History of Spain

The history of Spain covers the developments in the territory of the Kingdom of Spain from prehistory to the present. It goes back 1.4 million years. Neanderthal man probably disappeared 45,000 years ago, possibly without encountering modern man. The Neolithic (from the 6th millennium BC), the transition from the appropriating way of life of hunters, fishermen and gatherers to the producing, ultimately farming way of life began through immigration from the central Mediterranean region.

From the 10th century BC onwards, there is evidence of trade by Phoenician seafarers with the coastal regions of southern Spain. From the 8th century B.C. at the latest, they founded colonies that served as bases for trade; later Greeks followed, especially from Phocaean Massalia. In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Celtic tribes arrived on the peninsula from the north and mixed with the native Iberians in the northern and western regions (see Celtiberians). During the Punic Wars, the Carthaginians, who descended from the Phoenicians, conquered much of the south and east of the peninsula. After the defeat of Carthage, the Romans conquered the entire peninsula in a long process. The province of Hispania developed into an important part of the Roman Empire.

When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, Visigoths conquered the country. Their rule was ended by Muslim armies beginning in 711. These mountain groups, known as Moors, conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula until the Goth Pelayo (he is attested only in a forged chronicle) ended their advance at the Battle of Covadonga in northern Spain. In retrospect, this event was to mark the beginning of the reconquest of the country by the Christians, the so-called Reconquista. Moorish Spain became independent of the Arab world empire after 750, and in 929 Abd ar-Rahman III proclaimed Al-Andalus its own caliphate. Disputes between the noble families caused the caliphate to break up into numerous small kingdoms after a century.

Meanwhile, the unification process in the north was driven primarily by Castile. The kingdom of León was conquered by King Ferdinand the Great in 1037; in addition, the Castilians pursued imperial goals and temporarily assumed the title of emperor. The two kingdoms broke apart again in 1157, when King Alfonso VII made a division of the inheritance. Around 1230, they were reunited in the Kingdom of Castile by Ferdinand III. In 1469 Isabella, heir to the throne of Castile, and Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Aragon, married. After the assumption of government in 1474 in Castile and 1479 in Aragon, they ruled the dominions together. This did not result in the unification of the kingdoms into one state.

In 1492, Christian troops conquered the last territory ruled by Muslim rulers on the Spanish peninsula. Also in 1492, Columbus discovered America. After the death of Queen Isabella I of Castile, in 1504, her daughter Joan I was proclaimed Queen of Castile. Her marriage to Philip, the son of the Roman-German Emperor Maximilian, established a permanent link between the Spanish kingdoms and the House of Habsburg (Casa de Austria in Spanish). Their son, King Charles I became Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V. After Charles resigned from all offices in 1556, his dominions were divided between the Spanish and Austrian lines of the Habsburgs.

When the last king of the Spanish line of Habsburgs, Charles II, died without descendants in 1700, he was succeeded by Philip of Bourbon, the grandson of the French king Louis XIV. The War of the Spanish Succession was fought across much of Western Europe. A century later, Napoleon, who had assumed rule in France after the French Revolution (1789 to 1799), installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as king in Spain. The Spanish fought back in a protracted guerrilla war. After Napoleon's defeat, Ferdinand VII returned to Spain as king. He was succeeded in 1833 by his daughter Isabella II (then two years old), who ruled until 1868. After the resignation of Amadeus of Savoy, elected king in 1870, the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1873. A coup restored the monarchy under Alfonso XII in 1874. At the end of the war against the United States, Spain lost its colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans in 1898. Spain did not participate in the First World War. The Great Depression hit Spain much harder than other countries because of its low foreign trade links. King Alfonso XIII's association with the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera discredited the monarchy; on April 14, 1931, Niceto Alcalá Zamora proclaimed the Second Republic.

Tensions between the Republican government and the anarchists rooted in Catalonia and the nationalist opposition finally culminated in the civil war of 1936 to 1939, in which Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union also intervened militarily. The nationalists under Francisco Franco prevailed in 1939. Franco kept Spain out of World War II, but his dictatorship led to political and economic isolation.

This isolation could only be broken after his death in 1975, and a constitutional monarchy emerged. Juan Carlos I opposed an attempted coup in 1981. Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez implemented reforms that brought about the transition to democracy. Spain joined NATO in 1982 and the European Community in 1986 and introduced the euro as cash in 2002. In 2007, a real estate bubble burst in Spain; in 2008, the country entered the financial crisis. At the same time, separatist movements, especially in Catalonia, grew stronger.

Monument in memory of the Cortes of Cadiz (1810-1813), which created the first Spanish Constitution.

Spain around the year 1200, at about the historical turning point of the Reconquista

Diorama of the Altamira Cave (Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Barcelona)

Paleolithic

Old Paleolithic

The oldest human remains in Spain are believed to be a 1.4 million-year-old tooth discovered in 2013 in Barranco León, a gorge near Granada. The fossils from the Sierra de Atapuerca have been dated to 1.3 million years.

Finds of the time around 800,000 before today are comparatively frequent in Spain, as in the Cueva de Santa Ana in the Extremadura, those from the time before 550,000 are however rare, again more frequently between 524,000 and 470,000. A certain population increase can be grasped for the time before 339,000 to 303,000 years. Fist wedges are known from about 900,000 years ago from the site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar in the southeast, but they are controversial. Flint bifaces are dated to about 760,000 years from La Solana del Zamborino, also located in southeastern Spain.

Important sites of the Early Acheuléen, defined by the existence of said handaxes, are Villapando, San Quirce, La Maya III, El Espinar, La Mesa and Espinilla Sima de los Huesos. Important sites of the Middle Acheuléen are Cuesta de la Bajada, Gran Dolina 10-11 or Galeria Torralba and Ambrona, of the later phases including the End Acheuléen El Castillo (Cantabria), Lezetxiki, Solana del Zamborino (Granada) or Oxigeno (Madrid).

At the Sima de los Huesos site, about 1300 bones and teeth were found from 25 individuals who lived 600,000 years ago. The average height of the men was 174.4 cm, that of the women 161.9 cm. The site is believed to have been a burial ground. Only one stone implement was found among the bones, an unused hand axe made of quartzite with ochre. Excalibur could be a funerary object, indicating emotional feeling, symbolic and reflexive thinking, and an engagement with death.

Middle Paleolithic: Neanderthal man

The everyday use of fire had become established at the latest 300,000 years ago.

In contrast to the earlier Neanderthals, there is evidence of large-scale cultural differentiation for the late ones, such as in central and northwestern Europe, in Italy, in central and southwestern France including the Pyrenees region, then in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. Neanderthal man was a big game hunter. Some of the finds, such as at Jarama VI (Guadalajara province) not far from Madrid, and Zafarraya, a cave near Málaga, have been dated to 45,000 years ago.

The question of whether Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, who migrated from Africa, lived simultaneously on the peninsula plays an important role in the discussion of the genesis of Upper Paleolithic small-scale art. By 39,600 years BP, a cold steppe was located north of the Ebro River, whereas forests typical of the temperate and warm-temperate climatic zones existed south of the river. This boundary must have offered considerable resistance to the spread of modern man. This could explain the relatively late arrival of Homo sapiens in the south of the peninsula.

The northeastern Spanish site of Las Fuentes de San Cristóbal in the east of the province of Huesca, whose finds can be a maximum of 55,000 years old, shows a phase of lack of use in which neither Neanderthals nor ancestors of modern humans used the cave. This would support the thesis that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals never met in Western Europe. A temporal gap between the use of a site by Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans is also found in the Cova Gran de Santa Linya. Between the find layers lies a "sterile" layer without human traces.

Upper Paleolithic: anatomically modern man

Reliably assignable to Ice Age, anatomically modern humans (so-called Cro-Magnon man) is the Aurignacian, which corresponds to a calendar age of at least 40,000 (possibly 45,000) to about 31,000 years before present.

The following archaeological culture is the Gravettian, for which the sprinkling of the dead with ocher is typical. Its spread to the southwest of the peninsula around 32,000 BP was long considered a uniform process. The Gravettian, and with it Homo sapiens for the first time, reached the Betic Cordillera of the south between 34,000 and 25,000 cal BP.

Some groups shifted their diet to marine animals. Follow-up studies at Tito Bustillo Cave showed that the group there fed particularly on the common limpet and the large periwinkle.

Paintings of Homo sapiens can be found in the Altamira Cave near Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, where more than 150 murals dating from 16,000 to 14,000 BC can be seen. Other cave paintings, some as old as 20,000 years, have been discovered at La Pileta near Ronda and in a cave near Nerja (both in the province of Málaga). A number of engravings and wall paintings were found in Ekain and Altxerri B caves, both near San Sebastián (see Paleolithic Cave Paintings in Northern Spain). At Cueva del Mirón in Cantabria, the elaborately decorated, nearly 19,000-year-old skeleton of a young woman was recovered, known as La Dama Roja de El Mirón.

Wall paintings in El Castillo Cave. At 40,800 years old, probably the oldest works of art in Europe left by anatomically modern humans.

Distribution area of the Aurignacian

Skull of a Neanderthal man, discovered in 1848, later named Gibraltar 1. Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar

Cleaver des Acheuléen, Torralba.

Skull no. 5 of Sima de los Huesos, excavated 1992

Epipaleolithic

The Mesolithic, also called Epipaleolithic in the Mediterranean region, refers to the post-glacial period up to the Neolithic (around 9600 to the middle of the 6th millennium BC). The food base changed in the wake of warming, which not only melted the glaciers but also caused the cold steppes to disappear. The large herds, especially aurochs and horses, disappeared.

To the Azilian (ca. 12.300 to 9.600 B.C.), the early Epipaleolithic, belongs as the oldest burial place the cave Los Azules in Cantabria. From the Asturian (8000-5000 BC) comes the grave from the rock overhang of Molino de Gasparín. The tibia of a red deer can be considered as grave goods there, but above all three Asturian pecks, one of which was sharpened. In contrast to these two dead men, the man of Tito Bustillo (7590-7470 B.C.) lay on his left side with bent left leg and without grave goods on the flat cave floor. Here, paint remains indicate a ritual environment.

It is recognizable that the area of burials, often used for centuries, was avoided. Personal objects increasingly served as grave goods, and there is also evidence of funerary banquets. Possibly, the long-term use of the burial sites shows a tendency towards increasing sedentariness or seasonal mobility as well as the formation of territories.

Neolithic (from 5600 BC )

The Cardial or Impresso culture spread around the western Mediterranean from the 7th millennium BC, with the exception of the Balearic Islands. The first Neolithic farmers and shepherds arrived in Andalusia from the eastern Mediterranean around 5600 BC. Einkorn and Emmer reached Spain at the latest around 5500 BC, as proved in the Coveta de l'Or and in the neighboring Cova de Cendres. However, cereals did not yet make a major contribution to the diet. Livestock farming was documented for the eastern Pyrenean foothills in the Cova Gran de Santa Linya.

Independently of this, the Meseta Neolithic developed in the hinterland. Excavations in the Ambrona area provided evidence of a fully developed early Neolithic with animal husbandry and plant cultivation for the second half of the 6th millennium BC.

The earliest Iberian Neolithic around Valencia apparently consisted of a kind of garden culture. Here, a large number of different cereals and vegetables were cultivated on small beds with the help of hoes; the villages were concentrated in river valleys, and the locations changed frequently. Besides wheat and barley, einkorn and emmer were processed. From the beginning, vegetables such as pea, seed pea, field bean, forage vetch, lentil vetch and lentil were also present. Storage tanks reached up to 100 liters in volume. Only in the Cova de les Cendres were found silos with a capacity of about 500 l.

It was not until the 5th millennium that people moved on to larger fields and the cultivation of hard and soft wheat and barley. The site of Benàmer proved that from the second half of the 5th millennium the stockpiling took on considerably larger proportions, namely up to 6000 liters capacity. Overall, the settlements became larger. Animals were increasingly kept in caves, where ritual acts can now no longer be documented.

In the 4th and 3rd millennia, supplies were no longer stored in this way, but were found around the houses. Thus, the storage of provisions was no longer regulated by the municipality, but by the household units. Their annual needs corresponded to the size of the storage vessels of about 1500 liters. At the same time, some of the storage structures, as in Missena (Valencia) or Jovades (Alicante), were in use for several millennia.

In the second half of the 3rd millennium, when the amount of rain increased again after a long drought, people again went to a diversified garden culture. Einkorn came back into use, but also new plants, such as flax. The large storage structures and settlements gave way to scattered sites, often at higher altitudes, where there is little evidence of social differentiation.

Near Antequera (Málaga) are the two Neolithic dolmens de Menga and Dolmen de Viera, dating from the middle of the 4th millennium BC, which are among several thousand such sites on the peninsula and among the largest such structures in Europe.

Model of Los Millares, the only site where settlement and burial ground are equally known.

Neolithic rock drawing from the Barranco de la Valltorta (Castellón de la Plana in the region of Valencia)

Copper Age

On the peninsula, the first copper smelting is documented in the settlement of Cerro Virtud (Almería) for the first half of the 5th millennium. Nevertheless, regular copper processing may have begun much later.

