Stone Age/Paleolithic : During this period the stone was widely used to make implements with a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface. It lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4500 BC and 2000 BC with the advent of metalworking).
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| Paleolithic tools (Spanish Museum of Antiquities magazine 1872) |
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| Humans vs Neanderthal |
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| Atapuerca Mountains served as the preferred occupation site of Homo erectus, Homo antecessor (or Homo erectus antecessor), Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis communities. The earliest specimen so far unearthed and reliably dated confirm an age between 1.2 Million and 630,000 years. Some finds are exhibited in the nearby Museum of Human Evolution, in Burgos. |
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| Reproduction of a bison of the cave of Altamira |
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| The Dancers of Cogul at the Roca dels Moros (aka Caves of El Cogul, in Catalonia). This site is a rock shelter containing paintings of prehistoric Levantine rock art. Since 1998 these paintings have been protected as part of the Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inscriptions in Northeastern Iberian script and in Latin alphabet indicate that the place was used as a sanctuary into Iberian and Roman times. |
The last part of the Stone Age is the Neolithic (10,200 BC-4,500 BC) where the beginning of farming commenced. The identifying characteristic of Neolithic technology is the use of polished or ground stone tools, in contrast to the flaked stone tools used during the Paleolithic era. Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production.
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| Neolithic tools |
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| The Dolmen of Menga (Antequera, Spain), a UNESCO heritage, is considered to be the largest megalithic burial in Europe. It is twenty-five metres long, five metres wide and four metres high, and was built with thirty-two megaliths, the largest weighing about 180 tonnes (they are even bigger than thoses in Stonehenge) weighing up to 180 tons and Built in 2500 BC. According to the French author Jean d’ Estienne, in 1878, it could be considered as “the most beautiful and perfect of all known dolmens”. |
Eventually, c. 2600 BC, urban communities began to appear, again especially in the south. The most important ones are Los Millares in SE Spain and Vila Nova de São Pedro (belonging to modern Zambujal in Portugal), that can well be called civilizations, even if they lack of the literary component. Los Millares is the name of a Chalcolithic occupation site 17 km north of Almería, in the municipality of Santa Fe de Mondújar, Andalusia, Spain. The complex was in use from the end of the fourth millennium to the end of the second millennium BC and probably supported somewhere around 1000 people.
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| A model of the prehistoric town of Los Millares, with its walls. It was discovered in 1891 during the construction of a railway. It was first excavated by Luis Siret in the succeeding years. Excavations are ongoing. |
El Argar is the type site of an Early Bronze Age culture called the Argaric culture, which flourished from the town of Antas, in what is now the province of Almería, south-east of Spain, between c. 1800 BC and 1300 BC.
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| Map of Iberian Middle Bronze Age c. 1500 BC, showing the main cultures, the two main cities and the location of strategic tin mines. |
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| The Treasure of Villena (Alicante Province, Valencia) is one of the greatest hoard finds of gold of the European Bronze Age. It comprises 59 objects made of gold, silver, iron and amber with a total weight of almost 10 kilos, 9 of them of 23.5 carat gold. This makes it the most important find of prehistoric gold in the Iberian Peninsula and second in Europe, just behind that from the Royal Graves in Mycenae, Greece. The iron pieces are the oldest found in the Iberian Peninsula and correspond to a stage in which iron was considered to be a precious metal, and so was hoarded. The gold pieces include eleven bowls, three bottles and 28 bracelets.The hoard was found in December 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler 5 km from Villena, and since then has been the main attraction of Villena's Archaeological Museum. |
During the 1st millennium BC, in the Bronze Age, the first wave of migrations into Iberia of speakers of Indo-European languages occurred. These were later (7th and 5th Centuries BC) followed by others that can be identified as Celts.
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| - yellow: the core Hallstatt territory, expansion before 500 BC - light green: maximum Celtic expansion by the 270s BC - very light green: Lusitanian area of Iberia, "Celticity" uncertain - intermediate green: the boundaries of the six commonly-recognized 'Celtic nations', which remained Celtic speaking throughout the Middle Ages (viz.Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Ireland, Scotland) - dark green: areas that remain Celtic-speaking today |
After c. 600 BC the Urnfields (Bronze Culture) of the North-East were replaced by the Iberian culture, in a process that wasn't completed until the 4th century BC. This physical separation from their continental relatives would mean that the Celts of the Iberian peninsula never received the cultural influences of La Tène culture, including Druidism.
Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic Canaanite civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered in Lebanon. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of ancient Greece, centered in modern Lebanon, of which the most notable cities were Tyre, Sidon, Arwad, Berytus, Byblos, and Carthage. The major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC. During the 10th century BC, the first contacts between Phoenicians and Iberia (along the Mediterranean coast) were made. In Iberia the Phoenicians founded colony of Gadir (modern Cádiz) near Tartessos. The foundation of Cádiz, the oldest continuously-inhabited city in western Europe, is traditionally dated to 1104 BC, although, as of 2004, no archaeological discoveries date back further than the 9th century BC. The Phoenicians continued to use Cádiz as a trading post for several centuries leaving a variety of artifacts, most notably a pair of sarcophaguses from around the 4th century BC or 3rd century BC.
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| Gadir and Sancti Petri during its foundation |
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| Castle of Sancti Petri on the old ruins of the Temple of Hercules Gaditano. This temple was a sanctuary that existed in the ancient Gadeiras Islands, in the waters near the current Island of Sancti Petri (Province of Cadiz). Strabo refers in his work "Geography" that the Tyrian Phoenician merchants founded Gadeira (Cadiz), raising a sanctuary to Melkart. During the Romans it paid tribute to Hercules. It was said that the temple had been founded at the time of the Trojan War at the beginning of the 12th century BC. Tito Livio narrates that Hannibal arrived on the island to offer the god his vows before embarking on the conquest of Italy. In this sanctuary, Julius Caesar had a dream that predicted the Roman dominance of the world after having cried before the bust of Alexander the Great, for having reached his age without having achieved an important success. |
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| Commercial Network of the Phoenicians |
Phoenicians had great influence on Iberia with the introduction the use of Iron, of the Potter's wheel, the production of olive oil and wine.They were also responsible for the first forms of Iberian writing, had great religious influence and accelerated urban development.
Throughout the Mediterranean coast a large number of fish salting factories of Phoenician origin have been located but they reached its maximum development in Roman domination due to the necessity of consumption of food products in the great cities of the Empire. In Modern Almuñecar (province of Granada,Spain) are the ancient ruins of the Majuelo Fish Salting Factory. It dates from the Phoenician-Punic period of the 4th Century BC and was expanded and revamped during the Roman period. The Majuelo Fish Salting Factory was used by the Romans until the 4th Century AD. The fish salting industry contributed enormously to the Sexi (Almuñecar) economy in these ancient times, where it is often cited in the classical writings. The importance of salting made the production and commercialization of salt one of the priorities of the various powers since the ancient times. The salting fish process consisted of a clearly defined treatment. First the fish was cleaned and torn to pieces, which was done with large knives. The resulting pieces were subsequently salted, an action that was carried out in buckets or large tanks. Once this was done, the product was packaged in amphoraes with a ceramic lid where lime was poured in order to properly sealed. A significant fact for the important of salt is the term "salary" which is derived from the Latin salarium, which in turn comes from "salt" and has its origin in the amount of salt that was given to a worker (particularly the Roman legionaries) to be able to conserve their food (salarium argentum).
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| Greek (blue) and Phoenician (Red) colonies (wikiwand) |
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| Sculpture of Columns of Hercules in Ceuta, Spain. The sculpture is a work by Ginés Serrán Pagán (2007). The two columns are called Ábyla and Calpe, Abyla is the mythological name of Ceuta and Calpe of Gibraltar. |
The Tartessian-Orientalizing culture of southern Iberia actually is the local culture as modified by the increasing influence of Eastern elements, especially Phoenician. Its core area is Western Andalusia, but soon extends to Eastern Andalusia, Extremadura and the Lands of Murcia and Valencia, where a Proto-Orientalizing Tartessian complex, rooted in the local Bronze cultures, can already be defined in the last stages of the Bronze Age (ninth-8th centuries BC), before Phoenician influences can be determined clearly.
Artifacts linked with the Tartessos culture have been found, but the site of the Tartessos' city is lost. In the 6th century BC, Tartessos disappears rather suddenly from history. The Romans called the wide bay the Tartessius Sinus though the city was no more. One theory is that the city had been destroyed by the Carthaginians who wanted to take over the Tartessans' trading routes. Another is that it had been refounded, under obscure conditions, as Carpia. Some believe Tartessos was the source of the legend of Atlantis. The similarities between the two legendary societies certainly make this connection seem possible. Both Atlantis and Tartessos are believed to have been advanced societies who collapsed when their cities were lost beneath the waves.
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| Approximate extension of the area under Tartessian influence. In blue Greek Colonies, in red phoenician towns |
In the 6th century BC, the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia, struggling first with the Greeks, and shortly after, with the newly arriving Romans for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).
The Iberians people lived in isolated communities based on a tribal organization. They also had a knowledge of metalworking, including bronze, and agricultural techniques. In the centuries preceding Carthaginian and Roman conquest, Iberian settlements grew in social complexity, exhibiting evidence of social stratification and urbanization.
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| Ethnology of the Iberian Peninsula c. 300 BC, based on the map by Portuguese archeologist Luís Fraga |
The Turdetani are considered the successors to the people of Tartessos and to have spoken a language closely related to the Tartessian language. They were in contact with their Greek and Carthaginian neighbors.
In the 1st century BC, Strabo wrote that the northern parts of what are now Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque) and Aragon were inhabited by the Vascones. Despite the evident etymological connection between Vascones and the modern denomination Basque, there is no direct proof that the Vascones were the modern Basques' ancestors or spoke the language that has evolved into modern Basque, although this is strongly suggested both by the historically consistent toponymy of the area and by a few personal names on tombstones dating from the Roman period.
The Aquitanians are also known as the "Proto-Basque people", and included several tribes, such as the Vascones, who were located at both sides of the western Pyrenees. The German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt proposed, in the early 19th Century, a thesis in which he stated that the Basque people were Iberians, following some studies that he had conducted.
The Iberian language, like the rest of paleohispanic languages, became extinct by the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, after being gradually replaced by Latin. Iberian seems to be a language isolate. It is generally considered as a non-Indo-European language. The Iberian scripts are derived partly from the Greek alphabet and the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet, which the Phoenicians adapted from the early West Semitic alphabet, is ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.The alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. It became one of the most widely used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it was adopted and modified by many other cultures.
Iberian Links with other languages have been claimed, but they have not been demonstrated. One such proposed link was with the Basque language, but this theory is also disputed. The proto-Basque or ancient Aquitanian and the Iberian must be languages with very close linguistic relationship. From the epigraphic remains of the Iberian, the proto-Basque and the current Euskera, a series of common elements can be observed.
Both possess the same rare ergative linguistic system.
They share the five vowels a, e, i, o, u (that Castilian/Spanish has inherited).
They use the strong r (inherited by Castilian/Spanish)
Absence in Iberian or Basque of initial f o r
Absence of consonant after initial s (inherited by Castilian/Spanish)
Absence of groups of more than two consonants
Presence of prefixes i_, b_, ba_, da_
Presence of suffixes _la. _ra, _k, _ik
Urbanism was important in the Iberian cultural area, especially in the south, where Roman accounts mention hundreds of oppida (fortified towns). In these towns (some quite large, some mere fortified villages) the houses were typically arranged in contiguous blocks, in what seems to be another Urnfield cultural influx. The Iberians also had extensive contact with Greek colonists. The Iberians may have adopted some of the Greeks' artistic techniques. The two most famous pieces that we have of Iberian art are two funerary sculptures, the Dama (Lady) de Elche and the Dama (Lady) de Baza, but both are said to have pronounced Hellenistic features, perhaps due to the influence of the Greek colonies.
Archeology shows its considerable artistic development (dama de Elche or dama de Baza, funerary monument of Pozo Moro, etc), economy concentrated in small cities with a very active trade,
own writing - some 2000 inscriptions are preserved deciphered until today, in a non-Indo-European language - and, on the coastal settlements, notable Hellenic and Phoenician influences.
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| La Dama de Elche (Lady of Elche). The Lady of Elche is believed to have a direct association with Tanit, the goddess of Carthage, who was worshiped by the Punic-Iberians. It is generally known as an Iberian artifact from the 4th century BC, although the artisanship suggests strong Hellenistic influences. The opening in the rear of the sculpture indicates it may have been used as a funerary urn. The sculpture was found on 4 August 1897 and bought by a French archaeologist, Pierre Paris. For 40 years the Dama de Elche was exhibited at the Louvre. During the World War II the piece was returned to Spain through an exchange of works. |
There is no complete agreement on the exact definition of Celtiberians among classical authors, nor modern scholars. The Ebro river clearly divides the Celtiberian areas from non-Indo-European speaking peoples. In other directions, the demarcation is less clear. Most scholars include the Arevaci, Pellendones, Belli, Titti and Lusones as Celtiberian tribes, and occasionally the Berones, Vaccaei, Carpetani, Olcades or Lobetani.
After the fall of Phoenicia to the Babylonians and Persians, Carthage became the most powerful Phoenician colony in the Mediterranean and the Carthaginians annexed many of the other Phoenician colonies around the coast of the western Mediterranean, such as Hadrumetum and Thapsus. They also annexed territory in Sicily, Africa, Sardinia and in 575 BC, they created colonies on the Iberian peninsula.
After the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War (264–241 BC), the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca crushed a mercenary revolt in Africa and trained a new army consisting of Numidians along with mercenaries and other infantry and in 236 BC, he led an expedition/conquest to Iberia where he hoped to gain a new empire for Carthage to compensate for the territories that had been lost in the recent conflicts with Rome and to serve as a base for vengeance against the Romans. In eight years, by force of arms and diplomacy, he secured an extensive territory in Hispania, but his premature death in battle (228 BC) prevented him from completing the conquest. According to Appian, Hamilcar was thrown from his horse and drowned in a river, but Polybius says he fell in battle in an unknown corner of Iberia against an unnamed tribe. Legend tells that Hamilcar founded the port of Barcino (deriving its name from the Barca family), which was later adopted and used by the Roman Empire and is, today, the city of Barcelona. Despite the similarities between the name of the Barcid family and that of the modern city, it is usually accepted that the origin of the name "Barcelona" is the Iberian Barkeno.
Hasdrubal the Fair followed Hamilcar in his campaign against the governing aristocracy at Carthage at the close of the First Punic War, and in his subsequent career of conquest in Hispania. In 237 BC, they parted towards the Peninsula and he extended the newly acquired empire by skillful diplomacy, consolidating it by founding the important city and naval base of Qart Hadasht, which the Romans later called Carthago Nova (Cartagena) as the capital of the new province, and by establishing a treaty with the Roman Republic which fixed the River Ebro (the classical Iberus) as the boundary between the two powers. This treaty was caused because a Greek colony, Ampurias, and also Iberian Sagunto, fearful of the continuous growth of Punic power in Iberia, asked Rome for help. Hasdrubal accepted reluctantly, as Punic dominion in Iberia was not yet sufficiently established to jeopardise its future expansion in a premature conflict. Seven years after Hamilcar's death, Hasdrubal the Fair was assassinated in 221 BC by a slave of the Celtic king Tagus, who thus avenged the death of his own master.
Next to the city of Carthago the rich mines of La Union provided rich recourses to the Carthaginian. These materials and the esparto were the main resources of Carthaginian economy. In spite of that fact, the mining activities were not more relevant until the Roman Hispania period. In fact the rich mines of La Union provided most of the silver and lead needed by the Late Roman Republic.
Hasdrubal's successor was his brother-in-law and the son of Hamilcar, Hannibal Barca.
Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221 BC, Hannibal (now 26 years old) was proclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. Hannibal is often regarded as one of the greatest military strategists in history and one of the greatest generals of Mediterranean antiquity, together with Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Scipio Africanus. The classical sources (Polybius and Livy) tell us that one time Hamilcar Barca was preparing his expedition to Iberia and the nine year old Hannibal asked to be allowed to accompany him. Hamilcar, the story goes, asked his son put his hand on the sacrificial animal offered on the altar to Baal, and made him swear that he would never be a friend of Rome (Polybius). Livy’s version changes this to “forever being an enemy of Rome,” and although he later accepted Polybius’s wording, the harm was done. There is only a small step from forever being an enemy to eternal enmity and, consequently, eternal hatred.
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| Benjamin West - The Oath of Hannibal (1770) |
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| Imilce was buried in Cástulo, where they erected a funerary statue, probably the one that today stands in the Plaza del Pópulo de Baeza. In 213 BC, Castulo was the site of Hasdrubal Barca's crushing victory over the Roman army with a force of roughly 40,000 Carthaginian troops plus local Iberian mercenaries. Thereafter the Romans made a pact with the residents of city — who then betrayed the Carthaginians — and they became foederati (allied people) of Rome. |
However, Rome, fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, made an alliance with the city of Saguntum, which lay a considerable distance south of the River Ebro and claimed the city as its protectorate. Hannibal not only perceived this as a breach of the treaty signed with Hasdrubal, but as he was already planning an attack on Rome, this was his way to start the war. So he laid siege to the city, which fell after eight months.
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| Campaigns of Hannibal Barca in the central plateau |
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| Francisco Domingo Marques - The Final Day Of Sagunto in 219BC (1869) |
In the Second Punic War (218–202 BC), Hannibal marched his armies, which included Iberians, from Africa through Iberia to cross the Alps and attack the Romans in Italy. The Iberians were placed under Carthaginian rule for a short time between the First and Second Punic Wars. They supplied troops to Hannibal's army. Hannibal crossed the Alps, surmounting the difficulties of climate and terrain, and the guerrilla tactics of the native tribes. His exact route is disputed. Hannibal arrived with either 20,000 or 28,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants in the territory of the Taurini, in what is now Piedmont, northern Italy.
Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia to cross the Alps and invade Roman Italy, followed by his reinforcement by Gallic allies and crushing victories over Roman armies at Trebia in 218 and on the shores of Lake Trasimene in 217. Moving to southern Italy in 216, Hannibal at Cannae annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever assembled. After the death or imprisonment of 130,000 Roman troops in two years, 40% of Rome's Italian allies defected to Carthage, giving her control over most of southern Italy.
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| Hannibals route of invasion |
The second Punic War was one of the deadliest human conflicts of ancient times. Fought across the entire Western Mediterranean region for 17 years and regarded by ancient historians as the greatest war in history, it was waged with unparalleled resources, skill, and hatred. It saw hundreds of thousands killed, some of the most lethal battles in military history, the destruction of cities, and massacres and enslavement of civilian populations and prisoners of war by both sides.
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. The origin of the word Hispania is much disputed and the evidence for the various speculations are based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances (likely to be accidental) and the sketchiest of supporting evidence. One theory holds it to be of Punic derivation, from the Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage. It may derive from the Canaanite Hebrew i-shfania meaning "Island of the Hyrax" or "island of the hare" or "island of the rabbit". Others derive the word from Phoenician span, meaning "hidden", and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land".
Roman armies invaded Hispania in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the Carthaginians, the Iberians, the Lusitanians , the Gallaecians and other Celts. It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC-AD 14) was able to complete the conquest (Cantabrian Wars). Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous. The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans took over 200 years.
The Second Punic war began when the general Hannibal's conquered the Roman Iberian city of Saguntum in 219 BC and marched his army overland from Iberia to cross the Alps and invade Roman Italy. At the Battle of Cissa (218 BC) near Tarraco the roman general Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus defeated an outnumbered Carthaginian army under Hanno, thus gaining control of the territory north of the Ebro River that Hannibal had just subdued a few months prior in the summer of 218 BC. The Cornelii were one of six major patrician families, along with the gentes Manlia, Fabia, Aemilia, the Claudia, and Valeria, with a record of successful public service in the highest offices extending back at least to the early Roman Republic. The battle of Cissa was the first battle that the Romans had ever fought in Iberia. Roman prestige was established in Iberia, while the Carthaginians had suffered a significant blow. After punishing the officers in charge of the naval contingent for their lax discipline, Scipio and the Roman army wintered at Tarraco. Hasdrubal Barca, the younger brother of Hannibal, retired to Cartagena after garrisoning allied towns south of the Ebro.
The combined Roman and Massalian fleet and army posed a threat to the Carthaginians. In 217 BC, Hasdrubal Barca moved up to engage them at the Battle of Ebro River. The 40 Carthaginian and Iberian vessels were severely defeated by the 55 Roman and Massalian ships in the second naval engagement of the war, with 29 Carthaginian ships lost. In the aftermath, the Carthaginian forces retreated, but the Romans remained confined to the area between the Ebro and Pyrenees. Hasdrubal was obliged to march back to Cartagena, fearing seaborne attacks on Carthaginian territories. With the Iberian contingent of the Carthaginian navy shattered, Hasdrubal was forced to either call Carthage for reinforcements or build new ships. He did neither.
In 217 BC reinforcements arrived from Italy under the command of Publius Scipio, and he and his brother Gnaeus Cornelius are attributed with the fortification of Tarraco and the establishment of a military port. The first mention of Tarraco city is by Pliny the Elder where he characterizes the city as scipionum opus, "work of Scipio".
Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia to cross the Alps and invade Roman Italy, followed by his reinforcement by Gallic allies and crushing victories over Roman armies at Trebia in 218 and on the shores of Lake Trasimene in 217. He then moved continue moving his army to southern Italy where Hannibal at Cannae annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever assembled.
Hasdrubal Barca received orders from Carthage to move into Italy and join up with Hannibal to put pressure on the Romans in their homeland. Hasdrubal demurred, arguing that Carthaginian authority over the Spanish tribes was too fragile and the Roman forces in the area too strong for him to execute the planned movement. Hasdrubal acted by marching into Roman territory in 215 BC, besieged a pro-Roman town at the battle at Dertosa (modern Tortosa). In this battle, he used his cavalry superiority to clear the field and to envelop the enemy on both sides with his infantry, a tactic that had been very successfully employed in Italy. However, the Romans broke through the thinned-out line in the centre and defeated both wings separately, inflicting severe losses, but not without taking heavy losses themselves. Hasdrubal now had no chance of reinforcing Hannibal in Italy. This battle also demonstrates the danger of implementing the double envelopment tactic.
The Scipio brothers captured Saguntum in 212 BC. In 211, they hired 20,000 Celtiberian mercenaries to reinforce their army of 30,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Observing that the Carthaginian armies were deployed apart from each other, with Hasdrubal Barca and 15,000 troops near Amtorgis, and Mago Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco, both with 10,000 troops, further to the west of Hasdrubal, the Scipio brothers planned to split their forces. Publius Scipio moved 20,000 Roman and allied soldiers to attack Mago Barca near Castulo, while Gnaeus Scipio took one double legion (10,000 troops) and the mercenaries to attack Hasdrubal Barca. This stratagem resulted in two battles, the Battle of Castulo and the Battle of Ilorca, which occurred within a few days of each other, usually combined as the Battle of the Upper Baetis (211 BC). Both battles ended in complete defeats for the Romans as Hasdrubal had bribed the Roman mercenaries to desert and return home without a fight. Publius Cornelius Scipio was killed during the defeat of his army at the upper Baetis river by the Carthaginians and their Iberian allies under Indibilis and Mandonius. That same year, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and his army were destroyed at Ilorci near Carthago Nova. The details of these campaigns are not completely known, but it seems that the ultimate defeat and death of the two Scipiones was due to the desertion of the Celtiberians, who were bribed by Hasdrubal Barca, Hannibal's brother. Both Scipios were capable commanders, both were consuls, and both were killed in Hispania after their armies had separated.
At the election of a new proconsul for the command of the new army which the Romans resolved to send to Hispania, Scipio Africanus, the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, was the only man brave enough to ask for this position, no other candidates wanting the responsibility, considering it a death sentence.
Scipio landed at the mouth of the Ebro and was able to surprise and capture Carthago Nova (New Carthage) in 209 BC, the headquarters of the Carthaginian power in Hispania. He renamed the city from Qart Hadasht ("New City") - a name identical to "Carthage" - to Carthago Nova (literally "New New City") to distinguish it from the mother city. He obtained a rich cache of war stores and supplies and an excellent harbour and base of operations. Scipio had the population slaughtered to maximize terror and a vast booty of gold, silver and siege artillery was taken. Scipio's humanitarian conduct toward prisoners and hostages in Hispania helped in portraying the Romans as liberators as opposed to conquerors. Livy tells the story of his troops capturing a beautiful woman, whom they offered to Scipio as a prize of war. Scipio was astonished by her beauty but discovered that the woman was betrothed to a Celtiberian chieftain named Allucius. He returned the woman to her fiancé, along with the money that had been offered by her parents to ransom her. This humanitarian act encouraged local chieftains to both supply and reinforce Scipio's small army. The woman's fiancé, who soon married her, responded by bringing over his tribe to support the Roman armies.
The Roman army then moved south and faced the Punic army of Hasdrubal in the Battle of Baecula but were not able to prevent him from continuing his march to Italy in order to reinforce his brother Hannibal. This catastrophic defeat sealed the fate of the Carthaginian presence in Iberia. After winning over a number of Hispanian chiefs (namely Indibilis and Mandonius), Scipio achieved a decisive victory in 206 BC over the full Carthaginian levy at Ilipa (now the city of Alcalá del Río, near Hispalis, now called Seville). It was followed by the Roman capture of Gades in 206 BC after the city had already rebelled against Carthaginian rule.
A last attempt was made by Mago in 205 BC to recapture New Carthage while the Roman presence was shaken by a mutiny and an Iberian uprising against their new overlords. But the attack was repulsed. So in the same year he left Iberia, setting sail from the Balearic islands to Italy with his remaining forces. With the defeat of Carthage Rome began its conquest and occupation of the peninsula, thus beginning the era of Hispania.
In 198 BC, the number of Roman praetors was increased from four to six because it was decided to create two new provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. The two capitals were Tarraco (Tarragona) and Curdoba (Córdoba).
The First Celtiberian (181-179 BC) was the first of three major rebellions by the Celtiberians against the Roman presence in Hispania. The Celtiberians were the most influential ethnic group in pre-Roman Iberia, but they had their largest impact on history during the Second Punic War, during which they became the (perhaps unwilling) allies of Carthage in its conflict with Rome, and crossed the Alps in the mixed forces under Hannibal's command. As a result of the defeat of Carthage, the central region of the peninsula, called Celtiberia, was officially conquered in 181 BC by Quintus Fabius Flaccus. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a Roman consul, spent the years 182 BC to 179 BC pacifying (as the Romans put it) the Celtiberians (His alliances with the Vascons would facilitate the Roman domination of Celtiberia); however, conflicts between various semi-independent bands of Celtiberians continued.
For the 24 years from the end of the First Celtiberian War in 179 BC to the beginning of the Second Celtiberian War in 155 BC, we rely on the work of Livy only up to 167 BC, up to the end of Book 45. Livy's subsequent books are lost and we have a gap of twelve years hardly any information. The epitome, which provides a brief summary of all of Livy's books (the Periochae) does not mention any conflicts in Hispania in these 12 years. It appears that this was a 24-year period of relative peace in which battles took place in Hispania in only three years.
The Lusitanian War, called in Greek Pyrinos Polemos ("the Fiery War"), was a war of resistance fought by the Lusitanian tribes of Hispania Ulterior against the advancing legions of the Roman Republic from 155 to 139 BC. The Lusitanians revolted on two separate occasions (155 BC, and again in 146 BC) and were pacified. In 154 BC, a long war in Hispania Citerior, known as the Numantine War, was begun by the Celtiberians. It lasted until 133 and is an important event in the integration of what would become Portugal into the Roman and Latin-speaking world.
The Lusitanians (or Lusitani in Latin) were an Indo-European people
living in the west of the Iberian Peninsula centuries before it
became the Roman province of Lusitania (most of modern Portugal,
Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca). They spoke
the Lusitanian language, an Indo-European language which might have been
heavily influenced by Celtic or was closely related to Celtic, if not a
form of archaic Celtic or proto Celtic. Lusitania was probably the area of the peninsula that resisted the Roman invasion for the longest time. Since 193 BC, the Lusitanians had been fighting the Romans. Until the year 155 BC, the Lusitanian chief Punicus made raids into the
part of Lusitania controlled by Rome, ending with the twenty-year peace
made by the former praetor Sempronius Gracchus. Punicus obtained an
important victory against the praetors Manilius and Calpurnius,
inflicting 6,000 casualties. In 150 BC, they were defeated by Praetor Servius Galba: springing a clever trap, he killed 9,000 Lusitanians and later sold 20,000 more as slaves in Gaul (modern France). Three years later (147 BC), Viriathus became the leader of the Lusitanians and severely damaged the Roman rule in Lusitania and beyond. In 139 BC Viriathus was betrayed and killed in his sleep by his companions (who had been sent as emissaries to the Romans), Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus, bribed by Marcus Popillius Laenas. However, when Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus returned to receive their reward by the Romans, the Consul Servilius Caepio ordered their execution, declaring, "Rome does not pay traitors". After the death of Viriatus, the Lusitanians kept fighting under the leadership of Tautalus, but gradually, acquiring Roman culture and language; the Lusitanian cities, in a manner similar to those of the rest of the romanised Iberian peninsula, eventually gained the status of "Citizens of Rome". Modern Portuguese people see the Lusitanians as their ancestors.
In 154 BC, the Roman senate objected to the Belli town of Segeda building a circuit of walls, and declared war. Thus, the Second Celtiberian War (154–152 BC) started. At least three tribes of Celtiberians were involved in the war: the Titti, the Belli (towns of Segeda and Nertobriga) and the Arevaci (towns of Numantia, Axinum and Ocilis). After some initial Celtiberian victories, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus inflicted some defeats and made peace with the Celtiberians. The next consul, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, attacked the Vaccaei, a tribe living in the central Duero valley which was not at war with Rome. He did so without the authorisation of the senate, with the excuse that the Vaccaei had mistreated the Carpetani.
In the year 153 BC during the second Celtiberian war the Roman army commanded by Fifth Fulvio Nobilior, composed of 30,000 men faced the Celtiberian troops of Segedens under the command of Caro de Segeda. The result of this first battle was in favor of the Celtiberians, killing 6,000 Romans. Titus Livius work "History of Rome" (Ab Urbe Condita) described that after the battle the Roman Senate changed the first day of the consular year to 1 January in order to allow consul Quintus Fulvius Nobilior to attack the city of Segeda (province of modern Zaragoza) during the Celtiberian Wars. From the year 153 BC Roman consuls begin their year on January 1 with the start of the calendar year, something that was maintained until the end of the use of this political institution. However, it is considered that the Roman civil year already began on January 1 from, according to tradition, late eighth century BC when the legendary second King of Rome Numa Pompilio had established a 12 months calendar instead of the ten months of the Romulean calendar. The month of January became the first of the year and, probably, February was placed in the last position, which remained perhaps until the fourth century BC when it happened to be the second month of the year.
The Numantine War (from Bellum Numantinum in Appian's Roman History) was the last conflict of the Celtiberian Wars fought by the Romans to subdue those people along the Ebro. It was a twenty-year conflict between the Celtiberian tribes of Hispania Citerior and the Roman government. Numantia an ancient Celtiberian settlement, is famous for its role in the Celtiberian Wars. In the year 153 BC Numantia experienced its first serious conflict with Rome. The first phase of the war ended in 151 BC, but in 143 BC, war flared up again with a new insurrection in Numantia. The army in Hispania was demoralised and ill-disciplined and in 134 BC, the Romans, who were tired of this war, elected Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (who had defeated Carthage) as consul because they thought that he was the only man who could win the war. After 20 years of hostilities, in the year 133 BC the Roman Senate gave Publius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (aka Scipio Africanus the Younger) the task of destroying Numantia. He laid siege to the city, erecting a nine kilometre fence supported by towers, moats, impaling rods and so on. After 13 months of siege, the Numantians decided to burn the city and die free rather than live and be slaves. The expression "numantine resistance" is occasionally used to refer to particularly obdurate resistance.
The stronghold of Numantia then was circumvallated with a ditch and palisade, behind which was a wall ten feet high. Towers were placed every hundred feet and mounted with catapults and ballistae. To blockade the nearby river, logs were placed in the water, moored by ropes on the shore. Knives and spear heads were embedded in the wood, which rotated in the strong current.
Eventually, as their hunger increased, envoys were sent to Scipio, asking if they would be treated with moderation if they surrendered, pleading that they had fought for their women and children, and the freedom of their country. But Scipio would accept only deditio. Hearing this demand for absolute submission, the Numantines, "who were previously savage in temper because of their absolute freedom and quite unaccustomed to obey the orders of others, and were now wilder than ever and beside themselves by reason of their hardships," slew their own ambassadors.
