Andalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("20425")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Phoenicia">Phoenicia
Phoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
n influence and using the Tartessian script for its
Tartessian languageThe Tartessian language , also known as southwestern or South Lusitanian is a paleohispanic language once spoken in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula: mainly in the south of Portugal , but also in Spain...
, a
language isolateA language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
not related to the
Iberian languageThe Iberian language was the language of a people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian peninsula. The ancient Iberians can be identified as a rather nebulous local culture between the 7th century BC and the 1st century BC...
.
Early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Pre-Celts and Celts migrated from
central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
, thus partially changing the ethnic landscape of Iberia into
Indo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan, a 19th century term for Indo-European speakers.* Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages....
space in its northern and western regions.
Proto-history
By the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
, starting in the 7th century BC, the global panorama in Iberia was one of complex agrarian and urban civilizations, either Pre-Celtic or Celtic (such as the
LusitaniansThe Lusitanians were an Indo-European people living in the western Iberian Peninsula long before it became the Roman province of Lusitania . They spoke the Lusitanian language, and were either of Celtic origin or else became Celticized over time...
, the
CeltiberiansThe Celtiberians were a Celtic-speaking people of the Iberian Peninsula in the final centuries BC. The group originated when Celts migrated from Gaul and integrated with the local pre-Indo-European populations, in particular the Iberians....
, the Gallaeci, the
AsturThe Astures were the original Indo-European inhabitants of the northwest area of Hispania that now comprises almost the entire modern autonomous community of Asturias and the modern provinces León, and northern Zamora , and east of Trás os Montes in Portugal...
, or the
Celtici]The Celtici were a Celtic tribe of the Iberian peninsula, akin either to the Lusitanians and Gallaecians or the Celtiberians, living in what today are the provinces of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal, though some migrated north alongside the Turduli...
, amongst others), the cultures of the
IberiansThe Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
in the eastern and southern zones of Iberia and the cultures of the
AquitanianThe Aquitanian language was spoken in ancient Aquitaine before the Roman conquest and, probably much later, until the Early Middle Ages....
in the western portion of the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
.
The seafaring Phoenicians,
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries. Around 1100 BC Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day
CádizCádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Cádiz Province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
) near
TartessosTartessos was a harbor city and its surrounding culture on the south coast of the Iberian peninsula , at the mouth of the Guadalquivir river. It was mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo, in Pliny's Natural History, and in the fourth-century Avienus's literary travel itinerary Ora Maritima, long after...
. In the 8th century BC the first Greek colonies, such as Emporion (modern
EmpúriesEmpúries is a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Catalan comarca of Alt Empordà . It was founded in 575 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea with the name of Εμπόριον...
), were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (
EbroThe Ebro or Ebre is Spain's most voluminous river. Its source is in Fontibre . It flows through cities such as Miranda de Ebro, Logroño, Zaragoza, Flix, Tortosa, and Amposta before discharging in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in the province of Tarragona.-Name:The Romans named this river Iber...
). In the 6th century BC the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day
CartagenaCartagena is a Spanish Mediterranean city and naval station in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia....
).
Roman Iberia
In 219 BC, the first
RomanAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula, during the
Second Punic warThe Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, who had three warring conflicts against each...
against the Carthaginians, and annexed it under
AugustusGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
after two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes and the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies, resulting in the creation of the province of
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
. It was divided into
Hispania UlteriorDuring the Roman Republic, Hispania Ulterior was a region of Hispania roughly located in Baetica and in the Guadalquivir valley of modern Spain and extending to all of Lusitania and Gallaecia .-The Term:Hispania is the Latin term given to the Iberian peninsula...
and
Hispania CiteriorDuring the Roman Republic, Hispania Citerior was a region of Hispania roughly occupying the northeastern coast and the Ebro Valley of what is now Spain. Hispania Ulterior was located west of Hispania Citerior—that is, farther away from Rome.-External links:*...
during the late
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
, and during the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
, it was divided into Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast,
Hispania BaeticaHispania Baetica was one of three Imperial Roman provincesin Hispania, . Hispania Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania , and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis...
in the south and
LusitaniaLusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...
in the southwest.
Hispania supplied the Roman Empire with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The emperors
TrajanMarcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from A. D. 98 until his death in A. D. 117...
,
HadrianPublius Aelius Hadrianus was emperor of Rome from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoic and Epicurean philosopher...
and
Theodosius IFlavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire...
, the philosopher
SenecaLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
and the poets
MartialMarcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
and Lucan were born from families living in Iberia.
Germanic Iberia
In the early 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded the peninsula, namely the Suevi, the
VandalsThe Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Goth Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under .The Vandals are perhaps...
(
SilingiThe Silings or Silingi were an East Germanic tribe, probably part of the larger Vandal group. According to most scholars, the Silingi lived in Silesia...
and
HasdingiThe Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...
