Spanish history

A brief overview of the history of Spain

Spain was initially settled during the Neolithic period by Indo-Europeans from either the eastern Mediterannean or North Africa, and Celts and Basques from central and western Europe.

The earliest known civilization in Spain was that of Tartessos, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Andalusia. The Tartessians spoke a language unrelated to any other.

They came into contact with Phoenician traders around 3000 years ago. The name Spain derives from the Phoenician word for a species of hare then prevalent on the peninsula.

It is thought the city of Tartessos was destroyed by Phoenicia's successor, Carthaginia, in the sixth century BC.

The Phoenicians were credited with the founding of Cadiz in south-west Spain in the 11th century BC.

Two centuries later the Greeks began setting up colonies in north-east Spain, such as Emporion near modern-day Girona and the river Ebro. The name of the river, derived from the Basque word for 'valley,' was to become the Greek name for the peninsula, 'Iberia.'

The Carthaginians settled in the south-east (notably Cartagena) and soon found themselves at war with the Greeks.

The Romans invaded in 218 BC, encountering not only the Carthaginians, but also fierce resistance from native Iberians, Celts and Lusitanians (the latter having arrived from France four centuries earlier).

The Second Punic War in which Rome defeated Carthage, and the Roman Civil War in which Julius Caesar vanquished Pompey, were both fought mostly on Spanish territory.

It would take the Romans two centuries to subdue the peninsula. This they did under Caesar Augustus, after whom the city of Zaragoza is named.

Five centuries of Roman occupation ensued, the 'Pax Romana,' during which Spain developed into a fully civilized, cosmopolitan, Latin-speaking society. Christianity was adopted in the first century.

With the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Visigoths took power, establishing Toledo as their capital and driving out their Germanic kinsmen, Vandals and Suevi, along with the Alans from Iran. However, the Suevi survived in the north-west (Galicia), while the Vandals and Alans settled in the south (the former giving their name to 'Vandalusia').

Latin language, law and culture remained strong throughout the Visigoth era, and the power of the church grew markedly, as it did elsewhere in Medievel Europe.

In 710 the last Visigoth king, Roderic, drove the Byzantines out of south-east Spain, only to be killed a year later at the onset of the Moorish invasions.

The Moors, primarily Berbers (indigenous north-west Africans) under Arab leadership, arrived in 711. The fragility of Visigoth rule was exposed as they surged on to reach the Pyrenees within eight years. Only the Basques held out.

During the reign of the Umayyads (previously based at Damascus, and whose empire extended as far as India), Cordoba was easily the most advanced city in Europe. From this Moorish capital vast innovations were introduced to the Christian world in terms of medicine, mathematics, astronomy and agriculture.

The Christian Reconquest actually began in the decade of the Moorish occupation, led by Pelayo, King of the Asturias. But it would require almost 800 years to complete. Toledo was taken in 1085 and Cordoba a century-and-a-half later. By the middle of the 13th century the Muslim territories had been reduced to Granada, a province which survived another 250 years as a vassal state of Christian Spain.

In 1492, the same year Columbus discovered America, the Christians drove the last of the Muslims out, resulting in the virtual reunification of Catholic Spain. The Moors were offered the choice of conversion or expulsion, as were the Jews, 200,000 of whom were expelled during the infamous Inquisition.

So it was that by the end of the 15th century Isabella and Ferdinand had recaptured the last vestiges of Muslim Spain, reunited much of the peninsula (for the first time since Roman rule), and gained a host of new colonies, notably, of course, the Americas with their lucrative silver mines.

The stage was set for the first truly global empire in world history. Its armies ruled the battlefields of Europe and the Americas, and its navy dominated the oceans. Francisco Pizzaro is credited with conquering the (divided) Inca Empire with an army of just 180 men.

At its height the Spanish Empire's territories encompassed South and Central America, parts of North America and East Asia, all of the Iberian peninsula, Germany, Holland and Belgium, southern Italy and Sicily.