After eight months, the starving population was reduced to cannibalism and, filthy and foul smelling, compelled to surrender. But, "such was the love of liberty and of valour which existed in this small barbarian town," relates Appian, that many chose to kill themselves rather than capitulate. Families poisoned themselves, weapons were burned, and the beleaguered town set ablaze. There had been only about 8,000 fighting men when the war began; half that number survived to garrison Numantia. Only a pitiable few survived to walk in Scipio's triumph. The others were sold as slaves and the town razed to the ground, the territory divided among its neighbors.
After the city of Numantia was finally taken and destroyed by Scipio Aemilianus Africanus the younger, Roman cultural influences increased.
The Phoenicians took possession of the Balearic islands in very early times; a remarkable trace of their colonisation is preserved in the town of Mago (Maó in Menorca). After the fall of Carthage, the islands seem to have been virtually independent. The Romans, however, easily found a pretext for charging them with complicity with the Mediterranean pirates, and they were conquered by Q. Caecilius Metellus, thence surnamed Balearicus, in 123 BC. Metellus settled 3,000 Roman and Spanish colonists on the larger island, and founded the cities of Palma and Pollentia
The Sertorian War, 80 - 72 BC, marked the last formal resistance of the Celtiberian cities to Roman domination, which submerged the Celtiberian culture. The Sertorian War was a conflict of the Roman civil wars in which a coalition of Iberians and Romans fought against the representatives of the regime established by Sulla.
The Optimates (also known as boni, "good men") were a conservative political faction in the late Roman Republic. They formed in reaction against the reforms of the Gracchi brothers—two tribunes of the plebs between 133 and 121 BC who tried to pass an agrarian law to help the urban poor, and a political reform that would have diminished the influence of the senatorial class. As the Optimates were senators and large landowners, they violently opposed the Gracchi, and finally murdered them, but their program was upheld by several politicians, called the Populares ("favouring the people"). For about 80 years, Roman politics was marked by the confrontation of these two factions. The Optimates favoured the ancestral Roman laws and customs, as well as the supremacy of the Senate over the popular assemblies and the tribunes of the plebs.
General Quintus Sertorius was sent to Hispania as propraetor, representing the popular cause in Spain. The governor of the two Spanish provinces (Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior), Gaius Valerius Flaccus did not recognize his authority, but Sertorius had an army at his back and used it to assume control. After gaining control of both provinces Sertorius sought to hold Hispania by sending an army, under Julius Salinator, to fortify the pass through the Pyrenees; however, Sulla's forces, under the command of Gaius Annius Luscus, broke through after Salinator was assassinated by a traitor. Having been obliged to withdraw to North Africa, Sertorius carried on a campaign in Mauretania, in which he defeated one of Sulla's generals (one Paccianus) and captured Tingis (Tangier).
The North Africa success won him the fame and admiration of the people of Hispania, particularly that of the warlike Lusitanians in the west (in modern Portugal and western Spain), whom Roman generals and proconsuls of Sulla's party had plundered and oppressed. The Lusitanians then asked Sertorius to be their warleader, he accepted and, arriving in the Iberian peninsula with additional forces from Africa, he assumed supreme authority and began to conquer the neighbouring territories. He achieved his first major victory at the battle of the Baetis River where he defeated the governor of Hispania Ulterior a certain Fufidius.
Brave, noble, and gifted with eloquence, Sertorius was just the man to impress the Iberians and Celtiberians favourably, and the native warriors, whom he organized into an army, spoke of him as the "new Hannibal". Sertorius owed some of his success to his prodigious ability as a statesman. His goal was to build a stable government in Hispania with the consent and co-operation of the people, whom he wished to civilize along the lines of the Roman model. He established a senate of 300 members, drawn from Roman emigrants (probably also including some from the highest aristocrats of Hispania) and kept a Hispanian bodyguard. For the children of the chief native families he provided a school at Osca (Huesca), where they received a Roman education and even adopted the dress and education of Roman youths.
Although he was strict and severe with his soldiers, he was particularly considerate to the people in general, and made their burdens as light as possible. It seems clear that he had a peculiar gift for evoking the enthusiasm of the native tribes, and we can understand well how he was able to use a famous white fawn, a present from one of the natives that was supposed to communicate to him the advice of the goddess Diana, to his advantage.
For years he held sway over Hispania. In 76 BC, after Sertorius had been reinforced by the rebel army of Marcus Perperna, the Roman Senate resorted to giving an extraordinary command (pro consulibus) to Gnaeus Pompey Magnus to help out Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius who was doing miserably against Sertorius In 74 and 73 BC, Pompey and Metellus had been slowly grinding down Sertorius's rebellion. Unable to defeat him in battle they had opted for attritional warfare, what had worked against Hannibal a century and a half before would now be brought to bear on Sertorius.
The war was not going well, so the Roman aristocrats and senators who made up the higher classes of his domain became discontent with Sertorius. They had grown jealous of Sertorius's power, and Perperna, aspiring to take Sertorius's place, encouraged that jealousy for his own ends. Perperna invited Sertorius to a feast to celebrate a supposed victory. During the celebration he was assassinated.
The Optimates' cause reached its peak under the dictatorship Sulla. Sulla's administration stripped the assemblies of nearly all power, raised the number of members of the Senate from 300 to 600, executed an equally large number of Populares via proscription lists and settled thousands of soldiers in northern Italy.
In 77 BC, the senate sent one of Sulla's former lieutenants, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"), to put down an uprising in Spain. By 71 BC, Pompey returned to Rome after having completed his mission. Around the same time, another of Sulla's former lieutenants, Marcus Licinius Crassus, had just put down the Spartacus led gladiator/slave revolt in Italy. Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populares party fiercely attacking Sulla's constitution. They attempted to forge an agreement with the populares party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected consul in 70 BC, they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla's constitution. The two were soon elected, and quickly dismantled most of Sulla's constitution.
According to Appian, in 61 BC, Julius Caesar, who was praetor in Hispania Citerior, brought under subjection "all those [Hispanics] who were doubtful of their allegiance, or had not yet submitted to the Romans". Suetonius specified that Caesar acted against the Lusitanians: "he not only begged money from the allies, to help pay his debts, but also attacked and sacked some towns of the Lusitanians although they did not refuse his terms and opened their gates to him on his arrival."
In 52 BC Caesar conquered Gaul (very roughly modern France) which became a Roman province.The refusal of the Roman senate to allow Caesar the honour of a triumph for his victory in the Gallic Wars eventually led, in part, to the Roman Civil War of 49–45 BC which he won.
In 49 BC, Julius Caesar invaded the Italian Peninsula, effectively declaring war on the Roman senate. Pompey, the leader of the forces of the senate, fled to Greece. Caesar executed an extraordinary 27-day forced march from Rome to Hispania to confront the legions of Pompey stationed there. He defeated seven Pompeian legions led by Lucius Afranius, Marcus Petreius and Marcus Terentius Varro at the Battle of Ilerda (Lerida), in north-eastern Hispania. There were further battles: one in southern Illyria (Albania) and one in Greece in 49 BC, and three in Africa (Tunisia, one in 49 BC and two in 46 BC). The final battle was between Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeus, the son of Pompey, supported by Titus Labienus and Publius Attius Varus, in 45 BC. It was the Battle of Munda, which was fought at Campus Mundensis, probably near Lantejuela, in southern Hispania. One year later, Caesar was assassinated.
During the reign of Caesar Augustus, Rome was obliged to maintain a bloody conflict against the Cantabrian tribes, a warlike people who presented fierce resistance to Roman domination. Those conflicts are named as the Cantabrian wars (29-19 BC) .
The Cantabrian Wars (29 BC –19 BC) were fought between the Romans and the Cantabrians and Astures of northern Hispania. It was a long and bloody war because it was fought on the mountains of Cantabria and Asturia (mountains are difficult to conquer) and because the rebels used guerrilla tactics effectively. The Emperor Augustus himself moved to Segisama, modern Sasamon, (Burgos), to
supervise the campaign personally. The war dragged on for ten years and it ended with the subjugation of these two peoples. With the end of this war, the long
years of civil wars and wars of conquest ended in the territories of the
Iberian Peninsula, beginning a long era of political and economic
stability in Hispania. These wars were also the end of resistance against the Romans in Hispania.
In 29 BC Legio/Castra Legionis (modern León) was founded as the military encampment of the Roman legion Legio VI Victrix which served under Caesar Augustus during the Cantabrian Wars (29-19 BC). The Romans established the site of the city to protect the recently conquered territories of northwestern Hispania from the Astures and Cantabri, and to secure the transport of gold extracted in the province —especially in the huge nearby mines of Las Médulas— that was taken to Rome through Asturica Augusta (modern-day Astorga). The Legio VI Victrix stayed in Spain for nearly a century and received the surname Hispaniensis. Soldiers of this unit and X Gemina numbered among the first settlers of Caesaraugusta (founded in 14 BC), what became modern-day Zaragoza. The cognomen Victrix (Victorious) dates back to the reign of Nero. But Nero was unpopular in the area, and when the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba, said he wished to overthrow Nero, the legion supported him and he was proclaimed Emperor in the VI Victrix legionary camp. Galba created VII Gemina and marched on Rome, where Nero killed himself (68 AD). The legion remained in Hispania to the end of the 4th century.
The Roman colony of Augusta Emerita (present day Mérida) was founded in 25 BC by Augustus, to resettle emeriti soldiers discharged from the Roman army from two veteran legions of the Cantabrian Wars: Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina. The city was the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania. In 19 BC Aggripa a Roman general who was employed in putting down a rising of the Cantabrians in Hispania promoted the construction of the Roman Theatre of Mérida.
Augustus annexed the whole of the peninsula to the Roman Empire. The Roman province of Hispania Citerior was significantly expanded and came to include the eastern part of central Hispania and northern Hispania. It was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Due to the sheer size of the annexed territory, a third province was established in the west of the peninsula and the western part of central Hispania. This was Hispania Lusitania, which covered present day Portugal up to the River Durius (Douro) Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Baetica and its borders were expanded inland only marginally.
After the wars there was an increase in the Roman presence in Hispania. The Romans deployed eight legions for the wars. Many of the veterans, who had the right to be granted a plot of land to farm on discharge, were settled in Hispania. Several Roman towns were founded, among others: Augusta Emerita (Merida, Extremadura) in 25 BC (it became the capital of the province of Hispania Lusitania; it was probably founded by Publius Carusius); Asturica Augusta (Astorga, province of Leon) in 14 BC (it became an important administrative centre); Colonia Caesar Augusta or Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza, Aragón) in 14 BC; and Lucus Augusti (Lugo, Galicia) in 13 BC (it was the most important Roman town in Gallaecia).
Strabo (63 BC – c. AD 24), was an educated citizen of the Roman Empire of Greek descent greek philosopher and historian author of a greek work called Geographica ("Geography"), an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books' where he described among other countries the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, Italy, Germania, Russia, the Middle East, North Africa, etc. Here it is how he described Iberia:
Iberia produces abundance of antelopes and wild horses. In many places the lakes are stocked. They have fowl, swans, and birds of similar kind, and vast numbers of bustards. Beavers are found in the rivers, but the castor does not possess the same virtue as that from the Euxine, the drug from that place having peculiar properties of its own, as is the case in many other instances.
Iberia produces a large quantity of roots used in dyeing. In olives, vines, figs, and every kind of similar fruit-trees, the Iberian coast next the Mediterranean abounds, they are likewise plentiful beyond.
The Romans call the whole land indifferently Iberia and Hispania, but designate one portion of it Ulterior, and the other Citerior. However, at different periods they have divided it differently, according to its political aspect at various times.
Concerning the foundation of Gades, the Gaditanians report that a certain oracle commanded the Tyrians to found a colony by the Pillars of Hercules.
Strabo notes that the Turdetani were the most civilized peoples in Iberia, with the implication that their ordered, urbanized culture was most in accord with Greco-Roman models:
The Turdetani [successors to the people of Tartessos] on the other hand, especially those who dwell about the Guadalquiver, have so entirely adopted the Roman mode of life, as even to have forgotten their own language. They have for the most part become Latins, and received Roman colonists; so that a short time only is wanted before they will be all Romans.
In Bastetania the women dance promiscuously with the men, each holding the other’s hand. They all dress in black, the majority of them in cloaks called saga, in which they sleep on beds of straw. They make use of wooden vessels like the Kelts. The women wear dresses and embroidered garments. Instead of money, those who dwell far in the interior exchange merchandise, or give pieces of silver cut off from plates of that metal. Those condemned to death are executed by stoning; parricides are put to death without the frontiers or the cities. They marry according to the customs of the Greeks.
The Cantabrians and their neighbours wash themselves and their wives in stale urine kept in tanks, and to rinse their teeth with it, which they say is their custom. This practice, as well as that of sleeping on the ground, is common both among the Iberians and Kelts. Some say that the Gallicians are atheists, but that the Keltiberians, and their neighbours to the north, [sacrifice] to a nameless god, every full moon, at night, before their doors, the whole family passing the night in dancing and festival.
For in the war against the Cantabrians, mothers have slain their children sooner than suffer them to be captured; and a young boy, having obtained a sword, slew, at the command of his father, both his parents and brothers, who had been made prisoners and were bound, and a woman those who had been taken together with her. A man being invited by a party of drunken [soldiers] to their feast, threw himself into a fire. It is a proof of the ferocity of the Cantabrians, that a number of them having been taken prisoners and fixed to the cross, they chanted songs of triumph. Instances such as these are proofs of the ferocity of their manners. There are others which, although not showing them to be polished, are certainly not brutish. For example, amongst the Cantabrians, the men give dowries to their wives, and the daughters are left heirs, but they procure wives for their brothers. These things indicate a degree of power in the woman, although they are no proof of advanced civilization.
The life of the mountaineers is such as I have described, I mean those bordering the northern side of Iberia, the Gallicians, the Asturians, and the Cantabrians, as far as the Vascons and the Pyrenees. The rough and savage manners of these people is not alone owing to their wars, but likewise to their isolated position, it being a long distance to reach them, whether by sea or land. Thus the difficulty of communication has deprived them both of generosity of manners and of courtesy. At the present time, however, they suffer less from this both on account of their being at peace and the intermixture of Romans. Wherever these [influences] are not so much experienced people are harsher and more savage.
Between 8 BC and 2 BC Augustus ordered the reconstruction of the previous Via Hercules creating the Via Augusta, the longest and busiest major road buit in ancient Hispania that linked Hispania Baetica in the south with the north of Hispania and which was still used by the Muslim occupiers of southern Spain in the 10th century, who called it al-Racif. The length of the road was 1,500 kilometres.
The Vía de La Plata (Silver Way) or Ruta de la Plata (Silver
Route) is an ancient commercial and pilgrimage path that crosses the
west of Spain from north to south, connecting Mérida to Astorga.
The historical origins of this route are uncertain. It is believed based on diverse archaeological findings, that the route was used for commercial purposes involving tin. Tin was present in many regions of the Iberian Peninsula including Tartessos. The "Tin Way" was used as an access road, which allowed the Romans to conquer tribes such as the Callaici, the Astures, and the Vacceos. Many sources, among them the Antonine Itinerary, describe the route to leave from Emerita Augusta, (present-day Mérida), capital of Lusitania, towards Asturica Augusta (present-day Astorga) through Tarraconensis. During the Roman Empire it is known that it was used to connect two main areas of the highest importance at both end, the gold mines of Las Medulas and the copper mines of Rio Tinto.
The Jewish historian, Josephus, confirms that as early as 90 AD there was already a Jewish Diaspora living in Europe, made-up of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Thus, he writes in his Antiquities: “ …there are but two tribes in Asia (Turkey) and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now and are an immense multitude.” One estimate places the number carried off to Spain at 80,000. (Graetz, p. 42). Subsequent immigrations came into the area along both the northern African and southern European sides of the Mediterranean. (Assis, p. 9.)
Among the earliest records which may refer specifically to Jews in Spain during the Roman period is Paul's Letter to the Romans. Many have taken Paul's intention to go to Spain to minister the gospel (15.24, 28) to indicate the presence of Jewish communities there.
As citizens of the Roman Empire, the Jews of Spain engaged in a variety of occupations, including agriculture. Until the adoption of Christianity, Jews had close relations with non-Jewish populations, and played an active role in the social and economic life of the province (Assis at p. 9). From a slightly later period, Midrash Rabbah (Leviticus Rabba § 29.2), and Pesikta de-Rav Kahana (Rosh Hashanna), both, make mention of the Jewish Diaspora in Spain (Hispania) and their eventual return. Among these early references are several decrees of the Council of Elvira, convened in the early fourth century, which address proper Christian behavior with regard to the Jews of Spain, notably forbidding marriage between Jews and Christians. The edicts of the Synod of Elvira, although early examples of priesthood-inspired anti-Semitism, provide evidence of Jews who were integrated enough into the greater community to cause alarm among some: of the Council's 80 canonic decisions, all which pertain to Jews served to maintain a separation between the two communities (Laeuchli, pp. 75–76). It seems that by this time the presence of Jews was of greater concern to Catholic authorities than the presence of pagans; Canon 16, which prohibited marriage with Jews, was worded more strongly than canon 15, which prohibited marriage with pagans. Canon 78 threatens those who commit adultery with Jews with ostracism. Canon 48 forbade Jews from blessing Christian crops, and Canon 50 forbade sharing meals with Jews; repeating the command to Hebrew the Bible indicated respect to Gentile.
The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon (Olissipo) and Tarragona (Tarraco), established Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Mérida (Augusta Emerita), and Valencia (Valentia), and provided amenities throughout the empire.
The Aqueduct of Segovia is one of the best-preserved elevated Roman aqueducts. Emperor Domitian ordered its construction and was finished by 112 AD. The aqueduct once transported water from the Rio Frio river, situated in mountains 17 km (11 mi) from the city in the La Acebeda region. It runs 15 km (9.3 mi) before arriving in the city. Within the walled city there was a distribution system. The details of this system are not fully known, but it has been established that the water followed a subterranean route, which has recently been marked on the city's pavements.
Roman Emperor Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus) was born in the city of Italica (now in the municipal area of Santiponce, in the outskirts of modern Sevilla), an Italic settlement in the province of Hispania Baetica. His family came from Umbria and he was born a Roman citizen. Trajan's birthplace of Italica was founded as a Roman military colony of Italian settlers in 206 BC, though it is unknown when the Ulpii arrived there. It is possible, but cannot be substantiated, that Trajan's ancestors married local women and lost their citizenship at some point, but they certainly recovered their status when the city became a municipium with Latin citizenship in the mid-1st century BC. Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history, leading the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death. As a civilian administrator, Trajan is best known for his extensive public building program, which reshaped the city of Rome and left numerous enduring landmarks such as Trajan's Forum, Trajan's Market and Trajan's Column. As an emperor, Trajan's reputation has endured – he is one of the few rulers whose reputation has survived nineteen centuries. Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the wish felicior Augusto, melior Traiano (that he be "luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan").
Italica thrived especially under the patronage of Hadrian, like many other cities in the empire under his influence at this time, but it was especially favoured as his birthplace. He expanded the city northwards as the nova urbs (new city) and, upon its request, elevated it to the status of colonia as Colonia Aelia Augusta Italica even though Hadrian expressed his surprise as it already enjoyed the rights of "Municipium". He also added temples, including the enormous and unique Trajaneum in the centre of the city to venerate his predecessor and adopted father, and rebuilt public buildings.
The Trajan's Bridge at Alcantara (nowadays known as Alcántara
Bridge) was s built over the Tagus River between 104 and 106 AD by
Trajan. The bridge's construction occurred in the ancient Roman province
of Lusitania.
The Tower of Hercules is an ancient Roman lighthouse built in
the 2nd century AD on a peninsula about 2.4 kilometers (1.5 mi) from the
centre of A Coruña, Galicia, in north-western Spain. Until the 20th
century, the tower itself was known as the "Farum Brigantium".
The tower was built or perhaps rebuilt under Trajan. Through the
millennia many mythical stories of the lighthouse's origin have been
told. According to a myth that mixes Celtic and Greco-Roman elements,
the hero Hercules slew the giant tyrant Geryon after three days and
three nights of continuous battle. Hercules then—in a Celtic
gesture—buried the head of Geryon with his weapons and ordered that a
city be built on the site. The lighthouse atop a skull and crossbones
representing the buried head of Hercules’ slain enemy appears in the
coat-of-arms of the city of Coruña.
Another legend embodied in the 11th-century Irish compilation Lebor Gabála Érenn—the "Book of Invasions"—King Breogán, the founding father of the Galician Celtic nation, constructed a massive tower of such a grand height that his sons could see a distant green shore from its top. The glimpse of that distant green land lured them to sail north to Ireland. According to the legend Breogán's descendants stayed in Ireland and are the Celtic ancestors of the current Irish people. A colossal statue of Breogán has been erected near the Tower.
Salsamenta was salted fish in ancient Rome. Salting was the quintessential preserve of the Roman world of antiquity. It had a very important role in the economy of the empire, since it allowed imports exports of resources from the provinces to Rome and allowed perishable products after treatment at salting factories, to enter the commercial network. It was also the only way for inland populations, far offshore to consume this protein source.
Garum was a major export product from Hispania to Rome, and gained the towns a certain amount of prestige. Garum’s origins lie in both Greek and Phoenician cooking. Amphorae containing deposits of the sauce have been found in shipwrecks from the fifth century B.C., and it is believed that its name may derive from the Greek word for shrimp. To make garum, vats were filled with fresh fish guts typically cleaned from whitebait, anchovies, mackerel, tuna, and others. They were placed between layers of salt and aromatic herbs and left in the sun for several months until they reached proper pungency. It was important to add just the right amount of salt—too little would result in putrefaction, while too much would disrupt the natural process of fermentation that gave the sauce its distinctive tang. Garum was produced in various grades consumed by all social classes. After the liquid was ladled off of the top of the mixture, the remains of the fish, called allec, was used by the poorest classes to flavour their staple porridge or farinata.
Factories known as cetariae proliferated to satisfy the Roman world’s craving for the fish sauce. Typically, these production centers were located near the coast, ensuring quick and easy access to the freshest catch. They also tended to be outside the city center because of the stench radiating from them.
Romanization proceeded quickly in some regions where we have references to the togati, and very slowly in others, after the time of Augustus, and Hispania was divided into three separately governed provinces (nine provinces by the 4th century). More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road. But the impact of Hispania in the newcomers was also big.
The romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists - had all achieved the status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The emperors Trajan (r. 98-117), Hadrian (r. 117-38), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80) were born in Hispania. Poets Martial, Lucan and philosopher Seneca were also born in Hispania.
In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius, a Gallic rhetorician, dedicated part of his work to the depiction of the geography, climate, inhabitants, soldiers, and so forth of the peninsula, writing with praise and admiration:
“This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius to the Empire.”
Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road. But the impact of Hispania in the newcomers was also big. Caesar wrote on the Civil Wars that 'the soldiers from the Second Legion had become hispanicized and regarded themselves as hispanicus'.
Throughout the centuries of Roman rule over the provinces of Hispania, Roman customs, religion, laws and the general Roman lifestyle, gained much favour in the indigenous population, which was compounded by a great number of Roman immigrants, which eventually formed a distinct Hispano-Roman culture. Roman civilization was much more technologically advanced and sophisticated than previous cultures in the peninsula.
The ancient Roman civilization is known as the great builder of infrastructure. It was the first civilization which dedicated itself to a serious and determined effort for this kind of civil work as a basis for settlement of their populations, and the preservation of its military and economic domination over the vast territory of its empire. The works of most importance are roads, bridges and aqueducts.
Infrastructure for civilian use was built with intensity by the Romans in Hispania, Roman roads that ran through the peninsula joining Cadiz to the Pyrenees and Asturias to Murcia: covering the coastal Mediterranean and Atlantic through the already established routes. Along them a booming trade flowed, encouraging political stability of the territory over several centuries.
Undoubtedly, the Roman civilization was much more refined than the people of pre-Roman Hispania, which promoted its adoption to these people. Roma also suffered a strong tendency towards chauvinism that made it despise foreign cultures,which were generally referred to as "barbarian", so any close relationship with the Empire and its cities was going to imitate the lifestyle of it. On the other hand, for the social elite of the previous period, it was not a sacrifice. Contrarily, they become the new Hispano-Roman elite, and moved from their previous austere way of life to the comfort and enjoyment of the services which came with urbanisation and the political stability and homogeneity that the Empire brought. This way these elites could occupy government positions in the new municipal institutions, becoming judges and joining the Roman legions as potential commanders who could thrive politically while progressing in the military.
Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the first century and it became popular in the cities in the second century.
Latin was the official language of Hispania during the Rome's more than 600 years of rule, and by the empire's end in Hispania around 460 AD, all the original Iberian languages, except the ancestor of modern Basque, were extinct.
-> The Greeks adopted the alphabet from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, one of the closely related scripts used for the West Semitic languages
-> It is generally held that the Latins adopted the western variant of the Greek alphabet in the 7th century BC from Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy – making the early Latin alphabet one among several Old Italic alphabets emerging at the time.
-> From the Cumae alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet was derived. The Latins ultimately adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters.
-> The Latin alphabet spread from Italy, along with the Latin language, to the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea with the expansion of the Roman Empire.
Roman armies invaded Hispania in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the Carthaginians, the Iberians, the Lusitanians , the Gallaecians and other Celts. It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC-AD 14) was able to complete the conquest (Cantabrian Wars). Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous. The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans took over 200 years.
The Second Punic war began when the general Hannibal's conquered the Roman Iberian city of Saguntum in 219 BC and marched his army overland from Iberia to cross the Alps and invade Roman Italy. At the Battle of Cissa (218 BC) near Tarraco the roman general Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus defeated an outnumbered Carthaginian army under Hanno, thus gaining control of the territory north of the Ebro River that Hannibal had just subdued a few months prior in the summer of 218 BC. The Cornelii were one of six major patrician families, along with the gentes Manlia, Fabia, Aemilia, the Claudia, and Valeria, with a record of successful public service in the highest offices extending back at least to the early Roman Republic. The battle of Cissa was the first battle that the Romans had ever fought in Iberia. Roman prestige was established in Iberia, while the Carthaginians had suffered a significant blow. After punishing the officers in charge of the naval contingent for their lax discipline, Scipio and the Roman army wintered at Tarraco. Hasdrubal Barca, the younger brother of Hannibal, retired to Cartagena after garrisoning allied towns south of the Ebro.
The combined Roman and Massalian fleet and army posed a threat to the Carthaginians. In 217 BC, Hasdrubal Barca moved up to engage them at the Battle of Ebro River. The 40 Carthaginian and Iberian vessels were severely defeated by the 55 Roman and Massalian ships in the second naval engagement of the war, with 29 Carthaginian ships lost. In the aftermath, the Carthaginian forces retreated, but the Romans remained confined to the area between the Ebro and Pyrenees. Hasdrubal was obliged to march back to Cartagena, fearing seaborne attacks on Carthaginian territories. With the Iberian contingent of the Carthaginian navy shattered, Hasdrubal was forced to either call Carthage for reinforcements or build new ships. He did neither.
In 217 BC reinforcements arrived from Italy under the command of Publius Scipio, and he and his brother Gnaeus Cornelius are attributed with the fortification of Tarraco and the establishment of a military port. The first mention of Tarraco city is by Pliny the Elder where he characterizes the city as scipionum opus, "work of Scipio".
Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia to cross the Alps and invade Roman Italy, followed by his reinforcement by Gallic allies and crushing victories over Roman armies at Trebia in 218 and on the shores of Lake Trasimene in 217. He then moved continue moving his army to southern Italy where Hannibal at Cannae annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever assembled.
Hasdrubal Barca received orders from Carthage to move into Italy and join up with Hannibal to put pressure on the Romans in their homeland. Hasdrubal demurred, arguing that Carthaginian authority over the Spanish tribes was too fragile and the Roman forces in the area too strong for him to execute the planned movement. Hasdrubal acted by marching into Roman territory in 215 BC, besieged a pro-Roman town at the battle at Dertosa (modern Tortosa). In this battle, he used his cavalry superiority to clear the field and to envelop the enemy on both sides with his infantry, a tactic that had been very successfully employed in Italy. However, the Romans broke through the thinned-out line in the centre and defeated both wings separately, inflicting severe losses, but not without taking heavy losses themselves. Hasdrubal now had no chance of reinforcing Hannibal in Italy. This battle also demonstrates the danger of implementing the double envelopment tactic.
The Scipio brothers captured Saguntum in 212 BC. In 211, they hired 20,000 Celtiberian mercenaries to reinforce their army of 30,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Observing that the Carthaginian armies were deployed apart from each other, with Hasdrubal Barca and 15,000 troops near Amtorgis, and Mago Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco, both with 10,000 troops, further to the west of Hasdrubal, the Scipio brothers planned to split their forces. Publius Scipio moved 20,000 Roman and allied soldiers to attack Mago Barca near Castulo, while Gnaeus Scipio took one double legion (10,000 troops) and the mercenaries to attack Hasdrubal Barca. This stratagem resulted in two battles, the Battle of Castulo and the Battle of Ilorca, which occurred within a few days of each other, usually combined as the Battle of the Upper Baetis (211 BC). Both battles ended in complete defeats for the Romans as Hasdrubal had bribed the Roman mercenaries to desert and return home without a fight. Publius Cornelius Scipio was killed during the defeat of his army at the upper Baetis river by the Carthaginians and their Iberian allies under Indibilis and Mandonius. That same year, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and his army were destroyed at Ilorci near Carthago Nova. The details of these campaigns are not completely known, but it seems that the ultimate defeat and death of the two Scipiones was due to the desertion of the Celtiberians, who were bribed by Hasdrubal Barca, Hannibal's brother. Both Scipios were capable commanders, both were consuls, and both were killed in Hispania after their armies had separated.
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| Roman conquest of Spain from 218 to 211 BC |
Scipio landed at the mouth of the Ebro and was able to surprise and capture Carthago Nova (New Carthage) in 209 BC, the headquarters of the Carthaginian power in Hispania. He renamed the city from Qart Hadasht ("New City") - a name identical to "Carthage" - to Carthago Nova (literally "New New City") to distinguish it from the mother city. He obtained a rich cache of war stores and supplies and an excellent harbour and base of operations. Scipio had the population slaughtered to maximize terror and a vast booty of gold, silver and siege artillery was taken. Scipio's humanitarian conduct toward prisoners and hostages in Hispania helped in portraying the Romans as liberators as opposed to conquerors. Livy tells the story of his troops capturing a beautiful woman, whom they offered to Scipio as a prize of war. Scipio was astonished by her beauty but discovered that the woman was betrothed to a Celtiberian chieftain named Allucius. He returned the woman to her fiancé, along with the money that had been offered by her parents to ransom her. This humanitarian act encouraged local chieftains to both supply and reinforce Scipio's small army. The woman's fiancé, who soon married her, responded by bringing over his tribe to support the Roman armies.
The Roman army then moved south and faced the Punic army of Hasdrubal in the Battle of Baecula but were not able to prevent him from continuing his march to Italy in order to reinforce his brother Hannibal. This catastrophic defeat sealed the fate of the Carthaginian presence in Iberia. After winning over a number of Hispanian chiefs (namely Indibilis and Mandonius), Scipio achieved a decisive victory in 206 BC over the full Carthaginian levy at Ilipa (now the city of Alcalá del Río, near Hispalis, now called Seville). It was followed by the Roman capture of Gades in 206 BC after the city had already rebelled against Carthaginian rule.
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| Roman conquest of Spain from 210 to 206 BC |
In 198 BC, the number of Roman praetors was increased from four to six because it was decided to create two new provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. The two capitals were Tarraco (Tarragona) and Curdoba (Córdoba).
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| Iberic Peninsula after the first administrative division of the Roman province of Hispania |
For the 24 years from the end of the First Celtiberian War in 179 BC to the beginning of the Second Celtiberian War in 155 BC, we rely on the work of Livy only up to 167 BC, up to the end of Book 45. Livy's subsequent books are lost and we have a gap of twelve years hardly any information. The epitome, which provides a brief summary of all of Livy's books (the Periochae) does not mention any conflicts in Hispania in these 12 years. It appears that this was a 24-year period of relative peace in which battles took place in Hispania in only three years.
The Lusitanian War, called in Greek Pyrinos Polemos ("the Fiery War"), was a war of resistance fought by the Lusitanian tribes of Hispania Ulterior against the advancing legions of the Roman Republic from 155 to 139 BC. The Lusitanians revolted on two separate occasions (155 BC, and again in 146 BC) and were pacified. In 154 BC, a long war in Hispania Citerior, known as the Numantine War, was begun by the Celtiberians. It lasted until 133 and is an important event in the integration of what would become Portugal into the Roman and Latin-speaking world.
