Spain

Article Outline

Introduction; Land and Resources of Spain; People and Society of Spain; Culture of Spain; Economy of Spain; Government of Spain; History of Spain

Early Peoples

People have occupied the Iberian Peninsula for hundreds of thousands of years. Fossils of primitive humans unearthed in northern Spain’s Atapuerca hills are at least 780,000 years old—some of the oldest human remains ever discovered in Europe. Anatomically modern humans probably appeared in Spain 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. A remarkable series of paintings of bison, deer, and other animals, some dated at approximately 14,000 years old, adorn the deep cave at Altamira, in northern Spain. These graceful depictions provide evidence of a sophisticated Paleolithic hunting culture.

About 1500 bc a North African people called Iberians began to move northward, across the Strait of Gibraltar. By 1000 bc the Iberians were well established on the peninsula. The Iberians developed a system of writing and built many towns. Another ancient people, the Basques, inhabited the western Pyrenees and probably predated the arrival of the Iberians. About 700 bc a people known as Celts migrated from France into northern Spain and imposed their Indo-European language and culture on indigenous peoples. Iberians and Celts met in central Spain and gradually merged into a people called the Celtiberians. These Celtiberians first dominated the central plateau and the west, and then occupied the peninsula’s eastern coast.

Regional differences among these sophisticated prehistoric cultures foreshadowed distinctions that are still evident today. The northern, central, and western areas were thinly populated, reliant on grazing and livestock, and dominated by Celtic culture. The south was mostly Iberian and dotted with towns. The Iberians and Celtiberians were expert metalworkers. Many southern towns were mining centers that produced finely crafted metal weapons and tools. Over time the metalworkers shifted from copper to bronze and then to iron, all of which were mined in southern Spain.

Spain’s mineral riches drew Mediterranean trade from the earliest times, and many Mediterranean peoples established colonies in the southern and eastern parts of the Iberian Peninsula. According to legend, the Phoenicians, a people from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, sailed to Spain as early as 1100 bc (see Phoenicia). However, archaeological evidence suggests that Cádiz (ancient Gadir; later Gades), Spain’s oldest Phoenician city, was founded in the 8th century bc. Seafaring Greeks established several colonies on the east coast by the 600s bc, including Ampurias (ancient Emporion) and Sagunto (ancient Saguntum). The Greeks traded with the Celtiberians and the Phoenicians. In the 500s bc inhabitants of the powerful North African city of Carthage, originally a Phoenician colony in modern Tunisia, entered southern Spain. The Carthaginians supplanted their Phoenician predecessors and built several more colonies. In 228 bc Cartagena (ancient Carthago Novo) was founded in southeastern Spain to serve as the capital of Carthage’s Iberian domains. Archaeological evidence, including artifacts reflecting a mixture of Carthaginian and Iberian culture, suggest that these trading centers coexisted peacefully.

Roman Conquest

It took the Romans two centuries to gain complete control of Spain. Rome fought several extended wars against the Celtiberians, and its armies had to fight even longer to subdue the Celts and Basques in the north. The Celtiberian capital of Numantia was not captured until 133 bc, after years of fierce resistance against Roman assaults. When the Romans finally entered Numantia, the city’s surviving citizens set fire to it and committed mass suicide. The northern tribes did not submit to Rome until 19 bc.

Spain, like Rome’s other provinces, was governed ineffectively in the early years of Roman rule. Provincial governors appointed by Rome often used their positions for personal enrichment, glory, and to advance their political careers. Corruption was rampant, and provincial governors imposed arbitrary taxes and freely conscripted men for their armies.

The administration of Spain improved after the Roman Republic gave way to the Roman Empire in 27 bc. Rome divided Spain into three separately governed provinces: Lusitania (most of modern Portugal) in the west, Baetica in the south, and Hispania Tarraconensis, in the center, north, northwest, and eastern coast above Cartagena.

Romanization

The Romanization of Spain proceeded rapidly under the Roman Empire. A code of law was established, and commerce flourished. Roads, bridges, and aqueducts were constructed that still stand today. Port cities carried on active trade in minerals, oil, wine, wheat, and other products. The Romans improved the towns and built large villas (estates) in the countryside that controlled significant numbers of peasant laborers and slaves. The estates relied on agricultural and livestock production, a pattern that persists to this day. The large villas existed alongside smaller farms, some of which preceded Roman occupation. Other small holdings were granted to Roman army veterans—a practice used by Rome to help colonize new lands. Latin became the official language and many Spaniards became full Roman citizens. Indigenous leaders achieved positions of influence and power in Roman Spain and they helped govern the peninsula.

By the 1st century ad the region of Andalucía in southern Spain was heavily Romanized and native languages had largely disappeared. Romanization did not reach all parts of Spain, however, especially in the north. In the Basque provinces, Latin never replaced the ancient Basque language, which is still spoken.