This occured in the reign of Charles V (Carlos I), first Habsburg king of united Spain. He was the son of Philip I and Joanna the Mad and the grandson of Maximillian I.

Durng the reign of his successor Phillip II (who moved the capital from Toledo to Madrid in 1561), Spain joined Italy in a 'Holy' alliance which defeated the hitherto indomitable Ottomans in the sea Battle of Lepanto. The great Spanish writer Cervantes, himself wounded in action, described it as 'the end of Turkish invincibility.'

Phillip II sent the Spanish Armada against Elizabeth's England in 1588 to avenge English support for Dutch rebels in the Spanish Netherlands. The so-called 'Invincible Fleet' of 130 warships, firstly decimated by a storm, was routed by the British naval squadron under Francis Drake, with support from the Dutch.

This was not the turning point in history some (Protestant) historians would have us believe. However, the Bourbon dynasty had reversed many of the enlighened reforms introduced by Isabella and Ferdinand, and this was to sew the seeds of the empire's gradual decline..

Incessant warfare in Europe, the stifling domination of church and nobility, and economic problems (caused in no small part by the discovery of the Americas), saw the beginning of Spain's decline in the 17th century.

Portugal won its independence in 1640, Holland followed suit at the conclusion of the 80 Years War, and the 30 Years War between Europe's Protestants and Catholics resulted in the liberation of the German provinces.

The death of Charles II at the dawn of the 18th century led to the War of the Spanish Succession, waged primarily between the French Bourbons and the Austro-Hungarians, heirs of the Holy Roman Empire.

The latter, backed by England and Holland, gained the upper hand, forcing a truce in 1714 which saw the loss of further Spanish colonies, though the Bourbons remained on the throne.

The remainder of the century witnessed a steady recovery of the Spanish economy, with Bilbao and Barcelona in the north overhauling Cadiz in the south as the main centres of industry. Spain also prospered by supporting the American colonies in their victorious War of Independence against Britain.

Spain in the early 19th century alligned itself with Napoleon Bonaparte, brought to power by the French Revolution. Their combined naval forces were destroyed by a Britain fleet under Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar near Gibraltar.

Charles IV was overthrown in the Mutiny of Aranjuez and replaced by his son Ferdinand VII. This displeased Napoleon, who forced both monarchs to renounce the throne, then placed his brother Joseph upon it.

This, in turn, triggered the Spanish War of Independence (Peninsula War), which began the same year with the nationalist uprising in Madrid. The Spanish were no match for Napoleon, but earned a reprieve with the emperor's ill-fated invasion of Russia. Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese army, combined with tenacious guerilla warfare on the part of the Spaniards themselves, finally ended French occupation in 1814. Ferdinand was returned to the throne.

The Napoleonic wars had major repercussions for Spain: economic distaster, the emergence of governmental rule more or less free of royal interference (a constitution was signed in Cadiz as early as 1812), and the loss of most of its remaining colonies in the Americas.

By 1825 only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule. And these would be lost to the United States at the end of the century in the Spanish-American war. This war, believed to have been ignited by an accidental explosion which sunk the USS Maine, blamed on the Spanish, signalled the arrival of America as a major force in world affairs. They took Puerto Rico, the Phillipines and Guam from the Spanish, while Cuba gained independence, albeit under American restrictions.

Spain did gain some territories in north-west Africa early in the 20th century, but was checked in 1921 by the 'Disaster of Annual' during the Rif War in Morocco. Spanish forces were ambushed by Riffian warriors, losing as many as 20,000 men (to the enemy's 1000), including their general, Manuel Fernandez Silvestre. The remainder fled, leaving behind vital stocks of weaponry. The defeat ended the Spanish Protectorate in the region and triggered a political crisis in Madrid.

