1.
History of Spain
–
The history of Spain dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In 1516, Habsburg Spain unified a number of disparate predecessor kingdoms, its form of a constitutional monarchy was introduced in 1813. After the completion of the Reconquista, the kingdoms of Spain were united under Habsburg rule in 1516, during this period, Spain was involved in all major European wars, including the Italian Wars, the Eighty Years War, the Thirty Years War, and the Franco-Spanish War. The former Spanish Empire overseas quickly disintegrated with the Latin American wars of independence, the war ended in a nationalist dictatorship, led by Francisco Franco, which controlled the Spanish government until 1975. The post-war decades were relatively stable, and the country experienced economic growth in the 1960s. Only with the death of Franco in 1975 did Spain return to Bourbon constitutional monarchy headed by Prince Juan Carlos, Spain entered the European Economic Community in 1986, and the Eurozone in 1999. The financial crisis of 2007–08 ended a decade of economic boom and Spain entered a recession and debt crisis and remains plagued by high unemployment. Spain is ranked as a middle power able to exert regional influence but unlike other powers with similar status it is not part of the G8, the Iberian Peninsula was first inhabited by anatomically modern humans about 32,000 years BP. Modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the Iberian Peninsula from north of the Pyrenees some 35,000 years ago, the seafaring Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks successively established trading settlements along the eastern and southern coast. The first Greek colonies, such as Emporion, were founded along the northeast coast in the 9th century BC, the Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, apparently after the river Iber. In the 6th century BC, the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia, struggling first with the Greeks and their most important colony was Carthago Nova. The Celts mostly inhabited the inner and north-west part of the peninsula, in the inner part of the peninsula, where both groups were in contact, a mixed culture arose, the Celtiberians. The Celtiberian Wars were fought between the legions of the Roman Republic and the Celtiberian tribes of Hispania Citerior from 181 to 133 BC. The Roman conquest of the peninsula was completed in 19 BC, Hispania was the name used for the Iberian Peninsula under Roman rule from the 2nd century BC. The populations of the peninsula were gradually culturally Romanized, and local leaders were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class, the Romans improved existing cities, such as Tarragona, and established others like Zaragoza, Mérida, Valencia, León, Badajoz, and Palencia. The peninsulas economy expanded under Roman tutelage, Hispania supplied Rome with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca, and the poets Martial, Quintilian, hispanic bishops held the Council of Elvira around 306. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, parts of Hispania came under the control of the Germanic tribes of Vandals, Suebi, Spains present languages, its religion, and the basis of its laws originate from this period
2.
Prehistoric Iberia
–
The prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula begins with the arrival of the first hominins 1.2 million years ago and ends with the Punic Wars, when the territory enters the domains of written history. Hominin inhabitation of the Iberian Peninsula dates from the Paleolithic, early hominin remains have been discovered at a number of sites on the peninsula. Significant evidence of an occupation of Iberia by Neanderthal man has also been discovered. Homo sapiens first entered Iberia towards the end of the Paleolithic, for a time Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted until the former were finally driven to extinction. Modern man continued to inhabit the peninsula through the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, many of the best preserved prehistoric remains are in the Atapuerca region, rich with limestone caves that have preserved a million years of human evolution. Among these sites is the cave of Gran Dolina, where six hominin skeletons, experts have debated whether these skeletons belong to the species Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or a new species called Homo antecessor. In the Gran Dolina, investigators have found evidence of used to butcher animals and other hominins. Evidence of fire has also found at the site, suggesting they cooked their meat. Also in Atapuerca, is the site at Sima de los Huesos, excavators have found the remains of 30 hominins dated to about 400,000 years ago. The remains have been classified as Homo heidelbergensis and may be ancestors of the Neanderthals. No evidence of habitation has been found at the site except for one stone hand-ax, the age similarity suggests the remains were not the result of accidents. Around 200,000 BC, during the Lower Paleolithic period, around 70,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic period the last ice age began and the Neanderthal Mousterian culture was established. The Escoural Cave has evidence of human activity starting in the Middle Palaeolithic, around 35,000 BC, during the Upper Paleolithic, the Neanderthal Châtelperronian cultural period began. Emanating from Southern France this culture extended into Northern Iberia and this culture continued to exist until around 28,000 BC when Neanderthal man faced extinction, their final refuge has been said to be Gibraltar. Neanderthal remains have been found at a number of sites on the Iberian Peninsula, a Neanderthal skull was found in Forbes Quarry in Gibraltar in 1848 making it the second territory after Belgium where remains of Neanderthals were found. Subsequent Neanderthal discoveries in Gibraltar have also made including the skull of a four-year-old child. The Neanderthals were present in Iberia until at least 28,000 or 27,000 BC, evidence of their presence in this period is found in Columbeira, Figueira Brava and Salemas. The Cave of Salemas, located in Loures Municipality, was inhabited in the Paleolithic, archaeological industries of the Middle Paleolithic in Iberia lasted until about 28,000 or 26,000 BC
3.
