Course summary
History of Spain
Ancient Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula was attractive to many settlers in ancient times. Its location, climate, mineral deposits and soil made it an attractive prize for waves of traders, settlers and conquerors. The original Celt-Iberian inhabitants were presumably similar to other Stone Age peoples, and built impressive megaliths in the south near Algeciras. Phoenician traders came in search of trade and tin mines, establishing the cities of C<diz and CoruZa. Greek colonists later moved into the northeast of the peninsula (and what is today southern France), introducing the cultivation of olives. Subsequently, the Carthaginians, descendants of the Phoenicians made Iberia a part of their western Mediterranean empire, helping coastal ports such as Barcelona to flourish. The Romans captured Iberia from Carthage during the 2nd century BCE, and made it into something of a breadbasket for the empire. Numerous important Roman figures, such as Seneca and Hadrian came from Iberia.
Medieval Spain
With the decline of Rome, the Germanic Visigoths occupied much of the peninsula. They brought the German tradition of Kingship, as well as continuing the respect for law, best remembered as the code of Alaric, and then during the 6th century CE as the code of Justinian. Visigothic Spain collapsed politically in 711-714 CE with the Islamic invasion from North Africa.
Islamic Spain (714-1492 CE) saw great achievements in culture, commerce, science and government. The seat of the caliphate at Cordoba was one of Europe’s largest, and certainly its most splendid city (peaked late 10th century CE). Commerce and poetry flourished, and Cordoba served as part of an extensive cultural and commercial network stretching to Baghdad and beyond. Christians and Jews also lived and thrived in Islamic Spain, and many converted voluntarily to Islam. The Muslims also introduced irrigation and citrus fruits, beginning one of Spain’s most characteristic and successful industries.
In the meantime, small Christian kingdoms in the northwest of Spain began to chip away at Islamic territory. The centuries-long crusade in Spanish history is known as the Reconquista. A number of Christian kingdoms (LJon, Asturias, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia) emerged gradually across the northern tier of the peninsula. Over the course of many centuries they pushed their borders southward at the expense of the Islamic caliphate (and its smaller successor states). The final victory came in 1492 with the capture of Granada.
In one of the several paradoxes of Spanish history, Medieval Christian Spain acquired many of the characteristics of Islamic Spain—heightened interest in literature, science and medicine; a lively commerce; relative toleration of religious and ethnic outsiders. There was also a lot of interaction at the frontiers, where warfare alternated with a certain amount of cooperation. Though less sophisticated and affluent than Islamic Spain, Christian Spain and its high culture did contrast with much of more rustic Europe. A detrimental and lasting legacy of the Reconquista, though, as Christian authority increased, was the eventual association of non-European Iberians with non-Christian faiths—thus paving the way for the Inquisition and the harsh treatment of American Indians.
Golden Age
1492 was a big year for Spain. Granada was conquered; Queen Isabel evicted the Jews from Castile, and Christopher Columbus journeyed to the New World of America. These events ushered in an era of great power, influence and wealth for Spain. Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon had married in 1469, and the Spanish kingdoms henceforth were ruled by the same monarch. The grandson of the Reyes Cat\licos, Charles V Habsburg (r. 1516-1555), ruled over much of Europe, making Spain easily its most powerful monarchy. Among his notable achievements were fighting Lutheran Protestantism in Europe and establishing an administration for the American empire—ruling politically through the Council of the Indies and administering commerce through a monopoly headquartered at Seville.
Charles’ son Philip II (r. 1555-1598) presided over the peak years of Spanish power. The treasury was bolstered by the discovery of huge silver deposits in South America (modern Bolivia). Spain’s wealth permitted Philip to become the champion of Catholic Europe, fighting wars against the Turks and the English. He enjoyed a great naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto (1571), and a disastrous defeat in attempting to invade England in 1588. Philip also insisted on strict Catholic orthodoxy at home, allowing the Inquisition (f. 1474) to amass great power, and evicting non-Christian north Africans and Arabs, and insisting upon Christian dress and use of the Castilian language for those converts who remained in Spain.
The seventeenth century saw both a sharp decline in Spain’s power and wealth and a flourishing of culture. Spain’s economy went through a disastrous period, during which silver production declined precipitously, foreign wars tapped Spain’s wealth to the limit, inflation and payments to foreign vendors and bankers bankrupted the economy. The situation was further aggravated by Spanish distaste for banking and manual labor. On the other hand, this period saw a great triumph of Spanish culture, including the works of Cervantes, the plays of Lope de Vega and the painting of Velasquez.
