Prehistoric and Ancient History
The earliest known settlement of humans in the Iberian Peninsula dates from the Paleolithic period, also known as the Old Stone Age. Many prehistoric sites have been found where fossils and tools of earlier inhabitants have been recovered.
Prehistoric Spain has the largest number of cave paintings in the world including the well-known cave of Altamira at Santillana del Mar and others at Numancia and Melliega.
In 1,100 BCE, Phoenician traders from what is now Lebanon sailed around the coast of Spain establishing colonies and trading bases.
By 800 BCE, the Celts and later the Iberians and Basques populated the Iberian Peninsula with the Iberians confined to the central and eastern half of the peninsula and the Celts in the north and the west. The Phoenicians established colonies in the few places where they could reach safe harbors.
Greek colonies were established in the northeast originally for the purpose of trading with the locals. Next came other colonies of Carthage now a part of modern Tunisia.
In 218 BCE, the Romans invaded what was then Carthiginian territory starting their conquest of Spain which took two centuries to complete. The Romans built roads and irrigation systems and incorporated much of Spanish society into their own. They Romanized the population and the language. Many cities were founded by the Romans and remain largely intact today. The most notable of these include Merida, Seville, Cordoba, and Tarragona.
Under Roman rule, Hispania became the breadbasket of the Roman Empire producing gold and silver and pottery and textiles.
Their language, Latin, would one day evolve into the modern Spanish spoken today but several languages already existed in the region including Celtic, Lusitanian, Cantabrian, Iberian, and Basque. Greek and Basque were mostly spoken in the east and north portions of the peninsula.
In 476, the Western Roman Empire collapsed and the Visigoths a Germanic tribe invaded Spain. They took over the country, established a capital in Toledo, and ruled until 711. The Visigothic code of laws united the various peoples and cultures of the Spanish territory also furthered the slow rise of Christianity in the area.
Islamic Rule and Al-Andalus (711 – 1492)
The Southern half of the Iberian Peninsula, by then known as Al-Andalus, came under the control of the Moors– Muslims ethnically and culturally from the Middle East and North Africa– in 711.
Al Andalus was a period of great advances in science, philosophy, and art as the Moorish people developed and expanded the area which included the lands of present-day Spain as well as much of North Africa.
Córdoba and Granada became centers of learning and culture of the entire Muslim world.
In 722, a small Christian Ethnically Gothic Asturian band of 3000 men under King Pellagius defeated a much larger Muslim force in the Battle of Covadonga starting the Reconquista.
This was to be a slow and long process of Christian members of various kingdoms and tribes local to the Basque country and the Celts ethnically from the northeast of the peninsula/Roman area gradually pushing south taking and incorporating land and cities after they were about eleven times defeated by the far superior caliphate Umayyad army.
Spain was divided into many warring states with small rural populations. By 1031, Berber chieftains revived the Umayyad Caliphate after 24 years of anarchy, as two caliphates one in Cordoba and one in Seville.
By 1085, Toledo had been reconquered, the County of Catalonia and the Kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Leon had been united. In 1202, Muslims were expelled from Valencia and Aragon conquered the Muercoles Muslim leader Muhammad Nafz, who had been king, asked for aid from the king of Castile, Alfonso VIII who agreed.
In 1239, Jaen had been taken and became a part of Castille.
The last Muslim stronghold Granada fell 1492 after 87 years of war to the Catholic Monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella a free kingdom of the Moors was neither offered or accepted.
Thus, Christianity again became the power of the land and the sea and Spain embarked on voyages of discovery and conquest off the coasts of the New World becoming the birthplace of an Empire that lasted nearly 200 years.
The Catholic Monarchs and the Spanish Empire (1492 – 1700) Ferdinand and Isabella united Spain under their rule. Their marriage was a personal union that gave birth to a new nation. They are known for financing the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492, which allowed for even vaster territories than Spain to be discovered by Europeans. This was the inaugural event in the establishment of Spain’s empire in the Americas and in the globalization of the underdeveloped economies of Latin America. The ensuing wealth of the Americas made Spain the world’s first global superpower. The long class of artists of the Spanish Golden Age brought forth many of the most famous works of art and literature in the world. This was the time of El Greco , Velázquez , Goya , de Cervantes , Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca. The empire was the most powerful conglomerate of Kingdoms on earth at that time. The Habsburg and Bourbon Dynasties (1700 – 1931) With the conquests in the Americas and in the Kingdom of Portugal, Spain truly became the first world power. Spain was the most powerful country in the world and the center of the first powerful, global empire. Spain is known for science, art, literature, philosophy and theology. The two decades in 16th century Spain in which the country was united against enemies like the Ottomans is considered the “Siglo de oro”. Spain lost this empire over the first half of the 19th century as the world entered the industrial age. The Regeneration and politicization of the church and the zealous end of the Jesuits allowed for more modern and efficient methods of government. Other temporal powers, such as the Holy Roman Empire attempted to maintain integrity. Later in the 17th century, economic decline slowly hindered Spain and the Spanish empire. The War of Spanish Succession in 1701–1714 to decide who had the right to sit on the Spanish throne when it became clear that the future king of France would be desirous of using Spain as the integral powerhouse of the Spanish empire. The family of the Bourbons, who share a common ancestry in the late Alfonso XI were elected as the new rulers. The empire died finally in 1898 as Spain was washed over by extreme political difficulty, including an assassination of the leader and the loss of nearly all of her colonies in the Americas and the Pacific. Spain’s reformers wanted to build a more modern, efficient government and they got rid of the moribund empire. In 1932, a restoration of the monarchy allowed for political and economic reform. The destruction of Spanish art and history by the left wing socialist government by a proletariat which revolted and the counter-revolution on the part of the cardiaculists who defeated the worker’s movement and created fascist Spain never really ceased the economic woes of the post-World War I era. Spain saw an unusually high number of political murdes, extrajudicial killings and an economic catastrophe put Political Liberalism and economic Libearalism, Catholic Monarchy and an authorian republic on the table and ultimately resulted in the new nation of 28 political parties.
Franco’s Dictatorship (1939 – 1975)
Franco ruled Spain with an iron fist suppressing dissent and propounding a nationalist ideology. His regime was marked by censorship, repression, and economic hardships. A range of social changes and adjustments were brought on by certain modernization of the quota system that was gained in Spain during the 1960s.
Transition to Democracy (1975 – Present)
After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain became a democracy. The 1978 Constitution established a parliamentary monarchy, and King Juan Carlos I recognized the importance of a properly democratic process.
Spain joined the European Union in 1986, and even more was integrated into European economic and political mechanisms. The late 20th and 21st centuries saw major mental shifts, such as those in civil rights and cultural identity.
Modern Spain
Spain is styled a vibrant democracy. Regional culture and varying identities are very much an integral part of the contemporary Spanish political system and influence upon its new ones because of the real problems of regional independence movements and economic burdens for such a southern European country and social debates over labor rights, immigration issues, climate-control theory, etc.