Carthaginian Iberia
–
The Carthaginian presence in Iberia lasted from 575 BC to 206 BC when the Carthaginians were defeated by the Roman Republic at the Battle of Ilipa in the Second Punic War. The Phoenicians were a people from the eastern Mediterranean who were traders from the cities of Tyre, Sidon. They colonised much of the Mediterranean and in the year 814 BC and they also annexed territory in Sicily, Africa, Sardinia and in 575 BC, they created colonies on the Iberian peninsula. In eight years, by force of arms and diplomacy, he secured an extensive territory in Hispania, the fall of Carthages Iberian territories came in the Second Punic War. In the year 209, after the Romans had landed on Iberia under the command of Scipio Africanus, they captured the centre of Punic power in Iberia, Cartagena. They then moved south and faced the Punic army of Hasdrubal in the Battle of Baecula but were not able to prevent him continuing his march to Italy in order to reinforce his brother Hannibal. This catastrophic defeat sealed the fate of the Carthaginian presence in Iberia and it was followed by the Roman capture of Gades in 206 BC after the city had already rebelled against Carthaginian rule. A last attempt was made by Mago in 205 BC to recapture New Carthage while the Roman presence was shaken by a mutiny, so in the same year he left Iberia, setting sail from the Balearic islands to Italy with his remaining forces. Four Iberian Ladies, Lady of Cerro de los Santos, Lady of Baza, Lady of Guardamar, the Lady of Guardamar, found in 1987, is in the Museum of Alicante. This series of sculptures can be seen as types of funerary urns to hold ashes, there has been speculation that the Elche bust was originally full-length. Mythological animals of an earlier period – 6th–5th century BC, the Bull of Osuna, the Sphinx of Agost, Carthaginian currency, including the Barcid mints in Iberia Timeline of Portuguese history
4.
Roman conquest of Iberia
–
It was completed after the fall of the Republic, by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who annexed the whole of Hispania to the Roman Empire in 19 BC. Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula, the peninsula had various ethnic groups and a large number of tribes. This established Roman territorial presence in Hispania, four years after the end of this war, in 197 BC, the Romans established two Roman provinces. They were Hispania Citerior along most of the east coast and Hispania Ulterior in the south, over the next 170 years the Roman Republic slowly expanded its control over Hispania. This was a process of pacification, rather than the result of a policy of conquest. Roman actions in Hispania were reactive and they responded to rebellions to suppress them, rather seek annexation. It was driven by numerous rebellions by the local tribes, the Romans had to fight countless battles and lost a very large amount of men. On one occasion a Roman commander conducted a sweeping operation in the west of the peninsula. Pacification and retention and extension of control over the tribes was the priority. The Romans turned some of the cities outside their provinces into tributary cities and established outposts. There was little interest in Hispania on the part of the Roman senate, to Rome Hispania was a faraway land, remote from her main interests—Italy and the eastern Mediterranean. Administrative arrangements were ad hoc measures undertaken by men on the spot, in the later part of this period the Roman senate attempted to exercise more control in Hispania, but this was to try to curb abuse and extortion by the unsupervised officials in the peninsula. Hence, in this period conquest was an assimilation of the local tribes into the Roman world. This changed after the fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of rule by emperors in Rome and this was in 19 BC,187 years after the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Hispania. The Roman province of Hispania Citerior was significantly expanded and came to include the part of central Hispania. Due to the size of the annexed territory, a third province was established in the west of the peninsula. This was Hispania Lusitania, which covered present day Portugal up to the River Durius, the present autonomous community of Extremadura, Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Baetica and it borders were expanded inland only marginally. Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Phoenicians established trading contacts in the part of the Iberian Peninsula as well as in part of the east coast
5.
