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.

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 C�diz. 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 tribes 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 tribes 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.

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 tribes 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.

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 R�o 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 C�rdoba.

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 Le�n, and was then crowned Alfonso I, King of Le�n 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 Le�n 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 Fern�n Gonz�lez the region became independent of Le�n, and in 932 the Count declared himself the first king of Castile.

In the 11th century a considerable part of Arag�n was captured from the Muslims by Sancho III, King of Navarre, who also conquered Le�n 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 Le�n 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.

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, C�rdoba, 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 C�rdoba, 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 C�diz 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 Le�n, including Asturias, C�rdoba, Estremadura, Galica, Ja�n, and Seville; and in the east, Arag�n, 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.

Spain in the Early Modern Era
In 1469 the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand V of Arag�n initiated the developments that made Spain a great power. They became joint rulers of Castile in 1474 and of Arag�n in 1479, although no actual union of the two kingdoms occurred and each monarch exercised sovereign power only in his or her own realm. Arag�n, the smaller and poorer kingdom, tended to be neglected. Attention was focused instead on strengthening royal authority in richer and more populous Castile.
Also important for the pious monarchs (who took the title "Catholic Kings") was the establishment in 1478 of the Inquisition to enforce purity of the faith. The Inquisition was also a powerful tool for increasing and consolidating royal power. Inquisitors were royally appointed, invested with both civil and church power, exempt from normal jurisdiction, and served by a multitude of informants and bodyguards. Proceedings were secret and the property of the condemned was confiscated and distributed among the Crown, the Inquisition, and the accusers.
In 1480 Isabella convoked a great Cortes (parliament) at Toledo, which laid the legislative basis for royal absolutism in Castile. Laws were recodified, the judicial system was reformed, and the power of the nobility was weakened. Moreover, administrative structures and methods of recruiting state officials were systematized, making Castile perhaps the most modern large state of its time.
Royal power was consolidated further during a ten-year war against Granada, the last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula. These efforts culminated in 1492, when first Granada fell, politically unifying all of Spain, and then religious uniformity was imposed through the forcible conversion or expulsion of Jews, some 150,000 of whom chose to leave, and the remaining Moors. Still, a seemingly minor act, the sponsoring of Christopher Columbus to find a westward route to the Indies, had the greatest historical consequences.

The Making of a World Power  The Americas
The new strength of Castile became evident in its ability to create a huge overseas empire and at the same time achieve hegemony in Europe. Columbus�s voyages, which aroused great excitement, brought disappointing results for the next two decades. Then Spain�s spectacular expansion in the Americas began. The most important events were the destruction of the Aztec empire in Mexico by Hern�n Cort�s from 1519 to 1521, the conquest of the Inca empire of Peru by Francisco Pizarro from 1531 to 1533. By the 1550s Spain controlled most of the South American continent, Central America, Florida, Cuba and, in Asia, the Philippine Islands. The empire was the means by which Christianity first spread across the Atlantic. It also brought enormous wealth to Spain when, after the 1530s, rich silver and gold mines were discovered.

Europe
Spain�s expansion in Europe began even before this wealth became available. Relying on brilliant diplomacy as well as on the military commanders and techniques forged in the war against Granada, King Ferdinand was chiefly responsible for making Spain into a major European power. The main opponent was France, both along the frontiers that separated the two states and also in Italy, where Arag�n�s traditional interests were threatened by French efforts to dominate the peninsula.
The struggle began with the successful campaign of 1495-1497 in southern Italy and continued intermittently for two decades, until Ferdinand�s death. By then Spain had won control of southern Italy, all Navarre south of the Pyrenees, and farther north, the regions of Cerdagne and Roussillon. Ferdinand also arranged strategic alliances with other royal houses hostile to France, marrying one daughter to the heir to the English throne and another, Joanna, to a Habsburg, Philip of Burgundy, later King Philip I of Castile.
Isabella�s death in 1504 nearly upset the process of expansion as Castile�s crown passed to Joanna, who had become mentally deranged. Ferdinand, anxious to keep Castile united with Arag�n, tried to gain the regency on the grounds of her madness. He was circumvented by Philip who, supported by the Castilian nobles, became ruler in his wife�s stead. In 1506, however, Philip died and Ferdinand again assumed sole direction of the two kingdoms. Ferdinand died in 1516 and was succeeded by his grandson, Charles, son of Joanna and Philip, who, as legal heir to both kingdoms became the first king of a united Spain.

