Technical Scientific Training and Legitimacy in Infantry Promotions in the Eighteenth Century: The Regiments of Ceuta, Cantabria and Córdoba

Abstract

This article examines the role of scientific and technical instruction in the careers of infantry officers during the Bourbon reform era, focusing on three regiments—Ceuta, Cantabria, and Córdoba—between 1720 and 1790. Drawing on service records, promotion lists, and academy registers, it demonstrates that education did not replace traditional mechanisms of advancement (seniority and patronage), but was incorporated as a legitimizing resource and, in certain cases, as a factor that facilitated promotion to junior posts. The study concludes that Enlightenment meritocracy did not democratize access; rather, it reinforced the existing social structure by reserving training for those already embedded in the military culture. Nevertheless, in the final decades of the eighteenth century, a subtle shift can be observed: academic instruction began to operate—albeit timidly—as a genuine criterion for entry-level positions, anticipating a partial process of professionalization.