Hispania
–
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, during the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova. The name, Hispania, was used in the period of Visigothic rule. The modern placenames Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania, one theory holds it to be of Punic derivation, from the Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage. Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate of Hebrew אי-שפניא meaning Island of the Hyrax or island of the hare or island of the rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician span, in the sense of hidden, and make it indicate a hidden, that is, Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis. Occasionally Hispania was called Hesperia Ultima, the last western land in Greek, by Roman writers, another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for border or edge, thus meaning the farthest area or place. The use of Latin Hispania, Castilian España, Catalan Espanya and French Espaigne, a document dated 1292 mentions the names of foreigners from Medieval Spain as Gracien dEspaigne. You are, Oh Spain, holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples and you, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are given not only the sunset, but also the East. Navarre followed soon after in 1512, and Portugal in 1580, during this time, the concept of Spain was still unchanged. The King of Portugal would protest energetically when during a public act King Fernando talked about the Crown of Spain and it was after the independence of Portugal in 1640 when the concept of Spain started to shift and be applied to all the Peninsula except Portugal. Even so, Portugal would still complain when the terms Crown of Spain or Monarchy of Spain were still used in the 18th century with the Treaty of Utrecht. The Iberian peninsula has long inhabited, first by early hominids such as Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis. In the Paleolithic period, the Neanderthals entered Iberia and eventually took refuge from the migrations of modern humans. In the 40th millennium BC, during the Upper Paleolithic and the last ice age and these were nomadic hunter-gatherers originating on the steppes of Central Asia. When the last Ice Age reached its maximum extent, during the 30th millennium BC, in the millennia that followed, the Neanderthals became extinct and local modern human cultures thrived, producing pre-historic art such as that found in LArbreda Cave and in the Côa Valley. In the Mesolithic period, beginning in the 10th millennium BC and this was an interstadial deglaciation that lessened the harsh conditions of the Ice Age
6.
Romanization of Hispania
–
The Romanization of Hispania is the process by which Roman or Latin culture was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula during the period of Roman rule. Several factors aided the process of Romanization, Creation of civil infrastructure, including road networks, commercial interaction within regions and the wider Roman world. Foundation of colonia, settling Roman military veterans in newly created towns, the spread of the hierarchical Roman administrative system throughout the Hispanic provinces. Growth of Roman aristocratic land holdings, Roman towns or settlements were conceived as images of the imperial capital in miniature. The construction of buildings was carried out by the curator operatum and were run directly by the supreme municipal magistrates. To undertake any work by public funds, authorization from the emperor was needed, patriotism and local euergetism encouraged local cities to compete, creating more affluent neighboring municipalities. Public works undertaken with private funds were not subject to the requirement of approval of the emperor, the planners decided the space needed for the houses, plazas and temples, the volume of water required and the number and width of streets. Soldiers collaborated in the construction of the city, as well as local craftsmen together with slaves owned by patricians or equestrians, the first mention of the city is by Pliny the Elder where he characterizes the city as scipionum opus, work of Scipio. In fact, Tarraco was the capital at the outset of the Hispania Citerior during the Roman Republic, Emerita Augusta was founded in 25BC. by Publius Carisio, as the representative of the emperor Octavian Augustus as a resting place for troops discharged from the Legions V and X. Over time, this city one of the most important in Hispania, capital of the province of Lusitania. Italica was the first purely Roman city founded in Hispania and they originated from Italica, which would give great prestige to the former Spanish colony in Rome. Both emperors were particularly generous to their hometown, expanding and revitalizing its economy, Hadrian ordered the construction of the nova urbs, the new city, a city that only had slight activity over the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Also during the reign of Hadrian, the city changed its status to become a Roman colony and it is at this time renamed Colonia Aelia Augusta Italica, in honor of the emperor. By then, the Roman Senate had an important pressure group originating from the Spanish city, founded around the year 227 BC. by the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal the Fair under the name of Qart Hadast. It was strategically located in a natural harbor from which the nearby silver mines of Carthago Nova could be controlled. It was taken by the Roman general Scipio Africanus in the year 209BC, during the Second Punic War to cut off the silver going to general Hannibal. The city would receive the title of colony under the name Colonia Iulia Urbs Nova Carthago, decided to reorganize Hispania and the city was included in the new imperial province Tarraconensis, through Tiberius and Claudius, it was made the capital of conventus iuridicus Carthaginensis. The Roman fort was the focus of military strategy passive or active
7.