Especially in the west, the Copper Age is characterized by multiple-partitioned fortifications with double-layered walls. These include Los Millares (Almería), Marroquíes Bajos (Jaén) and Valencina de la Concepción (Seville). The culture of the 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC cultivated vines and olives and produced pottery decorated with symbols, found mainly in megalithic complexes and domed tombs.

Bronze Age

With the El-Argar culture, the Bronze Age began around 2300 BC. It existed essentially in the south. To the north, around Valencia, the Bronce Levantino joined it. In addition, the Guadalquivir culture, the Motilla culture (Motilla del Azuer) and the Tagus culture in the west of the peninsula.

El Argar is characterized by fortified settlements on high plateaus, like El Argar (Antas, near Almería), or on steep hilltops, like Fuente Alamo, not far away. Two-shelled foundation walls of rubble stone attest to rectangular, possibly two-story houses. Copper Age house types continued on the meseta. Dating of the associated Loma culture yielded values between 2250 and 1630 BC.

As early as 2000 B.C., there is evidence of pronounced deforestation in the south.

In the Balearic Islands, at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, there is the Talayotic culture - from the Catalan word talaia for "observation, watchtower" - a megalithic culture of the 13th to 2nd centuries B.C. Talayotic I is characterized by the emergence of water reservoirs, underground burial grounds and single towers in megalithic construction, the so-called Cyclopean technique. In the Talayotic II (from 1000 BC) walled enclosures of the settlements were added. At the latest in Talayotic III there were contacts with Greeks and Phoenicians. After 800 BC, in addition to ceramics and figurines made of bronze, objects made of lead and iron appeared. Trade with Carthaginians, who founded Ebusim (Ibis) in Ibiza around 654 BC, began. In the Talayotic period IV, from about 500 B.C., people moved to the fetal burial form. Sanctuaries were created and in the ceramics, reproductions of Carthaginian-Phoenician and Roman forms appeared.

In the 1st millennium BC, round-oval enclosures of stone ashlars appeared, enclosing some complexes. These were built around talayots, as in Capocorb Vell in the Llucmajor area. In addition, in Menorca, columns and pilasters are joined together to form regular porticoes. Taulas up to 5 meters high exist exclusively in Menorca, where 30 sites are known.

Taula of Trepucó, Menorca

The Lady of Ibiza from the Punic necropolis of Puig des Molins, possibly representing the goddess Tanit

Cultures of the End Bronze Age

Iron Age: Celts, Iberians, Phoenicians, Greeks

Phoenicians, almost exclusively from Tyros, reached the south probably as early as the 10th century B.C., without establishing settlements. Traces of early Phoenician trade contacts have been discovered in Huelva: there, imports date back to about 900 BC. Most Phoenician settlements were established from about 800 B.C. at the mouths of rivers that had now dried up and could be used to reach the hinterland, the first being in the Bay of Cádiz and near Málaga. On the settlement mound Morro de Mezquitilla (Chorreras, Algárrobo, Málaga), which was inhabited from about 650 to 450 BC, iron working could be proved for the early Phoenician period.

In the southwest, the culture of Tartessos, a port city at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, emerged, strongly influenced by the Mediterranean. It was known in antiquity for its metal wealth. The large quantities of imported artisan goods indicate that present-day Huelva was an important Tartessian center. While in the 8th and 7th centuries the amount of Phoenician pottery was still small, it increased greatly in the 7th and 6th centuries.

Castro culture was the name given to the culture of the northwestern peninsula from the 1st millennium BC to the 1st century BC. The fortified settlements were found in an area that extended east to the Río Cares and south to the Duero River. The northern Portuguese region of Ave, located in the center of this culture, has larger castros, the citânias or cividades (from Latin civitas).

In the 7th century BC, richly furnished chariot tombs are found, such as Tomb 17 from La Joya and El Palmerón (both Huelva). Such tombs did not appear in the southeast until the 6th century. The exposed location on longer occupied mound necropolises suggests family or clan connections. Sculptures of warriors, horsemen, and lordly animals appeared in the 5th century. On the periphery of the Tartessian sphere of influence, warrior representations appeared, occasionally bearing inscriptions.

Urnfields were often considered an argument for immigration from the northeast, but this is debatable. The southeast was strongly Greek influenced from the 6th to the 2nd century BC. Phocaeans from the colony of Massilia founded Emporion, Rosas, and later Sagunt and Malaga. In the nearby oppidum of Ullastret, in addition to imported Greek pottery, a Hellenistic city wall, a sanctuary at the highest point of the hill similar to an acropolis, and an agora-like square were found. The city minted coins, however, in Punic coinage.

This phase is associated with the "Iberians", who were initially understood less archaeologically than ethnically - above all they were associated with the Catalans. From the predominantly southern Spanish core areas, their culture spread to what is now southern France. The most important inscriptions of the peninsula in Celtic language and Iberian script came from Botorrita near Saragossa. These inscriptions, about 70 in Celtic language with a total of 1000 words, were written from the 3rd to the 1st century BC.

After the First Punic War against Rome, the Carthaginians conquered the south and east from 237 BC; Cartagena was their most important base. After defeat in the second war, the Carthaginians had to vacate the peninsula in 206/205 BC.

... and from la Serreta (Alcoi, Alicante) with Graeco-Iberian writing

Lead tablet from La Bastida de les Alcuses (Moixent) with southeastern writing...

Tartessos, location and dispersion

The Lady of Elx discovered in 1897 in La Alcudia southwest of Alicante, Museu Arqueológic Nacional de Madrid

Resistance to Roman occupation (197-133 BC ).

The resistance against the occupation by Rome lasted at first from 197 to 179 B.C. After the victory of Tiberius Gracchus the Elder the revolt collapsed.

The second great revolt of the Iberians, which lasted from 154 to 133 BC, had even more serious consequences. It began with an uprising of the Beller and Avacians led by Punicus. In the same year, the Lusitanians, another Celtiberian tribe, joined the revolt. In 150 BC, a Lusitanian legation presented a truce to the Roman praetor Servius Sulpicius Galba. The latter agreed to it and even offered land to settle there. But he had the disarmed killed, and the rest were sold into slavery.

Viriathus, one of the few Lusitanians to escape being killed, led the Lusitanians from 147 and defeated the Romans in 143 and 140 B.C. In 139, the Romans broke the peace made with Viriathus and bribed his envoys, who then murdered the Lusitanian.

Decius Junius Brutus, the appointed governor of the province of Hispania Ulterior in 138 BC, had military installations built in the Tagus Valley and began to subjugate the Alentejo and Algarve regions. In the north, his troops conquered territories inhabited by the Galicians. One of the last battles may have been fought near Santarém, located in the Tejo Valley, which the Roman considered to secure access to the west coast. In 134 BC, Scipio Africanus the Younger took command of the troops. These conquered Numantia the following year. Scipio sold the population into slavery and had the city razed.

The disputes by no means ended with the subjugation. Between 96 and 94 BC, the governor of Hispania Ulterior sent troops to suppress an uprising in the northwestern part of the peninsula, which had already been occupied between the Duero and Miño rivers during the campaigns of Decius Junius Brutus. Starting in 81 B.C., revolts flared up again in the two provinces of Hispania Citerior and Ulterior, this time as a result of the weakening caused by the civil war waged in Italy.

Quintus Sertorius, who had unsuccessfully applied to be tribune of the people, now supported Gaius Marius in his fight against Sulla. The Lusitanians soon elevated him to their leader. He established a rule independent of Rome, which he defended in 79 BC. In 77 BC, Marcus Perperna joined Sertorius, who now established a counter-senate of 300 Romans and relied on the native population in addition to Romans. He resisted Pompey, who had come to Spain with 30,000 men in 76 BC. Sertorius even formed an alliance with Mithridates of Pontus in 74 BC, but he was stabbed to death at a banquet in 72 by a conspiracy headed by Perperna. Perperna, in turn, was defeated by Pompey shortly thereafter.

Only Caesar, who in 61 B.C. was in charge of the province Hispania Ulterior as propraetor, succeeded in breaking the resistance of the Lusitanian tribes, without, however, dominating the northwest of the peninsula. In order to pacify this region as well, the cities of Bracara Augusta (Braga), Lucus Augusti (Lugo) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga) were founded under Augustus. The Cantabrians around the town of Amaia were not defeated by Augustus until the Cantabrian War (29-19 BC), when they were defeated by Agrippa. Augustus made three provinces out of the previous two, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, by dividing Hispania Ulterior into the provinces of Lusitania and Baetica.

Urbanization, Romanization, Roman religion

The country received numerous roads and forts for military protection. Later, the dense network of roads promoted economic development. The population was Romanized, and the peninsula became a main center of Roman culture. Emperor Vespasian granted Latin citizenship to Hispania, while most provinces of the Empire did not receive Roman citizenship until 212. Open fighting occurred only when the Mauri invaded the Roman province of Baetica in 171. As a result of an administrative reform by Emperor Diocletian, two new provinces were separated from Hispania citerior, which was also called Tarraconensis after its capital Tarraco, namely the provinces Gallaecia and Carthaginiensis.

From Hispania came Emperor Trajan, as well as the families of Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian, then Theodosius I, and distinguished writers such as Seneca, Lucan and Martial.

Roman religion came to Hispania primarily in the form of the triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Mars also played an important role as a god of war in certain milieus, and the cult of the emperor was added since Augustus. In addition to the official religion, old gods continued to exist, but were given new names. The Roman gods, for their part, were modified in the new environment.

Christianization, Santiago, Arianism, Priscillianism

Christianity spread on the peninsula, despite brief but fierce persecutions, from the 3rd century until it became the predominant religion under Emperor Constantine I, and the state religion under Theodosius I.

A central role was played, although only from the early Middle Ages, by the national saint of Spain, St. James or Santiago. According to legend, Hispania was missionized by this apostle, and his body is said to have been buried in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia after 44. His tomb was "rediscovered" after 818 and King Alfonso III of Asturias (866-910) attributed his victories to the saint's intervention. It is only from the late 8th century that James is referred to as the patron and protector of Spain. The Church of Santiago claimed special authority with the tomb of the Apostle, which in turn was rejected in Toledo.

Roman society and the state of late antiquity

The Roman state, except for the army and supreme jurisdiction, delegated all state functions to the approximately 2500 cities scattered throughout the empire. The total number of curials, who decided how burdens were distributed among citizens, was about 65,000 in the western empire. In the 3rd century, the tax burden was extended to all provinces, and levies were collected with increasing consistency and severity. While in the endangered areas, including Rome, the construction of theaters, baths and arenas had to take a back seat in the 3rd century in favor of city walls and other defensive structures, this was the case in Iberia much later.

80% of the population worked in agriculture. Except in Egypt, the harvests fluctuated so much that one can almost speak of shock-like jumps. Accordingly, an emperor was favored by the gods when the harvest turned out well. In southern Spain, Christians who wanted to use rituals to make their god favorable demanded that Jews not be allowed in the fields because they would spoil the effect of the rituals. The wealthy were able to stock up and thus wait for higher prices, as they occurred every year before the new harvest, and above all they were able to travel greater distances to supply cities and armies. Farmers, on the other hand, had to rely on local markets with their extreme price fluctuations. At the same time, the biggest grain traders were the emperors themselves. With the gold solidus, the borderline between the economy of the wealthy and the rest of society, which depended on bronze and silver coins, became constantly visible. The richest Roman senators had more income than entire provinces.

Below this small group, which had vast land ownership and wealth, there existed in the provinces a group of local landowners who had villae. The emperors since Constantine paved the way for them into the Roman Senate. This gave them more power and thus much greater wealth. They formed a kind of mediating class, whose members were entitled to the title vir clarissimus or femina clarissima, and who often came from established provincial families. But some families had missed out on this "post-Constantinian gold rush" and feared their relegation. The boundary line within the leadership group was the civil service with its privileges.

Imperial laws created the conditions for ceding almost unlimited powers of disposal and police to local lords, whose economic units thus became increasingly closed off from state influence. Since Constantine, lords were allowed to chain fugitive colonists who had disappeared less than thirty years before. Since 365, colonists were forbidden to dispose of their actual property, probably primarily implements of labor. Since 371 the lords were allowed to collect the dues of the colonies themselves. Finally, in 396, the cultivators lost the right to sue their lord. Under Justinian I, no distinction was made between free and unfree colonies.

The Church in Late Antiquity

Although the clergy formed a separate class, exempt from public services and personal taxation, the emperors denied it access to the upper classes of society. Moreover, this generated resistance among the curates, who were not exempt from duties, because the more members of a community were exempt from duties, the higher the burden became on the rest.

The congregation of these 4th century clerics was by no means composed of the poor and marginalized of society. Recent research shows that the members of the congregations were artisans and civil servants, artists and merchants. They occasionally referred to themselves as "mediocres," who were neither rich nor poor.

Income from the congregation and the care of the poor earned the church state privileges. A privilege of 329 explicitly explains that the clergy should be there for the poor, while the wealthy, which did not include the clergy, should go about their business. However, leading members of society who became Christians, displacing long-time fellow members of the community, were soon able to rise in a single move rather than over long periods of training and experience. Ambrose of Milan was thus able to become a bishop immediately.

