Generation '98

The defeat of Spain and the loss of Cuba and the Philippines prostrated the nation, and seemed to mortally wound the national spirit. In reaction to this catastrophe, several young writers - who had already published their first works - grouped together, united by the same sentiments, and constituted what has since been called the generation of 98. Among them were Miguel de Unamuno, Azorín, Pío Baroja, Ramiro de Maeztu, Antonio Machado and Ramón del Valle-lnclán. The generation of 98 was a severe judge for those who had led Spain to material and moral ruin, and He decided, in a frustrated and noble romantic zeal, to tear down the old idols and change the political habits of Spain. His distant teachers and inspirers were, among others, Larra, Clarín and, above all, Joaquín Costa, Ángel Ganivet, José Ortega y Gasset and Francisco Giner de los Ríos, whose Free Institution of Education so influenced the spirit of the most outstanding of this generation.

The main purpose of this promotion was to elevate Spain from its prostration and discredit it and put it on a par with the other nations of

Europe; Europeanize Spain, so isolated until then from the rest of the continent, and give it a spirit, a tone and a different dignity, contributing to the solution of their imminent problems: education, people's poverty, etc. Such was, in short, the program of those young people. But their voice did not have an echo then, and almost all of them, dispersed towards different disciplines, were reduced to their work as writers, giving the letters of Spain works of extraordinary value.