, as well as by fears of the risks such innovations posed to contemporary ways of life and by mistrust of US predominance in fields which had potential military applications.