The administrative division of the Imperium Romanum around 400

Ruins of the Basilica of Empúries in Catalonia

Alfonso III with his wife Jimena and Bishop Gomelo of Oviedo, 10th century ms., Oviedo Cathedral Archives.

Baptistery with baptismal font in the basilica of Son Peretó

The Roman aqueduct in Segovia

Cantabrian territory

Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, 218-19 BC.

Migration of peoples, Suebi, Vandals, Visigoths

→ Main article: Migration of peoples

Vandals, Alans and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees in 409. When Vandals and Alans moved on and conquered Carthage, even Roman naval supremacy was challenged. In 455 the Vandals sacked Rome, as the Goths had done in 410. The Suebi were the only Germanic tribes left in Hispania, while Rome lost its last bastion in Tarraco in 472. Italy was occupied by the Ostrogoths from 489, while the Visigoths had gained independence in Gaul.

Suebi Empire in the Northwest (409-585)

→ Main article: Kingdom of the Suebi

The core territory of the Suebi was between the Duero and the Ría de Vigo. With the foundation of the monastery of Dumio, monasticism was promoted, which later took off enormously. In this process, the rulebook of the Benedictines became less central than the work of Fructuosus of Braga († 665), but also Isidore of Seville.

In Hispania they were assigned the province of Gallaecia, but in 418 the Vandals almost destroyed them along with their allied provincial Roman troops in the Battle of the Nervasos Mountains. In 429 Vandals and Alans left the peninsula and went to North Africa to conquer Carthage in 439. The Suebi under their first king Hermericus († 441) were the only ones to remain in the country. His son Rechila (438-448) succeeded in conquering Baetica. In 440 the king received an imperial envoy in Mértola. In the following years, Roman troops, supported by Visigoths, fought Bagudean rebellions in the Ebro Valley. Rechila's Catholic son and successor Rechiar married a daughter of the Visigoth king in 449, advanced into Basque territories, and threatened Saragossa. When the Suebi advanced into Tarraconensis in violation of the treaty, Rome asked the Visigoths to move to Hispania. Their king, Theoderic II, was victorious at Órbigo near present-day Astorga. Braga was sacked on October 28, 456, and King Rechiar was executed. Visigothic garrisons were temporarily installed in Suebian territory. The Visigoths concluded a new treaty with Emperor Majorian.

The northwestern Suebi had appointed an otherwise elusive Malchras as their king in 456, while in the capital Braga successively Aiulf (456 to June 457), who may have dared to revolt, and Framta (457-458) ruled in dependence on the Visigoths. Soon the Northwest Suebi joined Maldras' son Remismund. Maldras attacked cities far to the south, such as Lisbon in 457 or Porto the following year. Now Remismund was forced by the Visigoth king Eurich to recognize his suzerainty. He converted to Arian Christianity. Since Hydatius, the author of the chronicle named after him, died in 470, we are exceedingly poorly informed about the second kingdom of the Suebi.

Unlike the Visigoths, the Suebi converted from Arianism to Catholicism shortly after 550. However, Martin of Braga, with De correctione rusticorum, fought their religious ideas, which rather formed a syncretism of pagan and Christian ideas. Nevertheless, as evidenced by the Parochiale of 572, the Suebi succeeded not only in establishing a monastic landscape, but also in imposing a parish structure. Only a few examples of their church architecture have survived, such as in Egitania or in Torre de Palma.

In 573, the Suebi under King Miro supported the rebellious Hermenegild, who besieged Seville. After all, this support of the eldest son could be the reason why the Suebi were subjugated by the Visigoths in 585.

Visigothic Empire (until 711)

Eurich dissolved the federative relationship with Rome and extended the empire to the Loire and far into Hispania. In 475, he made peace with Emperor Julius Nepos, who recognized his independence. The Visigoths initially confined themselves in the south to important bases such as Mérida. It was not until the nineties of the 5th century that several waves of settlements occurred. The population of their empire is estimated at perhaps 10 million. In 507, the Frankish king Clovis defeated the Visigoths under Alaric II, the son of Eurich, at the Battle of Vouillé.

Probably introduced around 475, the Codex Euricianus, a law code named after King Eurich, was the first legal codification of a Germanic empire. It became the basis for the later legislation of Visigothic rulers. The code contained the law of the Visigoths tied to ethnicity rather than residence, while the law of the Romance population was codified in the Lex Romana Visigothorum. This was put into force in 506. It is a revision of the Codex Theodosianus, an influential Roman law collection.

According to older research, the Goths received two-thirds, the Romans the rest of the cultivated land, but two-thirds of the labor force. However, apparently there were still wealthy landowners in the Tolosan Empire who had themselves protected by armed men and fortified their country estates. Many provisions of the Codex Euricianus deal with freemen, whose numbers were apparently considerable. The retinues consisted partly of freemen and partly of unfree men. Simple freemen apparently often found themselves in dire straits, as evidenced by provisions in the Codex dealing with the self-sale of freemen and the sale of freemen as slaves against their will. After 507, settlement centers emerged in Septimania, but also around Segovia, Madrid, Palencia, Burgos, where the row tombs there are attributed to them. In Andalusia, Gothic names appear in inscriptions, especially around Córdoba and Mérida. The Ostrogoths expelled Gesalech, the illegitimate son and successor of King Alaric II, who died in 507, and their king Theoderic took over the rule in the Visigothic Empire, where he ruled until 526.

In 507, Romans of senatorial origin fought with the Visigoths against Clovis' Franks. In administration, too, the highest offices were accessible to the Romans. Although they had to pay taxes, unlike the Goths, their tax burden was much lower than in the Roman Empire. The kings had a knowledge of Latin at least since Theoderic II; at Eurich's court there was interest in Latin poetry.

Estimates of the number of Visigoths living in the Tolosan Empire, especially around Toulouse, vary between 70,000 and 200,000, or about one to two percent of the total population. Marriages between Goths and Romans remained forbidden until the end of the 6th century, because while the Romans were Catholics, the Goths were Arians. Eurich forbade Catholics to fill vacant bishoprics. He saw especially in the bishops potential allies of the emperor. Alaric II, on the other hand, adopted a pro-Catholic course. He incorporated into his Lex Romana Visigothorum provisions of Roman law that regulated the position of the Catholic Church, but not a law of Emperor Valentinian III. which subordinated the Gallic church to the pope.

After 526, the Visigoths made themselves independent again under Amalaric, but his troops suffered a defeat at Narbonne in 531 against the Frankish king Theuderic I. After the destruction of the Vandal kingdom by an army of Emperor Justinian, an Eastern Roman attack also threatened. In the first battles with the Eastern Romans around the city of Ceuta, the imperial troops were victorious. Assassinations, rebellions and coups d'état were so frequent in the following period that the Frankish chronicler Pseudo-Fredegar coined the term "morbus Gothicus" for them. One of the rebellions provided the Eastern Romans with the pretext to intervene; in 552, as allies of a Visigothic rebel, they landed on the southern coast and occupied an area that stretched at least from Cartagena to Málaga.

Under King Leovigild (568/9-586) the empire expanded against the Cantabrians, the Sappi in the Salamanca area, Aragonese and Basques. He was able to push back the Eastern Romans, subduing the Suebi in 585. A Frankish attack on Septimania was repulsed, the rebellion of Leovigild's son Hermenegild put down, who fled to the eastern Roman city of Córdoba in 582 after establishing contacts with Constantinople and renouncing Arianism - Pope Gregory I even called him a martyr. Leovigild's attempt to resolve the tensions between Arians and Catholics failed.

An important concern was the "imperialization" of the kingship by imitating the emperorship. The image of the emperor now no longer appeared on the gold coins, the king wore the crown and purple instead, and after the manner of the emperors he founded a new city, which he named Reccared Recopolis after his son. In addition, from about 569, the focus of the empire shifted to Toledo. In this empire, besides 100,000 Goths, about 9 million Romans are said to have lived. Until the end of the empire, however, the kings were able to achieve only temporary successes against the Basques.

Leovigild's son and successor Rekkared I (586-601) was able to end the war against the Franks. He converted from Arianism to Catholicism in 587. The 3rd Council of Toledo ended the religious conflicts. Among the council's decisions were measures against the Jews. They were forbidden to marry Christian women or have Christian concubines. In 694, drastic decisions were made at the 17th Council of Toledo, encouraged by the rumor that Jews had made contacts with the Muslims of Syria or even planned a conspiracy. The king demanded expulsion from his kingdom. Children from the already existing connections had to be baptized, and from the age of 7 children from Jewish families were to be given to Christian ones. Slaves of the Jews were to be set free. Formally, the king presided over the council, but the contents were probably contributed by Bishop Leander of Seville and Abbot Eutropius of Servitanum. Some Arians went to Africa, and there was a rebellion in Mérida. In 633, the 4th Council of Toledo adopted the Old Spanish liturgy, which exercised great influence until the 11th century.

Rekkared's son Liuva II was deprived of power in 603 after only one and a half years of rule; a conspiracy of nobles brought his successor Witterich to power. This ended the dynasty founded by Leovigild and the principle of elective monarchy reasserted itself. Despite the unstable conditions, King Suinthila succeeded in occupying the last Eastern Roman bases around 625.

A reaction of the royalty to the superiority of the nobility came under Chindaswinth. He himself had come to the throne in 642 through a coup d'état and he wanted to enforce the replacement of the nobility by reliable followers. He even succeeded in 653 in securing the succession for his son Rekkeswinth, whom he elevated to co-ruler in 649.

But after Rekkeswinth's death there was another royal election in 672; the probably 90-year-old nobleman Wamba was elevated to king. He is the first ruler for whom an anointing according to the Old Testament model is attested. However, the almost centenarian was forced to abdicate in 680. The unreliability of the army had already become apparent in the Septimania uprising ten years earlier. Its commander Paul had rebelled against Wamba and mocked him in a letter. His own men plundered and raped, whereupon the king had the offenders circumcised to symbolically expel them from the Christian community. Epidemics broke out in 693/694 and again in 701, causing a significant decline in population. Eventually, the number of royal families was reduced to two, both of them descended from Chindasvinth.

King Rekkeswinth issued a uniform code of law for Goths and Romans (Liber iudiciorum) in 654. This idea represented a pioneering achievement of the Visigoths, because in the other Germanic kingdoms the ethnic principle still prevailed. A division of the empire among the sons of a deceased ruler, as was common among the Franks and Burgundians for a long time, was out of the question for the Visigoths. Prominent metropolitans such as Isidore of Seville and Julian of Toledo - one of Romanesque, the other of Jewish origin - became propagandists of the imperial idea to which loyalty was owed.

Kings interfered in ecclesiastical affairs, but so did bishops in politics. Thus, bishops, as participants in councils, passed resolutions on how to proceed in the election of kings. They also assumed ex officio duties in the judiciary and in tax collection; the church was treated as a branch of the imperial administration.

The court nobility came to the fore, and from 653 only maiores palatii and bishops were allowed to participate in the election of the king, whereas until then this right had been granted to all nobles. However, not only the maiores palatii, but all free inhabitants of the realm were sworn in to the king. His followers were bound to him by an oath of their own. The king lent them lands, but reserved the right to revoke these loans at any time. In 683, the 13th Council of Toledo decreed that no court noble could be condemned without a trial; a tribunal of bishops and court nobles was responsible for such proceedings.

Most of the army consisted of freemen, whose number dwindled in the 7th century, although the kings tried to strengthen them with their legislation. The nobles equipped only a small part of their unfree and led them into battle. King Wamba threatened drastic property and liberty penalties for failure to fulfill their duties.

A very rich upper class, whose fortune consisted mainly of land ownership, was opposed by a large number of unfree and freedmen. Episcopal churches, monasteries and parish churches owned numerous slaves. It happened so often that bishops had their church slaves mutilated as punishment that councils felt compelled to prohibit this by appropriate regulations. Slaves often escaped from their masters, creating a shortage of labor. The manor was often worked by servi, while other plots were given to peasants of various degrees of freedom. An approach to a landlord mode of production can thus be recognized.

The process of de-urbanization continued. Crafts and metal extraction also declined. Greek, Jewish and merchants from the Mediterranean region further east conducted foreign trade. At least, it was the custom in Mérida for Greek merchants to go first to the bishop, so that a certain continuity and regularity can be assumed here. Money, which was minted mainly in the north, was used to pay the army, rather than for commercial needs. At times even gold coins were issued. The lion's share, however, was tremisis (triens).

After the death of King Witiza (710), two rival factions from the families of Chindasvinth and Wamba fought over the succession. Finally, Roderich was enthroned against the opposition of Witiza's supporters, who installed Agila II. (711-714) were enthroned.

In the spring of 711, a relatively small force consisting of Arabs and - predominantly - Berbers crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Roderich, who had just fought the Basques, suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of the Río Guadalete in July 711. Visigoths continued to resist in the Tarraconensis region until 719, and in Septimania until 725, but practically the entire peninsula fell to the conquerors.

