Spain

VI

History

The earliest records of an aboriginal past in the Iberian Peninsula are Palaeolithic cave paintings, found in the region of the Bay of Biscay and the western Pyrenees and evincing a remarkable degree of vivacity and skill. Distinctly different from this development in the north was the later Neolithic Almerian culture (c. 3000 bc) of south-east Spain, which was akin to that of prehistoric Africa. The southern region became the first invasion point for the Iberians, originally a North African people, who, about 1000 bc, became the most prominent ethnologic element in the peninsula and gave it its name. The second most important people in the peninsula were the Celts, who entered in a mass migration from France. The Celts almost completely absorbed the indigenous inhabitants of the central region and, to a lesser extent, those of the northern mountains. A subsequent intermingling of Celts and Iberians formed the so-called Celtiberians, living chiefly in the central region, the west, and along the northern coast.

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Antiquity and Middle Ages

The first of the eastern Mediterranean peoples known to have voyaged to the peninsula were the seafaring Phoenicians, probably in the 11th century bc. The Phoenicians established a colony on the site of present-day Cádiz. Traders from Rhodes and the Greek cities followed, establishing colonies on the Mediterranean coast and occasionally venturing into the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, then known as the Pillars of Hercules. In the second half of the 3rd century bc the African state of Carthage began to exploit the peninsula. Under the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, a large part of the peninsula was conquered in a campaign from 237 to 228 bc, and in the latter year Carthage founded the city of Barcelona. Other colonies were established, notably Carthago Nova (now Cartagena).

The expansion of Carthage in the peninsula was viewed unfavourably by Rome. In 219 bc, violating a previous Carthage-Rome agreement delimiting Carthaginian territory, the Carthaginian general Hannibal destroyed the Greek colony of Saguntum (now Sagunto) and precipitated the second of the Punic Wars. Carthage was forced to evacuate the peninsula in 206 bc. Nine years later Rome divided the peninsula into two provinces, Hispania Citerior, in the valley of the Ebro (north-east), and Hispania Ulterior, in the plain penetrated by the Guadalquivir River (south). The peoples of the extreme north did not surrender their independence to Rome until 19 BC.

Under the Romans, Hispania took its final form as three provinces: Lusitania, approximating to modern Portugal; Baetica, in the south, approximating to western Andalusia; and Hispania Tarraconensis, the central plateau and the north, north-west, and the eastern coast above Cartagena. From the final submission of the Iberian peoples until the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in the late 4th century ad, Hispania was one of the most prosperous areas of Roman power. Its farms were a major source of Roman grain, and from its mines came iron, copper, lead, gold, and silver.

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1

Visigothic Spain

In ad 409 Teutonic invaders crossed the Pyrenees. Alans, Vandals, and Suevi swept over the peninsula. The unity of Hispania under Rome was destroyed, not to be entirely recreated for more than a thousand years. In an attempt to stem the havoc brought by the invasions, Rome appealed to the Visigoths, who in ad 412 brought their armies into the region and within seven years became the dominant power. The Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse, a nominal vassal of Rome, was established in 419, and at its fullest extent included the territory from the Strait of Gibraltar north to the River Loire in present-day France.

For three centuries (419-711) the king of Toulouse implanted Roman culture and Christianity in the peninsula. Euric ruled at the height of Visigothic power in the 5th century and codified the Roman and Gothic law. Leovigild, who reigned from 569 to 586, effected the final subjugation of the Suevi and united the Roman and Visigothic elements of the peninsula into a single people. Between 586 and 601, Leovigild’s son Recared established Roman Catholicism as the official state religion.

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Spain Under the Moors

In 711 a Berber Muslim army, under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa into the Iberian peninsula. Roderick, last of the Visigothic kings of Spain, was defeated at the Battle of Río Barbate. By 719 the invading forces were supreme from the coast to the Pyrenees. Their progress north was arrested at a battle fought in France, between Tours and Poitiers, in 732 by the Frankish ruler Charles Martel. The first years of their rule, the Moors, as the Berber conquerors came to be known, held the peninsula (except for Asturias and the Basque country) as a dependency of the Province of North Africa, a division of the caliphate of Damascus.

