ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the cultural developments of Spain in the period between 1400 and 1700. In fifteenth-century Spain, the three great literary languages, Galician, Catalan and Castilian, followed very different courses. Between 1348 and 1700, Spain underwent important political and cultural transformations. Its variegated geography and climate dictated the fragmenting of its political organisation. The social history of Spain, or, more precisely, of the Spains, must always be placed against the variegated backdrop of Iberian geography, climate, language and economic patterns. To a large extent, village size, family structure and social position were governed by regional conditions, by what the land would allow to grow. Climate and topography thus determined the location of towns and villages as well as the amount of rent nobles could extract from their peasants. The availability of water in Aragon, Castile and Andalusia played a crucial role in creating starkly contrasting conditions of wealth and poverty.