Left-right tensions continued into the 1930s with political assassinations rife. Under the Republican leadership of Manuel Azana, Spaniards enjoyed liberal democracy and both Catalan and Basque nationalists were able to flex their muscles. However, the government's land reforms ran into strong opposition from land-owners, leading to civil unrest, strikes and the formation of anarchist unions. The Republicans were also at loggerheads with the Military, the monarchists and the church, three pillars of traditional Spanish society. In 1932 there was a failed military coup.

Azana was returned to power in 1936 as head of a Republican-Socialist coalition, giving rise to the fascist Spanish Phalanx organization, the Nationalist party of Primo de Rivera. The Falangists murdered Jose Castillo of the anti-fascist movement, whose members shot dead right-wing leader Calvo Sotelo in retaliation.

Three days later an army uprising began in Spanish Morocco, led by General Francisco Franco, and spread into the Balaeric and Canary Islands. The Spanish Civil War had begun in earnest. While the majority of the population supported the government, the outcome would ultimately be decided by the military's support of the Nationalists, infighting between the Republicans and Socialists themselves, and foreign involvement.

The Nationalists were actively supported by Germany and Italy, the former bombing Guernica in the Basque Country (immortalized by the Pablo Picasso painting); the latter providing an air squadron and as many as 60,000 troops.The government's appeals to England and France fell on deaf ears, although arms were provided (at a heavy price) by the USSR, sympathetic to the socialist element.

In a bitterly-fought campaign the Fascists gained the upper hand, defending the Alcazar in Toledo and laying siege to Madrid, forcing the government to abandon the capital for Valencia.

The following year they took Bilbao and Santander, effectively sealing off the north, and Malaga in the south, although the Republicans fought back to hold Madrid and recapture nearby Segovia.

In February 1938 Franco emerged victorious at the pivotal battle of Teruel, thus reaching the Mediterranean and dissecting the enemy-held portion of Spain. The government was forced to move again, this time to Barcelona, but by the end of the year the Nationalists were invading Catalonia. The region fell in January 1939, and Madrid and Valencia soon followed, forcing the Republicans' surrender.

Franco showed no mercy. As many as 28,000 leftists were executed and thousands more imprisoned for life. The dictator was to rule with an iron fist until his death in 1975.

The first half of his regin was marked by economic depression owing to political isolation. Transformation began in 1953 when a military alliance with Eisenhower resulted in financial aid from the US and admission to the UN two years later.

During the 1960s Spain began to tap into its huge potential for tourism. The impact was no less signficant on the national psyche. In what became known as the 'Swedish Revolution,' consersative Catholic values began to give way to more liberal attitudes as northern Europeans invaded the Mediterranean Coast. The 'Spanish Miracle' was underway.

Two years before his death Franco stepped down as prime minister, though remaining head of state and commander of the military. His intended successor, the like-minded Luis Carrero Blanco, was blown up in his car by an ETA bomb planted beneath the road. The Basque terrorist organization had been increasingly active since the 1960s, and would continue its attacks in the post-Franco era.

The dictator named Prince Carlos the Bourbon his successor as head of state, ignoring the rightful claim of his father and king-in-exile, Don Juan. After Franco's death Carlos would delight the majority of Spaniards by pushing through democratic reforms and instigating the development of a capitalist society.

The first elections of the post-Franco era in 1977 were won by a Democratic coalition under Adolfo Suarez, who had previously run the government of Carlos. The Basque and Catalonian nationalist parties also fared well.

A group of officers from the Guardia Civil (a military organization which had evolved into a police force in the time of Franco) attempted a military coup in 1981, holding congress at gunpoint and rolling tanks into Valencia. Carlos further endeared himself to his subjects at this time with his televised 'Over my Dead Body' speech. The coup failed.

In 1982, the year Spain hosted football's World Cup, the Socialist party came to power and laid the groundwork for Spain's inclusion in the EU, which came about four years later. In 1992 Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games.

Spain began the 21st century as one of the world's most liberal societies, with its relaxed way of life and a peace-loving population enjoying a high standard of living due in no small part to the 60 million tourists it receives each year.