Depiction of an artichoke in the Rylands Haggadah (narrative and instructions for the Seder on Erev Pesach, the eve of the festival of the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery). The manuscript was named after the John Rylands Library in Manchester.

Western Gothic bow brooch of the 6th century from Castiltierra (Segovia province)

Crown of Rekkeswinth (653-672)

Fragment of a Catalan version of the Visigothic Liber Iudiciorum, Biblioteca de l'Abadia de Montserrat, Ms. 1109, end of the 12th century.

The Iberian Peninsula in 586

Development of the Visigoth Empire. Red: Settlement of Visigoths in Aquitaine from 418. Light orange and orange: expansion until 507. Orange: Visigoth Empire (with Septimania) between 507 and 552. Green: Suebi Empire, which belonged to the Visigoth Empire from 585 onwards

Idanha-a-Velha Cathedral

Empire of the Suebi around 455

Europe with the main migratory movements

Islamic Empires (711-1492)

The inner-Islamic conflicts were of considerably greater importance than the conflicts with groups of other faiths, because since Muhammad the conquerors monopolized political and military power and offered protection, for which the rest of the population raised the necessary taxes through economic activity. The central power was only able to suppress centrifugal tendencies temporarily and with great harshness. This was due to the fact that the Berbers of northwestern Africa were attracted to a direction of Islam that demanded the equality of all Muslims, regardless of the question of ethnic origin. They thus resisted the Arabs, who claimed permanent superiority. The dynasty that ruled most of the peninsula from 756 onward was based, on the one hand, quite predominantly on Berbers, and on the other hand, it encouraged independence movements among the North African Berbers in order to maintain a buffer zone against the greater Arab empire. Against this background, cultural superiority, reflected in art and architecture, was a means of gaining prestige and competing with the center of the great empire, Damascus. The claim to the caliphate, which divided the Islamic world even more clearly from 929 onward, is in line with this.

After the fragmentation of this caliphate into small dominions around 1031, strictly religious groups proselytizing with the sword intervened with considerable violence in the internal Islamic conflicts and those with neighboring Christian states. On the other hand, the Muslim part was heavily involved in the struggles between the three major mountain groups.

Conquest by the Islamic world empire (from 711)

Count Julian of Ceuta, an opponent of King Roderic, apparently made contact with the Muslims. Musa ibn Nusayr, governor of the caliph, sent out about 500 men under Tarif ibn Malik on a raid in 710. In 711, an army consisting mainly of Berbers and numbering about 7000 men landed at Gibraltar under Tariq ibn Ziyad. Tariq defeated the Visigoths on July 19 in the Battle of the Guadalete River and occupied the capital Toledo. In June 712, Musa landed with a conquering army of 18,000 men from the east of the empire, composed of Arabs and Berbers, and together with Tariq continued the conquest.

Abd al-Aziz, Musa's son, was appointed governor of al-Andalus, as the new masters called the peninsula, with Seville as its capital in 714. His attempt to establish an independent rule led to his assassination in 716. His successor Ayyub made Córdoba the capital. The governor Samh (718-721) occupied Barcelona in 720 and crossed the Pyrenees for the first time.

However, in 718 began in Asturias the revolt of the Visigoth Pelayo (Pelagius), who had himself elected king. This led, if we follow the unreliable chronicle, to the foundation of the Kingdom of Asturias, which was stabilized by his son-in-law Alfonso I of Cantabria (739-757). At the same time, the siege of Constantinople (717-718), carried out with the deployment of considerable forces, failed, ultimately breaking the seemingly unstoppable expansionist power of the Islamic empire. In the Maghreb, rebel Berbers under Maysara defeated an army brought over from Andalusia, and in 740 an army coming from the east, and Maysara even assumed the title of caliph. The Berbers of the Iberian Peninsula drove the Arabs there southward. Although the rebels were defeated, the victory was short-lived.

In the north, development was more dominated by non-Muslim groups, less by internal Islamic conflicts. After a Muslim army failed to break Asturian resistance at the Battle of Covadonga in 718 or 722, Muslim raids continued into Aquitaine, Provence, and Burgundy in 725. In 732, an army captured Arles and Bordeaux. But as it moved further north, the Battle of Tours and Poitiers occurred against Frankish forces under Charles Martell. Abd ar-Rahman was killed in the battle and his army retreated. Thus, at first, the power of expansion also slackened at this point. But it was not until the Berber uprisings and the breakup of the world empire that it finally came to a halt here.

In 741, an entire Arab army moved into the peninsula under Balğ ibn Bišr, who had defeated the Berbers with his troops and who rose to the governorship in 742. As in other provinces, this was an expression of unrest, mainly due to disputes between northern and southern Arabs, but also between the governors residing in Córdoba since 716 and their commander-in-chief in Kairuan, Tunisia.

Independence from the Islamic Empire, Emirate of Córdoba (750-929)

Fall of the Umayyads in the east, independence of al-Andalus

The Christian population dominated trade, while the conquerors skimmed off some of the profits. Foreign contacts were also largely handled by Christians, if only because of their language skills.

In addition, the Berbers, who had mainly borne the conquest of the Visigoth Empire, felt disadvantaged, since they were denied settlement in the fertile south and deported to the north for border defense. As in the western Maghreb, this disadvantage of the Berbers in Andalusia led to a rebellion (741-746) that could only be suppressed by sending an Arab army from Syria.

The governor of Narbonne, Yusuf ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Fihri, who was responsible for al-Andalus from 747 to 756, made himself virtually independent under the impact of the fighting between the Umayyads and the Abbasids, which ended in a massacre of the Umayyad family in 750. He led a punitive expedition against the Basques in Pamplona in 755, but it failed.

Takeover by Abd ar-Rahman (756), conflicts with Franks and Asturias

The formation of a dynasty was prevented by the arrival of the last Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman I, who had escaped the massacre of his family. He had fled to the Maghreb, where he found support among the Berber tribe from which his mother was descended. With the latter, he defeated al-Fihri in the Battle of Musarah near Cordoba in May 756.

Abd ar-Rahman founded the Emirate of Córdoba. An Abbasid force was defeated, and by 760 he was the undisputed ruler of al-Andalus. But several Berber revolts (766-776) revealed the fractiousness of the empire. Unlike the Arabs, the majority of Berbers had converted to Ibadiyya, a Kharijite form of Islam.

Abd ar-Rahman I, who supported the rebellions in the Abbasid Empire, divided Andalusia proper into provinces. In central Spain, the margravates of Mérida, Toledo and Saragossa were created. There, families ruled, some of them quite independently from Córdoba. Thus, Zaragoza and the Ebro Basin were ruled by the Banu Qasi until 907.

In 777, rebels of the Fihri clan appeared at the Diet of Paderborn and asked Charlemagne for support. In 778 Charlemagne crossed the Pyrenees and took Pamplona, but failed to conquer Saragossa. On the way back, he suffered a legendary defeat at the Battle of Roncesvalles. In turn, the Muslims took Narbonne in 795, the Franks conquered Barcelona in 801, and Tortosa in 811.

Under Abd ar-Rahman, increased immigration of Arabs from Syria began, which significantly accelerated cultural Arabization. In order to symbolically underpin his ruling power, as well as his ethno-religious orientation, he began extensive building activity. In addition to the fortification of Córdoba, he built the Palace ar-Ruzafa and began the construction of the Great Mosque. The development of agriculture was promoted by irrigation and canal construction techniques. This led to the rise of the peasant middle and small estates and became the basis for economic expansion.

Intra-dynastic conflicts, revolts and expulsions

After Abd ar-Rahman's death, he was succeeded in 788 by his second son, Hisham I, who prevailed over his brothers. In 791 he moved to Old Castile, his army defeated Bermudo I of Asturias further west, and then drove the Franks from Girona and Narbonne in 793, and then moved across the Pyrenees to Septimania, where they defeated an army of Franks. However, intra-family conflicts and rebellions put Hisham on the defensive, so that even the Balearic Islands were contested between Muslims and Franks from 798. Under Hisham, the Malikite school of law began to spread, and with it one of the four schools of law of Sunni Islam.

In 796, al-Ḥakam I. (until 822) succeeded his father. However, two uncles of the new emir disputed his power and moved Charles to a new campaign. King Alfonso II of Asturias pledged support. Involved was Charles' son Louis the Pious, who with his army sacked the cities of Lleida and Huesca in 800 and occupied Barcelona in 803. The count there took the title of Margrave of Gothia. Subsequently, al-Ḥakam and Charles concluded a truce, the uncles had been given the eastern part of the emirate between Huesca and Murcia in a settlement.

Subsequently, al-Hakam suppressed autonomy efforts in the provinces, especially in the margraviate. In Toledo, for example, 5000 nobles are said to have been murdered on his behalf at a banquet in the Alcázar in 797. He built up a mercenary army of Berbers, Franks and Slavic slaves. With their help, a conspiracy in Córdoba was put down in 805 and an uprising in its suburbs in 818. The suburb on the other side of the Guadalquivir was destroyed and the population expelled. Many of its opponents then fled to the Idrisids of Morocco, who settled the Andalusians in Fez. The remaining families, reportedly 15,000 of the total 20,000 expelled, temporarily took power in Alexandria, Egypt (until 825), before conquering Crete in 827 and establishing an emirate that lasted until 961. The distrustful emir surrounded himself with a bodyguard from outside the country ("the Silent Ones"), who were subordinate to the head of the Christian community.

Artistic flowering, Viking campaign (844), dominance of Asturias, Mozarab revolts (about 866 to 928)

Hakam was succeeded in 822 by Abd ar-Rahman II, whose reign was marked by literary and artistic activity. Arabic prevailed over Romance, encouraged by immigration.

Although there were battles in the northern border areas, in general the conflicts were managed without open warfare. However, in 842 the important Marquisate of Saragossa declared itself independent, and in 844 Vikings appeared at the mouth of the Tagus River and also reached Cadiz. From there they sacked Seville, but were then defeated by troops of Abd ar-Rahman. In 859, the Vikings again raided in Hispania.

Large sections of the Mozarabians had come to terms with Islam, especially the advocates of Adoptianism, among whom Bishop Elipanus of Toledo, who was still Primate of Hispania, played a leading role. A group of Christians of Cordoba, on the other hand, reviled Muhammad and Islam in 851 and 859, for which the courts passed 45 death sentences (Martyrs of Cordoba).

Since the margraviate of Toledo declared its independence in 852 and Mérida in 868, Muhammad could not prevent Alfonso III of Asturias from expanding his empire. On the contrary, in 883, after Alfonso had allied himself with Ibn Marwan of Mérida, he was forced to make peace with Asturias. The emirate was in danger of disintegrating when, in 884, the rebellion of Umar ibn Hafsun began in Bobastro, who ruled the provinces of Málaga and Granada and who established links with the insurgents in Jaén. He relied mainly on Berbers and Mozarabs. In 888, the emir's son and successor, al-Mundhir, died before Bobastro. His brother Abdallah continued the struggle, but Murcia and Valencia were lost in 889, and other members of the Umayyad clan made themselves independent in Ronda and Seville. Umar ibn Hafsun had to be recognized as governor in Granada, and in 895 a son of the emir revolted, leaving Abdallah temporarily in control only of the environs of Cordoba. The nadir of his rule was reached when, around 900, Abdallah had to recognize the suzerainty of Asturias over all of Iberia. However, this led to opposition from the Muslim clergy, who accused the emir of being the vassal of a Christian king.

Umar ibn Hafsun eventually established contacts with the Aghlabids and later the Shiite Fatimids in North Africa. When he converted to Christianity, however, he lost many allies. Abdallah now increasingly succeeded in playing the insurgents off against each other. When he was finally able to ally himself with the Banu Khaldun, Umar ibn Hafsun was largely isolated.

The Emir's grandson, Abd ar-Rahman III, succeeded in winning Seville in 913. But it was not until the death of Umar ibn Hafsun that he gained the upper hand. In addition, the outbreak of a civil war in the kingdom of León beginning in 925 weakened the Muslim insurgents in the margraviate, who were supported by León. In 927, the Hafsunids were forced to capitulate, as were the Marwanids of Merida. With the conquest of Toledo, the fighting that had lasted for a human lifetime ended around 930, in which both Christians and Shiite Fatimids had intervened, but which had been carried mainly by Mozarabs.

Caliphate of Córdoba (929-1031)

Sunni supremacy, struggle against Shiites and Christians

Abd ar-Rahman III assumed the title of caliph on January 16, 929, to counter the claim of the Fatimids of North Africa, who were also caliphs but were Shiites. His fleet occupied Melilla in 927 and Ceuta and Tangier in 931. Furthermore, alliances with the Berber Banu Ifran or Magrawa as well as with the Salihids prevented further Fatimid expansion in Morocco.

'Abd ar-Rahman also won a victory against León and Navarre in 920. However, he suffered a defeat against León in the Battle of Simancas in 939, narrowly escaping capture. The betrayal of fellow Arabs caused him to rely more heavily on Berbers from then on. Finally, in 951, he was able to impose Umayyad suzerainty over León, Castile and Barcelona, which led to substantial tribute payments.

