Military promotions of nautical teachers by the end of the 18th. Century: reward for merits or a means to control nautical schools?

Throughout the 18th century, various professors at the Schools of Nautical Science (Escuelas de Náutica) were recognized by the Spanish Crown with military ranks, as a way to reward their teaching work and their contributions to the development of maritime education. These distinctions, often deserved, also responded to a deeper and less visible political strategy: the progressive attempt to militarize nautical education and incorporate the civilian schools into the institutional regime of the Navy (Armada). The granting of military ranks to civilian professors was not only a symbolic recognition, but also a mechanism of co-optation that sought to condition their autonomy and align them with the hierarchical and disciplinary logic characteristic of the military apparatus. Through this strategy, the administration intended to reinforce control over nautical educational institutions, integrating them more closely into the State's naval system, in a context where maritime power was considered a fundamental pillar of the imperial project. This process, which was not free of tension, revealed a latent struggle between civilian technical training models, inspired by commerce and trade, and naval instruction models, oriented toward the operational and strategic needs of the Navy. The analysis of these policies allows for a better understanding of the power dynamics that influenced the institutional evolution of the Schools of Nautical Science and their links to the Bourbon state structure.