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| Iberic peninsula 156 BC |
In 154 BC, the Roman senate objected to the Belli town of Segeda building a circuit of walls, and declared war. Thus, the Second Celtiberian War (154–152 BC) started. At least three tribes of Celtiberians were involved in the war: the Titti, the Belli (towns of Segeda and Nertobriga) and the Arevaci (towns of Numantia, Axinum and Ocilis). After some initial Celtiberian victories, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus inflicted some defeats and made peace with the Celtiberians. The next consul, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, attacked the Vaccaei, a tribe living in the central Duero valley which was not at war with Rome. He did so without the authorisation of the senate, with the excuse that the Vaccaei had mistreated the Carpetani.
In the year 153 BC during the second Celtiberian war the Roman army commanded by Fifth Fulvio Nobilior, composed of 30,000 men faced the Celtiberian troops of Segedens under the command of Caro de Segeda. The result of this first battle was in favor of the Celtiberians, killing 6,000 Romans. Titus Livius work "History of Rome" (Ab Urbe Condita) described that after the battle the Roman Senate changed the first day of the consular year to 1 January in order to allow consul Quintus Fulvius Nobilior to attack the city of Segeda (province of modern Zaragoza) during the Celtiberian Wars. From the year 153 BC Roman consuls begin their year on January 1 with the start of the calendar year, something that was maintained until the end of the use of this political institution. However, it is considered that the Roman civil year already began on January 1 from, according to tradition, late eighth century BC when the legendary second King of Rome Numa Pompilio had established a 12 months calendar instead of the ten months of the Romulean calendar. The month of January became the first of the year and, probably, February was placed in the last position, which remained perhaps until the fourth century BC when it happened to be the second month of the year.
The Numantine War (from Bellum Numantinum in Appian's Roman History) was the last conflict of the Celtiberian Wars fought by the Romans to subdue those people along the Ebro. It was a twenty-year conflict between the Celtiberian tribes of Hispania Citerior and the Roman government. Numantia an ancient Celtiberian settlement, is famous for its role in the Celtiberian Wars. In the year 153 BC Numantia experienced its first serious conflict with Rome. The first phase of the war ended in 151 BC, but in 143 BC, war flared up again with a new insurrection in Numantia. The army in Hispania was demoralised and ill-disciplined and in 134 BC, the Romans, who were tired of this war, elected Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (who had defeated Carthage) as consul because they thought that he was the only man who could win the war. After 20 years of hostilities, in the year 133 BC the Roman Senate gave Publius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (aka Scipio Africanus the Younger) the task of destroying Numantia. He laid siege to the city, erecting a nine kilometre fence supported by towers, moats, impaling rods and so on. After 13 months of siege, the Numantians decided to burn the city and die free rather than live and be slaves. The expression "numantine resistance" is occasionally used to refer to particularly obdurate resistance.
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| Alejo Vera Estaca - Last days of Numantia (1881) |
Eventually, as their hunger increased, envoys were sent to Scipio, asking if they would be treated with moderation if they surrendered, pleading that they had fought for their women and children, and the freedom of their country. But Scipio would accept only deditio. Hearing this demand for absolute submission, the Numantines, "who were previously savage in temper because of their absolute freedom and quite unaccustomed to obey the orders of others, and were now wilder than ever and beside themselves by reason of their hardships," slew their own ambassadors.
After eight months, the starving population was reduced to cannibalism and, filthy and foul smelling, compelled to surrender. But, "such was the love of liberty and of valour which existed in this small barbarian town," relates Appian, that many chose to kill themselves rather than capitulate. Families poisoned themselves, weapons were burned, and the beleaguered town set ablaze. There had been only about 8,000 fighting men when the war began; half that number survived to garrison Numantia. Only a pitiable few survived to walk in Scipio's triumph. The others were sold as slaves and the town razed to the ground, the territory divided among its neighbors.
After the city of Numantia was finally taken and destroyed by Scipio Aemilianus Africanus the younger, Roman cultural influences increased.
The Phoenicians took possession of the Balearic islands in very early times; a remarkable trace of their colonisation is preserved in the town of Mago (Maó in Menorca). After the fall of Carthage, the islands seem to have been virtually independent. The Romans, however, easily found a pretext for charging them with complicity with the Mediterranean pirates, and they were conquered by Q. Caecilius Metellus, thence surnamed Balearicus, in 123 BC. Metellus settled 3,000 Roman and Spanish colonists on the larger island, and founded the cities of Palma and Pollentia
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| Iberian Peninsula circa 100 BC |
The Optimates (also known as boni, "good men") were a conservative political faction in the late Roman Republic. They formed in reaction against the reforms of the Gracchi brothers—two tribunes of the plebs between 133 and 121 BC who tried to pass an agrarian law to help the urban poor, and a political reform that would have diminished the influence of the senatorial class. As the Optimates were senators and large landowners, they violently opposed the Gracchi, and finally murdered them, but their program was upheld by several politicians, called the Populares ("favouring the people"). For about 80 years, Roman politics was marked by the confrontation of these two factions. The Optimates favoured the ancestral Roman laws and customs, as well as the supremacy of the Senate over the popular assemblies and the tribunes of the plebs.
General Quintus Sertorius was sent to Hispania as propraetor, representing the popular cause in Spain. The governor of the two Spanish provinces (Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior), Gaius Valerius Flaccus did not recognize his authority, but Sertorius had an army at his back and used it to assume control. After gaining control of both provinces Sertorius sought to hold Hispania by sending an army, under Julius Salinator, to fortify the pass through the Pyrenees; however, Sulla's forces, under the command of Gaius Annius Luscus, broke through after Salinator was assassinated by a traitor. Having been obliged to withdraw to North Africa, Sertorius carried on a campaign in Mauretania, in which he defeated one of Sulla's generals (one Paccianus) and captured Tingis (Tangier).
The North Africa success won him the fame and admiration of the people of Hispania, particularly that of the warlike Lusitanians in the west (in modern Portugal and western Spain), whom Roman generals and proconsuls of Sulla's party had plundered and oppressed. The Lusitanians then asked Sertorius to be their warleader, he accepted and, arriving in the Iberian peninsula with additional forces from Africa, he assumed supreme authority and began to conquer the neighbouring territories. He achieved his first major victory at the battle of the Baetis River where he defeated the governor of Hispania Ulterior a certain Fufidius.
Brave, noble, and gifted with eloquence, Sertorius was just the man to impress the Iberians and Celtiberians favourably, and the native warriors, whom he organized into an army, spoke of him as the "new Hannibal". Sertorius owed some of his success to his prodigious ability as a statesman. His goal was to build a stable government in Hispania with the consent and co-operation of the people, whom he wished to civilize along the lines of the Roman model. He established a senate of 300 members, drawn from Roman emigrants (probably also including some from the highest aristocrats of Hispania) and kept a Hispanian bodyguard. For the children of the chief native families he provided a school at Osca (Huesca), where they received a Roman education and even adopted the dress and education of Roman youths.
Although he was strict and severe with his soldiers, he was particularly considerate to the people in general, and made their burdens as light as possible. It seems clear that he had a peculiar gift for evoking the enthusiasm of the native tribes, and we can understand well how he was able to use a famous white fawn, a present from one of the natives that was supposed to communicate to him the advice of the goddess Diana, to his advantage.
For years he held sway over Hispania. In 76 BC, after Sertorius had been reinforced by the rebel army of Marcus Perperna, the Roman Senate resorted to giving an extraordinary command (pro consulibus) to Gnaeus Pompey Magnus to help out Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius who was doing miserably against Sertorius In 74 and 73 BC, Pompey and Metellus had been slowly grinding down Sertorius's rebellion. Unable to defeat him in battle they had opted for attritional warfare, what had worked against Hannibal a century and a half before would now be brought to bear on Sertorius.
The war was not going well, so the Roman aristocrats and senators who made up the higher classes of his domain became discontent with Sertorius. They had grown jealous of Sertorius's power, and Perperna, aspiring to take Sertorius's place, encouraged that jealousy for his own ends. Perperna invited Sertorius to a feast to celebrate a supposed victory. During the celebration he was assassinated.
The Optimates' cause reached its peak under the dictatorship Sulla. Sulla's administration stripped the assemblies of nearly all power, raised the number of members of the Senate from 300 to 600, executed an equally large number of Populares via proscription lists and settled thousands of soldiers in northern Italy.
In 77 BC, the senate sent one of Sulla's former lieutenants, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"), to put down an uprising in Spain. By 71 BC, Pompey returned to Rome after having completed his mission. Around the same time, another of Sulla's former lieutenants, Marcus Licinius Crassus, had just put down the Spartacus led gladiator/slave revolt in Italy. Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populares party fiercely attacking Sulla's constitution. They attempted to forge an agreement with the populares party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected consul in 70 BC, they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla's constitution. The two were soon elected, and quickly dismantled most of Sulla's constitution.
According to Appian, in 61 BC, Julius Caesar, who was praetor in Hispania Citerior, brought under subjection "all those [Hispanics] who were doubtful of their allegiance, or had not yet submitted to the Romans". Suetonius specified that Caesar acted against the Lusitanians: "he not only begged money from the allies, to help pay his debts, but also attacked and sacked some towns of the Lusitanians although they did not refuse his terms and opened their gates to him on his arrival."
In 52 BC Caesar conquered Gaul (very roughly modern France) which became a Roman province.The refusal of the Roman senate to allow Caesar the honour of a triumph for his victory in the Gallic Wars eventually led, in part, to the Roman Civil War of 49–45 BC which he won.
In 49 BC, Julius Caesar invaded the Italian Peninsula, effectively declaring war on the Roman senate. Pompey, the leader of the forces of the senate, fled to Greece. Caesar executed an extraordinary 27-day forced march from Rome to Hispania to confront the legions of Pompey stationed there. He defeated seven Pompeian legions led by Lucius Afranius, Marcus Petreius and Marcus Terentius Varro at the Battle of Ilerda (Lerida), in north-eastern Hispania. There were further battles: one in southern Illyria (Albania) and one in Greece in 49 BC, and three in Africa (Tunisia, one in 49 BC and two in 46 BC). The final battle was between Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeus, the son of Pompey, supported by Titus Labienus and Publius Attius Varus, in 45 BC. It was the Battle of Munda, which was fought at Campus Mundensis, probably near Lantejuela, in southern Hispania. One year later, Caesar was assassinated.
During the reign of Caesar Augustus, Rome was obliged to maintain a bloody conflict against the Cantabrian tribes, a warlike people who presented fierce resistance to Roman domination. Those conflicts are named as the Cantabrian wars (29-19 BC) .
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| Military campaigns in the Cantabrian WarS: Yellow, 61 BC campaign Green 26 BC Campaign Red, 25 BC campaign |
In 29 BC Legio/Castra Legionis (modern León) was founded as the military encampment of the Roman legion Legio VI Victrix which served under Caesar Augustus during the Cantabrian Wars (29-19 BC). The Romans established the site of the city to protect the recently conquered territories of northwestern Hispania from the Astures and Cantabri, and to secure the transport of gold extracted in the province —especially in the huge nearby mines of Las Médulas— that was taken to Rome through Asturica Augusta (modern-day Astorga). The Legio VI Victrix stayed in Spain for nearly a century and received the surname Hispaniensis. Soldiers of this unit and X Gemina numbered among the first settlers of Caesaraugusta (founded in 14 BC), what became modern-day Zaragoza. The cognomen Victrix (Victorious) dates back to the reign of Nero. But Nero was unpopular in the area, and when the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba, said he wished to overthrow Nero, the legion supported him and he was proclaimed Emperor in the VI Victrix legionary camp. Galba created VII Gemina and marched on Rome, where Nero killed himself (68 AD). The legion remained in Hispania to the end of the 4th century.
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| Las Médulas is a historic gold-mining site near León which was was the most important gold mine, as well as the largest open-pit gold mine, in the entire Roman Empire. The spectacular landscape of Las Médulas resulted from the ruina montium (wrecking of the mountains), a Roman hydraulic mining technique that involved undermining a mountain with large quantities of water. 20,000 Roman pounds (6,560 kg) of gold were extracted each year. The exploitation, involving 60,000 free workers, brought 5,000,000 Roman pounds (1,640,000 kg) in 250 years. |
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| Emerita Augusta (present Merida) was founded in 25BC. by Publius Carisio, as the representative of the emperor Octavian Augustus as a resting place for troops discharged from the Legions V (Alaudae) and X (Gemina). Over time, this city became one of the most important in Hispania, capital of the province of Lusitania and an economic and cultural center. |
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| Hispanic provinces after the reform of Augustus. |
Strabo (63 BC – c. AD 24), was an educated citizen of the Roman Empire of Greek descent greek philosopher and historian author of a greek work called Geographica ("Geography"), an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books' where he described among other countries the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, Italy, Germania, Russia, the Middle East, North Africa, etc. Here it is how he described Iberia:
Iberia produces abundance of antelopes and wild horses. In many places the lakes are stocked. They have fowl, swans, and birds of similar kind, and vast numbers of bustards. Beavers are found in the rivers, but the castor does not possess the same virtue as that from the Euxine, the drug from that place having peculiar properties of its own, as is the case in many other instances.
Iberia produces a large quantity of roots used in dyeing. In olives, vines, figs, and every kind of similar fruit-trees, the Iberian coast next the Mediterranean abounds, they are likewise plentiful beyond.
The Romans call the whole land indifferently Iberia and Hispania, but designate one portion of it Ulterior, and the other Citerior. However, at different periods they have divided it differently, according to its political aspect at various times.
Concerning the foundation of Gades, the Gaditanians report that a certain oracle commanded the Tyrians to found a colony by the Pillars of Hercules.
Strabo notes that the Turdetani were the most civilized peoples in Iberia, with the implication that their ordered, urbanized culture was most in accord with Greco-Roman models:
The Turdetani [successors to the people of Tartessos] on the other hand, especially those who dwell about the Guadalquiver, have so entirely adopted the Roman mode of life, as even to have forgotten their own language. They have for the most part become Latins, and received Roman colonists; so that a short time only is wanted before they will be all Romans.
In Bastetania the women dance promiscuously with the men, each holding the other’s hand. They all dress in black, the majority of them in cloaks called saga, in which they sleep on beds of straw. They make use of wooden vessels like the Kelts. The women wear dresses and embroidered garments. Instead of money, those who dwell far in the interior exchange merchandise, or give pieces of silver cut off from plates of that metal. Those condemned to death are executed by stoning; parricides are put to death without the frontiers or the cities. They marry according to the customs of the Greeks.
The Cantabrians and their neighbours wash themselves and their wives in stale urine kept in tanks, and to rinse their teeth with it, which they say is their custom. This practice, as well as that of sleeping on the ground, is common both among the Iberians and Kelts. Some say that the Gallicians are atheists, but that the Keltiberians, and their neighbours to the north, [sacrifice] to a nameless god, every full moon, at night, before their doors, the whole family passing the night in dancing and festival.
For in the war against the Cantabrians, mothers have slain their children sooner than suffer them to be captured; and a young boy, having obtained a sword, slew, at the command of his father, both his parents and brothers, who had been made prisoners and were bound, and a woman those who had been taken together with her. A man being invited by a party of drunken [soldiers] to their feast, threw himself into a fire. It is a proof of the ferocity of the Cantabrians, that a number of them having been taken prisoners and fixed to the cross, they chanted songs of triumph. Instances such as these are proofs of the ferocity of their manners. There are others which, although not showing them to be polished, are certainly not brutish. For example, amongst the Cantabrians, the men give dowries to their wives, and the daughters are left heirs, but they procure wives for their brothers. These things indicate a degree of power in the woman, although they are no proof of advanced civilization.
The life of the mountaineers is such as I have described, I mean those bordering the northern side of Iberia, the Gallicians, the Asturians, and the Cantabrians, as far as the Vascons and the Pyrenees. The rough and savage manners of these people is not alone owing to their wars, but likewise to their isolated position, it being a long distance to reach them, whether by sea or land. Thus the difficulty of communication has deprived them both of generosity of manners and of courtesy. At the present time, however, they suffer less from this both on account of their being at peace and the intermixture of Romans. Wherever these [influences] are not so much experienced people are harsher and more savage.
Between 8 BC and 2 BC Augustus ordered the reconstruction of the previous Via Hercules creating the Via Augusta, the longest and busiest major road buit in ancient Hispania that linked Hispania Baetica in the south with the north of Hispania and which was still used by the Muslim occupiers of southern Spain in the 10th century, who called it al-Racif. The length of the road was 1,500 kilometres.
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| Via Augusta |
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| The Arch of Bera, a Roman Triumphal arch on the Via Augusta, remains at the North of Tarragona. |
The historical origins of this route are uncertain. It is believed based on diverse archaeological findings, that the route was used for commercial purposes involving tin. Tin was present in many regions of the Iberian Peninsula including Tartessos. The "Tin Way" was used as an access road, which allowed the Romans to conquer tribes such as the Callaici, the Astures, and the Vacceos. Many sources, among them the Antonine Itinerary, describe the route to leave from Emerita Augusta, (present-day Mérida), capital of Lusitania, towards Asturica Augusta (present-day Astorga) through Tarraconensis. During the Roman Empire it is known that it was used to connect two main areas of the highest importance at both end, the gold mines of Las Medulas and the copper mines of Rio Tinto.
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| Main arterial roads of Roman Hispania |
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| Roman Roads (117 AD) under Trajan |
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| Roman roads in Hispania including the Viae publicae (main roads) and the viae vicinale/rusticae (secondary roads) |
Among the earliest records which may refer specifically to Jews in Spain during the Roman period is Paul's Letter to the Romans. Many have taken Paul's intention to go to Spain to minister the gospel (15.24, 28) to indicate the presence of Jewish communities there.
As citizens of the Roman Empire, the Jews of Spain engaged in a variety of occupations, including agriculture. Until the adoption of Christianity, Jews had close relations with non-Jewish populations, and played an active role in the social and economic life of the province (Assis at p. 9). From a slightly later period, Midrash Rabbah (Leviticus Rabba § 29.2), and Pesikta de-Rav Kahana (Rosh Hashanna), both, make mention of the Jewish Diaspora in Spain (Hispania) and their eventual return. Among these early references are several decrees of the Council of Elvira, convened in the early fourth century, which address proper Christian behavior with regard to the Jews of Spain, notably forbidding marriage between Jews and Christians. The edicts of the Synod of Elvira, although early examples of priesthood-inspired anti-Semitism, provide evidence of Jews who were integrated enough into the greater community to cause alarm among some: of the Council's 80 canonic decisions, all which pertain to Jews served to maintain a separation between the two communities (Laeuchli, pp. 75–76). It seems that by this time the presence of Jews was of greater concern to Catholic authorities than the presence of pagans; Canon 16, which prohibited marriage with Jews, was worded more strongly than canon 15, which prohibited marriage with pagans. Canon 78 threatens those who commit adultery with Jews with ostracism. Canon 48 forbade Jews from blessing Christian crops, and Canon 50 forbade sharing meals with Jews; repeating the command to Hebrew the Bible indicated respect to Gentile.
The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon (Olissipo) and Tarragona (Tarraco), established Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Mérida (Augusta Emerita), and Valencia (Valentia), and provided amenities throughout the empire.
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| The Arch of Medinaceli (1st century AD) is a unique example of monumental Roman triumphal arch within Hispania. |
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| Aqueduct of Segovia |
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| Trajan |
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| Amphitheater of the ancient roman city of Itálica, Santiponce, Seville, Spain |
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| Trajan's Bridge at Alcantara (1870) |
Another legend embodied in the 11th-century Irish compilation Lebor Gabála Érenn—the "Book of Invasions"—King Breogán, the founding father of the Galician Celtic nation, constructed a massive tower of such a grand height that his sons could see a distant green shore from its top. The glimpse of that distant green land lured them to sail north to Ireland. According to the legend Breogán's descendants stayed in Ireland and are the Celtic ancestors of the current Irish people. A colossal statue of Breogán has been erected near the Tower.
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| Tower of Hercules |
Garum was a major export product from Hispania to Rome, and gained the towns a certain amount of prestige. Garum’s origins lie in both Greek and Phoenician cooking. Amphorae containing deposits of the sauce have been found in shipwrecks from the fifth century B.C., and it is believed that its name may derive from the Greek word for shrimp. To make garum, vats were filled with fresh fish guts typically cleaned from whitebait, anchovies, mackerel, tuna, and others. They were placed between layers of salt and aromatic herbs and left in the sun for several months until they reached proper pungency. It was important to add just the right amount of salt—too little would result in putrefaction, while too much would disrupt the natural process of fermentation that gave the sauce its distinctive tang. Garum was produced in various grades consumed by all social classes. After the liquid was ladled off of the top of the mixture, the remains of the fish, called allec, was used by the poorest classes to flavour their staple porridge or farinata.
Factories known as cetariae proliferated to satisfy the Roman world’s craving for the fish sauce. Typically, these production centers were located near the coast, ensuring quick and easy access to the freshest catch. They also tended to be outside the city center because of the stench radiating from them.
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| Baelo Claudia was a key garum production center, lying conveniently near the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea joins the Atlantic Ocean. These waters form the migratory route for several fish species. Here, nets could be set to catch tuna as they passed through on their way to spawn, a practice that continues on that coast to this day. |
Romanization proceeded quickly in some regions where we have references to the togati, and very slowly in others, after the time of Augustus, and Hispania was divided into three separately governed provinces (nine provinces by the 4th century). More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road. But the impact of Hispania in the newcomers was also big.
The romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists - had all achieved the status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The emperors Trajan (r. 98-117), Hadrian (r. 117-38), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80) were born in Hispania. Poets Martial, Lucan and philosopher Seneca were also born in Hispania.
In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius, a Gallic rhetorician, dedicated part of his work to the depiction of the geography, climate, inhabitants, soldiers, and so forth of the peninsula, writing with praise and admiration:
“This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius to the Empire.”
Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road. But the impact of Hispania in the newcomers was also big. Caesar wrote on the Civil Wars that 'the soldiers from the Second Legion had become hispanicized and regarded themselves as hispanicus'.
Throughout the centuries of Roman rule over the provinces of Hispania, Roman customs, religion, laws and the general Roman lifestyle, gained much favour in the indigenous population, which was compounded by a great number of Roman immigrants, which eventually formed a distinct Hispano-Roman culture. Roman civilization was much more technologically advanced and sophisticated than previous cultures in the peninsula.
The ancient Roman civilization is known as the great builder of infrastructure. It was the first civilization which dedicated itself to a serious and determined effort for this kind of civil work as a basis for settlement of their populations, and the preservation of its military and economic domination over the vast territory of its empire. The works of most importance are roads, bridges and aqueducts.
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| The Tower of Hercules in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, is the world's oldest Roman lighthouse still used as a lighthouse |
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| Iberian Peninsula in 125 |
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| Main arterial roads of Roman Hispania |
Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the first century and it became popular in the cities in the second century.
Latin was the official language of Hispania during the Rome's more than 600 years of rule, and by the empire's end in Hispania around 460 AD, all the original Iberian languages, except the ancestor of modern Basque, were extinct.
-> The Greeks adopted the alphabet from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, one of the closely related scripts used for the West Semitic languages
-> It is generally held that the Latins adopted the western variant of the Greek alphabet in the 7th century BC from Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy – making the early Latin alphabet one among several Old Italic alphabets emerging at the time.
-> From the Cumae alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet was derived. The Latins ultimately adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters.
-> The Latin alphabet spread from Italy, along with the Latin language, to the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea with the expansion of the Roman Empire.
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| Evolution of Greek and Latin Alphabets |
Germanic Hispania
In the winter of 406, taking advantage of the frozen Rhine, the (Germanic) Vandals and Sueves, and the (Sarmatian) Alans invaded the empire in force. Three years later they crossed the Pyrenees into Iberia and divided the Western parts, roughly corresponding to modern Portugal and western Spain as far as Madrid, between them.
Although there is no clearly documented reason behind the migration of 406, a widely accepted theory is that the migration of the various Germanic peoples west of the Rhine is due to the westward push of the Huns during the late 4th century. The reasoning being that the activities of the Huns disrupted and threatened the existing peoples of the region forcing them to uproot.
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| Visigothic settlement and the Iberian peninsula, c. 418. |
The Visigoths meanwhile, having sacked Rome two years earlier, arrived in the region in 412 founding the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse (in the south of modern France) and gradually expanded their influence into the Iberian peninsula at the expense of the Vandals and Alans, who moved on into North Africa without leaving much permanent mark on Hispanic culture. The Visigothic Kingdom shifted its capital to Toledo.
The highly romanized Visigoths entered Hispania in 415 and managed to compel the Vandals and Alans to sail for North Africa in 429. In 484 the Visigoths established Toledo as the capital of their monarchy. Successive Visigothic kings ruled Hispania as patricians who held imperial commissions to govern in the name of the Roman emperor. In 585 the Visigoths conquered the Suevi kingdom, thus controlling almost all Hispania.
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| Visigothic Hispania and its regional divisions in 700 |
Importantly, Spain never saw a decline in interest in classical culture to the degree observable in Britain, Gaul, Lombardy and Germany. The Visigoths tended to maintain more of the old Roman institutions, and they had a unique respect for legal codes that resulted in continuous frameworks and historical records for most of the period between 415, when Visigothic rule in Spain began, and 711, when it is traditionally said to end.
Under the Visigoths, lay culture was not as highly developed as it had been under the Romans, and the task of maintaining formal education and government shifted decisively to the church because its Roman clergy alone were qualified to manage higher administration. As elsewhere in early medieval Europe, the church in Hispania stood as society's most cohesive institution.
Reccared (or Recared) I (559–601) (reigned 586–601) was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia. His reign marked a climactic shift in history, with the king's renunciation of traditional Arianism in favour of Catholic Christianity in 587.
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| Conversion of Recaredo I, by painter Muñoz Degrain |
Saint Isidore of Seville born in 560 was the last of the ancient Christian philosophers, as he was the last of the great Latin Church Fathers. Some consider him to be the most learned man of his age, and he exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. Isidore was the first Christian writer to essay the task of compiling for his co-religionists a summa of universal knowledge, in the form of his most important work, the Etymologiae (also known by classicists as the Origines). The fame of this work imparted a new impetus to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages. It was the most popular compendium in medieval libraries. It was printed in at least 10 editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continued popularity in the Renaissance.
According to Isidore of Seville, it is with the Visigothic domination of the zone that the idea of a peninsular unity is sought after, and the phrase Mother Hispania is first spoken. Up to that date, Hispania designated all of the peninsula's lands.
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| San Isidoro de Sevilla |
A century later, taking advantage of a struggle for the throne between the Visigothic kings Agila and Athanagild, the eastern emperor Justinian I sent an army under the orders of Liberius to take back the peninsula from the Visigoths. This short-lived reconquest covered only a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast roughly corresponding to the ancient province of Baetica, known as Spaniae.
[The Treasure of Guarrazar is an archeological find composed of twenty-six votive crowns and gold crosses that had originally been offered to the Roman Catholic Church by the Kings of the Visigoths in the seventh century in Hispania, as a gesture of the orthodoxy of their faith and their submission to the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
The most valuable remaining pieces of the find are the two royal votive crowns: one of King Reccesuinth and one of King Suinthila. Both are of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls, and other precious stones. Suinthila's was stolen in 1921 at the Museo del Palacio Real and never recovered.
The most valuable of all is the votive crown of king Reccesuinth with its blue sapphires from the former Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and spectacular pendilia (hanging jewels and ornaments). Though the treasure is now divided and much has disappeared, it represents the best surviving group of Early Medieval Christian votive offerings, and was probably comparable to groups deposited in other major European shrines that have now disappeared.
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| Crown of king Reccesuinth, with its blue sapphires from the former Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and spectacular pendilia (hanging jewels and ornaments). Though the treasure is now divided and much has disappeared, it represents the best surviving group of Early Medieval Christian votive offerings, and was probably comparable to groups deposited in other major European shrines that have now disappeared. |
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Moorish Hispania
The North African Muslim, referred to as Moorish, conquest of Hispania which they called Al-Andalus, gave a new development, both in form and meaning, to the term "Hispania".
Under the orders of the Great Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I, Tariq ibn-Ziyad led a small force that landed at Gibraltar on April 30, 711. They defeated the Visigothic army, led by King Roderic, in a decisive battle in at the Battle of Guadalete on July 19, 711. Tariq ibn-Ziyad brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim occupation in a seven-year campaign. The conquering army was made up mainly of Berbers, who had themselves only recently come under Muslim influence. It is probable that this army represented a continuation of a historic pattern of large-scale raids into Iberia dating to the pre–Islamic period, and hence it has been suggested that actual conquest was not originally planned. They crossed the Pyrenees and occupied parts of southern France, but were defeated by the Frank Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732.
Precisely what happened in Iberia in the early 8th century is subject to much uncertainty. There is one contemporary Christian source, the Chronicle of 754 (which ends on that date), regarded as reliable but often vague. There are no contemporary Muslim accounts.
The Iberian peninsula, except for the Kingdom of Asturias, became part of the expanding Umayyad empire, under the name of al-Andalus.
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| Umayyad empire in Iberia and North Africa |
Reconquista
Pelagius (Spanish: Pelayo) was the founder of the Kingdom of Asturias, ruling from 718 until his death. He is credited with beginning the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors, insofar as he established an independent Christian state in opposition to Moorish hegemony.
The Reconquista was essentially completed in 1238, when the only remaining Muslim state in Iberia, the Emirate of Granada, became a vassal of the Christian King of Castile. This arrangement lasted for 250 years until the Spanish launched the Granada War of 1492, which finally expelled all Muslim authority from Spain.
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| Animated gif showing the reconquista |
The repopulation of the Douro Basin took place in two distinct phases. North of the river, between the 9th and 10th centuries, the "pressure" (or presura) system was employed. South of the Douro, in the 10th and 11th centuries, the presura led to the "charters" (forais or fueros). Fueros were used even south of the Central Range.
The presura referred to a group of peasants who crossed the mountains and settled in the abandoned lands of the Duero Basin. Asturian laws promoted this system with laws, for instance granting a peasant all the land he was able to work and defend as his own property. Of course, Asturian and Galician minor nobles and clergymen sent their own expeditions with the peasants they maintained. This led to very feudalised areas, such as León and Portugal, whereas Castile, an arid land with vast plains and hard climate only attracted peasants with no hope in Biscay. As a consequence, Castile was governed by a single count, but had a largely mostly non-feudal territory with many free peasants. Presuras also appear in Catalonia, when the count of Barcelona ordered the Bishop of Urgell and the count of Gerona to repopulate the plains of Vic.
Fueros were charters documenting the privileges and usages given to all the people repopulating a town. The fueros provided a means of escape from the feudal system, as fueros were only granted by the monarch. As a result, the town council (the concejo) was dependent on the monarch alone and had to help their lord (auxilium). The military force of the towns became the caballeros villanos. The first fuero was given by count Fernán González to the inhabitants of Castrojeriz in the 940 s. The most important towns of medieval Iberia had fueros or foros. In Navarre, fueros were the main repopulating system. Later on, in the 12th century, Aragon also employed the system; for example, the fuero of Teruel, which was one of the last fueros, in the early 13th century.
The abolition of the fueros in Navarre was one of the causes of the Carlist Wars. In Castile disputes over the system contributed to the war against Charles I (Castilian War of the Communities).
Kingdom of Leon
Alfonso III of Asturias repopulated the strategically-important city León and established it as his capital. From his new capital, King Alfonso began a series of campaigns to establish control over all the lands north of the Douro. He reorganized his territories into the major duchies (Galicia and Portugal) and major counties (Saldaña and Castile), and fortified the borders with many castles. At his death in 910 the shift in regional power was completed as the kingdom became the Kingdom of León.
Kingdom of Castile
Ferdinand I of Leon was the leading king of the mid-11th century. He conquered Coimbra and attacked the taifa kingdoms, often demanding the tributes known as parias. Ferdinand's strategy was to continue to demand parias until the taifa was greatly weakened both miltiarily and financially.
A central figure in the struggle between Christianity and Islam in medieval Spain, El Cid (from the Arabic as-sid, meaning "the lord") was an 11th century warrior whose military exploits made him a folk hero of mythical proportions. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (sometimes de Bivar). After his death, he was immortalized in plays, folk tales and songs, and continues to be one of the most revered men in Spanish history:
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| Present statue of the Cid in Burgos by Juan Cristóbal González Quesada |
Alfonso VI the Brave gave more power to the fueros and repopulated Segovia, Ávila and Salamanca. Then, once he had secured the Borders, King Alfonso conquered the powerful Taifa kingdom of Toledo in 1085. Toledo, which was the former capital of the Visigoths, was a very important landmark, and the conquest made Alfonso renowned throughout the Christian world.
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| Alfonso VI by Eduardo Chillida |
In the High Middle Ages, the fight against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula became linked to the fight of the whole of Christendom. The Reconquista was a war conquest but also a religiously justified war of liberation.