Cultural and economic flourishing, Islamization

At the same time, art and science reached their highest flowering. The population grew rapidly. Cordoba had 113,000 houses and 600 mosques and magnificent palaces, including the Alcázar. Córdoba eventually became the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, ahead of Constantinople, with a population of perhaps 500,000.

At the same time, Islamization took hold of the leadership groups who owed their fortunes and careers to the court. Then came the cities, which were now more strongly influenced by Muslim architecture and economy. The rural areas, on the other hand, were not more strongly affected until very late, in many cases not until the 12th century. Many African and Middle Eastern techniques and products were transferred to Spain, where figs and dates became naturalized, while domestic pigs disappeared and more goats and sheep were kept instead.

His son al-Hakam II (961-976), known as a poet and scholar, ruled in the same spirit as Abd ar-Rahman III, whereas under Hisham II (976-1013) the caliphate lost its importance. Al-Hakam promoted economic development by expanding irrigation systems, roads and establishing markets. The promotion of art and culture was of great importance to him. Thus, a library with 400,000 volumes was built in Cordoba, but it was lost toward the end of the caliphate.

While internal administration was largely left to the vizier al-Mushafi, General Ghalib gained considerable influence. He was primarily concerned with repelling the last Norman attacks in 966 and 971, but above all with the battles with the Fatimids and Zirids, respectively, in northern Morocco. The latter were defeated by Ghalib in Morocco in 974. In the face of the Christian empires of Navarre, Castile and León, al-Hakam was able to assert the supremacy of the caliphate. Hisham II succeeded him in 976 at the age of ten. His mother Subh and Jafar al-Mushafi, the first minister, exercised the regency for him.

Beginning disempowerment of the dynasty, influence of the Berbers

Militarily, the Caliphate reached its greatest power at the turn of the millennium thanks to Almansor, a minister and general of Hisham. In 985, Barcelona was taken, while in the same year the Fatimids abandoned their plan to conquer Morocco; at the same time, the flight of the Zanata Berbers to Iberia, who had been defeated, continued. The triumphant march of the Sunnis began. Subh promoted Almansor and appointed him chamberlain. By 978, he had also prevailed over General Ghalib. Hisham was ousted from government, and in 997 he had to give Almansor sole rule. After the latter's death, his son Abd al-Malik (1002-1008) came to the throne, consolidating his position in the empire through wars against Navarre and Barcelona, but was assassinated by Abd ar-Rahman Sanchuelo. When the latter was in turn overthrown in 1009 by a popular uprising under Muhammad II al-Mahdi, the rebels simultaneously deposed Hisham II.

Sulaiman, as the great-grandson of Abd ar-Rahman III, was installed as caliph by Berber forces in 1009. Although they were able to hold their own against the troops of Muhammad and the Catalans allied with him, Sulaiman gave up the battle prematurely, so that Córdoba was sacked again, this time by the Catalans. In 1013, Sulaiman regained the caliph's throne after Córdoba was again conquered by the Berbers and after Hisham was deposed until 1016. Now the Zirids of Granada formed an independent Berber dynasty (1012-1090). Sulaiman finally fell into the hands of the Hammudids of Malaga and Algeciras (1016-1058) in 1016 and was executed. The title of caliph thus passed from the Umayyads to the Hammudids under Ali ibn Hammud al-Nasir (1016-1018). With him, a non-Umayyad and at the same time an Idrisid descendant came to the throne for the first time in 1014, followed by his brother after his assassination in 1016.

Small states (Taifa kingdoms) (from 1031), supremacy of Castile (until 1086)

Between 1009 and 1031, resistance from the regions increased under the leadership of locally based families, but also at court. In the course of the struggles between the various ethnic groups, first and foremost the Berbers who had migrated from North Africa as mercenaries in the second half of the 10th century and the long-established "Arab" population, which was primarily the descendants of the mostly Berber conquerors of the 8th century and the Hispano-Romans (Muladíes) who had converted to Islam, the individual parts of the empire became independent under new dynasties. Initially, up to 30 taifas emerged, which fought each other in shifting alliances.

These taifas can be divided into three groups, the taifas of the Berbers, who initially placed themselves under the spiritual leadership of the Hammudids of Malaga and the military leadership of the Zirids of Granada, the taifas of the Arabs and muladíes, and the taifas of the Amirids, descendants or ṣaqāliba (that is, Slavs and other light-skinned and reddish peoples) of Almansor. The latter, however, were unable to found a dynasty because the former generals and officials were often eunuchs. An exception was Muğāhid of Dāniya, who founded a dynasty with his Christian wife in the Gulf of Valencia and the Balearic Islands.

Under Abbadid pressure, the smaller taifas of the Zanata were increasingly weakened, so that Granada quickly became the most important taifa of the Berbers. Eventually, the Zirids also got rid of the Hammudid caliphs of Malaga and Algeciras. Of the Arab taifas, the most important were Seville, Zaragoza, Badajoz, Córdoba and Toledo, some of which also subordinated themselves in a legitimist manner to a shadow caliphate. The most important dynasties of this period were the Hūdids of Zaragoza, the 'Abbādids of Seville, the Afṭasids of Badajoz, the Dhun-Nunids of Toledo, the Hammudids of Malaga, the Jahwarids of Córdoba, and the Zirids of Granada. The Amirids ruled the eastern coast between Almería and Valencia.

Although the Abbadids of Seville soon rose to become the most powerful kingdom, they too had to recognize the suzerainty of Castile in 1064. When Alfonso VI of Castile conquered Toledo in 1085, then occupied Aledo Castle far to the south, the petty kings turned to the Almoravids of Morocco for help. The latter defeated the Castilians in 1086 at the Battle of Zallaqa, near Badajoz.

Meanwhile, there was a renewed cultural flowering, especially in the fields of poetry, art and science. The important historians al-Udri (1002-1085) and Ibn Hayya (987-1076) lived in this period, as did the geographer al-Bakri († 1094). The lexicographer Ibn Sida (1007-1066) of Murcia wrote two dictionaries, and among the physicians Abu l-Qasim az-Zahrawi († 1010; Latinized Abulcasis) became famous for his textbook of surgery, the Kitab al-Tasrif, which was translated into Latin by Gerhard of Cremona (1114-1187). Among astronomers, it is worth mentioning az-Zarqala († 1087) of Toledo, who also became known in Christian Europe under the name Azarquiel. Other important men were the polymath Ibn Hazm (994-1064), the poet Ibn Zaidun (1003-1071), and the poet and philosopher Ibn Gabirol (c. 1021 to c. 1058). The most important figure was Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi. He was born in Córdoba, and his family was probably of Visigothic descent. He rose to become a polymath, extensively versed in theology, philosophy, and poetry, but as a follower of the Zahirite school of law, he was banned from teaching in the Great Mosque; in Seville, his works were burned. Another reason for his repeated banishment was his alleged pro-Umayyad stance. His work The Separation between Religious Communities achieved great importance. In it, he sought to refute Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism, as well as the main Islamic sects. Also, a tract he wrote on love, The Collar of the Dove, was widely read.

Almoravids (from 1085), second Taifa period (from 1144), Almohads (until 1212)

In 1086, the Almoravids achieved a decisive victory that opened the Iberian Peninsula to them. In 1091, Seville fell. The Almoravids took control of al-Andalus, which now became part of an empire centered in northwest Africa.

Outraged by the "decadent" lifestyle and the "softening" of the religion they found, they began the subjugation of the Taifa kingdoms in agreement with jurists who highlighted the failure of the petty kings to protect Islam. This ended in 1110 with the fall of the Hudids of Saragossa. Finally, when in 1153 Ramon Berenguer IV. (r. 1131-1162) conquered the viceroyalty of Siurana in Catalonia, the last Taifa kingdom in the northern part of the peninsula had also disappeared.

Episode remained only El Cid, a disgraced vassal named Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043-1099), whom his Muslim followers called sid (lord). At first he supported the King of Saragossa against the Marquis of Barcelona, but above all, in a legendary move in 1094, he conquered the kingdom of Valencia, where he remained until his death in 1099.

Under Ali ibn Yusuf, Valencia and Saragossa, as well as the Balearic Islands, were subdued, but Saragossa was lost to Aragon in 1118. Most importantly, a new reformist power, led by Zanata Almohads, conquered the Almoravid Empire in Morocco. After the death of Ali ibn Yusuf, the Almoravids were forced to withdraw from Andalusia, which favored the rise of Ibn Mardanīsh (1143-1172) of Valencia. The dynasty ended with the storming of Marrakech by the Almohads in 1147 and the death of the last Almoravid.

The second Taifa period began in 1144, when their empire collapsed. An equally strict religious reform movement followed with the Almohads. They conquered Valencia in 1172, but an attack on Lisbon failed in 1184. After their victory at Alarcos in 1195, they were finally defeated by the army of the kingdoms of Portugal, Castile, Navarre and Aragon at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16, 1212. With Ibn Hud († 1238) and the Nazarites, Andalusian Muslims again came to rule.

Emirate of Granada (1232-1492)

But al-Andalus was limited to the Emirate of Granada under the Nasrids. The dynasty dates back to the Arab Muhammad Yusuf ben Nasri 'Alhamar' ('Redbeard'), who was proclaimed Sultan in 1232. In 1234 he declared himself a vassal of Cordoba, but Ferdinand III conquered the city and Muhammad then seized Granada; for this he was enfeoffed by Ferdinand in 1236. In 1238 he entered Granada to occupy the Palace of the Windcock (the old Alhambra). Muhammad soon had to pay homage to him and recognize him as lord.

Under Muhammad II al-Faqih (1272-1302), the Merinids of Morocco gained supremacy over the Nazarites, but in 1340 they were defeated at the Battle of Salado by a fleet led by the Castilians. From then on, the Muslims no longer received support from North Africa. Economically, Granada fell into dependence on Aragon and Genoa, which controlled foreign trade.

Under Yusuf I. (1333-1354) and Muhammad V. (1354-1359), culture and economy flourished again. Granada was expanded and palaces were built in the Alhambra, including the Court of the Lions. The war for Granada was started jointly by Ferdinand V and Isabella I in 1482, while Granada experienced a civil war. The last emir Muhammad XII "Boabdil" surrendered in 1492.

The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada

Pavilion in the Lion Court of the Alhambra

Koran from al-Andalus, 12th century

Almoravid Empire in Morocco and Spain

The collar of the dove, manuscript in the Leiden University Library

(Not unproblematic) reconstruction of the Moorish fortress wall (around 1065), plus the moat with corner bastion (from 1593) and the angular "Tower of the Troubadour" in the Aljafería, the city palace of Zaragoza. It represents one of the few buildings of the Taifa period.

Taifa kingdoms around 1037...

Dinar from the time of Hisham II (around 1006/07)

The Caliphate of Córdoba around 1000

Ruin of the main mosque of the Madīnat az-zahrāʾ residence founded in 936.

Islamic dominion around 910

Beati in Apocalipsin libri duodecim (Beato de Zamora), f. 107r. The Visigothic manuscript consists of 144 ff of parchment of two columns of 33 to 35 lines each; Mozarabic miniatures, Biblioteca de Serafín Estébanez Calderón y de San Millán de la Cogolla, 1st half 10th century.

Mosque of Córdoba, begun in 784 and extended several times until 987

Islamic expansion: Conquests under the founder of the religion Mohammed, 622-632 among the four "rightly guided caliphs," 632-661 under the Umayyads, 661-750

Asturias-León, Castile

Independence struggle against Córdoba, Kingdom of Asturias-León

The Visigoth Pelagius was supposedly elected king (or prince) by his followers in 718. He scored a defensive victory at the Battle of Covadonga, which in retrospect has been interpreted as the beginning of the Reconquista. However, it was a private dispute with the Muslim governor in charge of Asturias that gave rise to the rebellion. More tangible is King Alfonso I († 757), who created a belt of devastation between his kingdom and the Muslim territory through murders. Under his son Fruela I began the Repoblación, the repopulation of depopulated areas by Christians. Galicia was also subjugated.

Alfonso II. (791-842) resumed the conquests. The capital was now Oviedo, founded in 761. Under Alfonso III. (866-910), Asturias achieved its greatest expansion and temporary suzerainty over the Muslim south. His three sons divided the kingdom among themselves and the partial kingdoms of León, Galicia and Asturias were formed. In 924 they were reunited as the Kingdom of León.

The first king of León was García I. He married a daughter of the Castilian Count Nuño Fernández, who in 910 had supported García and his two brothers Fruela and Ordoño in a rebellion against their common father. García received León, his brothers Ordoño Galicia and Fruela Asturias. The childless García was succeeded by his brother Ordoño II, who had been sent to Saragossa to be educated by the Banu Qasi. He had the cities of Évora and Mérida sacked. Córdoba was defeated in the battle of San Esteban de Gormaz in 917, but the Christians were defeated in the battle of Valdejunquera in 920. A counterattack led to the occupation of La Rioja and the conquest of the territories around Nájera and Viguera in Navarre. Ordoño II, who had summoned the Counts of Castile but they did not show up, summoned them to Tejares and had them summarily murdered.

