Costa Y Martínez, Joaquín

Born Sept. 14, 1846, in Monzon, in the province of Huesca; died Feb. 8, 1911, in Graus, in the same province. Spanish scholar and public figure.

Costa y Martínez was the author of numerous works on history, philosophy, politics, economics, law, education, and folklore. In his works he sharply criticized the regime of the restoration that followed the revolution of 1868–74 and put forward a plan for the “Europeanization” of Spain, by which he understood the destruction of the vestiges of the Middle Ages and the carrying out of bourgeois reforms as a means of overcoming the social, political, and economic backwardness of the country. He believed that the allotment of land to propertyless peasants would be a most important measure in creating a more healthy economy. His attempts to implement his ideas with the aid of organizations he himself founded, such as the National League of Producers (1899) and the National Union (1900), ended in failure.