Who were the first inhabitants of spain: Spain – A Look at its History, Climate, People and More – Conoce las especies de Puerto Rico

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Who were the first inhabitants of spain: Spain – A Look at its History, Climate, People and More

Spain – A Look at its History, Climate, People and More

The kingdom of Spain, as the country we commonly refer to simply as Spain is officially called, covers almost the entire surface of the Iberian peninsula in the southwest of Europe. Spain is a sovereign state and as of 1986 is a member of the European Union.

The First Settlers Arrive

Human settlers arrived in Spain’s territory 35 thousand years ago. Hispania, as Spain was initially named, was inhabited mostly by Iberian, Basques and Celts. Archeologists have been successful in finding cave paintings in Altamira that prove early human settlements.

As the Roman Empire grew in the territory, Spain fell under its reign in 200 before Christ. Although it took great efforts of the Romans to conquer this territory, once they obtain it, they ruled for more than six centuries. During this time they adapted the local inhabitants to their ways. Apart from the Latin language, the law was implemented as well as Roman roads. Romans didn’t just want to educate local inhabitants, they wanted to exploit their maritime capabilities. Products such as gold, wine, wool and olive oil were exported from Spain’s harbors. Their agriculture grew as the Romans installed their irrigation mechanisms, which can still be seen today. Christianity, as one of the pillars in the Roman Empire, was introduced to the Spaniards in the 1st century AD. Spanish law, religion and language, as it is known today, bears its roots from this particular era. In 409 the Roman Empire started to weaken. That same year Germanicu Suebi, Vandals and Sarmatian Alans took upon themselves to occupy Spain. Social and economic situation changed and became more simplified. However, many institutions brought by the Romans still remained, including Christianity.

By the 8th century Spain was majorly conquered by Moorish Muslims. This was an Islamic army from North Africa. They subordinated Christians, according to their Islamic law. Christians were required to pay tax and had inferior legal and social rights to the rest of the population of the time. Slowly but surely, the conversion to Islam took hold until the 10th century, Under their reign, the city of Córdoba thrived as the wealthiest and most elegant city in this part of Europe. Cultures merged, with Muslims bringing their traditions from their homeland in the East and the North of Africa.

This region enjoyed a flourish of Muslim, Christian and Jewish teachings. With that came the revival and widening of the traditional Greek learning that the Muslims and the Jews were looking to extend to the rest of Western Europe.

The Reconquista period brought back Christianity to the Iberian peninsula. Covadonga was the city where the initial battle was fought in 722. This period overlapped with the Muslim rule and battles was fought for centuries until all Muslim invaders settled outside the peninsula. Palencia and Salamanca became the first cities to establish universities in 1200. However, the 14th century brought Spain the plague, devastating the peninsula. 1469 saw Isabella I of Castille marry Ferdinand II of Aragon. This marriage united the two kingdoms of the peninsula, Kingdom of Castille and the Kingdom of Aragon. 1492 was the birth of the Spanish Inquisition, which ordered the Spain’s Jews to turn to Christianity or be banished from Spain’s territory. Isabella and Ferdinand’ royal power was centralized. They then began calling their land España. At this time, Spain’s political and religious reforms established the land as the world’s first power.

Spain in the 16th & 17th Centuries

During the 16th and 17th century, Spain reigned Europe through its wealth and colonial territories. These included American territories, parts of Italy, towns in Northern Africa, and some territories of today’s the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. The unification of Spain brought with it a period of exploration, which Spaniards took to by land and sea. This opened them up to new trading routes and familiarizing themselves with emerging precious metals, new agricultural plants and spices among others. The Spanish explorers came back with the knowledge about the New World consequently transforming what Europe imagined the world to be.

During the 17th century, Spain was drained of its resources due to religious-political conflicts, with France is gaining ground and overruling Spain’s leadership. The 18th century, however, saw the rise of Spanish rebellion against the French model of rule. The Napoleon wars were fought leaving Spain ruined and devastated. As Spain was politically unstable, Spain’s American colonies declared independence, ending Spanish control of their American colonies.

