Encyclopedia
The
Spanish people or
Spaniards are the ethnic group or nation native to
Spain, in the
Iberian Peninsula of southwestern
Europe. Substantial populations descended from Spanish colonists also exist in other parts of the world, most notably in
Latin America.
Historical Background
Spaniards are a
Southern European Mediterranean population. The earliest modern humans inhabiting Spain are believed to have been Paleolithic peoples that arrived in the Iberian Peninsula about 35.000/40.000 years ago. In more recent times the
Iberians are believed to have arrived in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast. These early Iberians may have had some relationship with the
Basques who are largely believed to have been an aboriginal population that may have existed in the region before the coming of peoples speaking
Indo-European languages in the 1st millennium BCE. Most scholars believe the Iberians came from a region farther east in the Mediterranean although another theory links them possibly to the
North African peoples from which the Canarian
Guanches and modern-day
Berbers descend. . An alternative theory states that they were part of the original inhabitants of
Western Europe and the creators/heirs of the great
megalithic culture in all this area, a theory possibly supported by genetic studies. The Iberians would then be similar to the populations subdued by the
Celts in the first millennium BC in
Ireland, Britain and
France, and belong to the
pre-Indo-European populations of Europe like the Arcadians in Greece,
Picts in Scotland or
Etruscans in Italy.
Northern regions were inhabited by Indo-European tribes , either Celtic or pre-Celtic.
Celtic tribes arrived in northern Spain between the
9th century BCE and the
6th century BCE. The Celts merged with the Iberians in central Spain, creating a local hybrid culture known as
Celtiberian. In addition, a group known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain and who are believed to have developed a separate civilization of Phoenician influence. The seafaring
Phoenicians,
Greeks and
Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries. The
Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and
Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain.
The
Roman Republic annexed Spain during the
2nd century BCE and transformed most of the region into a series of
Latin-speaking provinces. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of local languages, with the exception of
Basque, stem from a type of
vulgarized Latin that was spoken in
Roman Spain, which evolved into the modern languages of the Iberian peninsula, including Spanish. Spain emerged as an important part of the
Roman Empire and produced notable historical figures such as
Trajan,
Hadrian and
Seneca.
The
Germanic Vandals and their subordinates the
Iranic Alans arrived around 409 CE, but were displaced to
North Africa by another Germanic tribe, the
Visigoths who conquered the region around 415 CE and became the dominant power in Iberia for a time. Iberian-Roman culture eventually
romanized the Visigoths and other tribes. Another Germanic tribe, the
Suebi, who arrived at roughly the same time as the Vandals, became established in the old North western Roman province of
Gallaecia a kingdom which survived until late
6th century when it too was destroyed by the Visigoths.
In 711, the
Iberian Peninsula was invaded by
Muslim Arab-
Berbers, popularly known as the
Moors, who conquered nearly all the peninsula except a narrow strip in the very northern part and subsequently ruled part of the region as
Al-Andalus, but were
driven south during their reign, ruling areas from between three to nearly eight centuries, ending with their defeat in 1492. These Muslim invaders were mainly of
Berber origin with prominent Arab tribal leaders mixed in and they converted many locals to Islam to the point that local Iberian Muslims outnumbered those of North African and Middle Eastern origin. Other local Muslims included the so-called Muladis or Muwalladin, in
Arabic, or those born of foreign parentage. Muslim Iberia was known as
Al-Andalus. Ultimately, the vast majority of
Muslims as well as local Sephardic
Jews were either expelled after the Christian reconquest or converted to Catholicism .
Modern Spaniards are linguistically
Latin, while their ancestors are derived primarily from native Iberians as well as varied Basque, Phoenician, Greek, Celtic, Roman, Germanic, and Berber elements.
Spain is home to a large number of Spanish-Roma . Roma are a formerly-nomadic group, originating in Northern India, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa and Europe, reaching Spain in the 15th century. Gitanos, for a number of historical and cultural reasons are not considered a separate or "foreign" population in Spain, but a distinct sub-ethnicity which overlaps with the wider Spanish ethnicity. This is not generally the case in other European countries. There are no official statistics on the Gitano population in Spain. Estimates range from 600 000 to 800 000, making Spain, together with Romania and Bulgaria, home to one of the largest Roma communities in Europe. Over 40% of Gitanos live in the region of Andalusia, where they have traditionally enjoyed a higher degree of integration than in the rest of the country. A number of Spanish Gitanos also live in Southern France, especially in the region of
Perpignan. Gitanos play an important role in Spanish folklore, music and culture as well as in aspects of Andalusian identity itself. In-spite of their cultural contributions, they also suffer from the mistrust and rejection by a large segment of the wider Spanish population.
