Rural electrification in Spain: territorial expansion and effects on the agricultural sector (c. 1900–c. 2000)

Abstract

Rural electrification is closely linked one way or another to rural development, and enables the understanding of the complexity of social and economic development paths. The objective of this work is to analyse rural electrification in a European peripherical country like Spain throughout the twentieth century, contributing to the international debate on the issue. The article studies the territorial expansion of electricity in the Spanish countryside, tracing different phases and explaining the delay in the construction of a national network. It also analyses the relationship that arose in the long term between electrification and the evolution of the agricultural sector. The article concludes that, in the Spanish case, rural electrification played a modest role in agricultural change until the 1980s and was, to a great extent, the consequence, rather than the cause, of the modernisation of the sector to these years.

Which rural settlements have lost the most population? An analysis of a case study of north-east Spain (Aragón) (1900–2001)

“…For some very recent studies, see: Adam-Hernández and Harteisen (2020); Bock (2016); Casini et al (2021); Li et al (2019); Lutz and Gailey (2020); Matanle and Sáez (2019); Pinilla and Sáez (2021).6 For Spain, the analysis of long-term demographic dynamics has focused on the provincial level(Ayuda et al, 2010a and2010b) or the municipal level(Goerlich and Mas 2006;Beltrán et al, 2018 and. 7 Another example would be the uneven development of rural electrification, as highlighted by the work for Great Britain byBrassley et al (2017) or Spain byGarrués and Iriarte (2022). 8 Many studies have recently highlighted the influence that the interactions between different municipalities had(Fujita et al, 1999;Cuberes et al, 2021; Dobkins & Iaonnides, 2001;Beltrán et al, 2021).…”