Even though the period around the turn of the century saw Spain as increasing in prosperity, the 20th century was marked by the Spanish civil war. It broke out in 1936 leaving 500 thousand people dead, and over a half-million fleeing the country. General Francisco Franco supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and won the war. He then established himself as the dictator. Under Francisco Franco, Spain reached great economic growth, which became known as the Spanish miracle.

After Francisco Franco’s death in 1975, Juan Carlos took the position of King of Spain and head of state. From then on, apart from his remaining King, Spain named a head of government in the form of a prime minister and the cabinet consisting of a council of ministers.

The Climate & Population in Spain

Through the ages the governments may have changed, but the state’s climate remained the same. There are three types of climate zones prevailing on the Iberian peninsula. The Mediterranean climate is characterized by warm and dry summers. It is the predominant climate in Spain. Although mild in nature, the Mediterranean climate in the central and northern-central Spain tends to be more extreme, hot in summer and cold in winter. In the southeastern section of the country dry season extends beyond the summer because of the semiarid climate. In the north of the country, winter and summer seasons are influenced by the oceanic climate relieving the region of seasonal drought. Parts of Spain such as the Pyrenees, Sierra Nevada and Canary Islands are subject to the alpine and subtropical climate.

As far as the population was concerned, in 2008, the numbers reached 46 million. With a population density of 91/km2, Spain’s population is lower than most western European countries. Native Spaniards make for 80% of Spain’s total population. Many international students can also be found in Spain. Around 10% of those students are from European countries, and the numbers of students from other countries, including the U.S., continue to multiply in rapid numbers year after year.

Students in Spain

As a student in Spain you can certainly enlighten your world to so much more of Spain’s exciting history. There is plenty there for you to learn –all of which is certainty to find interest within your heart. Spain is a beautiful country with beautiful people and a beautiful and interesting history. Make yourself a part of that.

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Iberian | people | Britannica

Iberian, Spanish Ibero, one of a prehistoric people of southern and eastern Spain who later gave their name to the whole peninsula. The waves of migrating Celtic peoples from the 8th to 6th century bc onward settled heavily in northern and central Spain, penetrated Portugal and Galicia, but left the indigenous Bronze Age Iberian people of the south and east intact. Greek geographers give the name Iberian, probably connected with that of the Ebro (Iberus) River, to tribes settled on the southeastern coast, but, by the time of the Greek historian Herodotus (mid-5th century bc), it applied to all the peoples between the Ebro and Huelva rivers, who were probably linguistically connected and whose material culture was distinct from that of the north and west. There were, however, areas of overlap between the Iberian and Celtic peoples, as in the Celtiberian tribes of the northeastern Meseta Central and in Catalonia and Aragon.

Of the Iberian tribes mentioned by classical authors, the Bastetani were territorially the most important and occupied the Almería region and mountainous Granada region. The tribes to the west of the Bastetani are usually grouped together as “Tartessian,” after the name Tartessos given to the region by the Greeks. The Turdetani of the Guadalquivir River valley were the most powerful of this group. Culturally the tribes of the northeast and of the Valencian coast were greatly influenced by the Greek settlements at Emporion (modern Ampurias) and in the Alicante region, those of the southeast by influences from the Phoenician trading colonies at Malaca (Málaga), Sexi (Almuñéca), and Abdera (Adra), which later passed to the Carthaginians.

“History of Spain” through the eyes of Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Why is Spain the “land of rabbits”?

“Once upon a time there was a beautiful skin of a bull, reminiscent of the outlines of Spain.” This territory was inhabited by a hundred tribes, each of which spoke its own language and lived in its own way. At every opportunity they fought with each other, and entered into alliances with each other solely for the purpose of uniting against a neighbor who looked weaker, but stood out at the same time with enviable crops and herds, or who could boast of the beauty of women, the article of men and the luxury of huts.

