La Real Sociedad Bascongada y América

The Real Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del País (Royal Basque Society of the Friends of the Country), a pioneer in Spain in the 18th century of the “economic societies”, had a major impact both on the Iberian peninsula and in the New World. This study clarifies who’s who in a long list of more than a thousand members in Mexico, two hundred in Lima and also significant numbers in Cuba, Buenos Aires and the Philippines. They are people who helped create the Hispanic-Creole class that played a leading role in independence, promoted plans for progress and were the core of a society that was anxious to participate in the enlightened trends of the time. In 1991, the BBV Foundation, commemorating the fifth Centennial of the Discovery of America, organized the 3rd History Seminar on this question, which continues to be debated after two centuries.