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This paper analyses the different approaches to the incorporation of the new theory of Darwinism in secondary school textbooks of natural sciences during the first period of the Restoration of the Spanish Monarchy, considering these textbooks not only as the complex product they are, but also as objects of research and ideological instruments. Moreover, this paper studies the influence of the Spanish Liberal Party and other cultural and teaching organizations including the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, on the acceptance of Darwinism and its diffusion in schools. It also examines the contribution of Darwinism to the process of modernizing Spanish culture and education, and the resistance to it from both the Marquis of orovio's restrictive policy on academic freedom and the traditional view of the cosmos and humanity presented in the textbooks of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]