The tribes could be divided into two large ethnic groups: the Iberians and the Celts. The former were short, swarthy, and more fortunate in terms of sun, minerals, agriculture, beaches, overseas tourism from the Phoenicians and Greeks, and other economic factors of interest. The Celts, on the contrary, were blond, distinguished by greater ferocity and often poverty. They solved this problem by raiding the southern territories – first of all, of course, in order to establish closer ties with the Iberians. The latter, naturally, treated the visits of their northern neighbors with displeasure and often answered them in the same way.

This is what the territory of Spain looked like in 800 BC, and it was called Iskhafan at that time, which means “land of rabbits.”

Legend of the Hero

Cid Monument in Burgos. Source: wikipedia.org

Cid Campeador, about whom Arturo Perez-Reverte wrote a whole novel, is a national Spanish hero. His image was used every time when it came to the Moors, Christians, Reconquista; and during the time of Francoist historiography, for a whole army of educators, he became one of the favorite symbols in terms of demonstrating the virtues of the Iberian race, turning into an unconditional patriot and unifier of medieval and such a fragmented Spain.

But the real life of Sid Campeador was very far from this. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, and that was his real name, came from the middle nobility of the city of Burgos, and he grew up and was brought up together with the Infante Don Sancho, the son of the King of Castile and Leon Ferdinand I. It is known for certain that Rodrigo Diaz was cunning, brave, dexterous in battle and dangerous. Together with the Infante Don Sancho, he took part in the war of the Moorish king of Zaragoza against the Christian king of Aragon – the Castilian army helped the Moors. And when King Ferdinand I divided the kingdom between the children, Rodrigo Diaz, as an officer-bearer of the new king, Sancho I, took part in the civil war unleashed by this king against the brothers. But after the assassin, treacherously sent to Sancho by his sister Urraca, killed him, their other brother, Alphonse, received the entire kingdom and became known as Alphonse VI. Rodrigo Diaz forced the new king to publicly swear that he was not involved in the death of Sancho. Alphonse VI reluctantly swore; however, according to legend, he never forgave Rodrigo for this humiliation and soon sent him into exile.

Rodrigo was young, stately, brave and glorious, and the number of his enemies kept multiplying and multiplying. The nobles close to the king began to intrigue behind Rodrigo’s back, referring to a variety of military incidents and accusing him of disobeying orders, pursuing his own interests. In the end, Alphonse VI drove him away; so Sid (and by that time the Moors had already begun to call him Sidi, that is, “master”) went to earn a living with a detachment of warriors loyal to him, that is, he became a mercenary. Cid failed to find a common language with the counts of Barcelona, but he was lucky to come to an agreement with the Moorish king of Zaragoza, whom he served for a long time, to the extent that he defeated the Moorish king of Lleida on his behalf, along with his allies – the Catalans and Aragonese. And even captured the Count of Barcelona, Berenguer Ramon II. In this way, for many years, he fought: with the Moors and with the Christians, increasing his fame and earning from trophies, robberies and other similar ways. However, being a loyal vassal, he invariably honored his real lord, King Alfonso VI.

One day it happened that the Almoravid invasion locked Alphonse VI in Sagrajas, and then the king forgot his pride and turned to Sid. And he went to fight for the Levant (on the way he plundered Christian La Rioja and settled scores with his old enemy, Count Garcia Ordoñez), took Valencia, after which he himself defended it with fire and sword. And it was here, in Valencia, having lived to be almost fifty years old, just five days before the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, inspiring horror and reverence to everyone – both Moors and Christians – the most formidable warrior of those who only knew Spain died a natural death.

How Castilian became the main language of Spain

Manuscript page of “Songs of my Cid”, written in Castilian. Source: wikipedia.org

It was during the 16th century, during the reign of Charles I of Spain and Charles V of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor, that the Castilian language, called Spanish outside the country, established itself as the main language. It happened in the most natural way. In Spain, as in other parts of Europe, vernacular languages inevitably began to penetrate into literature, religion, clerical work and law, as a natural consequence of the current state of affairs.