He was succeeded by his brother Fruela II, which would later lead to a succession dispute with the latter's son Alfonso Froilaz, because Ordoño had three sons named Sancho Ordoñez, Alfonso and Ramiro. Alfonso became king in 925 after the three brothers ousted the heir, his brother Sancho Ordóñez became king of Galicia from 926 to 929, and his other brother Ramiro ruled Portugal. The latter, also called Ramiro the Great, formed an alliance with Navarre and Aragon that defeated the Caliph's forces in the Battle of Simancas in 939. The southern border of the Empire was moved from the Duero to the Tormes.

But he could not prevent Castile from becoming independent. Rodrigo, the first Count of Castile, conquered Amaya and the territory of La Burega and Oca in 860, until he controlled the Pancorbe pass leading to the Ebro Valley. Then followed the expansion into the Duero basin. Count Diego-Rodréguez founded Burgos in 884. The conquest of the Riója by Sancho García I, King of Navarre, secured the eastern border around 920.

In 931, the counties into which Castile had been divided until then were united by Count Fernán González, who made the county under the suzerainty of the Kingdom of León independent in 944. With the support of León, he was able to repel attacks from Córdoba until then, after which he succeeded in conquering Osma and Simanca. He allied himself with the Caliph against León, but he was stopped by Sancho the Fat in 966. He left the county to his son García Fernández (970-995), who faced final attacks from Córdoba but was able to extend his dominion northward. His son and successor Sancho García temporarily allied himself with Córdoba and intervened there after the death of al-Mansur in 1008.

In 955 Ordoño III of León sent an army to Lisbon, after which an agreement was reached between him and the Caliph. He married Urraca Fernández, daughter of Fernán González, Count of Castile, but he later disowned her because her father was allied with Sancho I, who disputed the throne with him. In fact, he succeeded him on the throne after his death in 956. Two years after his coronation, he was again deposed by nobles led by Fernán González, Count of Castile. In exile with his grandmother Toda of Navarre, he won the support of Abd ar-Rahman. He conquered Zamora in 959 and regained his throne. However, there was a break with the Caliph and subsequently an alliance with Navarre.

Sancho was finally poisoned in 966 and his five-year-old son Ramiro III succeeded him on the throne. His aunt Elvira Ramírez, who assumed the title of king for the time, and his mother, Teresa Ansúrez took over the governance.

Vermudo II, son of Ordoño III and king of Galicia since 982, overthrew the young king in 984. Under the protection of Córdoba, he managed to reconquer Zamora, but this left him dependent on the support there in the fight against Castile. Córdoba gained a kind of suzerainty over León, whose troops did not leave until 987. Almansor, the ruler of Córdoba, then destroyed Coimbra. In addition, Moorish troops conquered Gormaz and Cluni (Coruña del Conde) in 994, Astorga in 996, and they sacked Santiago de Compostela in 997.

The king was succeeded in 999 by his five-year-old son Alfonso V, who was under the guardianship of his mother Elvira and Count Menendo González. León, destroyed by Almansor, was repopulated. In 1020 the Fueros, the customary laws of the historical territories, were adopted there by León.

While the Caliphate was crumbling, conflicts between the northern kingdoms were coming to a head. In 1029, the Castilian Count García Sanchez II visited León to marry Sancha, the king's daughter. Once there, however, he was murdered by members of the Vela family in revenge for an insult. Since he died without descendants, the King of Navarre, Sancho III, attacked Castilian territory to enforce his rights acquired through marriage with Munia, the sister of the slain. He assumed the title of Count of Castile. At the same time, Sancho had the Vela executed. Finally, Sancho's son, Ferdinand I, was made Count.

Recolonization (repoblación)

Repoblación, which was partly spontaneous, was already promoted by the counts in the Duero Basin. Thus, in addition to free settlers, village communities (comunidades de aldea) existed there, many of which were based on kinship. The emergence of large latifundia therefore occurred much later in Castile than in León or Galicia. This was less true, however, of the strong power and property concentrations of the counts around Lara and Burgos. Monasteries also acquired extensive estates.

In this process, dependent peasant groups appeared less than, for example, the commendation to any lord (behetría, derived from Latin benefactoria). People who were in possession of weapons or a horse could still easily rise to the nobility as infanzónes. This caballería villana is considered indicative of the social mobility of early Castile.

The counts, whose offices had become hereditary, were in a strong position vis-à-vis the king. While in León the legal norms laid down in the Liber iudiciorum applied, in Castile a customary oral tradition prevailed. This was based on the wisdom of the count's court days or on the fazañas of legendary judges of the past.

Union of Asturias-León and Castile under Ferdinand I. (from 1035/37), victory over Navarre (1054)

After the barely adult King of León Vermudo III failed to regain the territories lost to Navarre, the claim to the throne together with the conquered territories passed to his sister Sancha after his death. She, in turn, ceded her rights to her husband Ferdinand I. He was the second son of King Sancho III of Navarre and had been King of Castile and Navarre and now also King of León since 1035 and 1037 respectively.

The regional power thus created was relieved by the disintegration of the caliphate, and at the same time it intensified contacts with the rest of Western Europe. Thus, the Benedictine order spread, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela gained great importance. In addition, Ferdinand had the legal traditions collected.

His brother García IV of Navarre invaded Castile with Moorish allies in 1054, but he died in a battle at Atapuerca, as a result of which Ferdinand also won the part of Navarre lying on the right bank of the Ebro. From 1058 he succeeded in conquering the cities of Viseu as well as Lusitania up to the Mondego. Several Muslim kings had to pay tributes (parias) for his protective rule from 1055.

Before his death, Ferdinand divided his states among his three sons in such a way that Sancho received Castile, Alfonso León and Asturias, García Galicia and Portugal. The pariahs were also divided, so that Sancho II received the pariahs of Saragossa, Alfonso VI those of Toledo and Garcia those of Badajoz and Seville.

Intensified Reconquista, Western Europeanization, setback by Almoravids

With the division of the Parias, the direction of expansion was set, but disputes among the brothers delayed the conquest. Alfonso became king of Leon and Asturias in 1065, but his brother Sancho II, who had inherited Castile, drove him out of his domain after the death of their common mother Sancha. Alfonso then fled to the Taifa kingdom of Toledo. When Sancho was assassinated in 1072, Alfonso returned to Leon and was also recognized as king in Castile. He promoted the cities and the church system he organized according to the principles of the Cluniac-Gregorian reform, with close ties to Rome.

Alfonso intensified the pressure on the Taifareiche from 1076. He called himself Adephonsus Imperator Toletanus Magnificus Triumphator in memory of the conquest of Toledo of 1085, but also Imperator Totius Hispaniae and divinely appointed ruler over all the Nationes of Spain. The title of Imperator Totius Hispaniae remained in use from 1086 to 1157.

But Alfonso's army was defeated by the Almoravids in the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086. This ended the expansion to the south, especially since the Almoravids subjugated all the Taifas, thus eliminating the revenues to the Parias. The lords of the vast Berber Empire defeated Alfonso at Consuegra in 1097 and at Ucles in 1108.

Secession of Portugal, Queen Urraca, fight against Almoravids and Aragón

Alfonso died in 1109, after his son Sancho had perished at Ucles in 1108 and he had designated his daughter Urraca's son, another Alfonso, as his successor. Urraca, who belonged to the French Capetians on her mother's side, advanced to become the possible heir to the throne in 1090 in the absence of male heirs. A few years later, her cousin Henry of Burgundy was married to her younger half-sister Theresa. Raimund was appointed Count of Galicia by Alfonso VI for this purpose. After the birth of the Infante Sancho Alfónsez in 1093, Urraca's and Raimund's prospects of succession to the throne diminished.

In order to secure the southwestern border against the Almoravids, Raimund was endowed in May 1093 with the territory south of Galicia, the territory of the County of Portugal; however, he lost Lisbon to the Almoravids as early as 1094. In 1097, Alfonso VI granted the County of Portugal to Henry of Burgundy.

Only the government in the county of Galicia could Urraca continue in her name. The death of her half-brother Sancho placed her back at the center of succession considerations in 1108. Probably in August 1108, Urraca was betrothed to King Alfonso I "the Warrior" of Aragon. However, Sancho III of Navarre was their common great-grandfather, a kinship proximity that aroused the disapproval of the clergy led by the Archbishop of Toledo. Moreover, this marriage led to a deepening of the intra-family rift between Urraca and her brother-in-law Henry of Burgundy. Nevertheless, in May 1109 she was proclaimed heiress by her father. On July 22, one day after her father's funeral, Urraca deeded "Ego Urraka dei nutu totius yspanie regina." To affirm her sole rule, from 1110 she expanded her title with the imperial character held by the kings of Leon in "Vrracha, Dei gratia regina et imperatrix Yspanie".

But neither did the pope recognize their marriage, nor did the great ones accept a foreign mistress. On October 26, 1111, Urraca was defeated in the Battle of Candespina, but she managed to break the enemy alliance by drawing Henry to her side. She then had her son proclaimed king in Santiago de Compostela on September 19, 1111, as Alfonso VII, who was thus set up as a counter-pretender to Alfonso I of Aragon. The latter occupied both Toledo and León. In 1112 Urraca took the offensive and was able to confine her husband in Astorga, but Abbot Pontius of Cluny, appearing as papal legate, announced the annulment of their marriage. With this, the alliance finally broke apart.

In order to stabilize the border province of Zamora against Almoravid attacks, Urraca settled the Knights Hospitaller order in León in 1116. She reached a settlement with her former husband, with Alfonso renouncing all lordship rights in León and Castile. Resistance to Urraca's government now came from her half-sister Theresa, who called herself "Queen of Portugal" from November 1117.

Around the same time, the Almoravids attacked the County of Portugal. Urraca took advantage of this to regain Zamora and Toro, which she had once had to cede to Henry of Portugal. As a result of the peace with Aragon, Urraca was able to re-establish her rule in the area south of the Duero River and enter Toledo with her son on November 16, 1117, where he was proclaimed Emperor over all of Spain.

In 1117, Urraca's lover, the Castilian Count Pedro Gonzáles de Lara, became her first advisor. She deepened her ties to the House of Lara, one of the five most important Castilian families, by marrying her half-sister Sancha to her lover's brother. However, a Leónese noble group rose up against the growing influence of the Castilians at the royal court in 1119. The differences between Urraca and her Leónesian vassals were settled by September. In the face of her vassals, she received support from Pope Calixtus II, a brother of her first husband.

Now Urraca's rule was consolidated to the extent that its army could proceed against Theresa, who had been independent since 1109. It was victorious at Tui. In Braga, she was able to receive the submission of her nephew Alfonso Enríquez and the Portuguese nobility.

However, Archbishop Diego Gelmírez and the Galician nobility allied with him secretly made a pact with Theresa. When Urraca had him imprisoned in 1120, there was a popular uprising, and when Count Pedro Froilaz recruited an army against her, joined by her son, she had to release the archbishop. Against her, the Archbishop and Count Pedro Froilaz also raised an army, which again included her son. Urraca had to recognize the archbishop again in all the rights of rule in Santiago de Compostela. However, in agreement with the papal legate, he continued to pursue the deposition of Urraca and the enthronement of her son. Against this, however, Urraca obtained the support of Pope Calixtus II, who curtailed Diego Gelmírez's power by appointing the archbishop of Braga as supreme metropolitan over the bishoprics of Portugal and Galicia and by installing Archbishop Bernardo of Toledo as primate of the Church of all Spain. In the meantime, Theresa had once again gained an independent dominion in southern Galicia since 1121.

Imperial coronation of Alfonso VII. (1135), Union of Catalonia and Aragon (1134), Kingdom of Portugal (1139)

After a protracted war, which had already been started by his mother Urraca, who died in 1126, Alfonso VII stood his ground against his stepfather and retained Castile, Leon, Asturias and Galicia in the partition of 1127; he only ceded his share of Navarre, Álava, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa to Aragón in the Peace of Támara. On May 26, 1135, he had himself crowned Emperor of all Spain in Léon.

However, after the death of Alfonso I of Aragon in 1134, the emperor had to accept the union of Catalonia and Aragon, as well as the restoration of the independence of Navarre. In Portugal, Alfonso, Teresa's son, assumed the title of king in 1139. This fact had to be recognized by Alfonso VII in 1143, albeit as an integral part of the Empire.

In 1146, the conquest of Córdoba succeeded. Shortly thereafter, the Almoravids, themselves beset by the Almohads, also lost Calatrava and Almería. However, the Almohads soon reconquered Córdoba. The division of the inheritance of Castile and León-Galicia among his sons Sancho III and Ferdinand II again divided the regional power.

Time of the five kingdoms

In León, Ferdinand II. (1157-1188) became king, followed by Alfonso IX (until 1229). The five Christian kingdoms were opposed by the Almohads, a cohesive empire that was able to consolidate itself until 1172. The five kingdoms were able to compensate for this imbalance of power by mobilizing citizen militias of urban conséjos, brotherhoods (cofradías) and orders of chivalry. The latter included the Order of Alcántara in León since 1156, the Order of Calatrava in Castile since 1157, and the Order of Saint James in both kingdoms since 1170.