After the so called Disaster of Alarcos, French, Navarrese, Castilian, Portuguese and Aragonese armies united against the Muslim forces in the massive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212). The big territories awarded to military orders and nobles were the origin of the latifundia in today's Andalusia and Extremadura, in Spain, and Alentejo, in Portugal.
Las Navas de Tolosa represented a major victory for the Christian forces in Spain, and within fifty years most of the Muslim lands in Spain had fallen to Castilian forces.
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| Sancho VII breaks the chains that surround the tent of Al-Nasir and breaks in At Palacio of Navarra by Vicente Pascual |
“we have gone together, have suffered together. You are here those of proven loyalty. When your children and the children of your children ask you why you fought, you will tell them that you came to defending them and to the children of many(many people) that you will not even know in your life. You will say to them that you fought for your faith and his(her,its), since the enemies of the Cross of the Gentleman not only aspire to the destruction of the Spain, but also they threaten to exercise his(her,your) cruelty in other lands of the public inspectors of Christ and to oppress(press) the Christian's name.
When your children and the children of your children, looking with admiration and been grateful, ask you the one who was guiding you in the battle you will say that he was not an any man but the same God of the armies and for it to come jubilant and without fear of the combat, since if we spill our blood we will be able to count(tell) between(among) the choir of the martyrs. When your children and the children of your children ask you why, leaving everything, you walked inhospitable lands to fight you will say to them that you refused, as your forbears, on whom the Saracen invader should impose her your customs and the beliefs of Mohammed's damned sect.
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| Monument for Battle of Tolosa near where it took place |
Alfonso X (23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was a Castilian monarch who ruled as the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1252 until his death. Alfonso's court was a center of culture, producing an influential law code, the Siete Partidas, and establishing the form of modern Castilian Spanish. The Cantigas represent Alfonso's most enduring cultural contribution. Four sumptuous manuscripts preserve a collection of over 400 Gallician songs to the Virgin Mary compiled in Alfonso's court between 1250 and 1280,Cantigas de Santa Maria. As an intellectual Alfonso X gained considerable scientific fame based on his encouragement of astronomy, which included astrology at the time and the Ptolemaic cosmology as known to him through the Arabs. From the beginning of his reign, Alfonso employed Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars at his court, primarily for the purpose of translating books from Arabic and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian, although he always insisted in supervising personally the translations. The primary intellectual work of these scholars centered on astronomy and astrology. The early period of Alfonso's reign saw the translation of selected works of magic (Lapidario, Picatrix, Libro de las formas et las ymagenes) all translated by a Jewish scholar named Yehudah ben Moshe (Yhuda Mosca, in the Old Spanish source texts). These were all highly ornate manuscripts (only the Lapidario survives in its entirety) containing what was believed to be secret knowledge on the magical properties of stones and talismans. In addition to these books of astral magic, Alfonso ordered the translation of well-known Arabic astrological compendia, including the Libro de las cruzes and Libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas. Alfonso also had Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas ("Libro de los Juegos" (The Book of Games)) translated into Castilian from Arabic and added illustrations with the goal of perfecting the work. Clerical and secular scholars from Europe turned their eyes to Iberian Peninsula as the arts and sciences prospered in an early Spanish "renaissance" under the patronage of Alfonso X.
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| Alfonso X sculpture by José Alcoverro |
The Toledo School of Translators (Spanish: Escuela de Traductores de Toledo) is the name that commonly describes the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the philosophical and scientific works from classical Arabic, classical Greek, and ancient Hebrew. Under King Alfonso X of Castile (known as the Wise), Toledo rose even higher in importance as a translation center, as well as for the writing of original scholarly works. The Crown did not officially recognize the School, but the team of scholars and translators shared their communal knowledge and taught newcomers new languages and translation methods. King Alfonso's decision to abandon Latin as the target language for the translations and use a revised vernacular version of Castilian, had very significant consequences on the development of the first foundations of the Spanish language.
In the 13th Century many universities were founded in León and in Castile, like the University of Salamanca which was the first European university to receive the title of "University" as such, that it was granted by king Alfonso X and the Pope in 1254.
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| Old library of Salamanca University |
The Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, an argument supported by recent forensic research. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% – 60% of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. The trend of recent research is pointing to a figure more like 45% to 50% of the European population dying during a four-year period. There is a fair amount of geographic variation. In Mediterranean Europe, areas such as Italy, the south of France and Spain, where plague ran for about four years consecutively, it was probably closer to 75% to 80% of the population. In Germany and England ... it was probably closer to 20%.
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| Black Death swept Europe out |
Real or legendary episodes of the Reconquista are the subject of much of Medieval Portuguese-, Spanish- and Catalan-language literature, such as the cantar de gesta.
As the Reconquista continued, Christian kingdoms and principalities developed. By the 15th century, the most important among these were the Kingdom of Castile (occupying a northern and central portion of the Iberian Peninsula) and the Kingdom of Aragon (occupying northeastern portions of the peninsula).
The Catholic Monarchs (Spanish: los Reyes Católicos) is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins. Their marriage in 1469 in the city of Valladolid united the two kingdoms, leading to the beginnings of modern Spain.
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| Catholic Monarchs |
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was a tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval Inquisition which was under Papal control. There was never a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition in Castile. Members of the episcopate were charged with surveillance of the faithful and punishment of transgressors. During the Middle Ages, in Castile, little attention was paid to heresy by the Catholic ruling class.
The marriage of the Reyes Católicos (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) created a confederation of reigns, each with their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy. According to scholar Henry Kamen, it was only after centuries of a common rule that this separated realms formed a fully unificated state.
As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy; these conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king. In these battles, which established the supremacy of the Spanish Tercios in the European battlefields, the forces of the kings of Spain acquired a reputation for invincibility that would last until the mid-17th century. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, ‘El Gran Capitán’ was a Spanish general fighting in the times of the Conquest of Granada and at the Italian Wars reputed to be "the Father of Trench Warfare" and the infantry units which were later known as tercio.
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| Gonzalez de Cordoba finds the body of Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, at the battle of Cerignola in 1503. Painting by Casado del Alisal. The battle is considered to be the first battle in the western world won largely through the use of gunpowder small arms |
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| Boabdil surrounding to Catholic Monarchs (Francisco Padilla), end of Reconquista |
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| Colombus arrives in the new world |
The Spanish Empire was one of the first modern global empires. It was also one of the largest empires in world history. In the 16th century Spain and Portugal were in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion and the opening of trade routes across the oceans, with trade flourishing across the Atlantic between Spain and the Americas and across the Pacific between East Asia and Mexico via the Philippines. Conquistadors toppled the Aztec, Inca and Maya civilizations and laid claim to vast stretches of land in North and South America.
[Timeline of the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula:
Once the Muslims conquered Iberia, they governed it in accordance with Islamic shariah law. Christians and Jews were treated as dhimmis subject to a poll tax allowing them to live under the Islamic state. Under shariah, blasphemy against Islam, whether by Muslims or dhimmis, and apostasy from Islam are all grounds for the death penalty.
Umayyad conquest of Hispania:
711 - A Muslim force of about 7,000 fighters (mainly Arabs and Berbers) under Tariq ibn Ziyad, loyal to the Umayyad Emir of Damascus, Al-Walid I, enter the Iberian peninsula from North Africa. The conquering army was made up mainly of Berbers, who had themselves only recently come under Muslim influence and were probably only lightly islamized. At the Battle of Guadalete Tariq ibn Ziyad defeats King Roderic, the last Visigothic ruler of Hispania, at the Guadalete River in the south of the Iberian peninsula. Tariq goes on to take Toledo, while a detachment under Mugit al-Rumi takes Córdoba.
713 - Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, Musa ibn Nusair's son, takes Jaén, Murcia, Granada, Sagunto.
The Christians of Seville and Toledo revolt, but are put down by Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa's troops. Toledo is pillaged and its notables are beheaded.
715 - By this year, virtually all of southern Iberia is in Muslim hands. Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa is left in charge and makes his capital the city of Seville, where he marries Egilona, widow of King Rodrigo, who encourages him to convert to Christianity. The Umayyad Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, orders Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa assassinated.
716 - Lisbon is captured by the Moors.
720 - Moorish conquest of Barcelona and Narbonne.
722 - King Pelayo defeats a large force sent by Emir Munuza to annihilate him at the Battle of Covadonga in Alcama. He then leads an alliance of Asturian and Cantabrian mountaineers and Spaniards in the counter-offensive against the Muslims beginning what will be called La Reconquista. Pelayo will go on to become the founder of a dynasty of Iberian monarchs who will over the centuries recapture all of the Iberian lands from the Muslims.
732 - A Muslim army led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi defeats an Aquitanian force under Duke Odo of Aquitaine on the Garonne near Bordeaux. The Moors then set about pillaging Aquitaine
Frankish commander Charles Martel "the Hammer" defeats a massive Muslim army of 60,000 fighters at the Battle of Tours (Battle of Poitiers) killing Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, effectively halting the northward advance of Islam in Europe from the Iberian peninsula.
The Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba (756–929):
756 - Abd ar-Rahman I, Umayyad commander of the Muslims of Al-Andalus, proclaims himself Emir of Córdoba.
778 - The Franks led by Charlemagne attack Zaragoza, but are forced to withdraw. Basques ambush Charlemagne's army as it crosses the Pyrenees out of Iberia. The Basques maul the Frankish rearguard, killing many of the commanders including the Breton Markgraf Hruotland (also called Roland), and loot the baggage train
785 - Building of the Great Mosque of Córdoba begins on the grounds of a Visigothic church; it is completed in 976.
800 - Charlemagne takes Barcelona. He is granted the title of "Holy Roman Emperor" by Pope Leo III in order to guarantee his protection of Rome against the invading Lombards.
806 - Frankish conquest of Pamplona.
After another revolt in Toledo, 700 men, women and children are beheaded by the Muslims.
811- Another insurrection against the Muslims erupts in Toledo lasting 8 years.
Charlemagne gains control of all of Catalonia, which is designated "the Hispanic Mark" until 874.
818 - The revolt in Córdoba against the Muslims is punished by three days of massacres and pillage, with 300 notables crucified and 20,000 families expelled.
850-859 - Perfectus, a Christian priest in Muslim-ruled Córdoba, is beheaded after he refuses to retract numerous insults he made about Muhammad. Numerous other priests, monks, and laity would follow as Christians became caught up in a zest for martyrdom.
Forty-eight Christians men and women are decapitated for refusing to convert or blaspheming Muhammad. They will be known as the Martyrs of Córdoba. For example:
Abundius: July 11, 854. A parish priest in Ananelos, a village near Córdoba. He was arrested for having maligned Mohammad. Unlike most of the other martyrs, Abundius was betrayed by others and did not volunteer to face the Emir's court. He was beheaded and his body was thrown to the dogs. His feast day is celebrated on July 11
Aurea(also known as Aura): July 19, 856. Born in Córdoba in Al-Andalus and a daughter of Muslim parents, in her widowhood she quietly became a Christian and a nun at Cuteclara, where she remained for more than twenty years. She was discovered by Muslim relatives, brought before a judge, and renounced her Christianity under duress. However, she regretted this, and continued to practice Christianity in secret. When her family discovered this, she was again brought before a court, refused to repent a second time, and was executed.
Eulogius of Cordoba: March 11, 859. A prominent priest in Córdoba Al-Andalus during this period. Outstanding for his courage and learning, he encouraged some of the voluntary martyrs and wrote The Memorial of the Saints for their benefit. He himself was executed for hiding and protecting a young girl St. Leocritia that had converted from Islam.
Saint Laura: October 19, 864. Born in Córdoba, as a widow she became a nun at Cuteclara. Condemned as an apostate, she was thrown into a cauldron of molten lead.
Nunilo and Alodia: October 22, 851. Two sisters born in Adahuesca in Huesca in Al-Andalus. Daughters of a Muslim father and Christian mother, they were raised as Christians. After the death of their father, their mother married another Muslim, who brutally persecuted them and had them imprisoned. They were finally beheaded in Huesca during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II.
etc...
912 - Abd al-Rahman III becomes the Emir of Córdoba. Every spring, Muslims launch raiding campaigns against the Christian frontier.
913 - An expedition commanded by Ordoño II of León takes Évora (Talavera) from the Muslims.
The capital city of the Kingdom of Asturias is moved from Oviedo to León, becomes Kingdom of León.
920 - Muslim forces cross the Pyrenees, enter Gascony, and reach as far as the gates of Toulouse. The garrison of Muez is killed.
923 - The city of Pamplona is destroyed by Muslim forces.
The Umayyad Caliphate (929–1031)
929 - Abd al-Rahman III, faced with the threat of invasion by the Fatimids, proclaims himself Caliph of Córdoba, breaking all ties with the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. Under the reign of Abd al-Rahman III Muslim Al-Andalus reaches its greatest height before its slow decline over the next four centuries.
985 - Under Al-Mansur (Almanzor) and subsequently his son, Christian cities are subjected to numerous raids.
985 - Al-Mansur sacks Barcelona.
986 - Al-Mansur burns down the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès.
987 - Al-Mansur lays waste to Christian Coimbra.
Al-Mansur seizes the castles north of the Douro River, and arrives at the city of Santiago de Compostela. The city had been evacuated and Al-Mansur burns it to the ground. Al-Mansur has the basilica doors and bells of the Christian shrine of Santiago de Compostela taken to the Córdoba Mosque and has the rest of the Church destroyed.
988 - Al-Mansur razes León to the ground. He sacks Leon, Zamora, and Sahagun, and sets fire to the great monasteries of Eslonza and Sahagun
1000 - Sancho III of Navarre, inflicts major losses on the Muslims, and nearly clinches a remarkable victory.
1000-1033 - Sancho III of Navarre gains control of Aragon and Castile, uniting the three kingdoms. But on his death, he splits the kingdom and leaves Navarre to his son García III of Pamplona, Castile to Fernando I, and Aragon to Ramiro I.
1008 - Mohammed II al-Mahdi becomes Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba.
The period of anarchy over the next 23 years out of which emerged approximately two dozen taifa states.
1009 The Taifa (independent Moorish kingdom) of Badajoz becomes independent of the Caliph of Córdoba and governs the territory between Coimbra and North Alentejo.
1012 - Berber forces capture Córdoba and order that half the population be executed.
Sulaiman II is restored as Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba by the Berber armies.
Jews are expelled from the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, then ruled by Suleiman II.
Political fragmentation (1031-1130)
1031 - The Moorish Caliphate of Córdoba falls.
1051 - Yusuf ibn Hud, the Banu Hud Emir of Lleida, is paying the Catalans to protect against his own family in Zaragoza.
1066 - Joseph and other Jews in Granada are attacked and murdered; many escapees flee to the north. "More than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day, December 30, 1066.
1086 - The Christian advance obliges the Muslim kings of Granada, Seville and Badajoz to call to their aid the Almoravids.
- Almoravids, rampage through parts of Iberia, especially Granada and Lucena. There are persecutions and massacres. The wealthier Jews flee to Christian-held Iberia
1092 - Toledo falls to the Reconquista and will remain in Christian hands thereafter
1093 - El Cid captures Valencia from the Moors, carving out his own kingdom along the Mediterranean that is only nominally subservient to Alfonso VI of Castile. Valencia would be both Christian and Muslim, with adherents of both religions serving in his army.
1097 - El Cid defeats Almoravid (Ali ibn al-Hajj) at Bairen south of Valencia.
1105 - The Almohads, founded by Ibn Tumart, began as a religious movement to rid Islam of impurities. Most specifically, the Almohads were opposed to anthropomorphisms which had slipped into Iberian Islam. Ibn Tumart's successor, Abd al-Mu'min, turned the movement against non-Muslims, specifically Jews and Christians. Sweeping across North Africa and into Muslim Iberia, the zealous Almohads initiate riots and persecutions of both Muslims and non-Muslims. In some towns Jews and Christians are given the choice of conversion, exile, or death.
1118 - Alfonso I of Aragon takes Saragossa from the Muslims. Settlers in the reconquered no-man's lands of Castile are granted fueros, special rights.
1126 - The Almoravids deport Christians to Morocco.
Alfonso I of Aragon defeats the Almoravids at Arinzul near Lucena. After symbolically fishing at Motril on the south coast, Alfonso returns home undefeated.
Decline and submission to Christian rule (1130–1481)
1147 - Alfonso VII of Castile takes Calatrava.
1149 - Aragonese take Lleida and Fraga.
1151 - The Almohads, another more conservative African Muslim dynasty who have displaced the Almoravids, retake Almería. Jews and Mozárabes (Christians in Muslim lands) flee to the northern Christian kingdoms of Spain, or to Africa and the East, including Rambam.
1155 - Almohads take Granada from Almoravids.
1170 - The Almohads transfer their capital to Seville.
1212 - Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal, defeat Almohad (Caliph Muhammad an-Nasir) at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The Christians had 60-100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, and had troops from Western Europe, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, León and Portugal, Military Orders (Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller, Santiago, Cavatrava), and urban militias.
1236 - The Nasrid ruler, Mohammed ibn Alhamar, approaches Ferdinand III of Castile to propose that in return for cooperating in the conquest of Muslim Seville, Granada would be granted independence as a subject of Castile. Fernando agrees and takes Seville.
1237 - Mohammed ibn Alhamar enters Granada, soon to become the new capital of his dominion. On returning to Granada, the embarrassed ibn-Alhamar announces "there is no victor but Allah", which was to become the motto of the Nasrid dynasty and to be inscribed all over the Alhambra palace.
1238 - Jaime I retakes Valencia, Albarracin, Alpuente, Tortosa from the Muslims, all of which would remain in Christian hands thereafter. He also gains control of the prized paper manufacturing centre at Xativa.
1244 - Jaime I of Aragon captures the city and Castle of Jativa from Abu Bakr who signs the Treaty of Jativa effectively becoming a vassal to the Christian Kingdom.
1248 - Christian armies under Ferdinand III of Castile take Seville after 16 months of siege, despite Muslim catapults, Greek fire, and bowmen who pierce armor. Castilian forces include urban militia.
1252-1284 - Alfonso X the Wise continues the Christian reconquest of the peninsula and is obliged to face the Mudéjar revolts of Andalusia and Murcia. He seeks election as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1257. He drafts the Fuero de las Leyes, the forerunner of the Siete Partidas.
1309 - Ferdinand IV of Castile takes Gibraltar.
1324 - Catalonia occupies Sardinia.
1340 - The combined armies of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castille defeat a Muslim army at the Battle of Rio Salado.
1410 - An attack against Granada is led by Ferdinand of Aragon. He does not take Granada, but he takes the city of Antequera. This is considered the most important victory against the Muslims since the reign of Alfonso XI.
1482 - Siege of Loja. King Ferdinand II of Aragon attacks the Granadine city of Loja (1 July 1482). The city is defended by one Ibrahim Ali al-Attar, octogenarian father-in-law of Muhammad XII. Ferdinand II of Aragon returns to Córdoba. Abu l-Hasan marches on Loja and sweeps the Rio Frio in mid July.
1487 - Málaga falls to the Reconquista.
1492 - 2 January 1492 - The Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, take over Granada.
1492-1507 - The remaining Moors who want to stay in Spain form an alliance with the towns of Abarán, Ulea, Eyes, and Ricote were ordered to become Catholic and abandon the Muslim religion. King Ferdinand ordered to convert mosques to Christian churches. The king then appeals to the reigning Pope Julius II (nephew of Sixtus IV) to grant the aspirations of these new Christians. These former Moorish converts to Christianity will come to be known as the Moriscos.
1496 - All Moors are expelled from Portugal.
1502 - After various rebellions, the Moors are deemed in violation of their surrender terms and are forcibly expelled from Granada along with the Jews, who are widely perceived to have collaborated with the Moors against the Christians during Muslim rule. Muslims who were forcefully converted rather than be expelled are known as moriscos, and Jews who were forcefully converted as marranos.
1519–1522 - Revolt of the Germanies of Kingdom of Valencia. In it, the rebels murder many Mudéjars and forcibly baptize and convert the rest. The rebels had been armed to take up coastal defense against the Barbary pirates, and saw the Muslims as both collaborators with the raiding overseas Muslims and competitors for jobs.
(Mudéjar is the name given to individual Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Iberia after the Christian Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity. It also denotes a style of Iberian architecture and decoration, particularly of Aragon and Castile, of the 12th to 16th centuries, strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship.)
1526 - After convening a council to examine the problem, King Charles I declares that the forced conversions of the Muslims of Valencia and Aragon were valid, because they could have chosen death rather than convert.
1568 - Rebellion of the Alpujarras. After King Philip II introduces laws prohibiting Moorish culture, the remaining population of Moors who had forcefully converted to Christianity in order to remain in Spain, then known as Moriscos, revolt under the leadership of Aben Humeya in Granada. The rebellion is suppressed, in 1571, by John of Austria, Philip II's half-brother, and the Moriscos are deported to different parts of the northern half of the Iberian peninsula.
1609 - Expulsion of the Moriscos - King Philip III issues the Act of Expulsion for the entire remaining Moriscos population, claiming that they appealed to the Ottoman Empire for military intervention in Spain. They are viewed by some as a fifth column trying to rebuild the Muslim state in the Peninsula.
]
[Timeline of the Jews in Spain:
Hispania came under Roman control with the fall of Carthage after the Second Punic War (218–202 BCE). Exactly how soon after this time Jews made their way onto the scene is a matter of speculation. It is within the realm of possibility that they went there under the Romans as free men to take advantage of its rich resources. These early arrivals would have been joined by those who had been enslaved by the Romans under Vespasian and Titus, and dispersed to the extreme west during the period of the Jewish-Roman War, and especially after the defeat of Judea in 70. One estimate places the number carried off to Spain at 80,000. (Graetz, p. 42). Subsequent immigrations came into the area along both the northern African and southern European sides of the Mediterranean. (Assis, p. 9.)
In their desire to consolidate the realm under the new religion, the Visigoths adopted an aggressive policy concerning the Jews. As the king and the church acted in a single interest, the situation for the Jews deteriorated. Recared approved the Third Council of Toledo's move in 589 to forcibly baptize the children of mixed marriages between Jews and Christians. Toledo III also forbade Jews from holding public office, from having intercourse with Christian women, and from performing circumcisions on slaves or Christians.
Sisebut instituted what was to become an unfortunate recurring phenomenon in Spanish official policy, in issuing the first edicts against the Jews of expulsion from Spain. Following his 613 decree that the Jews either convert or be expelled, some fled to Gaul and North Africa, while as many as 90,000 converted. Many of these conversos, as did those of later periods, maintained their Jewish identities in secret (Assis, p. 10). During the more tolerant reign of Suintila (621–631), however, most of the conversos returned to Judaism, and a number of the exiled returned to Spain (Encyclopaedica Judaica, p. 221.)
As demonstrated, under the Catholic Visigoths, the trend was clearly one of increasing persecutions. The degree of complicity which the Jews had in the Islamic invasion in 711 is uncertain. Yet, openly treated as enemies in the country in which they had resided for generations, it would be no surprise for them to have appealed to the Moors to the south
With the victory of Tariq ibn Ziyad in 711, the lives of the Sephardim changed dramatically. In spite of the stigma attached to being dhimmis (non-Muslim members of monotheistic faiths) under Muslim rule, the invasion of the Moors was by-and-large welcomed by the Jews of Iberia.
Both Muslim and Christian sources tell us that Jews provided valuable aid to the invaders.[6] Once captured, the defense of Córdoba was left in the hands of Jews, and Granada, Málaga, Seville, and Toledo were left to a mixed army of Jews and Moors. The Chronicle of Lucas de Tuy records that "when the Christians left Toledo on Sunday before Easter to go to the Church of the Holy Laodicea to listen to the divine sermon, the Jews acted treacherously and informed the Saracens.
Following initial Arab victories, and especially with the establishment of Umayyad rule by Abd-ar-Rahman I in 755, the native Jewish community was joined by Jews from the rest of Europe, as well as from Arab territories, from Morocco to Babylon (Assis, p. 12; Sarna, p. 324).
In the early 11th century, centralized authority based at Córdoba broke down following the Berber invasion and the ousting of the Umayyads. In its stead arose the independent taifa principalities under the rule of local Arab, Berber, or Slavic leaders.
The Granada massacre was one of the earliest signs of a decline in the status of Jews, which resulted largely from the penetration and influence of increasingly zealous Islamic sects from North Africa. In the Granada massacre of 1066 around 4,000 Jews were murdered. The Granada massacre was one of the earliest signs of a decline in the status of Jews, which resulted largely from the penetration and influence of increasingly zealous Islamic sects from North Africa
Following the fall of Toledo to Christians in 1085, the ruler of Seville sought relief from the Almoravides. This ascetic sect abhorred the liberality of the Islamic culture of al-Andalus, including the position of authority that some dhimmis held over Muslims. In addition to battling the Christians, who were gaining ground, the Almoravides implemented numerous reforms to bring al-Andalus more in line with their notion of proper Islam. In spite of large-scale forcible conversions, Sephardic culture was not entirely decimated. Members of Lucena's Jewish community, for example, managed to bribe their way out of conversion. As the spirit of Andalusian Islam was absorbed by the Almoravides, policies concerning Jews were relaxed. The poet Moses ibn Ezra continued to write during this time, and several Jews served as diplomats and physicians to the Almoravides
The Almohads, who had taken control of much of Islamic Iberia by 1172, far surpassed the Almoravides in fundamentalist outlook, and they treated the dhimmis harshly. Jews and Christians were expelled from Morocco and Islamic Spain. Faced with the choice of either death or conversion, many Jews emigrated
Meanwhile the Reconquista continued in the north. By the early 12th century, conditions for some Jews in the emerging Christian kingdoms became increasingly favorable. As had happened during the reconstruction of towns following the breakdown of authority under the Umayyads, the services of Jews were employed by the Christian leaders who were increasingly emerging victorious during the later Reconquista. Their knowledge of the language and culture of the enemy, their skills as diplomats and professionals, as well as their desire for relief from intolerable conditions, rendered their services of great value to the Christians during the Reconquista — the very same reasons that they had proved useful to the Arabs in the early stages of the Moslem invasion. The necessity to have conquerors settle in reclaimed territories also outweighed the prejudices of anti-Semitism, at least while the Moslem threat was imminent. Thus, as conditions in Islamic Iberia worsened, immigration to Christian principalities increased (Assis, p. 17).
The Jews from the Moslem south were not entirely secure in their northward migrations, however. Old prejudices were compounded by newer ones. Suspicions of complicity with the Moslems were alive and well as Jews immigrated from Moslem territories, speaking the Moslem tongue.
In many ways life had come full circle for the Sephardim of al-Andalus. As conditions became more oppressive in the areas under Muslim rule during the 12th and 13th centuries, Jews again looked to an outside culture for relief. Christian leaders of reconquered cities granted them extensive autonomy, and Jewish scholarship recovered and developed as communities grew in size and importance (Assis, p. 18).
Garcia Fernandez, Count of Castile, in the fuero of Castrojeriz (974), placed the Jews in many respects on an equality with Christians; and similar measures were adopted by the Council of Leon (1020), presided over by Alfonso V. In Leon, the metropolis of Christian Spain until the conquest of Toledo, many Jews owned real estate, and engaged in agriculture and viticulture as well as in the handicrafts; and here, as in other towns, they lived on friendly terms with the Christian population.
Alfonso VI, the conqueror of Toledo (1085), was tolerant and benevolent in his attitude toward the Jews, for which he won the praise of Pope Alexander II. To estrange the wealthy and industrious Jews from the Moors he offered the former various privileges. In the fuero of Najara Sepulveda, issued and confirmed by him (1076), he not only granted the Jews full equality with the Christians, but he even accorded them the rights enjoyed by the nobility.
To show their gratitude to the king for the rights granted them, the Jews willingly placed themselves at his and the country's service. Alfonso's army contained 40,000 Jews, who were distinguished from the other combatants by their black-and-yellow turbans
After the unfortunate Battle of Uclés, at which the Infante Sancho, together with 30,000 men, were killed, an anti-Jewish riot broke out in Toledo; many Jews were slain, and their houses and synagogues were burned (1108). Alfonso intended to punish the murderers and incendiaries, but died before he could carry out his intention (June, 1109). After his death the inhabitants of Carrion fell upon the Jews; many were slain, others were imprisoned, and their houses were pillaged.
Alfonso VII, who assumed the title of Emperor of Leon, Toledo, and Santiago, curtailed in the beginning of his reign the rights and liberties which his father had granted the Jews. He ordered that neither a Jew nor a convert might exercise legal authority over Christians, and he held the Jews responsible for the collection of the royal taxes. Soon, however, he became more friendly, confirming the Jews in all their former privileges and even granting them additional ones, by which they were placed on an equality with Christians
During the reign of Alfonso VIII the Jews gained still greater influence, aided, doubtless, by the king's love of the beautiful Rachel (Fermosa) of Toledo, who was Jewish. When the king was defeated at the battle of Alarcos by the Almohades under Yusuf Abu Ya'kub al-Mansur, the defeat was attributed to the king's love-affair with Fermosa, and she and her relatives were murdered in Toledo by the nobility. After the victory at Alarcos the emir Mohammed al-Nasir ravaged Castile with a powerful army and threatened to overrun the whole of Christian Spain. The Archbishop of Toledo called to crusade to aid Alfonso. In this war against the Moors the king was greatly aided by the wealthy Jews of Toledo, especially by his "almoxarife mayor", the learned and generous Nasi Joseph ben Solomon ibn Shoshan (Al-Hajib ibn Amar).
When, after the sanguinary battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), Alfonso victoriously entered Toledo, the Jews went to meet him in triumphal procession. Shortly before his death (Oct., 1214) the king issued the fuero de Cuenca, settling the legal position of the Jews in a manner favorable to them.
A turning-point in the history of the Jews of Spain was reached under Ferdinand III (who united permanently the kingdoms of Leon and Castile), and under James I, the contemporary ruler of Aragon. The clergy's endeavors directed against the Jews became more and more pronounced. The Spanish Jews of both sexes, like the Jews of France, were compelled to distinguish themselves from Christians by wearing a yellow badge on their clothing; this order was issued to keep them from associating with Christians, although the reason given was that it was ordered for their own safety.
The Jews in Spain were Spaniards, both as regards their customs and their language. They owned real estate, and they cultivated their land with their own hands; they filled public offices, and on account of their industry they became wealthy, while their knowledge and ability won them respect and influence.
The kings, especially those of Aragon, regarded the Jews as their property; they spoke of "their" Jews, "their" Juderias, and in their own interest they protected the Jews against violence, making good use of them in every way possible
There were about 120 Jewish communities in Christian Spain around 1300, with somewhere around half a million or more Jews, mostly in Castille. Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia were more sparsely inhabited by Jews.
The Jews of Spain formed in themselves a separate political body. They lived almost solely in the Juderias, various enactments being issued from time to time preventing them from living elsewhere. From the time of the Moors they had had their own administration.
Karaite Judaism dismissed the authority of Rabbinical Judaism's Babylonian Talmud, and were therefore considered heretics by Rabbinical Jews. "In twelfth-century Spain, Christian authorities supported the local Rabbanite community and helped the latter to expel the Karaites from Spain."
In the beginning of the fourteenth century the position of Jews became precarious throughout Spain as anti-Semitism increased. Many Jews emigrated from Castile and from Aragon
Peter I, the son and successor of Alfonso XI, was favorably disposed toward the Jews, who under him reached the zenith of their influence. For this reason the king was called "the heretic"
From the commencement of his reign he so surrounded himself with Jews that his enemies in derision spoke of his court as "a Jewish court". Soon, however a civil war erupted, as Henry de Trastamara and his brother, at the head of a mob, invaded (Sabbath, May 7, 1355) that part of the Juderia of Toledo called the Alcana; they plundered the warehouses and murdered about 12,000 persons, without distinction of age or sex. Peter was beheaded by Henry de Trastamara. "When Henry de Trastamara ascended the throne as Henry II there began for the Castilian Jews an era of suffering and intolerance, culminating in their expulsion. Prolonged warfare had devastated the land; the people had become accustomed to lawlessness, and the Jews had been reduced to poverty."
The execution of Joseph Pichon and the inflammatory speeches and sermons delivered in Seville by Archdeacon Ferrand Martinez, the pious Queen Leonora's confessor, soon raised the hatred of the populace to the highest pitch
The first anti-Jewish riots began in Seville in March 1391. It was on 6 June that the first great massacre occurred. Thousands of Jews were murdered and many were forced to accept baptism. Over the course of the year, the massacres would spread to all of Spain (though nothing of the kind happened in Portugal). These events inaugurated the beginning of the mass conversions as fear gripped the Jewish communities of Spain.
The year 1391 forms a turning-point in the history of the Spanish Jews. The persecution was the immediate forerunner of the Inquisition, which, ninety years later, was introduced as a means of watching the converted Jews.