Kingdom of the Suebi
–
The Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallæcia, was a Germanic post-Roman kingdom, one of the first to separate from the Roman Empire. It maintained its independence until 585, when it was annexed by the Visigoths, little is known about the Suevi who crossed the Rhine on the night of 31 December 406 AD and entered the Roman Empire. Other groups of Sueves are mentioned by Jordanes and other historians as residing by the Danube regions during the 5th and 6th centuries, the reasoning being that the activities of the Huns disrupted and threatened the existing peoples of the region forcing them to uproot. It should be noted that this theory has created controversy within the academic community, whether displaced by the Huns or not, the Suevi along with the Vandals and Alans crossed the Rhine on the night of 31 December 405. In response to the invasion of Gaul, the usurper Constantine III, halted the masses of Vandals, Alans, and Sueves. But in the spring of 409, Gerontius led a revolt in Hispania and set up his own emperor, Constantine, who had recently been elevated to the title of Augustus, set off to Hispania to deal with the rebellion. Hydatius documents that the crossing into the Iberian Peninsula by the Vandals, Alans, the initial relation between Galicians and Suevi were not as calamitous as sometimes suggested, as Hydatius mentions not war or conflict with the locals between 411 and 430. In the other hand, Orosius affirmed that the newcomers turned their swords into ploughs once they received their new lands, in 416, the Visigoths entered the Iberian Peninsula, sent by the emperor of the West to fight off the barbarians arrived in 409. In 419, after the departure of Wallia to their new lands in Aquitania, in 429, as the Vandals were preparing their departure to Africa, a Suevi warlord named Heremigarius moved to Lusitania to plunder it, but was confronted by the new Vandal king Gaiseric. Heremigarius drowned in the river Guadiana while retreating, this is the first instance of an armed Suebi action outside the limits of Galicia. Then, after the Vandals left for Africa, the Sueves were the only barbarian entity left in Hispania, King Hermeric spent the remainder of his years solidifying Suevic rule over the entire province of Galicia. In 433 king Hermeric sent a bishop, Synphosius, as ambassador. Anyway, it was not until 438 that an enduring peace, having annexed the entirety of the former Roman province of Gallaecia, he made peace with the local population, and retired, leaving his son Rechila as king of the Sueves. Rechila saw an opportunity for expansion and began pushing to other areas of the Iberian Peninsula, in the same year he campaigned in Baetica, defeating in open battle the Romanae militiae dux Andevotus by the banks of the Genil river, capturing a large treasure. A year later, in 439, the Sueves invaded Lusitania and entered into its capital, Mérida, which briefly became the new capital of their kingdom. Rechila continued with the expansion of the kingdom, and by 440 he fruitfully besieged and forced the surrender of a Roman official, count Censorius, in the strategic city of Mértola. Next year, in 441, the armies of Rechila conquered Seville, just months after the death of the old king Hermeric, with the conquest of Seville, capital of Baetica, the Suevi managed to control Baetica and Carthaginensis. It has been said, however, that the Suevi conquest of Baetica and Carthaginensis was limited to raids, Rechila marched to meet the Romans, and after defeating the Goths, Vitus fled in disgrace, no more imperial attempts were made to retake Hispania
8.
Visigothic Kingdom
–
The Visigothic Kingdom or Kingdom of the Visigoths was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the kingdom of the 6th and 7th centuries is sometimes called the regnum Toletanum after the new capital of Toledo. The ethnic distinction between the indigenous Hispano-Roman population and the Visigoths had largely disappeared by this time, Liber Iudiciorum abolished the old tradition of having different laws for Romans and for Visigoths. Most of the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by Arab Umayyad troops from North Africa in 711 AD and these gave birth to the medieval Kingdom of Asturias when a local landlord called Pelayo, most likely of Gothic origin, was elected Princeps by the Astures. The Visigoths also developed the influential law code known in Western Europe as the Liber Iudiciorum. From 407 to 409 AD, the Germanic Vandals, with the allied Alans and Suebi, crossed the frozen Rhine, for their part, the Visigoths under Alaric famously sacked Rome in 410, capturing Galla Placidia, the sister of Western Roman emperor Honorius. After he married Placidia, the Emperor Honorius enlisted him to provide Visigothic assistance in regaining nominal Roman control of Hispania from the Vandals, Alans and Suevi. In 418, Honorius rewarded his Visigothic federates under King Wallia by giving land in the Garonne valley of Gallia Aquitania on which to settle. This probably took place under hospitalitas, the rules for billeting army soldiers, the Visigoths with their