Charles V
The accession of Charles brought the Habsburg dynasty to the Spanish throne. Charles was the most powerful Christian monarch of his time. In addition to Spain and its possessions in Italy and the Americas, he inherited the Netherlands and Burgundy through his father. He also had strong ties to the Austrian branch of the Habsburg family and in 1519 was elected, as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Charles had been reared in Flanders, could not speak Spanish, and tried to rule Spain through foreign advisers. In 1520-1521, Spanish resentment against this precipitated a revolt in Toledo, Segovia, and other Castilian cities demanding greater municipal liberties. The revolt was defeated with help from the nobility, and three centuries would pass before royal absolutism was again challenged in Spain.
Even though Charles continued to spend much time outside Spain, he became increasingly popular with his Spanish subjects. This apparent paradox can be explained by Castile�s great prosperity during his reign, partly the result of American treasure but also reflecting growth in manufacturing and in population, and by pride in Spain�s great imperial accomplishments.
During Charles�s reign Cort�s, Pizarro, and others explored and conquered the Americas. Ferdinand�s anti-French strategy was continued in a series of wars (1521-1529, 1535-1538, 1542-1544, 1551-1559) that made Spain a dominant power in northern as well as southern Italy. Charles led the Catholic attempts first to conciliate, then to suppress the Protestant Reformation sweeping northern Europe. In the south, he mounted expeditions against Tunis (1535) and Algiers (1541), defending the western Mediterranean against Turkish efforts to expand.

Philip II
In 1556 Charles relinquished the Spanish throne to his son, Philip II, who had served as regent during Charles�s many absences. As Philip�s reign began, tranquillity prevailed in Spain. The American empire was now fully consolidated, and unprecedented quantities of silver poured into Castile. The exhausting French wars were ended by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambr�sis in 1559, and for the next four decades France was so divided by religious conflict as to be unable to challenge Spanish interests.
So began Spain�s "Golden Age" of culture and art, which would continue for a century. In 1571 Spain took the lead in the Holy League, which defeated the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, permanently weakening Turkish maritime power. Nine years later, the death of King Henry of Portugal gave Philip, (through his mother) a strong claim to the Portuguese throne. Rival claimants were overcome, and Portuguese resentment against foreign rule was softened through concessions. Since Portugal controlled territories in Asia, Africa, and Brazil, its union with Spain meant the creation of the largest and most far-flung empire in the world.
Still, troubles gradually accumulated. Philip had a zealous devotion to Roman Catholicism and to the preservation of absolute rule. This combination proved disastrous in the Low Countries. Philip�s persecution of Protestants and his attempts to rule the Netherlands as a province of Spain, without regard for its traditional rights, led to open revolt in 1566. This conflict continued for a half-century, draining Spanish resources. It also led to war with England.
Under Queen Elizabeth I, England had become a Protestant power whose foreign policy included unofficial support for the Dutch rebels and for the English mariners who raided Spanish colonies and treasure fleets in the Americas. Philip sent a huge fleet against England in 1588, but the great Spanish Armada was defeated in the English Channel; most of the surviving ships were wrecked in a storm off the Hebrides.
Meanwhile, the domestic situation was deteriorating. American treasure alone could not support Spain�s wars; taxation became oppressive, and the state defaulted on loans. Also upsetting to economic stability were the epidemics that swept Spain in the 1590s, significantly reducing the population. In addition, as Philip strengthened the Inquisition, intellectual life became narrower and less open to new currents of thought. At his death in 1598 Philip left a country that was declining domestically and internationally.