A single language for general use, which will be spoken in all parts of the empire, makes life very easy. Such a language could be any of those many that, in addition to Latin – the language of culture – were spoken in Spain: Catalan with its variants – Valencian and Balearic, Galician-Portuguese, Basque and Moorish Arabic. However, Castilian was ahead of them all. True, the very name “Castilian” is in a sense unfair, since it detracts from the right of the ancient kingdoms of León and Aragon to call this language by their name.

All these languages, like the other languages of Spain, have survived as vernaculars, which in their respective regions continue to be spoken at home and in the street with neighbors, while the universal language – Castilian – has become the language of business, commerce, administration and culture; and all those who aspired to prosperity, to make a career, get an education, travel the world and exchange technology, little by little took this language as their own.

Office King

King Philip II of Spain. Source: wikipedia.org

Philip II, heir to the Empire on which the sun never sets, was one of the most controversial rulers of Spain. Philip II was a hard-working, cautious, even shy man who inherited half the world.

He ruled for 42 years, during which time many trials fell on him and his kingdom. Philip II was naturally peaceful, but at the same time he constantly had to participate in the most cruel wars that he waged with France, with His Holiness, with the Netherlands, with the Moors in the Alpujarra, with the British, Turks and even with his own mother Isabella, a Portuguese princess. All this fell on his head, not to mention family troubles and colorful marriages: he was married four times, to four very different women, including one Englishwoman; his son, Infante Don Carlos, became a conspirator.

Philip II inherited the whole of Portugal, but only after defeating those who doubt his right to the throne at the Battle of Alcantara. Then the monarch, according to Arturo Perez-Reverte, made one of the biggest historical mistakes: instead of moving the capital to Lisbon – ancient and majestic – which promised a brilliant future, the timid Philip II remained in the center of the peninsula, in his monastery-residence of El Escorial, and spent huge amounts of money coming from overseas Spanish-Portuguese possessions on battles and battles, adding taxes to them, which squeezed all the juice out of Castile to the last drop.

Arturo Perez-Reverte calls Philip II “a classy clerk, very dexterous in paperwork, and in terms of personal qualities: a saint, but an educated person, of a sober mind and very limited needs. ” He made his chambers a modest room in El Escorial, where he lived and personally conducted the affairs of a vast Empire. However, Philip II spent all the colonial wealth on gunpowder and arquebus and ended up in debt to German and Genoese bankers. Under him, there were three bankruptcies that set the stage for the economic and social collapse of Spain in the next century. At that time, the aristocracy and the clergy enjoyed freedom from taxation, but the state’s need for money was so great that trade in noble titles, positions and other benefits came into play: an offer for anyone who could pay.

Golden Age

Lope de Vega. Source: wikipedia.org

In the 17th century, when the crown passed from Philip II to his son Philip III, the country was bled dry by external wars. The population of Spain and its colonies needed to be fed, but neither nobles nor priests were taxed, but peasants, Indians, artisans and merchants paid. Therefore, every loafer, saying hidalgo, sought to live in debt.

It was the rogue, and not at all the brave man full of dignity and honor, who became at that time a literary hero, the model that was read about and imitated. And whose name was given to the most brilliant genre of Spanish literature – the picaresque novel. Lazaro from Tormes, Celestina, Pablos the rogue, Guzmán de Alfarache, Marcos de Obregon – these are the ones who became the main literary embodiment of the era. And it is very significant that the only hero whose noble heart soared above all this audience was the hidalgo

Miguel Cervantes. Source: wikipedia.org

Arturo Perez-Reverte writes:

“But it is also true that it was precisely in the field of literature that we Spaniards then gave the world our best fruits. There is no other such nation in history, with the exception of France of the 18th century, the century of the Enlightenment, which could boast of such a concentration of great writers per unit area – both prose writers and poets. Talented and glorious. Spain, woven from contradictions on both sides of the Atlantic, produced great works – novels, dramas and poetry: Gongora, Juan’s sister, Alarcon, Tirso de Molina, Calderon, Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Cervantes and others like them. And they are all contemporaries, more or less. Living sometimes in the same quarter, they met in front rooms, shops and taverns. “Hello Lope”; “Come, Cervantes”; “How are you, Quevedo.” To make sure, it is enough to walk through the “literary quarter” in Madrid, where, for example, Lope, Calderon, Quevedo, Gongora and Cervantes lived a few meters from each other. Just imagine. It is simply amazing the number of stars of the first magnitude who at that time lived, wrote, and also – which is inevitable for the Spaniards – envied and hated each other with a passion unheard of before, dedicating poisonous satires to each other or denunciating each other to the Inquisition. And meanwhile, each in his own way, erected an immense monument of the language, which is spoken today by five hundred million people.