As soon as the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella ascended their respective thrones, steps were taken to segregate the Jews both from the "conversos" and from their fellow countrymen. At the Cortes of Toledo, in 1480, all Jews were ordered to be separated in special "barrios", and at the Cortes of Fraga, two years later, the same law was enforced in Navarre, where they were ordered to be confined to the Jewries at night. The same year saw the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, the main object of which was to deal with the "conversos".
Alhambra Decree: Several months after the fall of Granada an Edict of Expulsion was issued against the Jews of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella (March 31, 1492). It ordered all Jews of whatever age to leave the kingdom by the last day of July.
The number of those who were thus driven from Spain has been differently estimated by various observers and historians. Juan de Mariana, in his history of Spain, claims as many as 800,000. Isidore Loeb, in a special study of the subject in the "Revue des Etudes Juives" (xiv. 162–183), reduces the actual number of emigrants to 165,000
Recent Y chromosome DNA testing conducted by the University of Leicester and the Pompeu Fabra University has indicated that around 20% of Spanish men today have direct patrilineal descent from Sephardic Jews, indicating that the number of conversos may have been much higher than originally thought
From the 13th to the 16th centuries, many European countries expelled the Jews from their territory in at least 15 occasions with Spain being in the middle of that sequence, having been preceded by England, France and Germany, among many others, and succeeded by at least five more expulsions. So Spain does not provide any exception to a tragic history of the life of Jews among Christian nations.
In this indirect way the non-conversos, who had been the occasion of the expulsion, became a nemesis to the Spanish kingdom. It is, however, incorrect to suppose, as is usually done, that the immediate results of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain were disastrous either to the commerce or to the power of the Iberian kingdom. So far from this being the case, Spain rose to its greatest height immediately after the expulsion of the Jews, the century succeeding that event culminating in the world-power of Philip II, who in 1580 was ruler of the New World, of the Spanish Netherlands, and of Portugal, as well as of Spain.
The intellectual loss was perhaps more direct. A large number of Spanish poets and other Jewish writers and thinkers who traced their origin from the exile were lost to Spain, including men like Michel de Montaigne, Spinoza, Uriel da Costa, etc...
]
Habsburg Spain
The Catholic Monarchs had developed a marriage politics aiming at isolating their traditional enemy: France. The Monarchs' children got married with the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg.
In 1504, Queen Isabella died, and although Ferdinand tried to maintain his position over Castile in the wake of her death, the Castilian Cortes Generales (the royal court of Spain) chose to crown Isabella's daughter Joanna queen. Her husband Philip was the Habsburg son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy and simultaneously became king-consort Philip I of Castile. On January 28, 1516 Ferdinand died, leaving Cardinal Cisneros as regent of Castile for Charles (afterward the son of Philip and Joanna, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor), then a youth of sixteen in the Netherlands. Though Cisneros at once took firm hold of the reins of government, and ruled in a determined and even autocratic manner, the turbulent Castilian nobility and the jealous intriguing Flemish councilors for Charles combined to render Cisneros' position peculiarly difficult. In violation of the laws, Cisneros acceded to Charles's desire to be proclaimed king; he secured the person of Charles's younger brother Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor; he fixed the seat of the courts at Madrid; and he established a standing army by drilling the citizens of the towns. In September 1517, Charles landed in the province of Asturias, and Cisneros hastened to meet him. On the way, however, he fell ill (not without a suspicion of poison). While thus enfeebled, he received a letter from Charles coldly thanking him for his services, and giving him leave to retire to his diocese. A few hours after this virtual dismissal (which some say the cardinal did not have time to learn about) Cardinal Cisneros died at Roa, on 8 November 1517.
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| Cisneros (sitting) visits the construction of the Hospital of the Charity. Sanctuary of the Charity of Illescas (Toledo) by Alejandro Ferrant (1844–1917) |
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| Kingdom of Charles I of Spain |
Charles is also known for his role in opposing the Protestant Reformation. In addition to the German Peasants' War against the Empire, several German princes abandoned the Catholic Church and formed the Schmalkaldic League in order to challenge Charles' authority with military force. Unwilling to allow the same religious wars to come to his other domains, Charles pushed for the convocation of the Council of Trent, which began the Counter-Reformation.
The Society of Jesus was established by Spanish Basque St. Ignacio de Loyola during Charles' reign in order to peacefully and intellectually combat Protestantism, and continental Spain was spared from religious conflict largely by Charles' nonviolent measures. St. Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the reform of the Church had to begin with the conversion of an individual's heart. One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring about this conversion has been the Ignatian retreat, called the Spiritual Exercises. During a four-week period of silence, individuals undergo a series of directed meditations on the life of Chris. Ignatius' innovation was to make this style of contemplative mysticism available to all people in active life. The Jesuits’ contributions to the late Renaissance were significant in their roles both as a missionary order and as the first religious order to operate colleges and universities as a principal and distinct ministry. The Jesuit schools played an important part in winning back to Catholicism a number of European countries which had for a time been predominantly Protestant, notably Poland and Lithuania. Today, Jesuit colleges and universities are located in over one hundred nations around the world. Under the notion that God can be encountered through created things and especially art. Perhaps as a result of this appreciation for art, coupled with their spiritual practice of "finding God in all things", many early Jesuits distinguished themselves in the visual and performing arts as well as in music. Francis Xavier, one of the original companions of Loyola, arrived in Goa, in Western India, in 1541 to consider evangelical service in the Indies. He died in China after a decade of evangelism in Southern India. Two Jesuit missionaries, Johann Grueber and Albert Dorville, reached Lhasa in Tibet in 1661
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| Francis Xavier |
In Germany, although the Protestants were personally defeated by Charles at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, he legalized Lutheranism within the Holy Roman Empire with the Peace of Augsburg. Charles also maintained his alliance with Henry VIII of England, despite the latter splitting the Church of England from Rome and violently persecuting Catholics.
Charles fought continually with the Ottoman Empire and its sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. The expeditions of the Ottoman force along the Mediterranean coast posed a threat to Habsburg lands and monopolies on trade in the Mediterranean. In Central Europe, the Turkish advance was halted at Vienna in 1529.
The enormous budget deficit accumulated during Charles' reign resulted in Spain declaring bankruptcy during the reign of his successor, Philip II.
During Charles' reign, the territories in New Spain were considerably extended by conquistadores like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, who caused the Aztec and Inca empires to fall in little more than a decade. Mexican territory was conquered by Hernán Cortés in 1519. In 1532 the Inca Empire was conquered by Francisco Pizarro, whose men kidnapped Emperor Atahualpa in exchange for a ransom of gold and silver; once the ransom was paid, however, Atahualpa was murdered.
(see also the blog history-of-mesoamerica for more details of Cortés conquest)
Spain passed some laws for the protection of the indigenous peoples of its American colonies, the first such in 1542; the legal thought behind them was the basis of modern international law:
Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the capture and subjugation of local Indigenous peoples of the Americas, first of the Native Caribbean people by Columbus on his four voyages. Initially, enslavement represented one means by which the Columbus and other Castilians (Spaniards) mobilized native labor and met production quotas. Unlike the Portuguese Crown's support for the slave trade, los Reyes Católicos opposed the introduction of slavery to Castile and Aragon on religious grounds. When Columbus returned with slaves, they ordered many of the survivors to be returned to their Caribbean homelands. The papal bull Sublimus Dei of 1537, to which Spain was committed, also officially banned slavery, but it was rescinded a year after its promulgation. But, the Spanish used other forms of coerced labor in their colonies, such as the Indian Reductions method, the encomienda system, repartimiento, and the mita.
After the issuing of the 1542 New Laws, the Spanish greatly restricted the power of the encomienda system. The statutes of 1573, within the "Ordinances Concerning Discoveries," forbade certain kinds of slavery and regulated treatment of the local population. It required appointment of a "protector de indios", an ecclesiastical representative who acted as the protector of the Indians and represented them in formal litigation. These laws however did not change the practice of encomienda and mita forced labor.
Much of Charles's reign was taken up by conflicts with France, which found itself encircled by Charles's empire while it still maintained ambitions in Italy. The first war with Charles's great nemesis Francis I of France began in 1521. Charles allied with England and Pope Leo X against the French and the Venetians, and was highly successful, driving the French out of Milan and defeating and capturing Francis at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. When he was released, however, Francis had the Parliament of Paris denounce the treaty because it had been signed under duress. France then joined the League of Cognac that the Pope had formed with Henry VIII of England, the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Milanese to resist imperial domination of Italy. Charles's victory at the Battle of Pavia (1525) surprised many Italians and Germans and elicited concerns that Charles would endeavor to gain even greater power.
In 1527, due to Charles' inability to pay his army forces sufficiently, they mutinied and sacked Rome itself for loot, forcing Clement, and succeeding popes, to be considerably more prudent in their dealings with secular authorities.In the ensuing war: Charles's sack of Rome (6 May 1527) and virtual imprisonment of Pope Clement VII in 1527 prevented him from annulling the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Charles's aunt Catherine of Aragon, with important consequences.
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| The Sack of Rome, illustration done by a soldier |
The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeats at Biccoca (1522), Pavia (1525), at which Francis was captured), and Landriano (1529) before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain once more.
Since Emperor Charles I of Spain, the different armies used the flag with the Cross of Burgundy (It represents the cross on which Saint Andrew was crucified. It was chosen by Philip the Handsome of Burgundy after his marriage to Joanna of Castile) over different fields, first incorporated to the uniforms of the Archers of Burgundy and later to the rest of the army, painted on the dresses to distinguish themselves in combat. It soon appeared also on the flags that, up to present-day, wear the regiments of Spain.
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| Cross of Burgundy |
[Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Achaea, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese. Early texts, such as the Acts of Andrew known to Gregory of Tours, describe Andrew as bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Jesus is said to have been crucified; yet a tradition developed that Andrew had been crucified on a cross of the form called Crux decussata (X-shaped cross, or "saltire"), now commonly known as a "Saint Andrew's Cross" — supposedly at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus had been (though of course, the privilege of choosing one's own method of execution is a rare privilege, indeed). The flag of Scotland (and consequently the Union Flag which also features on the flags of Australia, New Zealand and the arms and flag of Nova Scotia) feature St Andrew's saltire cross. The Flag of Alabama and The Flag of Florida uses a modified representation of the Spanish Cross of Burgundy (based on the St. Andrew's cross).
The coat of arms of Amsterdam is composed of several historical elements. First and centre are three St Andrew's crosses, aligned in a vertical band on the city's shield (although Amsterdam's patron saint was Saint Nicholas)
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Both the Cross of Burgundy and the blazon of the Catholic Monarchs were the first European symbols to arrive to the New World.
Charles suffered from an enlarged lower jaw, a deformity which got considerably worse in later Habsburg generations, giving rise to the term Habsburg jaw. This deformity was caused by the family line's multiple years of inbreeding, which was very common in royal families of that era and was practiced in order to maintain dynastic control of territory. He struggled to chew his food properly and consequently experienced bad indigestion for much of his life. As a result, he usually ate alone
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| Charles I |
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| Francis Borgia |
"Primus circumdedisti me": First to complete the circumnavigation of the world. This was the title that Juan Sebastian Elcano received by Charles I. Juan Sebastián Elcano(1486, Getaria, Gipuzkoa, Spain — 4 August 1526, Pacific Ocean) was a Basque Spanish explorer who completed the first circumnavigation of the world.
Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean (then named "peaceful sea" by Magellan; the passage being made via the Strait of Magellan), and the first to cross the Pacific. It also completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, although Magellan himself did not complete the entire voyage, being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines:
The fleet provided by King Charles V included five ships and a crew of around 237 people. On August 10, 1519, the five ships left Sevilla. As Brazil was Portuguese territory, Magellan avoided it and on December 13 anchored near present-day Rio de Janeiro. On 30 March the crew established a settlement they called Puerto San Julian (Argentina). On April 2 a mutiny involving two of the five ship captains broke out, but it was unsuccessful because most of the crew remained loyal. Juan Sebastián Elcano was one of those who were forgiven. On October 21 the fleet reached Cape Virgenes and concluded they had found the passage, because the waters were brine and deep inland. Four ships began an arduous trip through the 373-mile (600 km) long passage that Magellan called the Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos, ("All Saints' Channel"), because the fleet travelled through it on November 1 or All Saints' Day. The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan because Magellan was the first European to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait. Heading northwest, the crew reached the equator on February 13, 1521. On 6 March they reached the Marianas and Guam. Magellan called Guam the "Island of Sails" because they saw a lot of sailboats. They renamed it to "Ladrones Island" (Island of Thieves) because many of Trinidad's small boats were stolen there.
On April the expidition reached the Philipines and Cebu, one of the provinces of the islands.Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly towards Magellan and the Spaniards, both he and his queen Hara Amihan were baptized as Christians. Afterward, Rajah Humabon and his ally Datu Zula convinced Magellan to kill their enemy, Datu Lapu-Lapu, on Mactan. Magellan had wished to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity, as he had Humabon, a proposal of which Lapu-Lapu was dismissive. On the morning of April 27, 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small attack force. During the resulting battle against Lapu-Lapu's troops, Magellan was hit by a bamboo spear and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons.
The Spaniards offered the natives merchandise in exchange for Magellan's body, but they were declined and so his body was never recovered.
The casualties suffered in the Philippines left the expedition with too few men to sail all three of the remaining ships. Consequently, on May 2 they abandoned and burned one of the ship. The fleet was reduced to Trinidad and Victoria.
After reaching the Maluku Islands (the Spice Islands in Indonesia) on November 6, 115 crew were left. They managed to trade with the Sultan of Tidore, a rival of the Sultan of Ternate, who was the ally of the Portuguese. However, as they left the Spice Islands, the Trinidad began to take on water. The crew tried to discover and repair the leak, but failed. Eventually Trinidad was captured by the Portuguese, and was eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control.
Victoria set sail via the Indian Ocean route home on December 21, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. By May 6 the Victoria rounded the Cape of Good Hope, with only rice for rations. Twenty crewmen died of starvation before Elcano put into Cape Verde, a Portuguese holding, where he abandoned 13 more crew on July 9 in fear of losing his cargo of 26 tons of spices (cloves and cinnamon).
On September 6, 1522, Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's voyage arrived in Spain aboard the last ship in the fleet, Victoria, almost exactly three years after they departed. Magellan had not intended to circumnavigate the world, only to find a secure way through which the Spanish ships could navigate to the Spice Islands; it was Elcano who, after Magellan's death, decided to push westward, thereby completing the first voyage around the entire Earth.
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| Elcano journey |
Four crewmen of the original 55 on Trinidad finally returned to Spain in 1525, 51 of them had died in war or from disease. In total, approximately 232 Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, English and German sailors died on the expedition around the world with Magellan. When Victoria, the one surviving ship, returned to the harbor of departure after completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth, only 18 men out of the original 237 men were on board. Martino de Judicibus (Spanish: Martín de Judicibus) was a Genoese or Savonese Chief Steward. His history is preserved in the nominative registers at the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain.
The need for an International Date Line was established. Upon returning they found their date was a day behind, even though they had faithfully maintained the ship's log. They lost one day because they traveled west during their circumnavigation of the globe, opposite to Earth's daily rotation
The course that Magellan charted was followed by other navigators, like Sir Francis Drake, and the Manila-Acapulco route was discovered by Andrés de Urdaneta in 1565. Urdaneta was one of the few survivors of Loaísa Expedition to reach the Spice Islands, just to be taken prisoner by the Portuguese, but eventually he managed to be the first one to return to Europe in 1528, achieving the second world circumnavigation in history after an expedition which lasted nine years: García Jofre de Loaísa (1490 – 1526) was a 16th century Spanish explorer ordered by king Charles I of Spain to command an expedition to Asia, known as the Loaísa expedition, which in 1525 was sent by the western route to colonize the Spice Islands in the East Indies, thus crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 450 men were aboard.
In 1525, Elcano went back to sea, and became a member of the Loaísa Expedition. He was appointed leader along with García Jofre de Loaísa as captains, who commanded seven ships and sent to claim the East Indies for King Charles I of Spain. Both Elcano and Loaísa and many other sailors died of malnutrition in the Pacific Ocean, but the survivors reached their destination and a few of them managed to return to Spain, completing the second world circumnavigation in history.
A side effect of the religious turmoil was Charles' decision to abdicate in 1555 and divide Habsburg territory into two sections. His brother Ferdinand ruled the Austrian lands succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor, and Charles' fervently Catholic son, Philip II, became administrator of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, parts of Italy, and other overseas holdings. Philip was responsible for initiating protracted wars with England and the Dutch, which ultimately crippled Spain and gave the Protestant movement new life.
Europa regina map, associated with a Habsburg-dominated Europe under Charles V:
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| Europa regina map |
Philip II
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| Philip II |
Despite its immense dominions, Spain was a poor country with a sparse population that yielded a limited income to the crown. Philip faced major difficulties in raising taxes, the collection of which was largely farmed out to local lords. He was able to finance his military campaigns only by taxing and exploiting the local resources of his empire. The flow of income from the New World proved vital to his militant foreign policy, but nonetheless his exchequer several times faced bankruptcy.
Calls to move the capital to Lisbon from the Castilian stronghold of Madrid — the new capital Philip established following the move from Valladolid — could have led to a degree of decentralization, but Philip opposed such efforts.
The Battle of Saint-Quentin of 1557 was fought during the Franco-Habsburg War (1551–1559). The Spanish, who had regained the support of the English, won a significant victory over the French at Saint-Quentin, in northern France. The French forces under Constable de Montmorency were overwhelmed and Montmorency was captured by the Spanish forces. The greatest impact of this battle was not on France, England or Spain, but on Italy. Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, having won the victory, had also secured a place at the conference table when the terms of peace were deliberated, Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, 1558. The duke was able to secure the independence of the Duchy of Savoy, which had been occupied by the French a generation earlier. King Philip II of Spain, cousin of the Duke of Savoy, would marry Henry II's daughter Elizabeth of Valois, who first was promised to Philip's son Don Carlos. To celebrate the departure of his daughter Elisabeth to Spain, Henry II held a joust in July 1559. During the tournament, he was accidentally mortally wounded by Gabriel Montgomery, comte de Montgomery, seigneur de Lorges.
In 1558 Turkish admiral Piyale Pasha captured the Balearic Islands, especially inflicting great damage on Minorca and enslaving many, while raiding the coasts of the Spanish mainland. Philip appealed to the Pope and other powers in Europe to bring an end to the rising Ottoman threat. Since his father's losses against the Ottomans and against Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha in 1541, the major European sea powers in the Mediterranean, namely Spain and Venice, became hesitant in confronting the Ottomans. The myth of "Turkish invincibility" was becoming a popular story, causing fear and panic among the people. In 1565, the Spanish defeated an Ottoman landing on the strategic island of Malta, defended by the Knights of St. John. Suleiman the Magnificent's death the following year and his succession by his less capable son Selim the Sot emboldened Philip, and he resolved to carry the war to the sultan himself.
In 1571, Spanish and Venetian warships, joined by volunteers across Europe, led by Charles's illegitimate son Don John of Austria and other commanders as Álvaro de Bazán annihilated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, in what is perhaps the most decisive battle in modern naval history. The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Spain (including its territories of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia), the Republic of Venice, the Papacy, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Knights Hospitaller and others, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire. The Holy League's fleet consisted of 206 galleys and 6 galleasses (large new galleys, invented by the Venetians, which carried substantial artillery) and was commanded by John of Austria, the illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V and half brother of King Philip II of Spain.
(Born as Jeromin, he didn’t know he was son of Charles until 1559 when Philip appeared, told Jeromín to make proper obeisance to his king. When Jeromín did so, Philip asked him if he knew the identity of his father. When the boy did not know, Philip embraced him and explained that they had the same father and thus were brothers. He would ever after address him as "mi muy querido y amado hermano" (my very dear and beloved brother). Philip renamed him Juan (John), after a brother who died in infancy)
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| Introduction of John of Austria to Charles V in Yuste. Painted by Eduardo Rosales |
Uluç Ali, commanded an Ottoman force of 222 war galleys, 56 galliots, and some smaller vessels. Around noon the battle commenced. The cannonade of the galleasses disrupted the Turkish formations as they pressed to the attack, and the bigger and more numerous guns of the Christian allies did devastating damage as the Turkish right and center closed to board. In the seesaw fighting on decks, the allies prevailed. Among their wounded was Miguel de Cervantes, who would later in Don Quixote describe combat aboard galleys and call Lepanto the greatest occasion known to the centuries, past, present and future. The engagement was a significant defeat for the Ottomans, who had not lost a major naval battle since the fifteenth century.Some Western historians have held it to be the most decisive naval battle anywhere on the globe since the Battle of Actium of 31 BC. The Empire lost all but 30 of its ships and as many as 30,000 men. The loss of so many of its experienced sailors at Lepanto sapped the fighting effectiveness of the Ottoman navy, a fact emphasized by their avoidance of major confrontations with Christian navies in the years following the battle. After the battle of Lepanto approximately 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Turks.
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| Battle of Lepanto by Andries van Eertvelt |
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| The tomb of Don Juan of Austria, hero of Lepanto, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial |
In 1569, the Morisco Revolt broke out in the southern province of Granada in defiance of attempts to suppress Moorish customs; and Philip ordered the expulsion of the Moriscos from Granada and their dispersal to other provinces.
Philip was married four times and had children with three of his wives. Even so, most of his children died young.
Philip's second wife was his first cousin once removed, Queen Mary I of England. The 1554 marriage to Mary was political. By this marriage, Philip became jure uxoris King of England, although the couple was apart more than together as they ruled their respective countries. The marriage produced no children and Mary died in 1558.
Upon Mary's death, the throne went to Elizabeth I. Philip had no wish to sever his tie with England, and had sent a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth. However, she delayed in answering, and in that time learned Philip was also considering a Valois princess who ultimately he married.
For many years Philip maintained peace with England, and had even defended Elizabeth from the Pope's threat of excommunication. This was a measure taken to preserve a European balance of power. Ultimately, Elizabeth allied England with the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands. Further, English ships began a policy of piracy against Spanish trade and threatened to plunder the great Spanish treasure ships coming from the new world. English ships went so far as to attack a Spanish port. The last straw for Philip was the Treaty of Nonsuch signed with the Dutch by Elizabeth in 1585 - promising troops and supplies to the rebels. Although it can be argued this English action was the result of Philip's Treaty of Joinville with the Catholic League of France, Philip considered it an act of war by England. Seeing the Protestant cause as central to her survival, Elizabeth provided assistance to the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion and in the Dutch Revolt against Spain. This started the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) which was never formally declared
Philip and the Catholic Church considered Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic cousin of Elizabeth's, to be the rightful Queen of England. In 1567, Mary was imprisoned and forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favor of her infant son, James. Thereafter she fled to England, where Elizabeth had her imprisoned. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 ended Philip's hopes of placing a Catholic on the English throne. He turned instead to more direct plans to invade England, with vague plans to return the country to Catholicism.
Philip II planned an invasion of England, but in April 1587 his preparations suffered a setback when Drake burned 37 Spanish ships in harbour at Cádiz. In 1588, he sent a fleet of 130 ships, the Spanish Armada, to rendezvous with the Duke of Parma's army and convey it across the English Channel. However, the operation had little chance of success from the beginning, because of lengthy delays, lack of communication between Philip II and his two commanders and the lack of a deep bay for the fleet. There was a tightly fought battle against the English navy; it was by no means a slaughter, but the Spanish were forced into a disastrous retreat.
The intention would have been to keep well to the west of the coast of Scotland and Ireland, in the relative safety of the open sea. However, there being at that time no way of accurately measuring longitude, the Spanish were not aware that the Gulf Stream was carrying them north and east as they tried to move west, and they eventually turned south much further to the east than planned, a devastating navigational error. Off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland the fleet ran into a series of powerful westerly gales, which drove many of the damaged ships further towards the lee shore. Because so many anchors had been abandoned during the escape from the English fireships off Calais, many of the ships were incapable of securing shelter as they reached the coast of Ireland and were driven onto the rocks. The late 16th century, and especially 1588, were marked by unusually strong North Atlantic storms, perhaps associated with a high accumulation of polar ice off the coast of Greenland, a characteristic phenomenon of the "Little Ice Age." As a result many more ships and sailors were lost to cold and stormy weather than in combat. In the end, 67 ships and around 10,000 men survived, dying 5000.
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| Spanish Armada 1588 |
A measure of the character of Philip can be gathered by the fact that he personally saw to it that the wounded men of the Armada were treated and received pensions, and that the families of those who died were compensated for their loss, which was highly unusual for the time.
While the invasion had been averted, England was unable to take advantage of this success. An attempt to use her newfound advantage at sea with a counter armada the following year failed disastrously. A smaller "English Armada" under the command of Drake and Sir John Norreys was dispatched in 1589 to torch the Spanish Atlantic navy, which had largely survived the Armada adventure, and was refitting in Santander, Corunna and San Sebastián in northern Spain. The English Armada was doomed from the start and was a complete failure, the invading force was repelled with heavy casualties on the English side and failed to take Lisbon. Sickness then struck the expedition, and finally a portion of the fleet led by Drake towards the Azores was scattered in a storm. In the end, Elizabeth sustained a severe loss to her treasury, for she had been compelled into a joint venture in order to finance the expedition, and was first among the stockholders.
In 1595, the Nine Years War in Ireland had begun, when Ulster lords Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell rose up against English rule with fitful Spanish support, mirroring the English support of the Dutch rebellion.
Both Drake and Hawkins died of disease during a naval expedition against Puerto Rico, Panama, and other targets in the Spanish Main in 1595–1596, a severe setback in which the English suffered heavy losses in soldiers and ships.
In 1596, an Anglo-Dutch expedition managed to sack Cádiz, causing significant loss to the Spanish fleet, and leaving the city in ruins. But the Spanish commander had been allowed the opportunity to torch the treasure ships in port, and 12 million ducats went to the bottom, where it was recovered later by the Spanish, leaving the raiders empty handed.
Eventually, three more Armadas were assembled; two were sent to England in 1596 and 1597, but both also failed; the third (1599) was diverted to the Azores and Canary Islands to fend off raids. This Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) would be fought to a grinding end, but not until both Philip II (d. 1598) and Elizabeth I (d. 1603) were dead. When James I came to the English throne, his first order of business was to negotiate a peace with Philip III of Spain, which was concluded in the Treaty of London, 1604.
From 1590 to 1598, Philip was also at war against Henry IV of France, joining with the Papacy and the Duke of Guise in the Catholic League during the French Wars of Religion. Philip's interventions in the fighting - sending Alessandro Farnese, to end Henry IV's siege of Paris in 1590 – and the siege of Rouen in 1592 - saving the French Catholic Leagues's cause against a Protestant French monarchy. In 1593, Henry agreed to convert to Catholicism; weary of war, most French Catholics switched to his side against the hardline core of the Catholic League, who were portrayed by Henry's propagandists as puppets of a foreign monarch, Philip. In 1598, France and Spain finally signed the Peace of Vervins, ending the last of the Wars of Religion and Spanish intervention with it. Spanish support helped the French Catholic League force Henry IV to convert to Catholicism, ensuring that France would remain Catholic - a major success for the Counter-Reformation.
In 1566, Calvinist-led riots in the Netherlands prompted the Duke of Alba to march into the country to restore order. In 1568, William of Orange, better known as William the Silent, led a failed attempt to drive Alva from the Netherlands. These battles are generally considered to signal the start of the Eighty Years' War that ended with the independence of the United Provinces. William led the Dutch to several successes in the fight against the Spanish. William soon became one of the most prominent members of the opposition in the Council of State. They were mainly seeking more political power, for themselves against the de facto government of Count Berlaymont, Granvelle and Viglius of Aytta, but also for the Dutch nobility and, ostensibly, for the Estates, and complained that too many Spaniards were involved in governing the Netherlands. William was also dissatisfied with the increasing persecution of Protestants in the Netherlands. One of his most important claims, with which he attempted to justify his actions, was that he was not fighting the rightful owner of the land, the Spanish king, but only the inadequate rule of the foreign governors in the Netherlands, and the presence of foreign soldiers. Declared an outlaw by the Spanish king in 1580, he was assassinated by Balthasar Gérard (also written as 'Gerardts') in Delft four years later.
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| William the Silent assassination |
Philip's reign saw a flourishing of cultural excellence in Spain, the beginning of what is called the Golden Age, creating a lasting legacy in literature, music, and the visual arts. The Habsburgs, both in Spain and Austria, were great patrons of art in their countries. El Escorial, the great royal monastery built by King Philip II of Spain, invited the attention of some of Europe's greatest architects and painters.
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| View of Toledo is one of the two surviving landscapes of Toledo painted by Greek-Spanish painter El Greco in the Golden Age of Spain |
The School of Salamanca flourished under his reign. Martín de Azpilcueta, highly honoured at Rome by several popes, and looked on as an oracle of learning, published his Manuale sive Enchiridion Confessariorum et Poenitentium (Rome, 1568), long a classical text in the schools and in ecclesiastical practice. Francisco Suárez (Granada 1548-Lisbon 1617), generally regarded as the greatest scholastic after Thomas Aquinas and regarded during his lifetime as being the greatest living philosopher and theologian, was writing and lecturing, not only in Spain but also in Rome (1680–1685), where Pope Gregory XIII attended the first lecture that he gave.
The juridical doctrine of the School of Salamanca represented the end of medieval concepts of law, with a revindication of liberty not habitual in Europe of that time. The natural rights of man came to be, in one form or another, the center of attention, including rights as a corporeal being (right to life, economic rights such as the right to own property) and spiritual rights (the right to freedom of thought and to human dignity).
The School of Salamanca reformulated the concept of natural law: law originating in nature itself, with all that exists in the natural order sharing in this law. Their conclusion was, given that all humans share the same nature, they also share the same rights to life and liberty. Such views constituted a novelty in European thought and went counter to those then predominant in Spain and Europe that people indigenous to the Americas had no such rights.
Philip II's reign can hardly be characterized by its failures. He ended French Valois ambitions in Italy and brought about the Habsburg ascendency in Europe. He commenced settlements in the Philippines, which were named after him, and established the first trans-Pacific trade route between America and Asia. He secured the Portuguese kingdom and empire. He succeeded in massively increasing the importation of silver in the face of English, Dutch, and French privateers, overcoming multiple financial crises and consolidating Spain's overseas empire. Although clashes would be ongoing, he ended the major threat posed to Europe by the Ottoman navy. He dealt successfully with a crisis that threatened to lead to the secession of Aragon. Finally, his efforts contributed substantially to the long-term success of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in checking the religious tide of Protestantism in Europe. Philip was an austere and intelligent statesman. He was given to suspicion of members of his court, and was something of a meddlesome manager; but he was not the cruel tyrant painted by his opponents and subsequent Anglophile histories. He took great care in administering his dominions, and was known to intervene personally on behalf of the humblest of his subjects
Increasingly the country became dependent on the revenues flowing in from the mercantile empire in the Americas, leading to Spain's first bankruptcy (moratorium) in 1557 due to rising military costs. Dependence on sales taxes from Castile and the Netherlands, Spain's tax base, was too narrow to support Philip's plans. Philip became increasingly dependent on loans from foreign bankers, particularly in Genoa and Augsburg. By the end of his reign, interest payments on these loans alone accounted for 40% of state revenue.
The Council of Trent (Latin: Concilium Tridentinum) was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent (then capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Trent, in the Holy Roman Empire, now in modern Italy) between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods. The Council of Trent, delayed and interrupted several times because of political or religious disagreements, was a major reform council and the most impressive embodiment of the ideals of the Counter-Reformation.It would be over 300 years until the next Ecumenical Council. When announcing Vatican II, Pope John XXIII stated that the precepts of the Council of Trent continue to the modern day, a position that was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI. Justification (sixth session) was declared to be offered upon the basis of faith and good works as opposed to the Protestant doctrine of faith alone, and faith was treated as a progressive work. The idea of man being utterly passive under the influence of grace was also rejected. Measure were introduced in this Council, including regulation of the issuing of indulgences to prevent their sale. Diocesan seminaries were created to provide better training for priests, and disciplinary structures were formed to handle wrongdoers.
Philip III
Although considered to be a congenial and pious ruler, Philip's political reputation has been negative - an 'undistinguished and insignificant man,' a 'miserable monarch,' whose 'only virtue appeared to reside in a total absence of vice,' to quote three major historians of the period. In particular, Philip's reliance on his corrupt chief minister the Duke of Lerma drew much criticism at the time and afterwards. For many, the decline of Spain can be dated to the economic difficulties that set in during the early years of his reign.
Philip first met the Marquis of Denia - the future Duke of Lerma - then, a gentleman of the King's chamber, in his early teens.Lerma and Philip became close friends, but Lerma was considered unsuitable by the King and Philip's tutors. Lerma was dispatched to Valencia as a Viceroy in 1595, with the aim of removing Philip from his influence,but after Lerma pleaded poor health, he was allowed to return two years later.Within a few hours of Philip ascending to the throne, Lerma had been made a royal counsellor by the new king and set about establishing himself as a fully fledged valido, or royal favourite.Lerma, in due course declared a duke, positioned himself as the gateway to the king. All the business of government, Philip instructed, was to arrive in writing and be channeled through Lerma before reaching him. This new system of government became increasingly unpopular very quickly. The novel idea of a valido exercising power went against the long-standing popular conception that the king should exercise his powers personally, not through another.
