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Spain suffered a severe political and moral crisis in the final years of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth. Pedagogues and politicians belonging to the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE), or those close to it, did not consider it possible to regenerate the country without attending to education and Britain was the model to be followed. Many important figures of the ILE were declared anglophiles and therefore open to incorporating British education in Spain. This research reveals the roots of this preference for Britain on behalf of two of the key figures of the ILE: one of its most relevant founders, Francisco Giner, and his close collaborator, José Castillejo. The article then describes how the educational approach of the ILE found its answers in Britain. The paper ends with some reflections on the scope of the British reference. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]