Spaniards in Russia

During the Second World War, the Spaniards found themselves not only in the death camps, in the French Resistance or with the troops of the allies on the battlefields of Western Europe. The Republican diaspora was huge, so that on the Eastern Front, where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union clashed, curses, prayers or verses were also sung in Spanish. All sorts of people fought there: from children sent to the Soviet Union during the Civil War, and Republican sailors in exile, and young pilots who went to study in Moscow, and communists determined not to lay down their arms.

Soldiers of the 14th International Brigade of the People’s Army. Source: File photo

The Spaniards fought with the Wehrmacht as part of the Soviet army, fought as partisans behind enemy lines or were fighter pilots. One of them, José Pascual Santamaria, nicknamed Popeye, was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin for the defense of Stalingrad. And when the headline “We will smash the enemy like the pilots of Captain Alexander Gerasimov” appeared in the “Defender of the Fatherland” newspaper, few people knew that this heroic captain Gerasimov was actually Alfonso Martin Garcia, known among fellow soldiers under the name of Madrid. And few people know that the sapper company under the command of Lieutenant Manuel Alberdi, fully staffed by the Spaniards, fought from Moscow to Berlin, without denying themselves the pleasure of renaming some Berlin streets, writing with chalk on the tablets the names of their dead comrades over the old titles. And as for guerrilla warfare, the list of Spaniards who participated in it runs the risk of becoming endless, reaffirming the truth of the old and gloomy saying: “There is no warrior more dangerous than a cornered Spaniard with a weapon in his hands.” Hundreds of indestructible Republican émigrés fought and died just like this: in battle or executed by the Nazis, on both sides of the German-Russian front line throughout its entire length, as well as in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and other places in the Balkans.

The official figures speak for themselves: two Heroes of the Soviet Union, two holders of the Order of Lenin, seventy holders of the Orders of the Red Banner and the Red Star (one of them is a woman: Maria Pardina, a native of the Cuatro Caminos district of Madrid) and another six hundred and fifty different other awards, received for the battles near Moscow, near Leningrad, for the defense of Stalingrad and for the capture of Berlin, as well as hundreds and hundreds of unmarked graves.

The history of separatism: why Catalonia separates itself from Spain

Artem Krechetnikov
BBC Russian Service, Moscow

October 3, 2017

Image copyright, Getty Images

Image caption,

Catalan leaders say 42% of voters took part in the independence referendum what is its history and why the Catalans generally consider themselves to have a special position in Spain.

The most ancient inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula were the Iberians, who are considered by some researchers to be Celts, others – immigrants from North Africa.

Civilization came to Iberia from the east and first affected the Mediterranean coast.

The leader of Catalonia: we won the right to independence
“Spanish democracy did not work”: Russian TV about Catalonia
“Serious failure”: what the Spanish press writes about the referendum in Catalonia

The history of the region, which later became Catalonia, began in 575 BC. e., when the Greeks created the colony of Emporion on the sea coast. The modern port cities of Alicante and Cartagena, to the south, arose at about the same time.

Following the Iberians and Greeks, the Carthaginians appeared.

Who founded Catalonia?

Legend attributes the founding of Barcelona to Hercules. In fact, it was laid in 237 BC. e. Carthaginian commander Hamilcar, father of Hannibal.

Everyone knew Hamilcar by the nickname Barca (“Lightning”), which he received for his rapid transitions. Warriors loyal to their leader allegedly wanted to name the new city in his honor Barsina, but he did not object.

Following the results of the Second Punic War 218-201 BC. e. The Iberian Peninsula became a Roman province. Its most prosperous cities were Tarragona and Barcelona.