From 1612 onwards, and certainly by 1617, the Lerma administration was crumbling. The monopoly of power in the hands of the Lerma's Sandoval family had generated numerous enemies; Lerma's personal enrichment in office had become a scandal; Lerma's extravagant spending and personal debts was beginning to alarm his own son.
As chief minister Lerma's ideas of foreign policy were firmly grounded in feudal ideas about royal patrimony. He cemented Spanish rule by many marriage alliances with the Austrian Habsburgs and then with the French Bourbons.
Though in 1607 the monarchy declared itself bankrupt, Lerma carried out the ruinous measures for the expulsion of the Moriscos, Moors who had converted to Christianity, from 1609–14, a decision affecting over 300,000 people. A policy motivated by religious and political considerations, in which no economic consideration played a part, the expulsion secured him the admiration of the clergy and was popular with the mass of the nation. It also provided a short-term boost to the royal treasury from the impounded property of the Moors, but would ruin the economy of Valencia for generations.
In the end, Lerma was deposed by a palace intrigue carried out by his own son, Cristóbal de Sandoval, Duke of Uceda, manipulated by Olivares.
When Lerma fell from power in 1618, his status as cardinal (which he had acquired for exactly this purpose 6 months earlier) give him immunity from prosecution by his numerous enemies, who instead turned on Lerma's trusted and unscrupulous secretary, Rodrigo Calderón (d. 1621), who as Lerma's agent was made a scapegoat. Calderón was tortured and executed on trumped up charges of witchcraft and other crimes, which demonstrated what would likely have been Lerma's fate, if a cardinal's hat hadn't protected his head.
Under the reign of Philip IV, which began in 1621, Lerma was despoiled of part of his wealth. The cardinal was sentenced, on August 3, 1624, to return to the state over a million ducates. Lerma died in 1625 at Valladolid.
In the final years of Philip's reign, Spain entered the initial part of the conflict which would become known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48). By the Oñate treaty of 29 July 1617, Ferdinand made a successful appeal to Philip's self interest by promising Spain the Habsburg lands in Alsace in return for Spanish support for his election
Philip IV
Philip IV was born in Valladolid, and was the eldest son of Philip III and his wife Margaret of Austria. Aged ten, he was married to Isabella of France in 1615, although the relationship does not appear to have always been close.
Philip had seven children, but only one son, through Isabella, Baltasar Carlos who died young at the age of sixteen in 1646. The death of his son deeply shocked the king
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| Daughters of the king and the king Philip IV in Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez |
Philip remarried in 1646, following the deaths of both Queen Isabella and his only legitimate heir. His choice of his second wife, Maria Anna, known as Mariana of Austria, Philip's niece and the daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand, was guided by politics and Philip's desire to strengthen the relationship with Habsburg Austria. Maria Anna had six pregnancies, but only successfully gave birth to one girl and, after her first son Philip died young, finally to the future Charles II of Spain in 1661. Philip had numerous affairs, particularly with actresses, the most famous of these being his actress-mistress María Inés Calderón (La Calderona), with whom he had a son in 1629, Juan José, who was brought up as a royal prince
Philip IV came to power as the power of the Sandovals was being undermined by a new noble coalition, led by Don Baltasar de Zúñiga. De Zúñiga regarded it as essential that the Sandovals were unable to gain an influence over the future king; de Zúñiga first began to develop his own influence over Prince Philip, and then introduced his nephew, Olivares, to the prince, then aged ten; At first, Philip did not particularly take to Olivares.Over the course of at least a year, however, the relationship became very close, with Philip's tendency towards underconfidence and diffidence counteracted by Olivares' drive and determination.
As prime minister from 1621 to 1643, Olivares, he over-exerted Spain in foreign affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policies of committing Spain to recapture Holland led to his major involvement in the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) and his attempts to centralise power and increase wartime taxation led to revolts in Catalonia and Portugal which brought about his fall. For the remainder of the Thirty Years War, Olivares would pursue a 'Netherlands first' strategy, focusing his resources and attention on delivering success in the Netherlands first, with the hope of dealing with the other challenges facing the Spanish across Europe once this key Spanish possession had been secured. For the first fifteen years of the war, this strategy proved largely successful. Spain made considerable early advances against the Dutch, finally retaking the key city of Breda in 1624, albeit at huge expense.
The Surrender of Breda by Diego Velazquez, one of the best Spanish painters
By 1639, Olivares was attempting to convince the king to compromise with French but without success; he considered making a separate peace with the Dutch, which would have freed up resources for the war on France, but the Dutch occupation of Brazil and the Portuguese opposition to any peace involving relinquishing their colony made this impossible. The destruction of the Spanish Altantic fleet by the Dutch at the Battle of the Downs was another major blow, leaving a cash-strapped Spain unable to build a replacement force.By 1640, Olivares' foreign policy was creaking badly under pressure from an increasingly powerful France, with money increasingly tight. France entered the Thirty Years' War after the Spanish Habsburg victories in the Dutch Revolt in the 1620s and at the Battle of Nördlingen against Sweden in 1634.
The 30 years war was initially fought largely as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, although disputes over the internal politics and balance of power within the Empire played a significant part. Gradually, the war developed into a more general conflict involving most of the European powers. In this general phase, the war became more a continuation of the Bourbon–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, and in turn led to further warfare between France and the Habsburg powers, and less specifically about religion. Great was the devastation brought about by the war that estimates put the reduction of population in the German states at about 15% to 30%. Much of the destruction of civilian lives and property was caused by the cruelty and greed of mercenary soldiers, many of whom were rich commanders and poor soldiers. One result of the war was the division of Germany into many territories — all of which, despite their membership in the Empire, won de facto sovereignty. This limited the power of the Holy Roman Empire and decentralized German power.
The level of taxation in many of the more peripheral provinces was less than in Castile, but the privileged position of the Castilian nobility at all senior levels of royal appointment was a contentious issue for the less favoured provinces. This loose system had successfully resisted reform and higher taxation before, ironically resulting in Spain having had historically, up until the 1640s at least, less than the usual number of fiscal revolts for an early modern European state. By the 1620s and '30s, however, the ability of the Spanish monarchy to extract resources from Castile was at breaking point, as illustrated by Olivares' early failiure to reform the millones food tax in Castile,and with war continuing across Europe, new options were necessary. Olivares was 'haunted' by Spain's potential decline, and saw part of the solution at least in a reform of the Spanish state. Olivares saw Catalan and the other provinces as paying less to the crown than they should, and did not really understand why the inhabitants should object to a fairer distribution of taxes. The final years of Olivares' rule were marked by major uprisings in Catalonia and Portugal. Catalan histories have tended to represent Olivares as deliberately provoking the rebellion of 1640, in order that he could crush it and thereby unify Spain, although this is considered doubtful by most historians. Instead, it appears most likely that in the face of the increased French threat and the need to raise men, money and arms to defend the Peninsula, Olivares sent his army of 9,000 men into Catalonia expecting relatively limited resistance. Olivares had been overusing Catalan resources in his wars against France. Catalan peasants (Guerra dels Segadors), who were forced to quarter Castilian troops, responded on Corpus Christi day, May 1640, with an uprising known as 'Bloody Corpus' (Catalan Corpus de Sang), under the slogans "Long live the faith of Christ!", "Long live the King of Spain, our lord", "Long live the land, death to bad government". The Generalitat obtained an important military victory in the Battle of Montjuïc (January 26, 1641). A little later, the death of Pau Claris created a difficult local and international situation, which resulted in the proclamation of Louis XIII of France as sovereign count of Barcelona as Lluís I de Barcelona. Philip reacted to the increased French threat by finally abandoning his 'Netherlands first' strategy; resources for the Army of Flanders were savagely cut, and the fight against the French-supported rebels Catalonia took the first priority. For the next decade the Catalans and French fought as allies, until in 1652 a Spanish offensive captured Barcelona bringing the Catalan capital under Spanish control again. The pays (regions) of Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir, Capcir and French Cerdagne, known nowadays in Catalonia as "Northern Catalonia" were transferred to France. Every year on 7 November, some Catalanists remember this event and demonstrate in Perpignan.
Olivares was also largely blamed for contemporaries for the new royal palace of Buen Retiro, the huge cost of which appeared to fly in the face of the wider austerity measures Olivares had championed in the 1630s. The count-duke became, and for long remained, in the opinion of his countrymen, the accepted model of a grasping and incapable favourite, though this opinion changed over the centuries. Olivares' reputation has traditionally been portrayed unfavourably, especially compared to his contemporary Cardinal Richelieu, a trend which began as early as the 18th century. The king himself noted that it might be necessary to sacrifice Olivares' life in order to avert unpopularity from the royal house. The king parted with him reluctantly in 1643, and only under the pressure of a court intrigue headed by Queen Isabella.
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| Conde Duque de Olivares by Velazquez |
The Peace of Westphalia allowed the rulers of the Imperial States to independently decide their religious worship. Protestants and Catholics were redefined as equal before the law, and Calvinism was given legal recognition. The independence of the Netherlands and Switzerland from the Empire was formally recognized; these territories had enjoyed de facto independence for decades. The 1648 Treaty of Osnabruck, part of the Peace of Westphalia, specified three types of worship, "domestic devotion", public religious services "exercitium religionis publicum", and '"exercitium religionis privatum," tolerated communal worship by minority faiths in clandestine churches or as private, family or indivial devotions. The majority of the Peace's terms can be attributed to the work of Cardinal Mazarin, the de facto leader of France at the time (the king, Louis XIV, being a child). Not surprisingly, France came out of the war in a far better position than any of the other participants.
Lisbon's nobles expelled Philip, and gave the throne to the Braganzas, marking the end of sixty years of the Iberian Union and the beginning of the Portuguese Restoration War. During these 60 years Iberia Union has dominated most of the world:
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| Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the period of Iberian Union under the personal union of the Spanish monarchs (1580-1640). |
Philip turned to a better established female mystic, Sister María de Ágreda, a prioress known for her religious writings. He asked her to correspond with him and to advise him in spiritual matters. The two became regular correspondents throughout the remainder of their lives. This is documented in over 600 confidential letters between them over a period of twenty-two years. Philip has been remembered both for the 'astonishing enthusiasm' with which he collected art and for his love of theatre. On the stage, he favoured Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and other distinguished dramatists. Philip has been credited with a share in the composition of several comedies. Artistically, Philip became famous for his patronage of his court painter Diego Velázquez. Philip IV's reign, after a few years of inconclusive successes, was characterized by political and military decay and adversity. He has been held responsible for the decline of Spain, which was mainly due to organic causes largely beyond the control of any one ruler.
Charles II
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| Charles II portrait |
Not having learned to speak until the age of four nor to walk until eight, Charles was treated as virtually an infant until he was ten years old. Fearing the frail child would be overtaxed, his caretakers did not force Charles to attend school. The indolence of the young Charles was indulged to such an extent that at times he was not expected to be clean. When his half-brother Don John of Austria, a natural son of Philip IV, obtained power by exiling the queen mother from court, he covered his nose and insisted that the king at least brush his hair
Charles was born physically and mentally disabled, and disfigured. Possibly through affliction with mandibular prognathism, he was unable to chew. Consequently, Charles II is known in Spanish history as El Hechizado ("The Hexed") from the popular belief – to which Charles himself subscribed – that his physical and mental disabilities were caused by "sorcery." The king went so far as to be exorcised.
Charles' unfitness for rule meant he was often ignored and power during his reign became the subject of court intrigues and foreign, particularly French, and Austrian influence
In 1679, the 18-year-old Charles II married Marie Louise d'Orléans (1662–1689), eldest daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (the only sibling of Louis XIV) and his first wife Princess Henrietta of England. At that time, Marie Louise was known as a lovely young woman. It is likely that Charles was impotent, and no children were born. Marie Louise became deeply depressed and died at 26, ten years after their marriage, leaving 28-year-old Charles heartbroken.
Toward the end of his life Charles became increasingly hypersensitive and strange, at one point demanding that the bodies of his family be exhumed so he could look upon the corpses. He reportedly wept upon viewing the body of his first wife, Marie Louise.
When Charles II died in 1700, the line of the Spanish Habsburgs died with him. He had named a grand-nephew, Philip, Duke of Anjou (a grandson of the reigning French king Louis XIV, and of Charles' half-sister, Maria Theresa of Spain — Louis XIV himself was an heir to the Spanish throne through his mother, daughter of Philip III), as his successor.
War of the Spanish Succession
The specter of the multi-continental empire of Spain passing under the effective control of Louis XIV provoked a massive coalition of powers to oppose the Duc d'Anjou's succession. The actions of Louis heightened the fears of the English, the Dutch and the Austrians, among others. A possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch would have drastically changed the European balance of power.
Philip IV had stipulated the succession should pass to the Austrian Habsburg line in his will. However, Leopold also posed formidable problems as a candidate, for his succession would have reunited the elements of the powerful Spanish-Austrian Habsburg Empire of the sixteenth century.
The Spanish cortes remained divided on the issue, and when war was declared in 1702, the war between Europe's great powers also became a civil war in Spain. Valencia, Catalonia, and Aragon pronounced in favor of the Austrian candidate as king, fearing that Philip of Anjou would attempt to change the decentralized administration of the country that afforded the Catalans and Aragonese considerable autonomy from Madrid.
The war was concluded by the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714). As a result, Philip V remained King of Spain but was removed from the French line of succession, averting a union of the two kingdoms. The Austrians gained most of the Spanish territories in Italy and the Netherlands.
Under the Peace of Utrecht, Philip was recognized as King Philip V of Spain, but renounced his place in the French line of succession, thereby precluding the union of the French and Spanish crowns (although there was some sense in France that this renunciation was illegal). He retained the Spanish overseas empire, but ceded the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and Sardinia to Austria; Sicily and parts of the Milanese to Savoy; and Gibraltar and Minorca to Great Britain. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 also gave Britain a thirty-year asiento, or contract-right, to supply an unlimited number of slaves to the Spanish colonies, and 500 tons of goods per year.
With regard to the political organization of their kingdoms, Philip issued the Nueva Planta decrees, following the centralizing approach of the Bourbons in France, ending the political autonomy of the kingdoms which had made up the Crown of Aragon; territories in Spain that had supported the Archduke Charles and up to then had kept their institutions in a framework of loose dynastic union, separate from the rest of the Spanish realm. On the other hand, the Kingdom of Navarre and the Basque Provinces, having supported the king against the Habsburg pretender, did not lose their autonomy and retained their traditional differentiated institutions and laws (fueros).
In exchange for accepting the loss of these European territories of the Spanish Empire, Philip was able to keep the remainder of the Spanish empire. Even after the peace was signed, however, the Catalans - who had been operating independently against Philip during the war, operating under the banner "Privilegis o Mort" (Privileges or Death) - continued to resist after the British withdrew; Barcelona was not retaken by Spanish forces until late in 1714. This date (September 11, 1714) is commemorated as the National Day of Catalonia.
Philip V
Philip V (Spanish: Felipe V; French: Philippe de France; 19 December 1683 - 9 July 1746), petit-fils de France and Duke of Anjou, was King of Spain from 1700 to 14 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son, Louis I of Spain, and from 31 August 1724 to 1746, assuming the throne again upon his son's death
Philip proved an effective administrator, centralizing the Spanish authority by eliminating regional parliaments and beginning a process of harmonizing laws among the various regions of Spain's empire. His selection of capable French and Italian ministers to key positions in the government reined in independent, isolated, and corrupt ministries that had flourished in the later period of Habsburg rule.
However, Philip - a manic depressant often dominated in his policies by his wife Elizabeth Farnese - adopted an aggressive foreign policy that invested Spain in a series of costly wars throughout his reign.
In 1717, Philip invaded Sardinia, one of the territories lost to Austria after the War of the Spanish Succession. The invasion of Sicily thereafter prompted the formation of the Quadruple Alliance of Britain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands to oppose Philip's ambitions. In 1720, embarrassed by the failure of Spanish arms at sea and on land in the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Philip dismissed Alberoni and signed a peace treaty with Austria, with both sides recognizing the Treaty of Utrecht.
Philip helped his Bourbon relatives to make territorial gains in the War of the Polish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession by reconquering Naples and Sicily from Austria and Oran from the Ottomans. Finally, at the end of his reign Spanish forces also successfully defended their American territories from a large British invasion during the War of Jenkins' Ear: One of the first actions was the British capture, on 22 November 1739, of Porto Bello, a silver-exporting town on the coast of Panama in an attempt to damage Spain's finances and weaken its naval capabilities. The poorly defended port was attacked by six ships of the line under Admiral Edward Vernon who captured it within twenty-four hours. The largest action of the war was a major amphibious attack launched by the British under Admiral Edward Vernon in March, 1741 against Cartagena de Indias, one of Spain's principal gold-trading ports in their colony of New Granada (today Colombia). The strong fortifications in Cartagena and the able strategy of Spanish Commander Blas de Lezo were decisive in repelling the attack (-six ships and 2830 men- against an overwhelming British fleet -186 ships, 2000 cannons and 23600 men-), with heavy losses on the British side. The defeat of the British invasion force assured the preservation of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. The eventual diplomatic resolution of the war formed part of the wider settlement of the War of the Austrian Succession by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The issue was finally settled by the 1750 Treaty of Madrid in which Britain agreed to renounce its claim to the Asiento in exchange for a payment of £100,000 and allowed British trade with Spanish America under favourable conditions.
Relations between Britain and Spain dramatically improved during subsequent years thanks to a concerted effort by the Duke of Newcastle to cultivate Spain as an ally, and a wish by the Spanish government not to be seen as a puppet of France. A succession of Anglophile ministers were appointed in Spain including José de Carvajal and Ricardo Wall — all of whom were on good terms with the British Ambassador Benjamin Keene in an effort to avoid a repeat of the War of Jenkins' Ear. One of the results of this was the Spanish decision to remain neutral during the early part of the Seven Years' War.
King Philip V ordered a new palace to be built in Madrid, the Royal Palace of Madrid.
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| Royal Palace of Madrid |
Ferdinand VI
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| Ferdinand VI |
Charles III of Spain
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| Charles III |
At the end of 1758, Charles' half brother Ferdinand VI was displaying the same symptoms of depression that their father used to suffer from. Ferdinand lost his devoted wife, Infanta Barbara of Portugal in August 1758 and fell into deep mourning for her. He named Charles his heir on 10 December 1758 before leaving Madrid to stay at Villaviciosa de Odón, where he died.
Charles, Duke of Parma, a younger son of King Philip V of Spain was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735.
Charles left a lasting legacy on his kingdom; he built much and introduced reforms in the country. In and around Naples can be found a collection of palaces that he constructed during his reign. In awe of the Palace of Versailles and the Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain (the latter being modeled on Versailles itself), Charles undertook and oversaw the construction of one of Europe's most lavish palaces, the Palace of Caserta.
Charles was the most popular king the Neapolitans had had for many years. He was very supportive of the people's needs, regardless of class, and has been hailed as an Enlightenment king. Among the initiatives aimed at bringing the kingdom out of difficult economical conditions, Charles created the "commerce council" that negotiated with the Ottomans, Swedes, French and Dutch.
When Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV.
Unlike his twenty years in the Italian Peninsula which had been very fruitful, the era on mainland Spain is often regarded with less joy. Internal politics, as well as diplomatic relationships with other countries underwent complete reform. Charles represented a new type of ruler: the ruler who followed Enlightened absolutism. This was a form of absolute monarchy or despotism in which rulers embraced the principles of the Enlightenment, especially its emphasis upon rationality, and applied them to their territories. They tended to allow religious toleration, freedom of speech and the press, and the right to hold private property. Most fostered the arts, sciences, and education. Charles shared these ideals with other monarchs, including Maria Theresa of Austria, her son Joseph, and Catherine II of Russia (the Great).
The first tragic event that Charles had to deal with was the death of his beloved wife Maria Amalia. She died at the Palace of Buen Retiro on the eastern outskirsts of Madrid. She was aged 35 and died on 27 September 1760 of tuberculosis.
Charles had become deeply concerned that Britain's success in the Seven Years War would destroy the balance of power, and they would soon seek to conquer the Spanish Empire: This war is often said to be a continuation of the War of the Austrian Succession that had lasted between 1740 and 1748, in which King Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, had gained the rich province of Silesia from Austria. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle only in order to gain time to rebuild her military forces and to forge new alliances, which she did with remarkable success. During the so-called Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, the centuries-old enemies of France, Austria, and Russia formed a single alliance against Prussia. The second cause for war arose from the heated colonial struggle between the British Empire and French Empire which, as they expanded, met and clashed with one another on two continents. Of particular dispute was control of the Ohio Country which was central to both countries' ambitions of further expansion and development in North America. The two countries had been in a de facto state of war since 1754, but these military clashes remained confined to the American theatre. The war was also described by Winston Churchill as the first "world war", as it was the first conflict in human history to be fought around the globe, although most of the combatants were either European nations or their overseas colonies. Great Britain lost Minorca in the Mediterranean to the French in 1756 but captured the French colonies in Senegal on the African continent in 1758. The British Royal Navy captured the French sugar colonies of Guadeloupe in 1759 and Martinique in 1762, as well as the Spanish cities of Havana in Cuba, and Manila in the Philippines, both prominent Spanish colonial cities. In early 1762, Spain entered the war. The major Spanish objectives to invade Portugal and capture Jamaica were both failures. The Anglo-French hostilities were ended in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, which involved a complex series of land exchanges. The 1763 Treaty of Paris saw Spain cede Florida to Great Britain in exchange for the return Havana and Manila. This was partly compensated by the acquisition of a portion of Louisiana given by France as a compensation for Spain's war losses. By the same treaty, Great Britain regained Minorca.
The rivalry with Britain also led Charles to support the American revolutionaries in their War of Independence despite his misgivings about the example it would set for the Spanish Colonies. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, served as governor of Louisiana and aided the Thirteen Colonies in their quest for independence and led the Spanish armies against Britain in the Revolutionary War, defeating the British at Pensacola and reconquering Florida for Spain.
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| Siege of Pensacola |
A funny anecdote is that the symbol $ that is used for the U.S. dollar is possible that it comes from the Pillars of Hercules on the Spanish Coat of arms on the Spanish dollars that were minted in the New World mints.
[ Pillars of Hercules: The Pillars of Hercules was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. According to some Roman sources, while on his way to the island of Erytheia Hercules had to cross the mountain that was once Atlas. Instead of climbing the great mountain, Hercules used his superhuman strength to smash through it. By doing so, he connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and formed the Strait of Gibraltar. One part of the split mountain is Gibraltar and the other is either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa. These two mountains taken together have since then been known as the Pillars of Hercules, though other natural features have been associated with the name. Diodorus Siculus, however, held that instead of smashing through an isthmus to create the Straits of Gibraltar, Hercules instead narrowed an already existing strait to prevent monsters from the Atlantic Ocean from entering the Mediterranean Sea. According to Plato's account, the lost realm of Atlantis was situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in effect placing it in the realm of the Unknown. Renaissance tradition says the pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra (also Non plus ultra, "nothing further beyond"), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further. The Pillars appear as supporters of the coat of arms of Spain, originating from the famous impresa of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was King of Spain in the years following the discovery of the Americas. It bears the motto Plus Ultra (Latin for further beyond), encouraging him to ignore the ancient warning, to take risks and go further beyond. It indicates the desire to see the Pillars as an entrance to the rest of the world rather than as a gate to the Mediterranean Sea. It also indicates the overseas possessions that Spain had.
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| The Pillars of Hercules with a small "S" shaped ribbon around in the City of Seville, Spain) |
The Esquilache Riots (Motín de Esquilache) occurred in March 1766 during the rule of Charles III of Spain. Caused mostly by the growing discontent in Madrid about the rising costs of bread and other staples, they were sparked off by a series of measures regarding Spaniards' apparel that had been enacted by Leopoldo de Gregorio, Marquis of Esquilache, a Neapolitan minister whom Charles favored. Charles was forced to make Esquilache ambassador to Venice. It was a move that both Charles and Esquilache lamented. Esquilache felt that his measures in Spain had deserved a statue, and would comment that he had cleaned and paved the city streets and had created boulevards, and had nevertheless been dismissed.
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| Esquilache Riots by the great painter Goya |
In Spain he continued with his work trying to improve the services and facilities of his people. He created the Luxury Porcelain factory under the name of Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro in 1760; Crystal followed at the Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja and then there was the Real Fábrica de Platería Martínez in 1778. During his reign, the areas of Asturias and Catalonia industrialised quickly and produced much revenue for the Spanish economy. He then turned to the foreign economy looking towards his colonies in the Americas. In particular he looked at the finances of the Philippines and encouraged commerce with the United States, starting in 1778. In the capital he also had the famous Puerta de Alcalá constructed along with the statue of Alcachofa, and moved and redesigned the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid. He had the present National Art Museum of Queen Sofia (named in honour of the present Queen of Spain, born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark) built, as well as the renowned Museo del Prado. At Aranjuez he added wings to the palace. He created the Spanish Lottery and introduced Christmas cribs following Neapolitan models.
It was under Charles' reign that Spain began to be recognised a nation rather than a collection of kingdoms and territories. His efforts resulted in creation of a National Anthem, a flag, and a capital city worthy of the name, and the construction of a network of coherent roads converging on Madrid. On 3 September 1770 Charles III declared that the Marcha Real was to be used in official ceremonies. It was also Charles who chose the colours of the present flag of Spain; red and yellow. He decided to change the Cross of Burgundy flag (Andrew’s cross) due to the similarities with the English Cross of Saint George, which had brought some dissension in the Spanish navy.
Charles IV
The reforming spirit of Charles III was extinguished in the reign of his son, Charles IV, seen by some as mentally handicapped.
Even though he had a profound belief in the sanctity of his office and kept up the appearance of an absolute, powerful monarch, he never took more than a passive part in the direction of his own government, occupying himself with hunting. The affairs of government he left to his wife and his prime minister. His wife Maria Luisa of Parma, however, took as her lover Manuel de Godoy, a soldier from a humble family, was dashingly handsome, particularly when Maria Louisa compared him to Charles IV. He had made the queen's acquaintance in 1788, months before she became queen, and by the time of her accession, she had become completely enamored. The king was very fond of Godoy, even though he was fully aware of his wife's adultery, and Godoy became Spain's chief minister in 1792. Dominated by his wife's lover, Manuel de Godoy, Charles IV embarked on policies that overturned much of Charles III's reforms.
Maria Luisa dominated her husband and was believed to have had many love affairs, but there is no evidence that Maria Luisa had any lovers. Gossip pointed out Manuel de Godoy, her husband's Prime Minister, was her long-time lover. She was unpopular during her reign and has also long had a bad reputation in history, mainly because of her alleged love affairs and her support of pro-French policies that eventually weren't good for Spain.
After the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, 20,000 men were mobilized and marched to the French border. The army, however, had been allowed to languish in Charles III's reign, and it was ill-equipped and ill-trained to cope with a French invasion. Navarre was quickly seized by the French, although the Spanish managed to hold their ground in Catalonia and even invaded French Languedoc. Godoy, unimpressed with Spain's military effectiveness, decided to come to terms with the new French Republic, and in 1795 signed the Treaty of Basel, guaranteeing peace with France with the cession of Santo Domingo to the Republic.Godoy, having abandoned his allies in the United Kingdom and Austria, faced a decision: whether to continue to fight the Revolutionary France that had already defeated Spain once before, or to join the French side and hope for better times. The Spanish, after initially opposing the French, signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796, allying Spain to France, in exchange for French support for Charles IV's relations ruling the Italian duchy of Parma. In response, the British blockaded Spain in 1797 and separated her colonial empire from the mother country. By the end of 1798, the Spanish fleet had been defeated by the British, and Minorca and Trinidad were occupied. In 1800, the Spanish returned Louisiana to France, which had been given to them in compensation for their losses at the end of the Seven Years' War.
In 1802 he negotiated the Treaty of Amiens with Great Britain; Spain ceded the island of Trinidad to Britain but recovered Minorca and it was a temporary truce in hostilities, only to be broken in 1804 when the British captured a Spanish treasure fleet off Cadiz. The French planned an invasion of England in the coming year; the Spanish fleet was to be an integral part in assisting this invasion. At the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the Spanish navy and the French Mediterranean fleet, attempting to join forces with the French fleets in the north for the invasion, were attacked by Admiral Lord Nelson at the head of a British fleet in one of history's greatest naval engagements. The disastrous defeat that the Spanish and French suffered assured British control of the seas for a century, and seriously shook the resolve of the Spanish who began to doubt the usefulness of their alliance to France:
The battle was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. The disparity in losses has been attributed by some historians less to Nelson's daring tactics, than to the difference in fighting readiness of the two fleets.Nelson's fleet was made up of ships of the line which had spent considerable amount of sea time during months of blockades of French ports, whilst the French fleet had generally been at anchor in port. However, Villeneuve's fleet had just spent months at sea crossing the Atlantic twice, which supports the proposition that the main difference between the two fleets' combat effectiveness was the morale of the leaders. The daring tactics employed by Nelson were to ensure a strategically decisive result. The results vindicated his naval judgement. As result of this battle, Britain will dominate the sea in the XIX century and Napoleon won’t be able to defeat Britain at the sea.
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| Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle of Trafalgar |
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| The painting La maja desnuda by Francisco de Goya, which depicts a fully nude reclining woman, was once in Godoy's personal collection. It is believed by many to portray Cayetana, Duchess of Alba, who was Godoy's mistress |
War of independence
The war began when French armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807 and then in 1808 turned on its ally, Spain. The war lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814.
Spain's liberation struggle marked one of the first national wars and the emergence of large-scale guerrillas, from which the English language borrowed the word.
The constant threatening presence of a British force under Arthur Wellesley, which became the most experienced and steady force in the British army, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the reformed Portuguese army.
The installation of Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain sparked a revolution in Spain. On the 3 May 1808, a revolt in Madrid was bloodily suppressed by the French army, which now found itself attempting the occupation of both Portugal and Spain. The incident and the perceived brutality of the French response created a rallying point for Spanish revolutionaries; the executions were captured famously by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya:
The Spanish army, on the whole, pronounced itself in favor of Ferdinand and joined the British and Portuguese in a united front against the French.
Napoleon thought he might succeed in the Iberian Peninsula as he had done in Italy, in Egypt and in Hesse. The Spanish began effective guerilla resistance, however; and the trap of Bayonne, together with the enthroning of Joseph Bonaparte, made Prince of Asturias the elect of popular sentiment, the representative of religion and country.
Napoleon thought he had Spain within his control, and now the Iberian Peninsula started slipping from him. The Peninsula became the grave of whole armies and saw a war against Spain, Britain, and Portugal. Dupont capitulated at the Battle of Bailen into the hands of General Castaños, and Junot at Cintra, Portugal to General Wellesley. The catastrophe was total. Dupont called for an armistice and was compelled to sign the Convention of Andújar which stipulated the surrender of almost 18,000 men, making Bailén the worst disaster and capitulation of the Peninsular War, and the first major defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armée. With the loss of 24,000 troops, Napoleon's military machine in Spain abruptly collapsed. Joseph and the French command panicked and ordered a general retreat to the Ebro, abandoning Madrid and undoing all of Bessières' hard-fought gains. Europe cheered at this first check to the hitherto unbeatable Imperial armies – a Bonaparte had been chased from his throne; tales of Spanish heroism inspired Austria and showed the force of national resistance. Bailén set in motion the rise of the Fifth Coalition against Napoleon. To reduce Spanish resistance Napoleon had to come to terms with the Tsar Alexander I of Russia at Erfurt; so that, abandoning his designs in the East, he could make the Grand Army return in force to Madrid.
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| The Spanish Army's shocking triumph at Bailén gave the French Empire its first major defeat. |
[[Many Spanish liberals - carrying the tradition of Charles III and his ministers - saw in a close relationship with France the hope for modernity and progress in their country. Called "afrancesados," they viewed the end of the Inquisition and the establishment of a more secular, liberal monarchy with affection, but as the French occupation dragged on, popularity for French rule even among liberals waned. By 1812, many of these afrancesados had become members of the Spanish guerilla war. When the Cortes convened in Cádiz in 1810, there appeared to be two possibilities for Spain's political future if the French could be driven out. The first, represented especially by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, was the restoration of the absolutist Antiguo Régimen ("Old Regime"); the second was to adopt some sort of written constitution. The Spanish Constitution of 1812 (the Cadiz Constitution) was drafted by the Supreme Junta. The constitution, written by an assembly dominated by liberal reformers, described a constitutional monarchy. The inquisition would be abolished, though Roman Catholicism was still the state religion and heresy a crime. The constitution - Spain's first - provided for freedom of speech, freedom of association, and universal manhood suffrage. In response to the constitution, France temporarily annexed Catalonia.