After 717 the country was ruled by emirs, appointed by the caliphs, who were frequently neglectful of their duties; misrule resulted in the appointment and deposition of 20 successive emirs over the ensuing 40 years. This state of affairs was ended by a struggle between the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties for control of the caliphate. The last of the Spanish emirs, Yusuf, favoured the Abbasids, but the local officials of the empire supported the Umayyads. The Umayyad faction invited Abd-ar-Rahman I, a member of the family, to become the independent ruler of Spain. In 756 Abd-ar-Rahman founded the powerful and independent emirate, which later developed into the caliphate of Córdoba.

During the establishment of Moorish power, a remnant of Christian rule was preserved in the northern portion of the peninsula. The most important Christian state of the northern peninsula, the small kingdom of Asturias, was founded about 718 by Pelayo, a Visigothic chieftain. Pelayo’s son-in-law, Alfonso, conquered nearly all the region known as Galicia, recaptured most of León, and was then crowned Alfonso I, King of León and Asturias. Alfonso III greatly extended these territories during his reign, which ended in 910.

During the 10th century the region of Navarre became an independent kingdom under Sancho I. As the kings of León expanded their domains to the east in the early 10th century, they reached Burgos. Because of the castles built to guard the frontiers of newly acquired territory, this region became popularly known as Castilla, or Castile. Under Count Fernán González the region became independent of León, and in 932 the Count declared himself the first king of Castile.

In the 11th century a considerable part of Aragón was captured from the Muslims by Sancho III, King of Navarre, who also conquered León and Castile, and in 1033 he made his son, Ferdinand I, King of Castile. This temporary unity came to an end at Sancho’s death, when his domains were divided among his sons. The most prominent of Sancho’s sons was Ferdinand, who acquired León in 1037, took the Moorish section of Galicia, and set up a vassal county in what is now northern Portugal. With northern Spain consolidated, Ferdinand, in 1056, proclaimed himself Emperor of Spain (from the Latin Hispania), and he initiated the period of reconquest from the Muslims.

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3

The Christian Reconquest

At the beginning of the great reconquest the Umayyad dynasty had ruled Muslim Spain for about three centuries. The greatest of its rulers was Abd-ar-Rahman III, who in 929 proclaimed himself caliph. His capital, Córdoba, became the most splendid city in Europe except for Constantinople, and Spanish civilization during the Moorish supremacy was far in advance of that of the rest of the continent. Numerous schools were built, many of them free and for the education of the poor. At the great Muslim universities medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and literature were cultivated; the works of Aristotle were studied there long before they were well known to Christian Europe. An extensive literature developed, the caliphs themselves being poets and authors of note, and Islamic art and architecture flourished. The Umayyads also encouraged commerce and agriculture, and constructed effective irrigation systems throughout the southern region.

The dynasty ended with the death of Hisham III in 1036 and the caliphate split into a number of independent and mutually hostile Moorish kingdoms, including Córdoba, Granada, Seville, Toledo, Lisbon, Saragossa, Murcia, and Valencia. The dissolution of the central Moorish power enabled the Christian kings of northern Spain to gain the advantage, subduing some Moorish states and making others tributary. A temporary revival of central power was instituted by the Abbadids of Seville between 1023 and 1091. Alfonso I of Castile led his attacking armies south and by 1086 was master of Toledo. Abbad al-Mutamid, as Abbad III of Seville, then asked the aid of the Almoravids, a Muslim sect of North Africa. The Almoravids crossed to Spain, but after defeating Alfonso in 1086 they turned against the Spanish Moors, and by the beginning of the 12th century the Almoravid ruler was the sovereign of Muslim Spain.

The Almoravid dynasty was, however, short-lived, and its power passed to a second African sect, the Almohads, who invaded Spain in 1145 and became masters of the Muslim areas within five years. The Christian kings, meanwhile, continued their advance. In a great battle fought on the plains of Toledo in July 1212, the Almohads were defeated by the united Christian power and expelled from Spain shortly thereafter. The Moorish power was then limited to some ports around Cádiz and to the kingdom of Granada, which endured until 1492 and was one of the greatest and most splendid of Muslim realms.

Except for these regions, Spain for the next two centuries consisted of two great kingdoms: in the west Castile and León, including Asturias, Córdoba, Extremadura, Galica, Jaén, and Seville; and in the east, Aragón, including Barcelona, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. Both realms were characterized, as a legacy of their previous history, by a diversity of dialects, by composite populations (including Christians, Moors, and Jews), and by divergent political forms.