La educación de los militares en la España del siglo XVIII

Abstract

The stablishment of a militar institution in a permanent way in Spain during the XVIII century had no parallel implantation of a regular system of militar formation. In most cases the army formation was carried out in the regiments, though it never had enough economic resources. Antiquity had priority over the competence to be promotioned so it created a lack of interest for their own scientific-technical training.

The military education was carried out in parallel with a particular way of life connected with the nobility status and the elitist condition of militar function. The army formation came into a crisis period in the last third of this century as a result of a lasting period of peace, the influence of the bourgeois habits of life and the weak structure of their own instruction system. A lot of criticisms showed the officer’s level of ignorance and the damaged reputation of this profession.