Decline and Crisis
Philip III halted the campaigns against the Dutch and cut back Spain�s other foreign ventures. In 1609 he expelled some 250,000 Moriscos (Christianized Moors), further depopulating Spain and disrupting its economy. Philip IV, who succeeded to the throne after his father�s death in 1621, preferred culture to politics; Spain�s Golden Age reached its height during his reign. He allowed Gaspar de Guzm�n, conde de Olivares, to run the government. Olivares sought to restore and even expand Spanish power abroad. He resumed the Dutch conflict and involved Spain in the Thirty Years� War (1618-1648), which in turn led to war with France after 1635.
At first generally successful abroad, Spain�s military effort could no longer be sustained at home. Olivares�s efforts to increase taxation and conscription led to revolt in 1640, first in Catalonia and then in Portugal. With the home front in chaos, Spain also began to fail abroad. Olivares was ousted, but the wars and revolutions his policies had helped engender haunted Spain for another three decades. Catalonia was recovered in 1652, but Dutch independence had to be recognized in 1648. Roussillon and Cerdagne were returned to France in 1659, and the independence of Portugal was finally accepted in 1668.
Spain was weakened further by the rapid exhaustion of the American silver mines after 1640. Economically, politically, and even culturally, Spain entered a long period of decline. Its new ruler, Charles II, could not govern effectively because of physical and mental infirmities. Factional strife characterized Spain at home; lost wars typified it abroad.
At Charles�s death, the male line of the Spanish Habsburgs became extinct. Charles willed his throne to his grand-nephew, Philip V, Duke of Anjou and grandson of the Bourbon King Louis XIV of France, who was the most powerful monarch of his time. Much of Europe viewed the Bourbon acquisition of Spain�s still vast territories with alarm, and accordingly favoured the Habsburg claims to the throne, as represented by the younger son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
England, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, and several smaller countries formed a coalition against Louis XIV. This resulted in 1701 in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1711 support of the Habsburg claimant also threatened to upset the European balance of power when, as Charles VI, he became Holy Roman emperor after the death of his brother and inherited the Austrian domains. A compromise was reached in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) whereby most of Spain�s remaining European possessions went to Austria, but the Bourbon claimant was recognized as King Philip V of Spain and the overseas empire passed intact to him.

The First Bourbons
Bourbon rule was notable for domestic changes and internal development. Schooled in the absolutism of Louis XIV, Philip brought Catalonia and Arag�n, which still preserved traces of their medieval status as independent states, under central bureaucratic control. Administrative and fiscal reforms of the Bourbon kings made government more effective and reduced the privileges of the church and the nobility. Large programmes of public works were begun, and commerce, industry, and agriculture received royal encouragement. Intellectual life gradually revived, as did economic and population growth. The American colonies were also reorganized, and Spain�s commercial ties with them were improved.
In foreign affairs, the early Bourbons were usually allied with France and hostile to Great Britain, Spain�s chief naval and colonial rival. Spain joined France against Austria in the Wars of the Polish Succession (1733-1735) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). As a result, Spain regained some of the Italian influence it had lost in 1713.
In 1762 Spain entered the Seven Years� War as an ally of the French against Britain; it lost Florida when the British won, but received Louisiana from France as compensation. The two nations allied again in 1779 to support the American War of Independence against Britain, and by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 Spain recovered Florida. The Spanish presence now extended over much of the North American continent. Under Charles III, an enlightened ruler responsible for many foreign and domestic achievements, Spain regained some of its former greatness.

Effects of the French Revolution
The next king, Charles IV, was a weak ruler, prey to intrigues and corruption particularly after 1792, when he gave Manuel de Godoy the direction of the government. The extraordinary upheavals that the French Revolution engendered throughout Europe after 1789 had especially adverse effects on Spain. Fear that revolutionary ideology might spread to Spain caused the revival of repressive policies. In 1793, after the French Bourbon king was executed, Spain joined other European powers in declaring war against the revolutionary government, but soon had to admit defeat as French armies ravaged its northern provinces.
As revolutionary fervour diminished in France, Godoy reversed course in 1796 and formed an alliance with that country against Britain. British naval supremacy could not be overcome, however, and for the next decade Spain was usually cut off from its American colonies, with disastrous economic consequences. Worse still, France began to act more like a master than an ally once Napoleon gained effective control over it in 1799. Louisiana was ceded back to France in 1800, and by the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, Spain, its fleet lost at the Battle of Trafalgar, (in the Napoleonic Wars) had become a French puppet.
Resentment grew among the Spanish people, who in March 1808 overthrew Godoy and forced Charles to abdicate in favour of his son, Ferdinand. Napoleon, who had already decided to assume direct control of Spain, took advantage of the disarray to oust both Ferdinand and Charles, placing his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the throne.

