History of Spain
The history of Spain dates to contact between the pre-Roman peoples of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula with the Greeks and Phoenicians. During Classical Antiquity, the peninsula was the site of multiple successive colonizations of Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. Native peoples of the peninsula, such as the Tartessos, intermingled with the colonizers to create a uniquely Iberian culture. The Romans referred to the entire peninsula as Hispania, from which the name "Spain" originates. As was the rest of the Western Roman Empire, Spain was subject to numerous invasions of Germanic tribes during the 4th and 5th centuries AD, resulting in the end of Roman rule and the establishment of Germanic kingdoms, marking the beginning of the Middle Ages in Spain.
Germanic control lasted until the Umayyad conquest of Hispania began in 711. The region became known as Al-Andalus, and except for the small Kingdom of Asturias, the region remained under the control of Muslim-led states for much of the Early Middle Ages, a period known as the Islamic Golden Age. By the time of the High Middle Ages, Christians from the north gradually expanded their control over Iberia, a period known as the Reconquista. As they expanded southward, a number of Christian kingdoms were formed, including the Kingdom of Navarre, the Kingdom of León, the Kingdom of Castile, and the Kingdom of Aragon. They eventually consolidated into two roughly equivalent polities, the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. The early modern period is generally dated from the union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon by royal marriage in 1469.
The joint rule of Isabella I and Ferdinand II is historiographically considered the foundation of a unified Spain. The conquest of Granada, and the first voyage of Columbus, both in 1492, made that year a critical inflection point in Spanish history. The same year saw the expulsion of Spain's Jews and the conversion of many others to Christianity. In the subsequent decades, the voyages of the explorers and conquistadors of Spain helped establish a Spanish colonial empire which was among the largest ever. King Charles I established the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Under his son Philip II the Spanish Golden Age flourished, the Spanish Empire reached its territorial and economic peak, and his palace at El Escorial became the center of artistic flourishing. However, Philip's rule also saw the destruction of the Spanish Armada, a number of state bankruptcies and the independence of the Northern Netherlands, which marked the beginning of the slow decline of Spanish influence in Europe. Spain's power was further tested by its participation in the Eighty Years' War, whereby it tried and failed to recapture the newly independent Dutch Republic, and the Thirty Years' War, which resulted in continued decline of Habsburg power in favor of the French Bourbon dynasty. Matters came to a head with the death of the last Habsburg ruler Charles II of Spain; the War of the Spanish Succession broke out between two European alliances led by the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs, for the control of the Spanish throne. The Bourbons prevailed, resulting in the ascension of Philip V of Spain, who took Spain into various wars and eventually recaptured the territories in southern Italy that had been lost in the War of the Spanish Succession. Spain's late entry into the Seven Years' War was the result of fear of the growing successes of the British at the expense of the French, but Spanish forces suffered major defeats. Motivated by this and earlier setbacks during Bourbon rule, Spanish institutions underwent a period of reform, especially under Charles III, that culminated in Spain's largely successful involvement in the American War of Independence.
During the Napoleonic era, Spain became a French puppet state. Concurrent with, and following, the Napoleonic period the Spanish American wars of independence resulted in the loss of most of Spain's territory in the Americas in the 1820s. During the re-establishment of the Bourbon rule in Spain, constitutional monarchy was introduced in 1813. Spain's history during the nineteenth century was tumultuous, and featured alternating periods of republican-liberal and monarchical rule. The Spanish–American War led to losses of Spanish colonial possessions and a series of military dictatorships, during which King Alfonso XIII was deposed and a new Republican government was formed. Ultimately, the political disorder within Spain led to a coup by the military which led to the Spanish Civil War. After much foreign intervention on both sides, the Nationalists emerged victorious; Francisco Franco led a fascist dictatorship for almost four decades. Franco's death ushered in a return of the monarchy under King Juan Carlos I, which saw a liberalization of Spanish society and a re-engagement with the international community. A new liberal Constitution was established in 1978. Spain entered the European Economic Community in 1986, and the Eurozone in 1998. Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014, and was succeeded by his son Felipe VI.
Prehistory
The earliest record of Homo genus representatives living in Western Europe has been found in the Spanish cave of Atapuerca; a flint tool found there dates from 1.4 million years ago, and early human fossils date to roughly 1.2 million years ago. 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 most conspicuous sign of prehistoric human settlements are the paintings in the northern Spanish cave of Altamira, which were done c. 15,000 BC.Archeological evidence in places like Los Millares and El Argar suggests developed cultures existed in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula during the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. Around 2500 BC, the nomadic shepherds known as the Corded ware culture conquered the peninsula using new technologies and horses while killing all local males according to DNA studies. Spanish prehistory extends to the pre-Roman Iron Age cultures that controlled most of Iberia: those of the Iberians, Celtiberians, Tartessians, Lusitanians, and Vascones and trading settlements of Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks on the Mediterranean coast.
Early history of the Iberian Peninsula
Before the Roman conquest the major cultures along the Mediterranean coast were the Iberians, the Celts in the interior and north-west, the Lusitanians in the west, and the Tartessians in the southwest. The seafaring Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks successively established trading settlements along the eastern and southern coast. The development of writing in the peninsula took place after the arrival of early Phoenician settlers and traders.File:Bronce luzaga.jpg|thumb|Illustration depicting the Luzaga's Bronze, an example of the Celtiberian script.
The south of the peninsula was rich in archaic Phoenician colonies, unmatched by any other region in the central-western Mediterranean. They were small and densely packed settlements. The colony of Gadir—which sustained strong links with its metropolis of Tyre—stood out from the rest of the network of colonies, also featuring a more complex sociopolitical organization. Archaic Greeks arrived on the Peninsula by the late 7th century BC. They founded Greek colonies such as Emporion.
The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, apparently after the river Iber. By the 6th century BC, much of the territory of southern Iberia passed to Carthage's overarching influence ; the latter grip strengthened from the 4th century BC on. The Barcids, following their landing in Gadir in 237 BC, conquered the territories that belonged to the sphere of influence of Carthage. Until 219 BC, their presence in the peninsula was underpinned by their control of places such as Carthago Nova and Akra Leuké, as well as the network of old Phoenician settlements.
The peninsula was a military theatre of the Second Punic War waged between Carthage and the Roman Republic, the two powers vying for supremacy in the western Mediterranean. Romans expelled Carthaginians from the peninsula in 206 BC.
The peoples whom the Romans met at the time of their invasion were the Iberians, inhabiting an area stretching from the northeast part of the Iberian Peninsula through the southeast. The Celts mostly inhabited the inner and north-west part of the peninsula. To the east of the Meseta Central, the Sistema Ibérico area was inhabited by the Celtiberians, reportedly rich in precious metals. Celtiberians developed a refined technique of iron-forging, displayed in their quality weapons.
The Celtiberian Wars were fought between the advancing 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.
Roman Hispania (2nd century BC – 5th century AD)
Hispania was the name used for the Iberian Peninsula under Roman rule from the 2nd century BC. The population was 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 peninsula's economy expanded under Rome. 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, and Lucan were born in Hispania. 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, and Visigoths.
The collapse of the Western Roman Empire did not lead to the same wholesale destruction of classical society as happened in areas like Roman Britain, Gaul and Germania Inferior during the Early Middle Ages, although the institutions and infrastructure did decline. Spain's languages, its religion, and the basis of its laws originate from this period.