) and their allies, the Sarmatian
AlansThe Alans or Alani were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί, Αλαννοί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊...
. Only the kingdom of the Suevi (
QuadiThe Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little definitive information is known. The history of non-literate peoples is written by their opponents, and we can only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through Roman eyes...
and
MarcomanniThe Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi.- Origin :Scholars believe their name derives from one of two possible sources: old Germanic forms of "march" and "men"; or the name of a Roman legate, Marcus Fabius Romanus, who deserted Drusus' legions during...
) would endure after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders, the Visigoths, who conquered all of the Iberian peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually conquered the Suevi kingdom and its capital city Bracara (modern day
BragaBraga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and one of the major cities of the country...
) in 584-585. They would also conquer the
provinceIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italian peninsula...
of the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
(552-624) of
SpaniaSpania was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was a part of the conquests of Justinian I in an effort to restore the Western Roman Empire.-Conquest and foundation:...
in the south of the peninsula and the
Balearic IslandsThe Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula....
.
Islamic Iberia
In 711 AD, a
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
n
MoorishThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
Umayyad army invadedThe Umayyad conquest of Hispania began as an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Berbers, inhabitants of Northwest Africa recently converted to Islam, invaded the Christian Visigothic Kingdom located on the Iberian peninsula...
Visigothic
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
. Under their leader
Tariq ibn-ZiyadTariq ibn Ziyad or Taric bin Zeyad was a Berber Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711 under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I....
, they landed at
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign.
Al-ʾAndalūsAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
(
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
الإندلس : Land of the Vandals) is the Arabic name given the Iberian Peninsula by its
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
conquerors and its subsesquent inhabitants.
From the 8th to the 15th centuries, parts of the Iberian peninsula were ruled by the
MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
(mainly
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
and
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
) who had crossed over from
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
.
Reconquest
Many of the ousted
GothicThe Goths were a heterogeneous East Germanic tribe. The historian Jordanes claimed that the Goths arrived from semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be somewhere in modern Götaland , and that a Gothic population had crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century, lending their name to the region of...
nobles took refuge in the unconquered north
Asturian highlandsThe Kingdom of Asturias was the first Christian political entity to be established in the Iberian peninsula after the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. This followed the defeat of King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Hispania...
. From there they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors: this war of reconquest is known as the
ReconquistaThe Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
. Christian and Muslim kingdoms fought and allied among themselves. The Muslim
taifaIn the history of Iberia, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.The origins of the taifas must be...
kings competed in patronage of the arts, the Way of Saint James attracted pilgrims from all Western Europe and the
Jewish population of IberiaThe Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, also known as the Golden Age of Arab Rule in Iberia, refers to a period of history during the Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula in which Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed.The nature and...
set the basis of Sephardic culture.
In
medieval timesMedieval Times Dinner & Tournament is a chain of dinner theaters which host "royal" feasts and tournaments featuring medieval games, sword-fighting and jousting. Each of the nine North American locations is housed in an 11th-century-style castle...
the peninsula housed many small states including
CastileKingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
,
AragonAragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
,
NavarreThe Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
,
LeónKingdom of León was an independent country situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 AD when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León...
and
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. The peninsula was part of the Islamic
AlmohadThe Almohad Dynasty , was a Berber, Muslim dynasty that was founded in the 12th century, which conquered all of northern Africa as far as Libya, together with Al-Andalus .Between 1130 and his death in 1163, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, the only one Berber from Nedroma among the Masmudas...
empire until they were finally uprooted. The last major Muslim stronghold was
GranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.- Overview :The city of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
which was eliminated by a combined Castilian and Aragonese force in 1492.
Post reconquest
The small states gradually amalgamated over time, with the exception of Portugal, even if for a brief period (1580-1640) the whole peninsula was united politically under the
Iberian UnionIberian Union is a modern day term that refers to the historical political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a personal union....
. After that point the modern position was reached and the peninsula now consists of the countries of
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
(excluding their islands - the Portuguese
AzoresThe Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about from Lisbon and about from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands actually lie on the North American plate...
and Madeira Islands and the Spanish
Canary IslandsThe Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union. The archipelago is located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the disputed border between Morocco and the...
and
Balearic IslandsThe Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula....
; and the Spanish exclaves of
CeutaCeuta is an autonomous city of Spain located on the North African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, on the Mediterranean, which separates it from the Spanish mainland. The area of Ceuta is approximately ....
and
MelillaMelilla is an autonomous Spanish city located on the Mediterranean, on the north coast of North Africa. It was regarded as a part of Málaga province prior to 14 March 1995, when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.Melilla was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2008 it...
),
AndorraAndorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of ...
,
French CerdagneFrench Cerdagne is the northern half of Cerdanya, which came under French control as a result of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, while the southern half remained in Spain . Catalonians often refer to French Cerdagne as "High Cerdanya" , although this name is not recognized in France...
and
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
.