Colonización territorial, razón ilustrada y particularidades valencianas en la nueva población de Benadressa (Castelló de la Plana)

Abstract

This article analyses the plans for a new population inland from La Plana de Castelló (in the north of the Region of Valencia), a process of territorial colonisation that took place under the auspices of what was known as the Fuero Alfonsino (second half of the eighteenth century). The example of Benadressa gives an insight into the complex relationships of power and ideology that were present in plans of this type, which were private initiatives but an integral part of the economic and territorial projects of the Enlightenment era. It also marks another chapter in the profound transformations that La Plana de Castelló suffered in the Modern Age, based mainly on the spread of cultivated land over former pastures, vacant land and marshland. This process led to interesting conflicts between agriculture and cattle farming, and between the different uses for the water from la Rambla de la Viuda.