capital at Toulouse, remained de facto independent, and soon began expanding into Roman territory at the expense of the feeble Western empire. Under Theodoric I, the Visigoths attacked Arles and Narbonne, but were checked by Flavius Aetius using Hunnic mercenaries, by 451, the situation had reversed and the Huns had invaded Gaul, now Theodoric fought under Aetius against Attila the Hun in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Attila was driven back, but Theodoric was killed in the battle, the Vandals completed the conquest of North Africa when they took Carthage on October 19,439 and the Suevi had taken most of Hispania. The Roman emperor Avitus now sent the Visigoths into Hispania, Theodoric II invaded and defeated the King of the Suevi, Rechiarius, at the battle on the river Orbigo in 456 near Asturica Augusta and then sacked Bracara Augusta the Suevi capital. The Goths sacked the cities in Spain quite brutally, they massacred a portion of the population and even attacked some holy places, theoderic took control over Hispania Baetica, Carthaginiensis and southern Lusitania. In 461, the Goths received the city of Narbonne from the emperor Libius Severus in exchange for their support. This led to a revolt by the army and by Gallo-Romans under Aegidius, as a result, Romans under Severus and the Visigoths fought other Roman troops, in 466, Euric, who was the youngest son of Theodoric I, came to the Visigothic throne. He is infamous for murdering his elder brother Theodoric II who had become king by murdering his elder brother Thorismund. Under Euric, the Visigoths began expanding in Gaul and consolidating their presence in the Iberian peninsula, Euric fought a series of wars with the Suebi who retained some influence in Lusitania, and brought most of this region under Visigothic power, taking Emerita Augusta in 469. Euric also attacked the Western Roman Empire, capturing Hispania Tarraconensis in 472, by 476, he had extended his rule to the Rhone and the Loire rivers which comprised most of southern Gaul
9.
Spania
–
Spania was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was established by the Emperor Justinian I in an effort to restore the provinces of the Empire. In 409 the Vandals, Suebi and Alans, who had broken through the Roman border defences on the Rhine two years before, crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian peninsula, nevertheless, effective Roman rule was maintained over most areas through the death of Emperor Majorian in 461. The Visigoths, vassals of the Roman Empire who had settled in Aquitaine by imperial invitation, in 468 they attacked and defeated the Suevi, who had occupied Roman Gallaecia were threatening to expand. A large scale migration of the Visigoths into Iberia began in 494 under Alaric II, the Visigoths ended the Roman administration in Spain in 473, but they did not replace it with a provincial administration of their own until the early 6th century. In 534, Roman general Belisarius re-established the Byzantine province of Mauretania with the conquest of the Vandal Kingdom in northern Africa and this citadel was nevertheless seized the following year by an expedition dispatched by Belisarius. Ceuta became a part of Mauretania and it was an important base for reconnaissance of Spain in the years leading up to the peninsulas invasion by Justinians forces in 552. In 550, in the reign of Agila I, Spain was troubled by a series of revolts, the citizens of Córdoba rebelled against Gothic or Arian rule and Agila was roundly defeated, his son killed, and the royal treasure lost. The date of the major revolt cannot be arrived at precisely. Either at the commencement of his reign or as late as 551, a nobleman named Athanagild took Seville, capital of Baetica, exactly who approached the Byzantines for assistance and when is also disputed, the primary sources are divided. Even the name of the general of the Byzantine army is disputed, although Jordanes wrote that the Patrician Liberius was its commander, He was succeeded by Agila, who holds the kingdom to the present day. Athanagild has rebelled against him and is even now provoking the might of the Roman Empire, so Liberius the Patrician is on the way with an army to oppose him. James J. However, according to Isidore of Seville in his History of the Goths, it was Athanagild, in autumn of 551 or winter of 552, the army was probably sent in 552 and made landfall in June or July. Roman forces landed probably at the mouth of the Guadalete or perhaps Málaga, the war dragged on for two more years. Their landing at Cartagena was violent, Leander and most of his family fled and his writings preserve the strong anti-Byzantine sentiment. In late March 555, the supporters of Agila, in fear of the recent Byzantine successes, turned and assassinated him, quickly the new king tried to rid Spain of the Byzantines, but failed. The Byzantines occupied many cities in Baetica and this region was to remain a Byzantine province until its reconquest by the Visigoths barely seventy years later. The most important cities of Byzantine Spania were Málaga and Cartagena, the landing sites of the Byzantine army
Spain portal