In 1158, Sancho III died in León and Ferdinand assumed guardianship of his minor son Alfonso VIII. He invaded Castile and henceforth called himself King of Spain. In 1162 he conquered Toledo; in the same year, after the death of Raimund Berengar IV of Barcelona, he assumed guardianship of the latter's son and thus power in Aragon. His influence over Portugal grew in 1165 through his marriage to Urraca, a daughter of Afonso I. As a result of a dispute over Badajoz, war broke out with Portugal in 1168, from which Ferdinand, who had allied himself with the Almohads in 1169, emerged victorious. A second war with the Portuguese ended in 1177 with his victory at Argannal. But in Castile he increasingly lost influence. As early as 1166, the Castilian nobility recaptured Toledo. A war against Castile that began in 1178 dragged on until 1183.

Land development, Cortes of León (1188), first university (1219), victory over Almohads (1212)

Alfonso IX of León pursued an extensive repopulation and city-foundation policy; he also weakened the nobility by supporting the cities against them. One of his central innovations was the convening of a curia regis, in which representatives of the cities participated for the first time. It was from here that the Cortes began. The Cortes of León of 1188, which were supposed to protect against the abuse of power and arbitrariness, were compared to the Magna Charta. Unlike in Aragon, the Cortes (from 1217 in Valladolid) never succeeded in limiting the king's power to any great extent.

Foreign policy is linked to the incessant conflicts with Alfonso VIII of Castile. Alfonso IX even joined forces with the Almohads against the Castilian after the Battle of Alarcos, which resulted in his excommunication. With the marriage between the León and Berenguela of Castile, the battles ended for the time being. However, Pope Innocent III excommunicated the couple for being too close, which led to the resumption of the war. Accordingly, Alfonso IX of Leon was not involved in the victory at Las Navas de Tolosa against the Almohads. On the contrary, he attacked Castilian territory, but also took the opportunity to occupy Muslim cities such as Mérida and Badajoz. The knightly orders conquered other cities, so that the road to Seville was almost clear. Finally, in 1219, the University of Salamanca was founded, the oldest university in Spain and one of the oldest universities in Europe.

The victor of the battle at Las Navas de Tolosa of July 16, 1212, which in retrospect was decisive, was King Alfonso VIII of Castile, who led a coalition with Aragon, Portugal and Navarre against the Almohads. Even though the numbers of battle participants, which were supposed to underline the enormous importance of the battle, have since been reduced - Joseph F. O'Callaghan estimates the number of combatants involved on both sides in each of these battles at no more than 3,000 to 5,000 men - Pope Innocent III had succeeded in establishing a true crusading mentality on the peninsula for the first time.

Union of León and Castile (1230), Conquest of Seville (1248)

Ferdinand III, the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile, became king of Castile after the death of his uncle Enriques I in 1217 - against the opposition of a noble and urban opposition under the imperial administrator Álvaro Núñez de Lara - and also of León after the death of his father in 1230. The empire was no longer divided and became indivisible with the consolidation of the Córtes in the 14th century.

Ferdinand, after several victories over the fragmented Muslim empires, especially at Jerez de la Guadiana in 1233, won the city of Córdoba in 1236. Ten years later followed the conquest of Jaén, in 1248 fell the kingdom of Seville, in 1250 Cadiz. Only the Emirate of Granada, founded in 1247, continued to exist until 1492.

The repopulation, now considered an imperial task, was intensified, with the king's followers and the bishops being given extensive territories. Numerous Moors left the country. Livestock, especially sheep, played an increasing role in the settlement (privileges of the Mesta, 1270-1273). The adoption of urban social forms, the stronger enforcement of market mediation and the money economy, and also the intensification of Mediterranean trade were largely taken over by Castile from the Muslim cities. But the primacy of religious policy, with recourse to imagined Visigothic traditions, now took precedence. Cistercians, Franciscans and Dominicans were encouraged. They were joined by Trinitarians and Mercedarians, who specialized in ransoming prisoners.

Ferdinand endowed several bishoprics, founded the Cathedral of Toledo, earned merits in legislation through the Código de las Partidas, completed by his son, and the translation of the Code of Laws applicable to the Moors of Córdoba. In terms of foreign policy, he involved himself and his family in the world of European states through marriages to Norway, England, France and the Empire, the latter bringing about claims to Sicily, but especially to the kingship as well as the Roman emperorship.

"Translator school" and national languages, legislation, imperial policy of Alfonso X.

The "School of Translators of Toledo" was a tradition of translation activity beginning in the 12th century, not an institution. Through contact between Mozarabic and Jewish people who knew Arabic and Latin authors, there was a transfer of knowledge promoted by episcopal or royal initiative. The first phase, lasting from about 1130 to 1187, was characterized by Archbishop Raimund of Toledo. Scientific and philosophical writings that had been translated from Greek into Arabic under the Abbasids were translated, as well as Arabic writings, such as those on astronomy and mathematics. In 1142, the Abbot of Cluny, Petrus Venerabilis, came to Spain and commissioned a translation of the Koran, which was completed in 1143 by the Englishman Robert of Ketton, the Croatian Hermann of Carinthia, the Castilian Petrus Alfonsi, and the Saracen Mohammed, and revised by the Abbot's secretary, Peter of Poitiers. New translation initiatives came from Alfonso X and his court, where now the focus was no longer on the translation into Latin, but into Castilian, and here especially the dialect of the Toledan court played a normative role.

Alfonso X, king of León and Castile from 1252 to 1282, was the first son of Ferdinand III the Saint and Elizabeth, a daughter of the German king Philip of Swabia. He promoted astronomy and the recognition of Ptolemaic cosmology, and between 1252 and 1270 he had the Ptolemaic planetary tables improved, which were called Tabulae Alphonsinae after him.

Alfonso, himself a poet, is also considered the founder of Castilian national literature. He had his historiographers write an Estoria de España and a History of the World in Castilian from about 1270 onward, and had documents drawn up in the national language. He also commissioned many works, such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, 427 songs in Galician, the lyrical language of the time. But above all, he directed the compilation of the law book begun by his father, the Livro de las Legies, later called Las Siete Partidas or simply Partidas.

Alfonso, like other European rulers, was an exponent of an imperial policy based on kinship and the claims to titles and dominions derived from it. His descent from the Hohenstaufen dynasty through his mother Elizabeth gave him the opportunity to claim King Conrad IV's duchy of Swabia after his death in 1255, to have himself elevated to emperor by the Ghibellines of Pisa in March 1256, and to run for king. But in 1265 the pope directed the ambitions of Charles of Anjou, whose mother Blanka of Castile was the daughter of Alfonso VIII, to southern Italy, which thwarted Franco-Castilian plans. Alfonso then tried to raise the necessary funds to carry out a campaign in Rome to obtain the imperial crown, a crown he renounced only in 1275.

The Castilian nobility resisted the king's imperial plans and centralization efforts by forming alliances with the Muslims of southern Spain and with James of Aragon, even though the latter was Alfonso's father-in-law. Nevertheless, he put down the Mudéjares rebellion in Murcia on Alfonso's behalf to prevent Alfonso from supporting the Muslim population of Valencia in return.

Alfonso's far-reaching marriage plans with his northern neighbor initially failed. In 1275, this led to a war with France. After the end of the war, Alfonso initiated a crusade and conquered Jerez, Medina-Sidonia, San Lucar, Cadiz, part of the Algarve and united Murcia with Castile. In the end, only Tarifa, occupied in 1292, remained Castilian. As early as the Treaty of Monteagudo of 1291, "spheres of interest" were agreed between Aragon and Castile with regard to the Maghreb. Aragon, which had maintained diplomatic and trade relations with the Hafsids in Tunisia and the Abdalwadids in Algeria since about 1250, claimed prerogatives there, while Castile did the same in Morocco's Merinid Empire. Moreover, the Merinids had refused to conclude a peace and trade treaty with Aragon in 1276. In 1286, when the two Iberian powers were at war, Aragon tried to establish an alliance with the Merinids against Castile, but this too was rejected. The Merinids remained neutral, as did the Iberian Nazarites.

Economic crisis and revolts, Merinids and Granada, assertion of royal power (1348)

Between about 1275 and 1325, Castile experienced a severe social and economic crisis. Agricultural production and population declined. At the same time, the Cortes, nobility, ecclesiastical institutions faced the royalty, which tried to break the regional powers. After the conquests came to a conclusion, the nobles sought new revenues, but the royal administration had concentrated them in a separate financial administration. Although the powerful noble families achieved a shareholding, unlike Aragon they did not form a unity and so they did not succeed in forcing contractual rights from the king. Hermandades, alliances of cities, appeared from 1295 to 1302 and from 1313 to 1325. In the cities, families of caballeros came to power, against which the civic community, the común, was defeated.

Alfonso XI defeated many of the old nobleza vieja families. He remained neutral in the Hundred Years' War, allying himself with the caballero nobility and the hidalgos. The latter exercised power in the city councils in the 1330s and 1340s. Beginning in 1342, he imposed a general excise tax, the alcabala, then a reorganization of the sale of salt and a levy on livestock. But above all, in 1348, against the regional and legal fragmentation, he enforced the primacy of royal law by means of the Ordenamiento de Alcalá.

Dispute over Portugal, Coinage Policy, Rise of New Families, Occidental Schism

Pedro I (1350-1369) sought the help of England against Enrique of Trastámara - he had assassinated the legitimate heir to the throne and placed himself on the throne - while Enrique relied on France from 1366. After his victory, Enrique II. (1369-1379) reaffirmed the permanent Castilian-French alliance.

His successor intervened in the succession struggles in Portugal after the death of Ferdinando I (1383). The latter had not recognized Enrique of Trastámara as king of Castile and instead made his own claims to the throne. But in the Peace of Alcoutim, the Portuguese had to renounce all claims to the Castilian throne. He also undertook to marry one of Enrique's daughters. Instead, however, he married Leonore Teles de Menezes, whereupon Enrique attacked Portugal and sacked Lisbon in 1373. Portugal, in turn, allied itself with England, which also made claims to the Castilian throne. Portugal thus became a sideshow in the Hundred Years' War between England and France. However, since England did not send troops as promised, Ferdinando was forced to make peace in the Treaty of Santarém in 1373. In 1381 he attacked Castile again, but after the Portuguese fleet was destroyed, he had to ask for peace again. Ferdinando, who had no male heirs, had to consent to the marriage of his daughter to the new Castilian king, John I, thus reaffirming Castile's hereditary claims. However, John of Avis, an illegitimate half-brother of Ferdinando, took power and, having repelled Castilian claims by winning the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, had himself crowned the new king.

In Castile, royal power was further strengthened. The Consejo real took on its final form, a supreme court was created with the Real Audiencia, and the Contadurías Mayores emerged as the supreme authority for financial administration. But it was not until the reign of Henry III. (1390-1406), a certain stability of the currency and the reorganization of finances could be achieved.

In times of crisis, the Cortes met frequently, but the calming of the situation and the consolidation of new high noble families - they in particular benefited from the Trastamara's assumption of power - prevented the Cortes representatives from having a say in matters of treaty. When, during the Occidental Schism, which lasted from 1378 to 1418, Castile was part of the Avignon obedience, the royalty increasingly claimed rights in filling vacant bishoprics.

Assertion of royal power, union with Aragon

Henry III of Castile died in December 1406, and during the minority of his son John II of Castile, his mother Catherine of Lancaster and his uncle Ferdinand of Antequera ran the affairs of state. This dual regency divided the country into two camps. After Ferdinand died in 1416 and Catherine in 1418, the archbishop of Toledo, Sancho de Rojas, arranged for the king to be declared of age in 1419 on the occasion of his marriage to Marie of Aragon.

But now there was a confrontation with the Castilian nobility as well as with the sons of his uncle Ferdinand I, the Infantes de Aragón. Around 1430, with the help of Álvaro de Luna, John was able to prevail against Ferdinand's sons. After John's victory against the Emirate of Granada in the Battle of La Higueruela in 1431, a short-term peace was confirmed by the marriage of John's son Henry to Blanka of Aragon, the daughter of his adversary. However, this marriage was later dissolved. It was not until 1445 that Álvaro de Luna, the king's favorite from 1422 to 1453, achieved a victory, but this by no means ended the disputes. In these struggles, the nobility aimed to commit the kings to government programs they had devised, to occupy the highest offices in the administration, and to increase their own revenues. At the same time, they undermined the influence of the cities' representatives in the Cortes and sought to enlist the lower urban nobility as patrons. Under Henry IV (1454-1474), the power of the nobility reached its peak.

However, internal conflicts led to civil war from 1465, which culminated in the War of the Castilian Succession from 1474 until the party that brought Isabella I to the throne prevailed. Although kingship prevailed in Castile in 1480, the nobility retained privileges and influence. The queen now dominated the Cortes and the cities. Through the marriage between Isabella and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, after Ferdinand's reign in the lands of the Crown of Aragon, the most powerful kingdoms of the peninsula were ruled in a personal union. The population of Castile had grown to about 4.3 million inhabitants.