War of Independence
The Spanish people refused to recognize Joseph as king and organized resistance against French occupation. A British force came to their aid; in Britain the conflict was known as the Peninsular War because it also involved Portugal. By January 1810 the French had defeated the major Spanish armies and occupied most of the country, but Spanish guerrilla bands effectively harassed the French forces and kept them from either smashing the British army in Portugal or completely taking over Spain. Thus, a national assembly (1810-1813) could meet in C�diz and proclaim a constitution that ended absolutist rule, established parliamentary government, suppressed the Inquisition, limited the power of the nobles and clergy, and instituted other reforms. Very advanced for its time, the constitution became a paramount issue in subsequent Spanish politics.
The war against Napoleon was a heroic period for Spain and contributed to his eventual downfall in Europe. Six years of warfare, however, greatly harmed the economy of Spain, and its American colonies began to win their independence. By 1826 only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule; the mainland colonies had all gained their freedom, and their resources were lost to Spain.

The Troubled Monarchy
Ferdinand VII returned to Spain after Napoleon�s defeat in 1814. He at once abrogated the C�diz constitution, restored absolutist rule, and instituted repressive policies against the liberals. Six years later a revolution led by army officers restored the constitution, but the liberals were unable to install effective rule, and Spain remained politically divided. Because the members of the Holy Alliance feared that revolution might spread across Europe, in 1823 they authorized French armies to quell the liberal regime. Thus, Ferdinand and absolutism were again restored.

The Carlist War
In 1831 Ferdinand, who had no male heir, designated his infant daughter Isabella as his successor. His brother Carlos, however, appealed more to the political extremists; in 1833 they insisted that Carlos, rather than Isabella II, inherit the throne. This dynastic split resulted in civil war, with the Carlists ranged against the Cristinos, named after Isabella�s mother, Maria Christina, who acted as regent.
To win over the liberals, Maria Christina in 1834 granted a royal charter in lieu of a constitution. Carlist support came from rural areas of northern Spain (notably the Basque provinces and Catalonia), where the clergy�s influence was strong and centralized rule was resented. Spain�s more advanced areas were opposed to the Carlists, as were Portugal, Britain, and France, which aided the Cristinos. After a long struggle, the main Carlist forces were defeated in 1839. Victory had come slowly because continuous political conflict had weakened the anti-Carlist forces. Popular revolts had compelled Maria Christina in 1837 to grant a more liberal constitution than the 1834 charter. Her court was disrupted by intrigues, and she tried to manoeuvre the factions to her own advantage. In 1840, following a joint military-civilian revolt, Maria Christina resigned her regency and left Spain. Isabella was declared legally of age in 1843.

Dissension and Crisis
The reign of Isabella was marked by the continued struggle between progressive and conservative liberals. Favoured by the court, the conservative side governed for most of the period from 1843 to 1866. Isabella�s absolutist tendencies and incompetence eventually alienated all major factions; they united to depose her in the "Glorious Revolution" of September 1868.
The revolution, which culminated in the democratic constitution of 1869, was soon overtaken by troubles. Cuba revolted against Spanish rule, in the Ten Years� War. Several foreign princes rejected the invitation to assume the Spanish crown before Amadeus, son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, accepted it in December 1870. The Carlist movement re-emerged, and a radical Federal Republican movement gained ground.
Beset by army and political intrigues, social conflict, popular hostility against him, and the strain of the Cuban and Carlist insurrections, Amadeus abdicated in February 1873. Lacking viable alternatives, the parliament proclaimed the first Spanish republic. Political anarchy ensued. The republicans, a minority group, were deeply divided among themselves, with the radicals trying to impose by force their programme of extreme decentralization. Army intervention maintained a precarious balance until December 1874, when a group of generals turned against the republic and restored the Bourbon monarchy with Isabella�s son, Alfonso XII, as king.

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