Christianity

The Roman Empire officially legalized Christianity under Emperor Constantine the Great in the early 4th century. Persecution of Christians ended and the church won legal rights and financial support from Rome. Although Christianity had first entered Spain in the 2nd century, conversion proceeded slowly in some regions. Christian churches and monasteries gradually appeared, but pagan religions continued for a long time, particularly in northern areas defended by Roman army garrisons. Many soldiers belonged to pagan cults, making it politically risky for Rome to push conversion too hard.

Christianity was well established in Spain by the 5th century, but by then the Roman Empire was changing. Epidemics, crop failures, and civil wars had divided the Roman Empire into two parts, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire. In the Western Roman Empire, which controlled much of Spain, a power vacuum ensued. Civil administration in Spain fell largely to Roman Catholic bishops, and they helped maintain order and continuity with Roman traditions as Roman political authority broke down. About the same time, nomadic peoples spread out across Europe in a series of mass migrations. These migrations would eventually contribute to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476.

Visigothic Spain

In 409 Germanic tribes migrating south crossed the Pyrenees and swept into the Iberian Peninsula. The most important of these, the Vandals, settled in central and southern Spain. Another group, the Suevi, established a kingdom in northwestern Spain. Roman rule in Spain disintegrated as Roman authority gave way to a mosaic of barbarian settlements. In an attempt to stem the havoc brought by the invasions, Rome appealed to the Visigoths, who had settled in parts of modern France (see Goths). Partly Romanized by their contact with the Roman Empire during previous conquests, the Visigoths brought their armies into Spain and soon became the dominant power. In 429 the Visigoths forced the Vandals from the peninsula into North Africa. By 500 Visigoths controlled all of Spain except a strip in the south occupied by the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire.

As the Visigoths advanced into Spain, they established a kingdom in southern France, with its capital at Toulouse. The Visigothic kings ruled Spain from France, treating it as an occupied province and sending royal counts and garrisons to the main towns. However, in 507 another Germanic group, the Franks, routed Visigothic forces in the decisive Battle of Vouillé and drove the Visigoths from most of France. The Visigoths then migrated deep into the Iberian Peninsula. They eventually established a new capital at Toledo in central Spain.

The Visigoths were far outnumbered by their subjects, and they ruled mainly through military occupation. The Visigoths never developed a strong central bureaucracy to enforce royal authority. Instead, they relied largely on the Roman Catholic Church, which had preserved many of the old Roman administrative arrangements and retained significant control over local government. Visigothic kings continued to depend on the Church and the indigenous Hispano-Roman nobility to collect taxes, educate the population, and administer justice.

The Visigothic monarchy was generally unstable and weak. The monarchy adopted royal symbols and titles that imitated the Byzantine court, but it lacked a stable system of succession. Because Visigothic nobles traditionally elected their king from among their own ranks, dynastic struggles for power frequently broke the peace. The high point of the Visigothic monarchy came under King Leovigild (569-586) and his son Recared (586-601). They expelled Byzantines from the south and pacified the peninsula. In the early 7th century the Visigoths conquered the last remaining Byzantine strongholds in the peninsula and established the first kingdom that included all of modern Spain and Portugal.

At first the Visigoths were not well integrated into the native Hispano-Roman population. Most of Spain was Roman Catholic. The Visigoths followed Arianism, a form of Christianity that Catholics considered heretical, and they had a different legal system. This led to strife between Catholic and Arian religious leaders. However, the two societies gradually came together. In 589 King Recared converted to Catholicism, which he adopted as the monarchy’s official religion. The reign of King Recceswinth (649-672) saw the completion of a single legal code for the entire kingdom, the Liber Iudiciorum, published in 654. One of the Visigoths’ greatest achievements, the code fused principles of Roman law with elements of Germanic customary law.

By 700 Visigothic Spain was a complex medieval society that held an important place in Mediterranean learning and commerce. While the achievements of the Visigothic monarchy never matched those of Rome, it did succeed in unifying an area similar to that of modern Spain—a considerable feat. Visigothic Spain was the largest unified region in the Europe of its time, with a developed legal code, a church hierarchy, and a rudimentary bureaucracy. Despite these accomplishments, the Visigoths were too embroiled in internal struggles to mount an effective defense of the realm.

Muslim armies in North Africa posed the most serious threat to Visigothic Spain. In the early 8th century Muslim forces began conducting raids on Spain’s southern coast. North African Muslims included Arabs, who had swept across the region from the Middle East in the 7th century, and Berbers, the indigenous North African peoples conquered by the Arabs (see Spread of Islam).

In 710 a battle for succession to the Visigothic throne erupted following the death of King Witiza. Dynastic conflict prevented the succession of Witiza’s son, and Roderick, duke of Baetica, claimed the throne. In an effort to oust Roderick, Witiza’s family appealed to Muslims in North Africa for help. The Muslims quickly agreed. In 711 a Muslim army under the command of Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and invaded Spain. After defeating Roderick’s army at the Battle of Guadalete in southern Spain, Muslim forces advanced swiftly into the rest of Spain.

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Early Peoples

Roman Conquest

Romanization

Christianity

Visigothic Spain