Ancestry
The preponderance of European Paleolithic
Haplogroups in Spanish men indicates that they may be descended primarily from the earliest paleolithic peoples thought to have colonised Iberia and the rest of
Western Europe. There are thought to have been three separated pockets of human habitation in Europe during the last major glaciation , on the Iberian peninsula, in the Balkans and in the
Caucasus. The Y chromosome haplogroups from these populations are thought to correspond to R1b , I and R1a . These three haplogroups occur all over Europe, but their frequencies are not spread uniformly, R1b occuring most often in Iberia and Western Europe, as is evident in Haplogroup maps.
Haplogroup R1b is particularly dominant in the Basque region which straddles
France and Spain as well as in adjacent regions of Northern Spain.
More recent Neolithic and historic peoples have also contributed to the Spanish genetic pool, from Neolithic agriculturalists to Celts, Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Berbers, but their contributions seem to be limited compared to the dominant Paleolithic component, as can be seen not only in Haplogroup maps, but also in global studies that take into account more genetic loci.
Language
Languages spoken in Spain include
Castilian ,
Catalan/Valencian ,
Basque , Asturian and
Galician , each with their own various dialects. Although Castilian is but one of the many languages of Spain, it is this language which is commonly known as being the "
Spanish language" since it is the official state language, although minority languages are co-official in a number of autonomous communities.
There are a number of dialects of Castilian Spanish of which perhaps the most distinct are the Andalusian and Canarian dialects. Linguistically, the
Spanish language is a
Romance language and therefore Spaniards are considered a Latin people. The strong Arabic influence on the language and the independent evolution of the language itself through history partially explain its difference from other Romance languages. The Basque language has also left a strong imprint on the language both linguistically and phonetically. Other changes in Spanish have come from borrowings from
English and
French, although English influence is stronger in Latin America than in Spain.
The number of speakers of Castilian Spanish, as a mother tongue, is roughly 35.6 million, while the vast majority of other groups in Spain such as the
Catalans and
Basques also speak Spanish as a second language, which boosts the number of Spanish speakers to the overwhelming majority of Spain's population of 45.9 million.
Spanish was also exported to the Americas and is spoken natively by tens of millions of Spanish descendants, and by many others who have adopted the language, and spans across into most countries of the
Americas; from the
Southwestern United States in
North America down to
Patagonia, the most southernly region of
South America. A variety of the language, known as Judæo-Spanish or Ladino, is still spoken by descendants of Sephardim who fled Spain following the
Inquisition of 1492.
Religion
94% of Spaniards are
Catholics,[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sp.html#People] while
Muslims and
Jews and other religious groups are also found in Spain.
Other related peoples
Tens of millions of Spanish descendants can be found throughout the
Hispanic countries of
Latin America in the form of
criollos ,
mestizos ,
mulattos or triracial . In the United States, the number of
Mexican-Americans represent a significant portion of the Spanish descended population, as the majority -over 70% of the population of
Mexico- have Spanish blood flowing through their veins, though most are also mixed with amerindian. .
Spain itself consists of various regional sub-nationalities and ethnicities including the Castilians , the
Catalans, Valencians and Balearics , the
Basques , and the Galicians, who speak a language which is very close to Portuguese. Regional diversity is important to many Spaniards and some regions have strong local identities and dialects, such as
Asturias,
Aragon, the
Canary Islands, and
Andalusia.
On a smaller scale, in addition to approximately 17,000 Spanish citizens in the Philippines, there is also a small but important minority of
Filipino mestizos constituting around 2 to 3% of the population — according to recent genetic studies, up to 3.6% of Filipinos may have some European ancestry.
Footnotes
- Including those of mixed Spanish and other European ancestry, mestizos and/or mulattos.
- Including mestizos and/or mulattos.
- Including other Hispanics of direct Spanish descent, and Spanish-descended mestizos and mulattos.
- Including Brazilians of mixed Spanish and other European ancestry, and Spanish-descended mestizos and/or mulattos.
- Including Filipino mestizo
...
s.
References
Offline references
- Castro, Americo. The Spaniards: An Introduction to Their History .
- Chapman, Robert. Emerging Complexity: The Later Pre-History of South-East Spain, Iberia, and the West Mediterranean .
- Goodwin, Godfrey. Islamic Spain .
- Harrison, Richard. Spain at the Dawn of History .
- James, Edward. Visigothic Spain .
See also