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| The promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, oil painting by Salvador Viniegra. |
The Cortes of Cádiz worked feverishly and the first written Spanish constitution was promulgated in Cádiz on 19 March 1812. The Constitution of 1812 is regarded as the founding document of liberalism in Spain and one of the first examples of classical liberalism or conservative liberalism worldwide. It served as the model for the Norwegian Constitution of 1814. Liberals wanted equality before the law, a centralized government, an efficient modern civil service, a reform of the tax system, the replacement of feudal privileges by freedom of contract, and the recognition of the property owner's right to use his property as he saw fit. Three basic principles were soon ratified by the Cortes: that sovereignty resides in the nation (see national sovereignty), the legitimacy of Ferdinand VII as king of Spain, and the inviolability of the deputies
The representatives who gathered at Cádiz were far more liberal than the elite of Spain taken as a whole, and they produced a document far more liberal than might have been produced in Spain were it not for the war. Few of the most conservative voices were at Cádiz
Article 22 explicitly recognized the civil rights of free blacks and mulattoes, but Article 29 deprived them of automatic political rights. In part, this was a strategy by the peninsular deputies to reduce the number of American representatives under a system of universal suffrage proportional to population, but it also served the interest of the conservative Criollo representatives by keeping power within a more limited class. In any event, the effect of Article 29 was to deprive some six million people of voting right]]
The British, under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, invaded Spain from Portugal in 1810. A Spanish force, pulled together from the remnants of the Spanish army and volunteer fighters, joined him and successfully defeated the French under the personal command of Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Talavera. For his victory, Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington, although not long after Talavera he was forced to retreat into Portugal once more. Although Wellington took Madrid on 6 August 1812, he retreated not long after back to Portugal. With the stretched and harassed French forces depleted when Napoleon redeployed troops for what would be a disastrous offensive against Russia, Wellington saw an opportunity and attacked again in 1813. At the Battle of Vitoria, on 21 June 1813, the French under the personal command of King Joseph were again defeated, and were subsequently forced as far back as the Pyrenees in early July. Fighting continued in the mountains throughout the winter, though in the spring of 1814 the Allies advanced into southern France.
Sir Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington
Although numerically superior to the regular British, Portuguese, and Spanish armies, so effective were the Spanish guerillas that of 350,000 men of the French Armée de l'Espagne, 200,000 were employed in the protection of France's vulnerable lines of supply stretching across the breadth of Spain.
Ferdinand was released by the French after the fall of Napoleon in 1814. On arriving in Spain, the most important question was whether he would swear by the Constitution of 1812, that the Supreme Junta had composed in his stead. The constitution, which also limited the king's powers considerably in favor of a unicameral legislature, was deeply unpopular among the conservative Spanish clergy, and among the people of Spain who associated much of it with the French who had only months before been evicted from their country. Ferdinand refused to accept the liberal constitution, and continued his rule in Spain as Charles IV had; as an absolute monarch and it was during his reign that Spain would go on to lose most of her American Colonies.
The burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of Portugal and Spain and ushered in an era of social turbulence, political instability, and economic stagnation. Devastating civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions, led by officers trained in the Peninsular War, persisted in Iberia until 1850. The cumulative crises and disruptions of invasion, revolution, and restoration led to the independence of many of Spain's American colonies and the independence of Brazil from Portugal.
Ferdinand VII
_-_Prado.jpg "Ferdinand VII") |
| Ferdinand VII |
Considered by many scholars as one of the worst kings Spain has ever had. In helping to overthrow his father, King Carlos IV of Spain, he left the Spanish Bourbon dynasty vulnerable to a complete overthrowing under Napoleon Bonaparte. In a desperate attempt to consolidate his power once he was brought back to the throne, King Fernando VII abolished many of the reforms of the Enlightenment and helped exacerbate the division between Spanish liberals and conservatives. And in not leaving an undisputed heir, he left the country subject to further instability and decades of civil wars
Five years later after experiencing serious reverses on many fronts, Emperor Napoleon agreed to acknowledge Ferdinand VII as king of Spain on 11 December 1813 and signed the Treaty of Valençay, so that the king could return to Spain. This, however, did not happen until Napoleon was nearly defeated by the allied powers several months later. The Spanish people, blaming the liberal, enlightened policies of the Francophiles (afrancesados) for causing the Napoleonic occupation and the Peninsular War by allying Spain too closely to France, at first welcomed Fernando.
Spain fought for its independence and in his name as well juntas had governed Spanish America. Spain was no longer the absolute monarchy he had relinquished six years earlier. Instead he was now asked to rule under the liberal Constitution of 1812. Before being allowed to enter Spanish soil, Ferdinand had to guarantee the liberals that he would govern on the basis of the Constitution, but, only gave lukewarm indications he would do so
Ferdinand's restored autocracy was guided by a small camarilla of his favorites, although his government seemed unstable. Whimsical and ferocious by turns, he changed his ministers every few months.
The wars of independence had broken out in America, and although many of the republican rebels were divided and royalist sentiment was strong in many areas, the Manila galleons and tax revenues from the Spanish Empire had been interrupted. Spain was all but bankrupt.
The Spanish Empire in the New World had largely supported the cause of Ferdinand VII over the Bonapartist pretender to the throne in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. Joseph had promised radical reform, particularly the centralization of the state, which would cost the local authorities in the American empire their autonomy from Madrid. The Spanish colonies, however, had operated with virtual independence from Madrid after their pronouncement against Joseph Bonaparte.
Already in 1810, the Caracas and Buenos Aires juntas declared their independence from the Bonapartist government in Spain and sent ambassadors to the United Kingdom.
Spanish liberals - including the majority of military officers - already disdainful of the monarchy's rejection of the constitution, were opposed to the restoration of an empire that they saw as an obsolete antique, as against the liberal revolutions in the New World with which they sympathized.
Venezuela was liberated June 24, 1821 when Bolívar destroyed the Spanish army on the fields of Carabobo on the Battle of Carabobo. Argentina declared its independence in 1816
Chile was retaken by Spain in 1814, but lost permanently in 1817 when an army under José de San Martín, for the first time in history, crossed the Andes Mountains from Argentina to Chile, and went on to defeat Spanish royalist forces at the Battle of Chacabuco in 1817.
In 1820 the king misrule provoked a revolt in favor of the Constitution of 1812 which began with a mutiny of the troops under Col. Rafael Riego, a liberal and freemason, and the king was quickly made prisoner. This conspiracy of liberal mid-ranking officers occurred in the expedition being outfitted at Cadiz mutinied before they were shipped to the Americas. He grovelled to the insurgents as he had done to his parents. Ferdinand had restored the Jesuits upon his return; now the Society had become identified with repression and absolutism among the liberals, who attacked them: twenty-five Jesuits were slain in Madrid in 1822. For the rest of the 19th century, expulsions and re-establishment of the Jesuits would continue to be touchmarks of liberal or authoritarian political regimes.
Despite the rebels' relative weakness, Ferdinand accepted the constitution on March 9, 1820, granting power to liberal ministers and ushering in the so-called Liberal Triennium (el Trienio Liberal), a period of popular rule. The elections to the Cortes Generales in 1822 were won by Rafael del Riego.
Three years of liberal rule (the Trienio liberal) followed. The Progresista government reorganized Spain into 52 provinces, and intended to reduce the regional autonomy that had been a hallmark of Spanish bureaucracy since Habsburg rule in the 16th and 17th centuries. The opposition of the affected regions - in particular, Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia - shared in the king's antipathy for the liberal government.
The election of a radical liberal government in 1823 further destabilized Spain. The army - whose liberal leanings had brought the government to power - began to waver when the Spanish economy failed to improve, and in 1823, a mutiny in Madrid had to be suppressed. The Jesuits (who had been banned by Charles III in the 18th century, only to be rehabilitated by Ferdinand VII after his restoration) were banned again by the radical government. For the duration of liberal rule, King Ferdinand (though technically head of state) lived under virtual house arrest in Madrid.
In 1821, conservatives in Mexico led by Agustin de Iturbide and Vincente Guerrero presented the Plan de Iguala, calling for an independent Mexican monarchy, in response to fears of the liberalism and anticlericalism in Spain coming to her colonies. The liberal government - which showed less interest in the reconquest of the colonies than Ferdinand had - recognized Mexican independence with the Treaty of Córdoba.
In 1823, Peru, the Spanish royalist forces were defeated at the battles of Junin and Ayacucho, where the entire Spanish Army of Peru and the Viceroy were captured. The Battle of Ayacucho signified the end of the Spanish Empire on the American mainland.
The King was captured and detained at Cádiz, where the Cortes, the Spanish parliament assembled. Alarmed by these events, the other European powers convened in October 1822 at the Congress of Verona and authorized France to intervene in the conflict and restore the rule of Ferdinand, with only Britain abstaining from that decision.
At the beginning of 1823, as a result of the Congress of Verona, the French invaded Spain "invoking the God of St Louis" and led by Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, son of the future Charles X, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain., for the sake of preserving the throne of Spain to a descendant of Henry IV, and of reconciling that fine kingdom with Europe." When in May the revolutionary party carried Ferdinand to Cádiz, he continued to make promises of amendment until he was free.
This invasion is known in France as the "Spanish Expedition" (expédition d’Espagne), and in Spain as "The Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis".
After entering Spain, the government of Madrid will run away to harbor in Cadiz. When freed after the Battle of Trocadero and the fall of Cadiz Ferdinand revenged himself with a ferocity which disgusted his far from liberal allies. In violation of his oath to grant an amnesty he avenged himself, for three years of coercion, by killing on a scale which left his "rescuers" sickened and horrified. The Duke of Angoulême, powerless to intervene, made known his protest against Ferdinand's actions by refusing the Spanish decorations Ferdinand offered him for his military services.
Chateaubriand, foreign minister in France's Villèle government (from 28 December 1822 to 6 June 1824), contrasted the expedition's success with France's failure in the Peninsular War:
“ Striding across the Spains, succeeding where Bonaparte had failed, triumphing on the same soil where a great man's arms had suffered setbacks, doing in six months what he was unable to do in seven years, was a true miracle“
The Ominous Decade: Immediately following the restoration of absolutist rule in Spain, King Ferdinand embarked on a policy intended to restore old conservative values to government; the Jesuit Order and the Spanish Inquisition were reinstated once more, and some autonomy was again devolved to the provinces of Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia. Although he refused to accept the loss of the American colonies, Ferdinand was prevented from taking any further action against the rebels in the Americas by the opposition of the United Kingdom and the United States, who voiced their support of the new Latin American republics in the form of the Monroe Doctrine
Although in the interests of stability Ferdinand issued a general amnesty to all those involved in the 1820 coup and the liberal government that followed it, the original architect of the coup, Rafael del Riego, was executed. The liberal Partido Progresista, however, continued to exist as a political force. Also executed Juan Martín Díez «El Empecinado», Mariana Pineda and others liberal.
After his fourth marriage, with Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies in 1829, he was persuaded by his wife to set aside the law of succession of Philip V, which gave a preference to all the males of the family in Spain over the females. His marriage had brought him only two daughters. The change in the order of succession established by his dynasty in Spain angered a large part of the nation and led to a civil war, the Carlist Wars.
Ferdinand died on 29 September 1833 in Madrid.
Ferdinand's chief concern after 1823 was how to solve the problem of his own succession. He was married four times in his life, and bore two daughters in all his marriages; the succession law of Philip V of Spain, which still stood in Ferdinand's time, excluded women from the succession. By that law, Ferdinand's successor would be his brother, Carlos. Carlos, however, was a reactionary and an authoritarian who desired the restoration of the traditional moralism of the Spanish state, the elimination of any traces of constitutionalism, and a close relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. Though surely not a liberal, Ferdinand was fearful of Carlos's extremism.
In 1830, at the advice of his wife, Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Ferdinand decreed a Pragmatic Sanction that had the effect of fundamental law in Spain. As a result of the sanction, women were allowed to accede to the Spanish throne, and the succession would fall on Ferdinand's infant daughter, Isabella, rather than to his brother Carlos. Carlos - who disputed the legality of Ferdinand's ability to change the fundamental law of succession in Spain - left the country for Portugal, where he became a guest of Dom Miguel, the absolutist pretender in that country's civil war.
The Carlist War
Spanish liberals had pinned their hopes on Ferdinand VII's wife, Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who bore some marks as a liberal and a reformer. However, when she became regent for her daughter Isabella in 1833, she made it clear to the court that she intended no such reforms. Even still, an alliance of convenience was formed with the progresista faction at court against the conservatives, who backed the rebel Infante Carlos of Spain.
Spanish liberals had pinned their hopes on Ferdinand VII's wife, Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who bore some marks as a liberal and a reformer. However, when she became regent for her daughter Isabella in 1833, she made it clear to the court that she intended no such reforms. Even still, an alliance of convenience was formed with the progresista faction at court against the conservatives, who backed the rebel Infante Carlos of Spain.
Carlist General Tomás de Zumalacárregui, a Basque, saved the Carlist cause from the brink of disaster in 1833.
By 1835, what was once a band of defeated guerrillas in Navarre had turned into an army of 30,000 in control of all of Spain north of the Ebro River, with the exception of the fortified ports on the northern coast.
While Zumalacárregui agitated for a campaign to take Madrid, Carlos ordered his commander to take a port on the coast. In the subsequent campaign, Zumalacárregui died after being shot in the calf. There was suspicion that Carlos, jealous of his general's successes and politics, conspired to have him killed.
Having failed to take Madrid, and having lost their popular general, the Carlist armies began to weaken. Reinforced with British equipment and manpower, Isabella found in the progressista general Baldomero Espartero a man capable of suppressing the rebellion; in 1836, he won a key victory at the Battle of Luchana that turned the tide of the war.
After years of vacillation on the issue of reform, events compelled Maria Cristina to accept a new constitution in 1837 that substantively increased the powers of the Spanish parliament, the cortes. The constitution also established state responsibility for the upkeep of the church, and a resurgence of anti-clerical sentiment, led to the disbandment of some religious orders which considerably reduced the strength of the Church in Spain. The Jesuits - expelled during the Trienio Liberal and readmitted by Ferdinand - were once again expelled by the wartime regency in 1835.
The Spanish government was growing deeper in debt as the Carlist war dragged on, nearly to the point that it became insolvent. In 1836, the president of the government, Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, offered a program of desamortización, the (Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal, that involved the confiscation and sale of church, mainly monastic, property. Many liberals, who bore anti-clerical sentiments, saw the clergy as having allied with the Carlists, and thus the desamortización was only justice. Mendizábal recognized, also, that immense amounts of Spanish land (much of it given as far back as the reigns of Philip II and Philip IV) were in the hands of the church lying unused - the church was Spain's single largest landholder in Mendizábal's time.
After Luchana, Espartero's government forces successfully drove the Carlists back northward. Knowing that much of the support for the Carlist cause came from supporters of regional autonomy, Espartero convinced the Queen-Regent to compromise with the fueros on the issue of regional autonomy and retain their loyalty. The subsequent Convention of Vergara in 1839 was a success, protecting the privileges of the fueros and recognizing the defeat of the Carlists. Don Carlos once again went into exile.
Freed from the Carlist threat, Maria Cristina immediately embarked on a campaign to undo the Constitution of 1837, provoking even greater ire from the liberal quarters of her government. Failing in the attempt to overthrow her own constitution, she attempted to undermine the rule of the municipalities in 1840; this proved to be her undoing. She was forced to name the progressista hero of the Carlist War, General Espartero, president of the government. Maria Cristina resigned the regency after Espartero attempted a program of reform.
In the absence of a regent, the cortes named Espartero to that post in May 1841. Although a noted commander, Espartero was inexperienced with politics and his regency was markedly authoritarian; it was arguably Spain's first experience with military rule.
The war heroes Manuel de la Concha and Diego de León attempted a coup in September 1841, attempting to seize the queen, only months after Espartero was named regent. The severity with which Espartero crushed the rebellion led to considerable unpopularity;
On 20 May 1843, Salustiano Olózaga delivered his famous "Dios salve al país, Dios salve a la reina!" (God save the country, God save the queen!) speech that led to a strong moderate-liberal coalition that opposed Espartero. This coalition sponsored a third and final uprising led by generals Ramón Narváez and Francisco Serrano, who finally overthrew Espartero in 1843, after which the deposed regent fled to England. Salustiano Olózaga was named the first president of the government after Espartero's fall.
Olózaga, a liberal, was succeeded by Luis González Bravo, a moderate, inaugurating a decade of moderado rule. The incident as a whole set the tone for Isabella's unstable administration, policies, and governments – in 1847, for instance, she went through five Presidents of the Government. Luis González Bravo, leading the moderate faction, dissolved the cortes himself and ruled by royal decree as a ministerial dictator. The cortes, which had been uneasy with the settlement with the fueros at the end of the First Carlist War, were anxious to centralize the administration. The law of 8 January 1845 did just that, stifling local autonomy in favor of Madrid; the act contributed to the revolt of 1847 and the revival of Carlism in the provinces.
Isabella II of Spain took a more active role in government after she came of age, but she was immensely unpopular throughout her reign. She was viewed as beholden to whoever was closest to her at court, and that she cared little for the people of Spain.
A campaign between 1864 and 1866 to reconquer Peru and Chile during the Chincha Islands War proved disastrous and Spain suffered defeat before the determined South American powers.
In 1868, the Glorious Revolution broke out when the progresista generals Francisco Serrano and Juan Prim revolted against her, and defeated her moderado generals at the Battle of Alcolea. Isabella was driven into exile in Paris. Isabella II renounced the throne in favor of her son, Alfonso XII, on 25 June 1870. Supporters of Alfonso XII made it clear that neither his mother nor grandmother could play an active role in the effort to restore the monarchy. Maria Christina died in Le Havre, France on 22 August 1878.
Amadeo I of Spain
Revolution and anarchy broke out in Spain in the two years that followed; it was only in 1870 that the Cortes declared that Spain would have a king again. As it turned out, this decision played an important role in European and world history, for a German prince's candidacy to the Spanish throne and French opposition to him served as the immediate motive for the Franco-Prussian War. Amadeus of Savoy was selected, and he was duly crowned King of Spain early the following year
The election of the new King coincided with the assassination of General Juan Prim, his main backer. After that, Amadeo had to deal with difficult situations, with unstable Spanish politics, republican conspiracies, Carlist uprisings, separatism in Cuba, same-party disputes, fugitive governments and assassination attempts.
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| Amadeo I at the funeral of the General Prim, by Antonio Gisbert (1870) |
With the possibility of reigning without popular support, Amadeus issued an order against the artillery corps and then immediately abdicated from the Spanish throne on 11 February 1873. At ten o'clock that same night, Spain was proclaimed a republic, at which time Amadeo made an appearance before the Cortes, proclaiming the Spanish people ungovernable.
First Republic and The Restoration (1874–1931)
The first republican attempt in the history of Spain was a short experience, characterized by profound political and social instability and violence. The Republic was governed by four distinct presidents. The period was marked by three simultaneous civil wars: the Third Carlist War, the Cantonal Revolution, and the Ten Years' War in Cuba. The Third Carlist War (Spanish: Tercera Guerra Carlista) (1872-1876) was the last Carlist War in Spain. It is very often referred to as the Second Carlist War, as the 'second' (1847-9) had been small in scale and almost trivial in political consequence.
The draft of the Federal Constitution of the First Republic of Spain developed at length into 117 articles organized under 17 titles.
In the first article, the following is found:
Composing the Spanish Nation the states of Andalucía Alta, Andalucía Baja, Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias, Castilla la Nueva, Castilla la Vieja, Cataluña, Cuba, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Navarra, Puerto Rico, Valencia, Regiones Vascongadas.
On 29 December 1874 in Sagunto, General Martínez Campos came out in favor of the restoration to the throne of the Bourbon monarchy in the personage of Don Alfonso de Borbón, son of Isabel II. The government of Sagasta did not oppose this announcement, permitting the restoration of the monarchy. The triumph of the Bourbon Restoration succeeded thanks to the previous work of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, which without a doubt was contrary to military rule. He assumed the title of Alfonso XII, for although no King of united Spain had borne the name "Alfonso XI". On 23 January 1878 at the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid, Alfonso married his cousin, Princess Maria de las Mercedes, daughter of Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, but she died of tifus within six months of the marriage. On 29 November 1879 at the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid, Alfonso married a much more distant relative, Maria Christina of Austria, daughter of Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria and of his wife Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria. He had a posthumous son, Alfonso XIII of Spain, who was proclaimed King at his birth in 1886. He had also two sons by his mistress Elena Sánz y Martínez de Arrizala (Castellón de la Plana, 15 December 1849 - Paris, 24 December 1898). In November 1885, Alfonso died, just short of his 28th birthday, of tuberculosis. Cánovas also assumed the functions of the Head of State during the regency of María Cristina following Alfonso's death in 1885.
Until 1898 These years were marked by economic prosperity. Spain's economy was quite behind those of the other European countries, and during these years, the modernization of the country took place on a large scale. On most fronts, production was increased, and national products increased due to extreme protectionist measures.
The two parties alternated in the government in a controlled process known as el turno pacífico: the Liberal Party led by Sagasta and the Conservative Party led by Canovas del Castillo. The caciques, local powerful men, were used to manipulate election results and because of this, resentment to the system slowly built up over time, and important nationalist movements in Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, as well as unions, started to form.
Cánovas remained an active man of letters. His historical writings earned him a considerable reputation, particularly his History of the Decline of Spain (Historia de la decadencia de España), for which he was elected at the young age of 32 to the Real Academia de la Historia in 1860. This was followed by elevation to other bodies of letters, including the Real Academia Española in 1867
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In 1897, Cánovas was shot dead by Michele Angiolillo, an Italian anarchist, at the spa Santa Águeda, in Mondragón, Guipúzcoa. He thus did not live to see Spain's loss of her final colonies to the United States after the Spanish-American War.
In 1898 Spain lost its last major overseas provinces (Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines) in the Spanish-American War. The war also effectively ended the Spanish Empire. Spain had been declining as an imperial power since the early 19th century as a result of Napoleon's invasion. The rapid collapse was perceived as a disaster in Spain, undermining the credibility of both the government and associated ideologies and almost led to a military coup d'état led by Camilo Polavieja. This was the start of the system's weakening, giving oxygen to all manner of conflicting opposition movements at a local and national level.
The Spanish soldier Julio Cervera Baviera, who served in the Puerto Rican Campaign, published a pamphlet in which he blamed the natives of that colony for its occupation by the Americans, saying: "I have never seen such a servile, ungrateful country [i.e., Puerto Rico]... In twenty-four hours, the people of Puerto Rico went from being fervently Spanish to enthusiastically American... They humiliated themselves, giving in to the invader as the slave bows to the powerful lord."
Cuba was regarded as a province of Spain rather than a colony, for it had been an integral part of the country for almost four centuries. The island was not only a matter of prestige for Spain, but it was one of the most prosperous territories. The trade in the capital city, Havana, was comparable to that registered in Barcelona (the most trade-active city in Spain) at that time.
After the war, Spain retained only a handful of overseas holdings: Spanish West Africa, Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara, Spanish Morocco and the Canary Islands.
Culturally, a new wave called the Generation of '98 (Miguel de Unamuno,Ramón del Valle Inclán, José Martínez Ruiz (Azorín), Pío Baroja, Antonio y Manuel Machado, etc…) originated as a response to this trauma, marking a renaissance in Spanish culture. Economically, the war benefited Spain, because after the war, large sums of capital held by Spaniards not only in Cuba but also all over America were brought back to the peninsula and invested in Spain. This massive flow of capital (equivalent to 25% of the gross domestic product of one year) helped to develop the large modern firms in Spain in industrial sectors (steel, chemical, mechanical, textiles and shipyards among others), in the electrical power industry and in the financial sector.However, the political consequences were serious. The defeat in the war began the weakening of the fragile political stability that had been established earlier by the rule of Alfonso XII.
Alfonso XIII
He reigned from 1886-1931. His mother, Queen Maria Christina, was appointed regent during his minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed control of the state.
On 31 May 1906, at the Royal Monastery of San Geronimo in Madrid, Alfonso married Scottish-born Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887–1969). As they were returning from the wedding, they narrowly escaped an assassination attempted by the anarchist Mateu Morral; instead, the bomb explosion killed or injured many bystanders and members of the Royal procession. Later, During the Spanish Civil War, Calle Mayor was renamed Calle Mateo Morral by the Republican Madrid council.
Alfonso was a promoter of tourism in Spain. The problems with the lodging of his wedding guests prompted the construction of the luxury Hotel Palace in Madrid. He also supported the creation of a network of state-run lodges (Parador) in historic buildings of Spain. His fondness for the sport of football led to the patronage of several "Royal" ("Real" in Spanish) football clubs such as Real Sociedad, Real Madrid, Real Betis, and Real Unión.
The failed attempts to conquer Morocco (Rif War) in 1893 caused great discontent at home and ended up in a revolt in Barcelona, known as the Semana Tragica in 1909, in which the lower classes of Barcelona backed by the anarchists, communists, and republicans, revolted against what they considered the unjust methods of recruiting soldiers. The government declared a state of war and sent the army to crush the revolt, causing over a hundred deaths and the execution of Francisco Ferrer. The socialist union UGT and the anarchist union CNT decided to initiate a general strike across the country that failed because the unions could only mobilize urban workers.
The military discontent, the fear of anarchist terrorism or a proletarian revolution, and the rise of nationalisms ended up causing great agitation amongst the civilians and the military. On September 13, 1923, Miguel Primo de Rivera, Captain General of Catalonia at that time, orchestrated a coup d'état, after emitting a manifesto blaming the problems of Spain on the parliamentary system. Alfonso XIII backed the General, and named him Prime Minister. He proceeded to suspend the Constitution, and assume absolute powers as a dictator, abolishing all other parties. He created the Unión Patriótica Española which was meant to be the sole legal party. Although many leftists opposed the dictatorship, some of the public supported Primo de Rivera. Those Spaniards were tired of the turmoil and economic problems and hoped a strong leader, backed by the military, could put their country on the right track. Others were enraged that the parliament had been brushed aside. As he travelled through Spain, his emotional speeches left no doubt that he was a Spanish patriot. He proposed to keep the dictatorship in place long enough to sweep away the mess created by the politicians. In the meantime, he would use the state to modernize the economy and alleviate the problems of the working class.
Despite some reservations, the great Spanish philosopher and intellectual, José Ortega y Gasset, wrote:
"The alpha and omega of the task that the military Directory has imposed is to make an end of the old politics. The purpose is so excellent, that there is no room for objections. The old politics must be ended."
The value of the peseta fell against foreign currencies, 1929 brought a bad harvest, and Spain's imports far outstripped the worth of its exports. Conservative critics blamed rising inflation on the government's spending for public works projects. Although no one recognized it at the time, the final months of the year brought the international economic slump which turned into the great depression of the 1930s.
In the early 1930s, as most of the western world, Spain fell into economic and political chaos. Alfonso XIII appointed General Dámaso Berenguer, one of Primo de Rivera's opponents, to govern. But the monarch had discredited himself by siding with the dictatorship and more and more political forces called for the establishment of a republic. Social revolution fermented in Catalonia. In April 1931, General José Sanjurjo informed the king that he could not count on the loyalty of the armed forces. Alfonso abdicated on 14 April 1931, ushering in the Second Republic.
Disgusted with the king's involvement in his dictatorship, most of the urban population voted for republican parties in the municipal elections of April 1931. The king fled the country without abdicating and a republic was established. Two years later Primo de Rivera's eldest son, José Antonio, founded the Falange, a Spanish fascist party. Both José Antonio and his brother Fernando were arrested by republican forces once the Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 and were executed in prison.
When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, he fled and left Spain, but did not abdicate the throne. He settled eventually in Rome where he lived in the Grand Hotel.
Once the Spanish Civil War broke out, Alfonso made it clear he favoured the military uprising against the Popular Front government, but General Francisco Franco in September 1936 declared that the Nationalists would never accept Alfonso as King (the supporters of the rival Carlist pretender made up an important part of the Franco Army). First, he went into exile in France. Nevertheless, he sent his son, Juan de Borbon, Count of Barcelona, to enter Spain in 1936 and participate in the uprising. However, near the French border, General Mola had him arrested and expelled from the country.
On 15 January 1941, Alfonso XIII abdicated his rights to the Spanish throne in favour of his third (of four), but second-surviving, son Juan, father of the current King, Juan Carlos. He died in Rome a month-and-a-half later.
The Pact of San Sebastián was a meeting led by Niceto Alcalá Zamora and Miguel Maura, which took place in San Sebastián, Spain on August 17, 1930. Representatives from practically all republican political movements in Spain at the time attended the meeting. At the meeting, a "revolutionary committee" was formed, headed by Alcalá-Zamora; this committee eventually became the first provisional government of the Second Spanish Republic. The committee was in close contact with a group of soldiers, with the intent of bringing about a military coup in favor of a republic. The coup was set for December 15, 1930. Nonetheless, Captain Fermín Galán attempted to start the uprising on December 12, which resulted in the failure of the coup. Galán and Captain Ángel García Hernández were killed by a firing squad.
The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed when King Alfonso XIII left the country following municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in the main cities (Madrid and Barcelona).
The municipal elections of 1931 that established the Second Republic brought to power a group of anticlerical politicians to the government. The constitution was based on the absence of religious involvement in government affairs, in order to build a secular society. Articles 26 and 27 of the constitution were meant to control Church property and to curtail the custom of religious orders from engaging in education. This was seen as explicitly hostile to religion by the traditionalist and conservative forces who had been used to enjoy power in Spain under former governments. Jose Ortega y Gasset, stated "the article in which the Constitution legislates the actions of the Church seems highly improper to me.". The document provided for universal suffrage and a created a secular but anticlerical state, including the prohibition of teaching by religious orders and the banning of the Society of Jesus. The Constitution has been seen as hostile to religion and that hostility has been noted a cause of the subsequent civil war. Historian Vicente Carcel Orti asserts that anticlerical Freemasons played a large part in the anti-Catholic acts of the government since they held key government positions, including at least 183 deputies in the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), and thus were instrumental in the making of anti-Catholic laws.
As early as 11 May 1931 , when mob violence against the Republic's perceived enemies had led to the burning of churches, convents, and religious schools, the Church had sometimes been seen as the ally of the authoritarian right. The academic Mary Vincent has written that: "There was no doubt that the Church would line up with the rebels against the Republic. The Jesuit priests of the city of Salamanca were among the first volunteeers to present themsleves to the military authorities...The tragedy of the Second Republic was that it abetted its own destruction; the tragedy of the Church was that it became so closely allied with its self-styled defenders." During the war the nationalists claimed that 20,000 priests had been killed; today the figure is put at 4,184 priests, 2,365 members of other orders and 283 nuns, the vast majority during the summer of 1936. Historian Stanley Payne has called the terror the "most extensive and violent persecution of Catholicism in Western History, in some way even more intense than that of the French Revolution", driving Catholics, left then with little alternative, to the Nationalists even more than would have been expected. Later President Manuel Azaña made the well-publicized comment that all of the convents in Madrid were not worth one Republican life.
The Republican Constitution also changed the symbols of the country. The Himno de Riego was established as the National Anthem and the Tricolor, with three horizontal red-yellow-purple fields, became the new flag of Spain.
The majority vote in the 1934 elections was won by CEDA, led by José María Gil Robles, a coalition of centre-right and far-right parties. CEDA set up a coalition with the Radical Republican Party led by Alejandro Lerroux, which had come second in the elections. The Socialists came third. With Lerroux as head of Government, the new coalition Executive suspended most of the reforms of the previous government.