The Iberians reacted ambiguously to the change of power. Some quickly became Romanized, because they considered the Carthaginians oppressors, and the Roman order more favorable. Others did not want any power over themselves and resisted in the mountainous regions for about 200 more years.

In the 5th century, after the Great Migration of Peoples and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, warlike Visigoths and Alans, the ancestors of modern Ossetians, visited the fertile land.

The Visigoths called their kingdom Gotalania, from where the word “Catalonia” came from.

Theoretically, all of Spain could be called Catalonia, but the Carthaginian word “i-spanim”, meaning “country of rabbits” (or “coast of rabbits”), won. The Roman geographer Strabo mentioned the word “Hispania” adapted to Latin.

Beginning of isolation

In 711, the Arabs crossed Gibraltar and in two years conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula, including Catalonia.

The central and southern parts of modern Spain were under the control of Cordoba and Granada caliphs and emirs for 700 years, and the northeast was conquered by the Franks in less than 100 years and since then has experienced not eastern, but French influence.

In 798 Charlemagne conferred his confidant Sunifred Count of Barcelona. Under his rule was also part of southern France (Carcassonne, Nimes, Beziers). Radical Catalan nationalists call the French department of the Eastern Pyrenees “Northern Catalonia”.

A special Catalan language began to form, which is not quite scientific, but is still called a mixture of Spanish and French (in Russian, the adjectives “Catalan” – referring to the province, and “Catalan” – referring to the language) are distinguished.

Three Centuries of Independence

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In 985, the famous caliph of Cordoba al-Mansur (Almanzor) captured Barcelona for a short time, but three years later the Arabs were again expelled, and without any help from France going through hard times at that time. Count Borrell II declared his possessions an independent state.

Supporters of Catalan independence consider this event “the birth of Catalonia”.

In 1164, the County of Barcelona through a dynastic marriage became part of the Kingdom of Aragon, which in the 13th-15th centuries was a powerful power and controlled, in addition to a significant part of the Mediterranean coast of Spain, also Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Mallorca.

Since 1359 Aragon had a parliament (Cortes), which made it by the standards of that time one of the most democratic states in Europe.

In 1469, the young King Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella, the only heir to the throne of Castile.

The couple, known as the “Catholic Monarchs”, created a unified Spain that exists to this day – from the point of view of Madrid, they fulfilled the age-old dream of the people, but not everyone in Barcelona thinks so.

Ferdinand and Isabella remained in history, on the one hand, thanks to the support of the expeditions of Columbus, on the other hand, the persecution of Jews and Muslims and the establishment of the Inquisition.

Old grievances

From the very beginning, a single state was not created on the principles of parity. It was actually not about the unification of two equal subjects, but about the inclusion of Aragon in Castile.

The Kingdom of Aragon formally existed until 1714, when, as a result of the all-European War of the Spanish Succession, the grandson of Louis XIV became King of Spain under the name of Philip V. His descendants occupy the throne of Spain to this day.

The Aragonese and Catalans in that war basically supported another pretender, Charles of Austria, and, according to some historians, they turned out to be a kind of second-class citizens because of this.

Since 1869, when a liberal constitution was adopted in Spain and supporters of Catalan independence were able to publicly declare themselves, this idea has been gaining relevance, then receding into the background, but not dying.

The author of the photo, Public domain

Photo caption,

The Parliament of Aragon was one of the first in Europe

The regime of General Franco especially intensified these sentiments, due to which, in the eyes of part of the inhabitants of the Spanish provinces, Madrid became associated with suppression, and secession – with freedom.

Although the Spanish left did not welcome separatism either. When the Catalan parliament voted for independence on October 6, 1934, the Republican government of Spain declared it treason and responded with arrests.

Nevertheless, in the civil war that began two years later, the Catalan nationalists supported the Republicans, believing that a military dictatorship was even worse. Their leader, Luis Companys, was shot by the Francoists, the Catalan autonomy that had existed since the beginning of the 20th century was abolished, and the language was banned from use in the public sphere.