The Bourbons
The Habsburg dynasty came to an end in 1700 with the death of Charles II (r. 1665-1700). The War of the Spanish succession (1701-1714) placed the French Bourbon king Philip V (r. 1700-1746) on the Spanish thrones. The Bourbon period initially saw a revival of the fortunes of Spain, as the economy improved, the navy was re-organized and strengthened and Enlightened reforms instituted, particularly under King Charles III (r. 1759-1788).
The French Revolution caused significant problems for Spain. Its alliance with France proved unpopular when the French executed their King and Queen. Spain then changed its loyalty to England, but for this had to give up its monopoly on American trade, was invaded by Napoleon and the Spanish King replaced by Napoleon’s brother, eventually lost Louisiana, Florida, and the bulk of its remaining American empire. The restoration of the Spanish monarch Ferdinand VII in 1815 brought a renewed conservatism and militarism into Spanish government.
Ferdinand’s death in 1832 left his young daughter as Queen (Isabel II, r. 1832-1868), and a host of problems. Civil Wars plagued Spain during the 1830s and 1840s, and political factionalism and the influence of the military in government became predominant. The Queen proved so unpopular that she was deposed in 1868 and various experiments in government ensued and failed—a foreign monarch and a republic. The Bourbons were restored in 1875 in the person of the Queen’s son Alfonso XII, but another era of disaster followed.
The Debacles: Spanish-American War through Civil War
In the 1860s, another problem for Spain was the Cuban independence movement. Spain relied heavily on the Cuban economy (sugar and tobacco), and many Cubans supported independence. The movement became powerful during the 1890s and garnered the support of the United States and the newly-freed (1888) slaves. Spain was humiliated in the Spanish-American War (1898) and lost most of its remaining colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines). Then in 1922, a large force of Spaniards was soundly defeated in Morocco. These embarrassments caused great trouble in Spanish politics.
The Bourbon restoration suffered from the politics of caciquismo—or machine politics. Factions were powerful and violence endemic. Then in 1922, the King Alfonso XIII allowed a fascist prime minister, Miguel Primo de Rivera, to re-structure the government. Spain followed Italian models in the 1920s, and had some success, but the experiment ultimately failed; the King fired Primo in 1930, and was himself deposed in 1931.
From 1931 to 1936, Spain’s government was a Republic. The Republican government proved very liberal, and passed fairly radical legislation, disestablishing the Church and permitting divorce. When right wing factions failed to influence the government, and a Popular Front coalition prevailed in 1936, conservative generals took matters into their own hands. The result was a calamitous civil war, lasting from 1936 to 1939. The right wing, or Nationalists as they called themselves, enlisted the aid of Mussolini and Hitler; the Republicans got some support from Stalin’s Soviet Union and from liberal westerners, usually fighting in Spain on their own recognizance. The American volunteers formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. After three brutal years, General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces triumphed, and he became ruler of Spain.
Franco
Franco ruled Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. He outlasted most of the other Fascist-style rulers of Europe. He ruthlessly repressed opposition to his rule, as well as the independent aspirations of the Basques and Catalans. He sought a return to Spanish greatness via the Catholic Church and economic self-reliance. Thus he inspired a very conservative and isolated regime. The moral repression was effective, but political isolation brought about a weak economy, and during the 1950s, he permitted a military cordiality with the United States, and then permitted foreign investment in Spain. After 1959, Spain experienced its economic miracle, in which tourism boomed and the Spanish economy flourished. Upon Franco’s death, it was uncertain what would happen to Spain.
Juan Carlos and The Constitutional Monarchy
Since the late 1940s, Franco had groomed Prince Juan Carlos, grandson of the deposed King Alfonso XIII, to be his successor. He attended the three military academies and was instructed in the ways of the Falange, the fascist-type political federation that administered Spain under Franco. When Franco died, it was felt that Juan Carlos would continue the conservative tradition, under the revived Bourbon dynasty.
Juan Carlos surprised much of the world when he created a new constitution in 1977. He advocated a Parliamentary monarchy, and has presided successfully over it since that time. A challenge came in 1981, when the head of the Civil Guards, Alonso Tejero, attempted, in an armed coup, to take over the Parliament. But the King was able, by telephone, television, and the force of his own personality, to avert the coup. From 1981 to 1996, the predominant party in the Spanish government was the PSOE (Socialist Workers’ Party of Spain), led by Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. Since 1936, the Partido Popular has been in power. The King continues to preside successfully over the revived Spanish government, economy and culture. Autonomy has been granted to the regions, and despite a recession from 1991 through 1993, Spain has been the scene of a great triumph in the late 20th century.