Complex sentence: As Cánovas made clear in an address to the University of Madrid in 1882, the Spanish nation was a cultural and linguistic concept that tied Spain's colonies to the metropole despite the oceans that separated them.
Split into simpler sentences: As Cánovas made clear in an address to the University of Madrid in 1882,. The Spanish nation was a cultural and linguistic concept that tied Spain's colonies to the metropole notwithstanding the oceans that separated them.