The inclusion of three CEDA ministers in the government that took office on October 1, 1934 led to a general strike and a rebellion by socialists and anarchists in Asturias on October 6. Miners in Asturias occupied the capital, Oviedo, killing officials and clergymen and burning theatres and the University. The Asturian Revolution was strongly anticlerical and involved violence against priests (37 killed) and religious and the destruction of 58 churches. ,The rebellion was backed by CNT and UGT which they had signed a pact in March with the FSA, the PSOE Federation in Austrias (that has a closer approach to Largo Caballero than the moderate Indalecio Prieto). Largo Caballero defended the pact of alliance with the other workers' political parties and trade unions, such as the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and the anarchist trade union, the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Largo Caballero declared that he "shall be the second Lenin", whose aim is the union of Iberian Soviet republics.This rebellion lasted for two weeks until it was crushed by the army, led by General Francisco Franco
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| The University (above), Cathedral and other historical building were destroyed by the miners |
On January 7, 1936, new elections were called. Despite significant rivalries and disagreements the Socialists, Communists, and the Catalan and Madrid-based left-wing Republicans decided to work together under the name Popular Front. The results gave 34 percent of the popular vote to the Popular Front and 33 percent to the incumbent government of the CEDA. This result, when coupled with the Socialists' refusal to participate in the new government, led to a general fear of revolution. This was made only more apparent when Largo Caballero, hailed as "the Spanish Lenin" by Pravda, announced that the country was on the cusp of revolution. However these statements were meant only to remove any moderates from his coalition.Moderate Socialist Indalecio Prieto condemned the rhetoric and marches as provocative
Without the Socialists, Prime Minister Manuel Azaña, a liberal who favored gradual reform while respecting the democratic process, led a minority government. In April, parliament replaced President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora with Azaña. Azaña had found that by spring of 1936 the left was using its influence to circumvent the Republic and the constitution and was adamant about increasingly radical changes. Monarchist José Calvo Sotelo replaced CEDA's GilRobles as the right's leading spokesman in parliament. He protested against what he viewed as escalating anti-religious terror, expropriations, and hasty agricultural reforms, which he considered Bolshevist and anarchist. He instead advocated the creation of a corporative state.
José Calvo Sotelo leader of the right-wing opposition and the most prominent Spanish monarchist, told the Spanish Parliament in April 1936, that in six week of popular front government, from Mid-February 15 to April 2, 1936, some 199 attacks were carried out, 36 of them in Churches. He listed 136 fires, and fire bombings, which included 106 burned and Catholic Churches and 56 Churches otherwise destroyed. He claimed 74 persons dead and 345 persons injured. Shortly afterwards, José Calvo Sotelo was shot himself, allegedly by a socialist gunman, Luis Cuenca, who was known as bodyguard of the Socialist Party leader Indalecio Prieto: In the first hours of the next day, 13 July 1936, members of the Assault Guards ((a special police corps created to deal with urban violence), Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas, PSOE, UGT and the captain of Civil Guard Fernando Condés, went to Calvo Sotelo's house, took him in front of his wife and children, showing a fake arrest warrant, and later killed him with clubs, knives and gun shots in a police truck. His body was later dropped at the entrance of one of the city's cemeteries.
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| Calvo Sotelo memorial in Madrid |
Spanish Civil war
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| Premonition of Civil War by great Spanish painter Salvador Dali |
Two British MI6 intelligence agents, Cecil Bebb and Major Hugh Pollard, then flew Franco to Spanish Morocco to see Juan March Ordinas, where the Spanish Army of Africa, led by Nationalist officers, was unopposed. At 07.15 on the morning of July 11, 1936, Bebb took off from Croydon airport, London, in a Dragon Rapide aircraft, with a navigator, his friend Major Hugh Pollard, and two female companions. The flight log records that the aircraft was bound for the Canary Islands. The purpose of Bebb's flight was to collect General Franco from the Canaries and fly him to Tetuán in Spanish Morocco, at that time a Spanish colony, where the Spanish African Army was garrisoned. It is possible that British security services may have been complicit in Bebb's flight. Certainly his companion Pollard was an MI6 agent. The flight itself was planned over lunch at Simpsons in the Strand, where Douglas Jerrold, the extreme right-wing editor of the Catholic English Review, met with the journalist Luis Bolín, London correspondent of the ABC Newspaper and later Franco's senior press advisor. Jerrold then persuaded Pollard to join the enterprise, and Pollard in turn recruited Bebb as pilot, plus his daughter Diana, and a friend, as "cover". It is not clear how much or to what level the British government knew about the activities of the secret services in aiding Franco. Britain remained officially neutral throughout the duration of the Spanish Civil War
The active participants in the war covered the entire gamut of the political positions of the time. The Nationalist (nacionales) side included the Carlists and Legitimist monarchists, Spanish nationalists, the Falange, and most conservatives and monarchist liberals, Virtually all Nationalist groups had very strong Catholic convictions and supported the native Spanish clergy. On the Republican side were Marxists, liberals, and anarchists.
The Nationalists (also called "insurgents", "rebels" or by opponents "Francoists" or overinclusively as "Fascists") fearing national fragmentation, opposed the separatist movements, and were chiefly defined by their anti-communism, which galvanized diverse or opposed movements like falangists or monarchists. For instance:
General Mola was strongly identified with the Carlists monarchists and not at all with the Falange. Generals Queipo de Llano and Cabanellas had both previously rebelled against the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and were therefore discredited in some nationalist circles; and Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera was in prison in Madrid (he would be executed a few months later)
Catalan and Basque nationalists were not univocal. Left-wing Catalan nationalists were on the Republican side. Conservative Catalan nationalists were far less vocal supporting the Republican government due to the anti-clericalism and confiscations occurring in some areas controlled by the latter (some conservative Catalan nationalists like Francesc Cambó actually funded the Nationalist side: While he didn't initially support the forces of Francisco Franco, he later did, in fear that a Republican victory would lead to a leftist Republic controlled by the Soviet Union.). Basque nationalists, heralded by the conservative Basque nationalist party, were mildly supportive of the Republican government, even though Basque nationalists in Álava and Navarre sided with the uprising for the same reasons influencing Catalan conservative nationalists. Notwithstanding the religious matters, the Basque nationalists, who nearly all sided with the Republic, were, for the most part, practicing Catholics.
The clandestine actions of the various European powers were at the time considered to be risking another 'Great War'. Despite the Irish government's prohibition against participating in the war, around 700 Irishmen, followers of Eoin O'Duffy known as the "Irish Brigade", went to Spain to fight on Franco's side. Francisco Franco asked Adolf Hitler from Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini from Fascist Italy to aid the Nationalists. Hitler agreed and ordered three major military operations in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Hitler’s largest and last move was the Condor Legion (Legion Condor). Initiated in November 1936, he sent an additional 3,500 troops into combat and supplied the Spanish Nationalists with 92 new planes. Hitler kept the Condor Legion in Spain until the end of the war in May 1939. At its zenith, The German force numbered about 12,000 men, and as many as 19,000 Germans fought in Spain. In total Nazi Germany provided Nationalists with 600 planes, 200 tanks, and 1,000 artillery pieces. After Franco’s request and in response to Adolf Hitler's encouragement, Benito Mussolini joined the war, partly because he did not want to be outdone by Hitler. While Mussolini sent more ground troops than Hitler, he initially supplied fewer materials.
Many non-Spanish people, often affiliated with radical, communist or socialist parties or groups, joined the International Brigades, believing that the Spanish Republic was the front line of the war against fascism. Roughly 30,000 foreign nationals from up to 53 nations fought in the brigades. Most of them were communists or trade unionists, and while organised by communists guided or controlled by Moscow, they were almost all individual volunteers. Over five hundred Romanians fought on the Republican side, including Romanian Communist Party members Petre Borilă and Valter Roman. The Soviet Union primarily provided material assistance to the Republican forces. In total the USSR provided Spain with 806 planes, 362 tanks, and 1,555 artillery pieces. The Soviet Union ignored the League of Nations embargo and sold arms to the Republic when few other nations would do so
The Republic had to pay for Soviet arms with the official gold reserves of the Bank of Spain, in an affair that would become a frequent subject of Francoist propaganda afterward (the so-called ‘Moscow Gold’): On May 1936, shortly before the start of the Civil War, the Spanish gold reserves had been recorded as being the fourth largest in the world. They had been accumulated primarily during World War I, in which Spain had remained neutral. The cost to the Republic of Soviet arms was more than US $500 million, two-thirds of the gold reserves that Spain had at the beginning of the war. The term Moscow Gold (Spanish: Oro de Moscú), or alternatively, Gold of the Republic (Spanish: Oro de la República), refers to the operation by which 510 tonnes of gold, corresponding to 72.6% of the total gold reserves of the Bank of Spain, were transferred from their original location in Madrid to the Soviet Union a few months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. This transfer was made by order of the government of the Second Spanish Republic, presided by Francisco Largo Caballero, through the initiative of his Minister of Finance, Juan Negrín. The term also encompasses the subsequent issues relating with the gold's sale to the USSR and the usage of the funds obtained. The remaining fourth of the Bank's gold reserves, 193 tonnes, was transported and exchanged into currency in France, an operation which is also known by analogy as the "Paris Gold".
The rising was intended to be a swift coup d'état, but the government retained control of most of the country. The rebels failed to take any major cities—in Madrid they were hemmed into the Montaña barracks. The barracks fell the next day, with much bloodshed. Republican leader Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by José Giral who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population. This facilitated the defeat of the army insurrection in the main industrial centers, including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and other main cities in the Mediterranean area, but it allowed the anarchists to arm themselves and take control of Barcelona and large swathes of Aragon and Catalonia, so that the control of the Republican Government in those areas became tenuous at best throughout the ensuing conflict.
In the early days of the war, over 50,000 people who were caught on the "wrong" side of the lines were assassinated or summarily executed. In these paseos ("promenades"), as the executions were called, the victims were taken from their refuges or jails by armed people to be shot outside of town. Probably the most famous such victim was the poet Federico García Lorca (killed by the Nationalists) and dramatist Pedro Muñoz Seca (killed by the Republicans). The outbreak of the war provided an excuse for settling accounts and resolving long-standing feuds. Thus, this practice became widespread during the war in areas conquered. In most areas, even within a single given village, both sides committed assassinations.
Meanwhile the Army of Africa crossed the Gibraltar Strait and met General Queipo de Llano's forces in Sevilla. Their quick movement allowed them to meet General Mola's Northern Army and secure most of northern and northwestern Spain, as well as central and western Andalusia.
Coup leader Sanjurjo was killed in a plane crash on 20 July, leaving an effective command split between Mola in the North and Franco in the South. On 21 July, the fifth day of the rebellion, the Nationalists captured the main Spanish naval base at Ferrol in northwestern Spain. A rebel force under Colonel Beorlegui Canet, sent by General Emilio Mola, undertook the Campaign of Guipúzcoa from July to September. The capture of Guipúzcoa isolated the Republican provinces in the north.
Nationalist forces under Franco won a great symbolic victory on September 27 1936 when they relieved the besieged Alcázar at Toledo. Two days after relieving the siege, Franco proclaimed himself Generalísimo and Caudillo ("chieftain"); he would forcibly unify the various Falangist and Royalist elements of the Nationalist cause.
The Republican government believed that since the garrison was only 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Madrid and would not be receiving any immediate help from the other Nationalist forces that it would be an easy propaganda victory. The press was invited by the Republican government to witness the explosion of the mines and storming of the Alcázar on September 18, but it wasn't until September 29 that the press entered the Alcázar, this time by the invitation of the Nationalists, turning the whole thing into a huge propaganda victory for these, mining in turn the Republican morale. The incident became a central piece of Spanish Nationalist lore, especially the story of Moscardó's son Luis. The Republicans took 16-year old Luis hostage, and demanded that the Alcázar be surrendered or they would kill him. Luis told his father, "Surrender or they will shoot me." His father replied, "Then commend your soul to God, shout 'Viva Cristo Rey' and die like a hero."
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| Phases of the destruction of the Alcázar over September |
Franco's decision to relieve the defenders of the Alcázar was a controversial one at the time. Many of his advisers thought that he should have kept up the advance towards Madrid because the besiegers of the Alcázar would have been recalled to Madrid for its defense. However, Franco believed that the propaganda value of the Alcázar was more important and ordered the Army of Africa to relieve it.
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| Situation of the fronts in August–September 1936. |
Mola died on June 3, 1937 when his plane crashed in bad weather while returning to Vitoria. The deaths of Sanjurjo and Mola left Franco as the preeminent leader of the Nationalist cause.
Franco invaded Aragón in August 1937 and then took the city of Santander. With the surrender of the Republican army in the Basque territory and after two months of bitter fighting in Asturias (Gijón finally fell in late October) Franco had effectively won in the north. At the end of November, with Franco's troops closing in on Valencia, the government had to move again, this time to Barcelona.
The May 3–8, 1937 revolt in Barcelona by the oppositional communist Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and the anarchist CNT following an attempt to seize the telephone exchange by the PCE at the behest of Prieto led to a governmental crisis, forcing Caballero's resignation on 17 May leading to the Popular Front government of doctor Juan Negrín, also a member of the PSOE. Indalecio Prieto had publicly separated himself from Negrín in August 1937, after his departure from the Government, where he had been Minister of Defence; in a meeting with PSOE's central committee, he violently accused Negrín of ceding to communist pressure to remove him from the government. Since the Autumn of 1938, the antagonism between communists and socialists resulted in violent clashes. One of the most controversial aspects of Negrín's government was its deep infiltration by the PCE, leading his critics - on both the Spanish left and right - to accuse him of being a puppet for the eventual establishment of a Stalinist communist state.
The Battle of Teruel was an important confrontation. The city belonged to the Nationalists at the beginning of the battle, but the Republicans conquered it in January 1938. The Francoist troops launched an offensive and recovered the city by 22 February
By July 1938, the Spanish Republic was in dire straits. The Basque Country had fallen, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) had been crushed by the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain, and many foreign governments felt it was only a matter of time before the question of who would rule Spain would be settled in favour of the Nationalists.
The Battle of the Ebro (Spanish: Batalla del Ebro, Catalan: Batalla de l'Ebre) was the longest and most bloody battle of the Spanish Civil War. It took place between July and November 1938. The battle was fought by both sides as a World War I Western Front battle, with each side launching bloody frontal assaults on enemy positions. The attacks by both sides tended to fail, but not without inflicting severe losses on each of them.
The revolution in the republican zone at the outset of the war, killing 7,000 clergy and thousands of lay people, drove many Catholics, left then with little alternative, to the Nationalists.
In the course of the Red Terror, 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy, 20% percent of the nation's clergy,were killed.The figures break down the as follows: Some 283 women religious were killed. Some of them were badly tortured. 13 bishops were killed from the dioceses of Siguenza Lleida, Cuenca, Barbastro, Segorbe, Jaén, Ciudad Real, Almeria, Guadix, Barcelona, Teruel and the auxiliary of Tarragona.[50] Aware of the dangers, they all decided to remain in their cities. I cannot go, only here is my responsibility, whatever may happen, so said the Bishop of Cuenca. In addition 4,172 diocesan priests, 2,364 monks and friars, among them 259 Claretians, 226 Franciscans, 204 Piarists, 176 Brothers of Mary, 165 Christian Brothers, 155 Augustinians, 132 Dominicans, and 114 Jesuits were killed. In some dioceses, the number of secular priests killed are overwhelming:
* In Barbastro 123 of 140 priests were killed,about 88 percent of the secular clergy were murdered, 66 percent
* In Lleida, 270 of 410 priests were killed,about 62 percent
* In Tortosa, 44 percent of the secular priests were killed.
* In Toledo 286 of 600 priests were killed.
* In the dioceses of Málaga, Menorca and Segorbe, about half of the priests were killed
Reported atrocities
* Murder of 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy and religious orders as well as the killing thousands of lay people.
* The parish priest of Navalmoral was put through a parody of Christ's Crucifixion. At the end of his suffering the militiamen debated whether actually to crucify him or just shoot him. They finished with a shooting.
* The Bishop of Jaén and his sister were murdered in front of two thousand celebrating spectators by a special executioner, a woman nicknamed La Pecosa, the freckled one.
* The priest of Cienpozuelos was thrown into a corral with fighting bulls where he was gored into unconsciousness. Afterwards one of his ears was cut off to imitate the feat of a matador after a successful bullfight.
* In Ciudad Real, the priest was castrated and his sexual organs stuffed in his mouth.
* There are accounts of the people connected to the Catholic Church being forced to swallow rosary beads, being thrown down mine shafts and of priests being forced to dig their own graves before being buried alive
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| "Execution" of the Sacred Heart by a republican firing squad |
The attitudes of the Catholic side towards the government and the ensuing Civil War was expressed in a joint Episcopal letter from July 1, 1937. It was addressed by the Spanish bishops to all bishops of the Catholic world: Spain, so said the bishops, is divided into two hostile camps, of which one side expresses anti-religious and anti-Spanish terror, and the other side upholding the respect for the religious and national order. The Church is pastorally oriented and not willing to sell its freedom to politics. But under these circumstances, she has no option but to side with those who started out, defending her freedom and right to exist
Franco's victory was followed by thousands of summary executions (remains of 35,000 people are estimated by the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH) to still lie in mass graves) and imprisonments, while many were put to forced labour, building railways, drying out swamps, digging canals (La Corchuela, the Canal of the Bajo Guadalquivir), construction of the Valle de los Caídos monument, etc. The 1940 shooting of the president of the Catalan government, Lluís Companys, was one of the most notable cases of this early repression.
In 1938, Franco adopted a variant of the Coat of Arms reinstating some elements originally used by the House of Trastámara such as Saint John's eagle and the yoke and bundle
At the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War, and in spite of the army's reorganization, several sections of the army continued with their bi-color flags improvised in 1936, but since 1940 new ensigns began to be distributed, whose main newness consisted in the eagle of John the Evangelist (one of the last symbols added to the House of Trastámara by Isabelle I of Castille ) added to the shield. The new arms were allegedly inspired in the coat of arms the Catholic Monarchs adopted after the taking of Granada from the Moors, but replacing the arms of Sicily for those of Navarre and adding the Pillars of Hercules on each flank of the coat of arms.
On 21 January 1977 a new regulation was approved that differed from the previous one in the fact that the eagle had wings opened much more, ("pasmada" eagle), the Pillars of Hercules returned to be placed within the wings, and the tape with the motto Una, Grande y Libre (ONE, GREAT and FREE) moved from the neck of the eagle and was located over it.
The dictatorship of Francisco Franco
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| Franco and Eisenhower in Spain in 1959 |
Francisco Franco was born on 4 December 1892, in Ferrol, Galicia, which is Spain's chief naval base in the north. The Franco family was originally from Andalucia
In 1916, at the age of 23 and already a captain, he was badly wounded in a skirmish at El Biutz and possibly lost a testicle. His survival marked him permanently in the eyes of the native troops as a man of baraka (good luck). He was promoted to major (comandante), becoming the youngest field grade officer in the Spanish Army.
.In 1923, already a lieutenant colonel, he was made commander of the Legion. The same year, he married María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdès; they had one child, a daughter, María del Carmen, born in 1926. As a special mark of honor, his best man (padrino) at the wedding was King Alfonso XIII, a fact that would mark him during the Republic as a monarchical officer.
Promoted to colonel, Franco led the first wave of troops ashore at Al Hoceima in 1925. This landing in the heartland of Abd el-Krim's tribe, combined with the French invasion from the south, spelled the beginning of the end for the short-lived Republic of the Rif. Becoming the youngest general in Spain in 1926, Franco was appointed in 1928 director of the newly created General Military Academy of Zaragoza.
On February 5, 1932, he was given a command in A Coruña. Franco avoided involvement in José Sanjurjo's attempted coup that year, and even wrote a hostile letter to Sanjurjo expressing his anger over the attempt.
Franco maintained an ambiguous attitude almost up until July. On 23 June 1936, he wrote to the head of the government, Casares Quiroga, offering to quell the discontent in the army, but was not answered. The other rebels were determined to go ahead, con Paquito o sin Paquito (with Franco or without him), as it was put by José Sanjurjo, the honorary leader of the military uprising.
Franco's common ground with Hitler was particularly weakened by Hitler's propagation of a pseudo-pagan mysticism and his attempts to manipulate Christianity, which went against Franco's fervent commitment to defending Christianity and Catholicism
In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe, and although Hitler met Franco once in Hendaye, France (23 October 1940), to discuss Spanish entry on the side of the Axis, Franco's demands (food, military equipment, Gibraltar, French North Africa etc.) proved too much and no agreement was reached. (An oft-cited remark attributed to Hitler is that the German leader 'would rather have some teeth extracted than to have to deal further with Franco').
Franco allowed Spanish soldiers (Division Azul) to volunteer to fight in the German Army against the USSR (the Blue Division), but forbade Spaniards to fight in the West against the democracies.
Spain was a safe haven for all Jewish refugees and antisemitism was not official policy under the Franco regime. In 1940 alone roughly 40,000 Jewish refugees found safe haven in Spain.Overall, per some estimates, during World War II Franco's policies saved lives of almost 200,000 European Jews.
Franco was recognized as the Spanish head of state by Britain and France in February 1945, two months before the war officially ended. In 1947, Franco proclaimed Spain a monarchy, but did not designate a monarch. This gesture was largely done to appease the Movimiento Nacional (Carlists and Alfonsists).
Franco initially sought support from various groups. He initially garnered support from the fascist elements of the Falange, but distanced himself from fascist ideology after the defeat of the Axis in World War II. Franco's administration marginalized fascist ideologues in favor of technocrats, many of whom were linked with Opus Dei, who promoted the economic modernization under Franco.
Although Franco and Spain under his rule adopted some trappings of fascism, he, and Spain under his rule, are not generally considered to be fascist; among the distinctions, fascism entails a revolutionary aim to transform society, where Franco and Franco's Spain did not seek to do so, and, to the contrary, although authoritarian, were conservative and traditional. Stanley Payne, the preeminent scholar on fascism and Spain notes: "scarcely any of the serious historians and analysts of Franco consider the generalissimo to be a core fascist".The consistent points in Franco's long rule included above all authoritarianism, nationalism, the defense of Catholicism and the family, anti-Freemasonry, and anti-Communism.
With the end of World War II, Spain suffered from the economic consequences of its isolation from the international community. This situation ended in part when, due to Spain's strategic location in light of Cold War tensions, the United States entered into a trade and military alliance with Spain. This historic alliance commenced with United States President Eisenhower's visit in 1953 which resulted in the Pact of Madrid. Spain was then admitted to the United Nations in 1955.
On the brink of bankruptcy, a combination of pressure from the USA, the IMF and technocrats from Opus Dei managed to "convince" the regime to adopt a free market economy in 1959 in what amounted to a mini coup d'état which removed the old guard in charge of the economy, despite the opposition of Franco.
During the 1960s, the wealthy classes of Francoist Spain's population experienced further increases in wealth, particularly those who remained politically faithful. International firms established their factories in Spain where salaries were low, taxes nearly non existent, strikes forbidden, labour health or real state regulations unheard of. Furthermore, Spain was virtually a virgin market. Spain became the second-fastest growing economy in the world (the fastest being Japan). At the time of Franco's death, Spain still lagged behind most of Western Europe, but the gap between its GDP per capita and that of Western Europe had narrowed.
Franco also used language politics in an attempt to establish national homogeneity. He promoted the use of Castilian Spanish and suppressed other languages such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque
The Basque Country and Catalonia were among the regions that offered the strongest resistance to Franco in the Civil War. Franco dissolved the autonomy granted by the Second Spanish Republic to these two regions and to Galicia. Franco abolished the centuries-old fiscal privileges and autonomy (the fueros) in two of the three Basque provinces: Guipuzcoa and Biscay, but kept them for Alava.
Among Franco's greatest area of support during the civil war was Navarre, also a Basque speaking region in its north half. Navarre remained a separate region from the Basque Country and Franco decided to preserve its also centuries' old fiscal privileges and autonomy, the so-called Fueros of Navarre.
When French Morocco became independent in 1956, he surrendered Spanish Morocco to Mohammed V, retaining only a few enclaves (the Plazas de soberanía). The year after, Mohammed V invaded Spanish Sahara during the Ifni War (known as the "Forgotten War" in Spain). In 1969 Ifni was ceded to Morocco in 1969.
In 1969, Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón, with the new title of King of Spain, as his successor. This designation came as a surprise for the Carlist pretender to the throne, as well as for Juan Carlos's father, Don Juan, the Count of Barcelona, who technically had a superior right to the throne.
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| Juan Carlos de Borbón as new King |
In July 1974, the aged Franco fell ill from various health problems, and Juan Carlos took over as Head of State. Franco soon recovered, but one year later he fell ill once again from more health problems including a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. Franco died on 20 November 1975, just two weeks before his 83rd birthday, the same day of the year as the death of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange. After Franco's death, the interim government decided to bury him at Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, a colossal memorial officially dedicated to casualties during the Spanish Civil War.
In the last few months before Franco's death, the Spanish state went into a paralysis. This was capitalized upon by King Hassan II of Morocco, who ordered the 'Green March' into Western Sahara, Spain's last colonial possession.
Spain since 1975
Juan Carlos began his reign without leaving the confines of Franco's legal system. As such, he swore fidelity to the Principles of the Movimiento Nacional, the sole legal party of the Franco era; took possession of the crown before the Francoist Cortes Generales; and respected the Ley Orgánica del Estado (Organic Law of the State) for the appointment of his first head of government. Only in his speech before the Cortes did he indicate his support for a transformation of the Spanish political system.
Fernández Miranda, as president of the Council of the Kingdom, obtained Adolfo Suárez’s placement on the new list of three candidates for head of the government. The king chose Suárez because he felt he could meet the challenge of the difficult political process that lay ahead: persuading the Cortes (Spanish parliament), which was composed of installed Francoist politicians, to dismantle Franco’s system. In this manner he would formally act within the Francoist legal system and thus avoid the prospect of military intervention in the political process. This move was opposed by leftists and some centrists given his Francoist history.
Suárez had initiated political contact with the opposition by meeting with Felipe González, secretary general of the PSOE, in August 1976. The positive attitude of the socialist leader gave further support for Suárez to carry forward his political project, but everyone clearly perceived that the big problem for the political normalization of the country would be the legalization of the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España or PCE), which had, at the time, more activists and was more organized than any other group in the political opposition. However, in a meeting between Suárez and the most important military leaders in September, the officers strongly declared opposition to the legalization of the PCE.
In 1977, Suárez led the Union of the Democratic Centre (Unión de Centro Democrático, UCD) to victory in Spain's first free elections in 41 years, and became the first democratically-elected prime minister of the post-Franco regime.
After the elections, it was necessary to write up a Constitution for the new Spain. Since the 1931 constitution was republican and now Juan Carlos I was appointed king by Franco, a new one was necessary. The pre-constitutional project was written up by a commission consisting of deputies of all main political groups except PNV. After several months of discussion, a consensus was reached between several parties, and the Constitution was sent to the Cortes for approval. After this, it was put on a referendum on 8 December 1978 and was approved by 58% of the total census, with an 8% negative vote and 33% abstention. It was signed by the King on 12 December, and took effect from 1 January 1979.
The constitution granted the right for historical communities to form autonomous regions in Spain. The first regions to do this were the Basque Country and Catalonia, and soon after other regions joined, making up the modern map of Spain. This was widely criticised by the army and by right wing groups which thought the unity of Spain was compromised, and it is still a source of argument today.
Suárez's centrist government instituted democratic reforms, and his coalition won the 1979 elections under the new constitution. Less successful as a day-to-day organiser than as a crisis manager, he resigned as Prime Minister on 25 January 1981
Adolfo Suárez quickly presented a clear political program based on two points:
The development of a Law for Political Reform that, once approved by the Cortes and Spanish public in a referendum, would open the constituent process for creating a liberal democracy in Spain
Suárez adopted a series of measured policies to add credibility to his project. In July 1976 he issued a partial political amnesty, freeing 400 prisoners. He extended this in March 1977, and finally granted a blanket amnesty in May of the same year.
The Basque Country remained, for the better part of this period, in a state of political turbulence. Suárez granted a multi-stage amnesty, but the confrontations continued between police and protesters. ETA, a basque terrorist group, which in the summer of 1976 seemed open to a limited truce, resumed armed confrontation again in October ; 1978–1980 would be ETA's three deadliest years ever.
The government spent much of its time from 1979 working to hold together the many tendencies within the party itself, as well as their coalitions. In 1980, the Suárez government had for the most part accomplished its goals of transition to democracy and lacked a further clear agenda.
The clashes among the several tendencies inside the party eroded Suárez's authority and his role as leader. The tension exploded in 1981: Suárez resigned as the head of government, and Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo (who belongs to Calvo Sotelo' politiciens family) should be then pointed, first to lead the new cabinet and later to the presidency of the UCD; social democrats led by Francisco Fernández Ordóñez defected from the coalition. However the day when he was supposed to be appointed president (Presidente del Gobierno) on February 23, and Spain's should be proposed as entry into NATO, the session of the Congress of Deputies was interrupted by an attempted coup of 23-F. The attempted coup known as 23-F, in which Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero led an occupation by a group of Guardia Civil of the Congress of Deputies on the afternoon of 23 February 1981 failed, but demonstrated the existence of insurrectionary elements within the army. After the failed coup, his appointment as Prime Minister was confirmed on February 25 by the vote of all the UCD members of the congress and 21 others as well, giving him a majority of 186 to 158. To date, 23-F has been the last coup attempt in the history of Western Europe.
In October 1981, entry to NATO was approved in Congress with the open opposition of left-wing groups. The Socialist Party PSOE, the main opposition party, promised a referendum on NATO if it (PSOE) got into government.
ETA is a terrorist Basque nationalist and separatist organisation. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. Since 1968, ETA has killed over 800 individuals, injured thousands and undertaken dozens of kidnappings.The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish and French authorities, as well as the European Union as a whole, and the United States.
In October 1981 it was approved the new and current Spanish Flag:
General elections were held in Spain on 28 October 1982. New elections were called in which the UCD suffered a heavy loss, giving PSOE a huge majority in both the Senate and the Congress of Deputies.PSOE and PSC presented two different lists of candidates: with the PSOE contesting most of Spain and the PSC (Catalan Social Party) only standing in Catalonia.
Felipe González became Prime Minister (Presidente del Gobierno in Spanish) after PSOE's victory in the elections. PSOE at that time, though it had renounced to its Marxist ideology, still had a populist current, led by Alfonso Guerra, as opposed to a neo-liberal one, led by Miguel Boyer. This would cause divisions in the party which would not show up until years later.
This period marked the appearance of the GAL, mercenary counter-terrorist forces organised and paid by the government which assassinated various terrorists, and the expropriation of RUMASA, a trust operated by a member of Opus Dei. Also during this period, Spain joined the European Economic Community, and a referendum (as promised by PSOE) was called on Spain remaining in NATO on 12 March 1986. This time, however, the socialists campaigned in favour of NATO, the parties to the left of PSOE campaigned against NATO, and the right, led by Fraga, campaigned for abstention. In the referendum, the Spanish population opted to remain in NATO with a 52.2% vote in favour, but with considerable abstention.
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, Antiterrorist Liberation Groups) were death squads established illegally by officials of the Spanish government to fight ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 until 1987, under Spanish Socialist Workers Party-led governments. It was proven at trial that they were financed by important officials within the Spanish Interior Ministry. GAL operated mainly in the portion of the Basque country on the French side of the Spanish-French border, but kidnappings and tortures were also performed at various places in Spain. The victims were both members and supporters of ETA, often the most militant, but some victims, apparently innocent, were not known to have links to ETA or terrorism at all. The GAL was active from 1983 until 1987, and it was the perpetrator of at least twenty-seven killings. This period is often referred to as "La guerra sucia" (the dirty war) in Spanish history.
From 1991, PSOE started losing its urban vote in favour of PP, adding this to various scandals: the FILESA case, an organization built to illegally raise funds for PSOE, influence peddling and prevarication cases, internal divisions between the populist and the liberal currents started showing up. Under these conditions, elections on 1993 were called and PSOE managed to achieve a relative majority despite all the corruption and scandals. However, it had to draw a deal with CiU, a Catalan centre-right party. This caused frequent tensions and accusations from the opposition that PSOE was giving more money and power to Catalonia in exchange for CiU's support. This legislature was a failure due to the vulnearbility to the continuous attacks from the opposition and new corruption scandals – the most famous one was the Guardia Civil's director, Luis Roldán. Facing this, PSOE had to call for early elections on 3 March 1996. PP won these elections and was able to enter the government after acquiring support from the various Catalan, Canarian and Basque groups. José María Aznar became prime minister of Spain thanks to the support from CiU, PNV, and CC.
During his first term, his main objective was an economic policy to allow convergence with the euro, and several public enterprises were privatized. Elections were held in Spain on March 12, 2000, and the PP obtained a majority of seats.
Even though Spanish laws do not limit the terms in office of a President, Aznar voluntarily decided to not run for a third term. Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy was elected by his party as new leader. While initial polls gave him good chances of winning, the campaign's last weeks and the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people and wounding 1,800, just three days before elections took place, changed the tide of the vote.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero became prime minister with the support of IU, ERC and CC. This is not a coalition, however, and each law must be individually negotiated.
Some of the main actions taken by the Zapatero administration were the Spanish troops withdrawal from the Iraq war, which resulted in long term diplomatic tension with the George W. Bush administration, the increase of Spanish troops in Afghanistan, the idea of an Alliance of Civilizations, co-sponsored by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the legalization of same-sex marriage, reform of abortion law, a controversial peace negotiation attempt with ETA (a proscribed terrorist organisation), the increase of tobacco restrictions and the reform of various Autonomous statutes, particularly the Statute of Catalonia.
In Elections 2008, Zapatero repeatead a new victory:
In 2011 the Popular party won the elections:
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