The RSME was founded in 1911 by a group of mathematicians, among whom were Luis Octavio de Toledo y Zulueta and Julio Rey Pastor, under the name of the Spanish Mathematical Society.
The initiative arose at the first congress of the Spanish Association for the Progress of Science (AEPC), where the convenience of establishing a mathematics society was raised.
It has reciprocal agreements with a large number of mathematical societies around the world.
The RSME actively collaborates with other scientific societies in Spain in various activities such as the celebration, in 2000, of the World Year of Mathematics, the preparation of the Spanish candidacy and the subsequent organization of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) that was held in August 2006 in Madrid and the work of the Senate Report on the teaching of science in secondary education (2003-04 academic year).
The society organized the first Meeting of Latin American Mathematical Societies that took place in September 2003 in Santiago de Compostela, one of the results of which was the creation of the Network of Latin American Mathematical Organizations.