Isabella of Castile, around 1500

Enrique of Trastámara murders his half-brother Pedro I in 1369 (illustration from the Chroniques of Jean Froissart, ca. 1410)

Tarifa city gate

King Pedro I on a gold coin, a dobla from 1360

The Tabulae Alphonsinae, an astronomical work with tables for calculating the position of the sun, moon and the five planets, in a late medieval manuscript

Alfonso X and the editors of the Partidas, one of the most important collections of laws, illustration from the Livro de las Legies.

Alfonso VIII and Queen Eleonor give the city of Uclés to the Master of the Order of Santiago

Burgos Cathedral

The Christian Empires in the 12th Century

A Privilegium Imperatoris, as the document titles itself. It was issued during the reign of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and grants land to an abbot (bottom center) for the foundation of a Benedictine monastery. Behind Alfonso on the right is his majordomo Count Ponç II of Cabrera, holding a sword and shield with his coat of arms. Below left, Alfonso's sons Sancho and Fernando are seen.

Document of the Infanta Urraca and Elvira, March 11, 1099, Archives of the Basilica of San Isidoro in León.

Alfonso V in the Libro de las Estampas or Libro de los Testamentos de los reyes de León, c. 1200

Queen Urraca Fernández († 1007; Codex Vigilano o Albeldense, ca. 976)

The Iberian Peninsula with the Kingdom of León in the northwest around 1030

Aragon (ca. 809-1469), Barcelona and Catalonia

The counties of Aragón and Barcelona

The county of Aragón was created under Aznar I. Galíndez (around 809-820). Under his successor García Galíndez (until 844), the county freed itself from Frankish suzerainty under the influence of the Muslims of the Ebro Valley and neighboring Navarre.

Under Galindo I Aznárez (until 867), Pamplona imposed the suzerainty on the county. In this context, Aznar II Galíndez (around 867-893) probably married Onneca Garcés of Pamplona. A son from this marriage, Galindo II Aznárez (893-922), tried to escape the influence of the Kingdom of Navarre with the help of the Muslims of Huesca, the Counts of Gascony and the Counts of Ribagorza, but he only succeeded in imposing his own bishopric in 922.

Through the marriage of his daughter Andregoto Galíndez (922-970) with García Sánchez I, Aragón and Navarre were united. In the process, one count continued to receive the county of Aragón in fief. Sancho III Garcés extended his dominion between 1018 and 1025 to include Ribagorza in the northeast of the province of Huesca.

After the Carolingian Louis II, numerous count families tried to enforce the hereditary nature of their titles. Thus, in 897, after the death of Wilfried the Hairy, who had been installed as Count of Urgell and Cerdanya in 870, the dominion passed without imperial intervention to his sons Wilfried II. Borrell (897-911) and Sunyer I (911-947). Wilfried was able to conquer the hinterland near Montserrat and part of the Penedès. In 878 he additionally received the titles of Count of Barcelona and Girona. The Vallès remained largely depopulated in 897 after a Moorish attack in which Wilfried the Hairy was also killed, similar to the Penedès. He initiated the repopulation of the hinterland, founding the county of Osona and the bishopric of Vic.

From 897 onwards, his sons ruled all the counties together, eventually sharing the inheritance: Wilfried II. Borrell received the now permanently joined counties of Barcelona, Girona and Osona.

Soon the county extended southwest to the gates of Tarragona. In addition, Borrell II. (948-992) established contacts with the Caliphate, but this did not prevent Almansor from sacking Barcelona in 985. In 1010, Count Raimund Borrell (992-1017) moved against Córdoba in his turn.

From 1017, his widow Ermessenda (1017-1057) ruled with her son Berengar Raimund I. (1017-1035) ruled the counties of Barcelona, Girona and Osona. The latter divided the county among his three minor sons in 1035: William became Count of Osona, Raimund Berengar I. Count of Barcelona and Girona, Sanç Count of the Penedès. When Raimund Berengar I tried to impose his claims in the county from 1041, the landed nobility in Penedès rose up until 1060. However, the renunciation of the county of Penedès by Sanç and of the county of Osona by William (1049 and 1054 respectively) allowed Raimund Berengar I to reunite the three counties. From 1076, after the death of Raimund Berengar, the counties were ruled jointly by his two sons: Under the rule of Raimund Berengar II and Berengar Raimund II expansion in the west reached the present Comarque Pla d'Urgell.

During the reign of Raimund Berengar III. (1086-1131), the Almoravids ravaged the Penedès in 1107 and attacked Barcelona in 1115, but they were repelled in 1126. After the extinction of the dynasties in the counties of Besalú and Cerdanya, Raimund Berengar annexed these territories in 1111 and 1118 - the same year he took control of Tarragona, which he elevated to the status of episcopal see, whose dependence on the archbishopric in Narbonne he simultaneously severed. The conquest of Tortosa, Lleida and the Waliat Siurana took place under Raimund Berengar IV in the years 1148 to 1153, and the following repopulation was an essential basis for the emergence of Catalonia.

Kingdom of Aragon (1035/63), union with Barcelona (1164)

Ramiro I (1035-1063) continued to expand Kernaragón, moreover, in 1045 he inherited the territory of his late brother. However, in an attempt to conquer Graus, he was killed against Muslims who were supported by Castile in the defense of the city. His son Sancho Ramírez held the title of king. He and Peter I (1094-1104) continued the war against the Moors, occupying the cities of Jaca, Huestra and Barbastro and conquering the territory between the Pyrenean foothills and the Ebro River. After the assassination of the Navarrese ruler Sancho IV Garcés, his territory also fell to Aragon.

In response to a legation of Cardinal Hugo Candidus, which established contacts with Rome for the first time, Sancho Ramírez I, on the occasion of a stay in Rome, commended himself to the Pope in 1068 and placed his kingdom under papal protection. In 1071, instead of the Mozarabic rite, the adoption of the Roman rite was begun. From 1134, the Curia was even able to obtain a sort of suzerainty, by which the king became vassal of Tarragona, but the bishops were vassals of the king. In 1204 the king was crowned by the pope in Rome, who now became the pope's liegeman.

Finally, in a third phase of expansion under Alfonso I, Saragossa was added in 1118, which now became the capital, as well as the entire Ebro Valley. He thus took advantage of the crisis of the caliphate after the death of al-Mustain (1100). Tudela, Tarazona and fortresses in the Sierra del Moncayo (1119) followed. This series of successes ended in 1134 with the defeat in front of Fraga on July 17, 1134. Unlike Castile, which expelled all Muslims from its newly conquered territories, the Muslims of the territories occupied by Aragon had ceded them by treaty, agreeing to their right to stay; nevertheless, Catalan and French settlers also moved into the region. The new places were issued privileges that encouraged the development of a local caballería.

His will, in which he bequeathed the land in equal parts to the spiritual orders of Knights of St. John, Knights Templar and Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, was not recognized by the estates. Navarre made itself independent, Castilians invaded the Ebro Valley, Muslims recovered some lost positions. The nobility, clergy and municipalities designated the king's brother, Ramiro II, who was a bishop at the time, as king in 1134. The latter married Agnes of Poitou in 1135, who gave birth to Petronila on August 11, 1136. The girl was betrothed to Count Raimund Berengar IV of Barcelona in 1137, and a little later Petronila became queen. Thus a new power structure was born, the Crown of Aragon. With the Treaty of Carrión, the Castilian troops withdrew, and in 1151 they already set common war aims against the Muslims in the Treaty of Tudellén.

Reaching out to southern France, hegemony in the western Mediterranean, Greece

Alfonso II, Petronella's son, assumed the rule of Catalonia at the age of five in 1162 as Count Alfonso I and, after his mother abdicated in 1164, the kingship of Aragon, which remained permanently united with Catalonia. At the same time, the individual territories retained their internal autonomy. Alfonso's troops reached out to southern France, consolidating rule in Provence, Millau, Gévaudan and Rouergue. He annexed Roussillon to Aragon in 1172. Caspe was occupied and Teruel was repopulated. However, in a treaty with Castile, he renounced Murcia in 1179 in the Treaty of Cazórla, which in the long run gave the Castilians the main role in the Reconquista, while Aragon turned towards the Mediterranean and France. Peter II. (1196-1213) took his crown from the Pope. He married Mary of Montpellier in 1204 to join her territory with Aragon. But with his death in 1213, the expansion phase in southern France ended.

The first ventures of King James I (1213-1276) were in the Mediterranean islands. Thus, his fleet conquered Mallorca in 1229 and Ibiza in 1235. From 1232 to 1245, the territory of Valencia was conquered, which now constituted a third constituent state of the Crown. However, while the Pais Valenciano was settled with Catalans and Aragonese, only Catalans settled in the Balearic Islands. On this basis, a considerable linguistic and cultural unity of the country was created, which still exists today. In 1265/66, Jacob occupied Murcia, which was in rebellion against Castile's King Alfonso X. He settled it with Catalans. He settled it with Catalans, but ceded it back to Castile in accordance with the Treaty of Cazorla. However, the king's intended division of the land among his sons did not materialize, as the eldest son Peter III. (1276-1285), who had received Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, imposed fealty on his brother James II, who had received the Balearic Islands, Roussillon, Cerdanya and Montpellier. Peter put down the revolt of the Catalan nobility in 1280 and took the opportunity of a popular uprising against Charles of Anjou in Sicily to seize the island in 1282. However, this brought him into conflict with the Pope and the French king. The former declared him deposed on the basis of the Letter of Protection of 1213.

To gain domestic support, he confirmed the privileges of the nobility, strengthened the power of the Cortes and the municipalities in Catalonia, which led to the so-called Pactism, a division of power between the Cortes and the king. There followed, driven by this internal strengthening, the occupation of Malta, Gozo and Ischia, then Djerba, and the Kerkenna Islands off the Tunisian coast. James II of Mallorca was deprived of his kingship because of support from France and was incorporated into the Crown of Aragon.

Peter was succeeded by his son Alfonso III, and in Sicily by his other son Jacob. Alfonso supported his brother on the island, which earned him the enmity of Rome, Paris and the Angevins, which he, however, outdid by diplomatic means. However, even this succeeded only at the price of further privileges to the nobility, the privileges of the Union of 1287. In the same year succeeded the occupation of Menorca and in the dispute between Sancho IV of Castile, his opponent Alfonso de la Cerda granted him the city of Murcia, which he actually conquered in 1296 and 1300.

In 1291, the Sicilian ruler Jacob became king following the death of his brother. Under him, Aragon gained a position of hegemony in the western Mediterranean. In 1295, after the interdict over Aragon had been lifted, the Pope enfeoffed him with Sardinia and Corsica. A peace treaty was signed with France. The promised cession of Sicily was undermined when the Sicilians rejected this part of the treaty and enthroned a brother of Jacob, Frederick I (III) of Sicily, in 1296. After 1300, Jacob retained the cities of Alicante, Orihuela and Villena. From 1323 to 1324, the claims to Sardinia were also asserted.

Nobility and Cortes

In 1118, the citizens of Zaragoza received all the rights of born hidalgos, and in 1136, deputies from the municipalities consulted with ecclesiastical and secular feudal lords about taxes and land ordinances at the Estates Assembly of the Cortes. From then on, the towns of Aragon and Catalonia were particularly concerned with preserving their privileges and freedoms. The Cortes, simultaneously attended by the representatives of the nobility and the clergy, separated into a higher (ricos hombres) and lower (infanzones, caballeros, hidalgos) class, decided on war and peace, alliances and treaties, taxes, coins, laws and judgments of the lower courts.

King Alfonso III was forced to recognize the annual summoning of the Cortes to Saragossa in 1287, granting the same the right of compulsory and constitutional resistance to arbitrary violation of the members. He was even forced to recognize that if the king was guilty of tyranny, all the inhabitants of the country from the 14th to the 60th year should take up arms together for the overthrow of the king. Peter IV forced the repeal of these statutes in 1348, but authorized the appointment of a person, the Justicia de Aragón, to mediate, among other things, in disputes between the Crown and the Estates. The Justicia de Aragón was proposed by the Cortes and appointed by the King. The different Cortes each elected a permanent committee (the Diputación) that always remained together to safeguard the popular rights. The Diputación controlled the tax revenues and the use of public funds and took care of the observance of the local special rights.

There were general imperial estates (cortes) in Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia. Despite promises to the contrary, they were often convened by the kings only at irregular intervals. The estates, except in Aragon, were divided into three sections: Clergy, Nobility, and Representatives of the Municipalities. In Aragon, the high and low nobility were represented in separate divisions. The deliberations of the Estates of the different realms of the Crown of Aragon, although sometimes convened simultaneously for the same place (usually in Monzón), took place in separate sessions.

Economic crisis, war against Castile

Under Alfonso IV. (1327-1336) the first signs of an economic crisis appeared. In addition, he exhausted his forces in a long naval war against Genoa, and so the crusade against Granada also failed to materialize. From 1343 to 1344, his successor reintegrated Majorca into the Empire, fought against the rebellious Sardinians allied with Venice, also united the Duchies of Athens and Neopatras to the Crown in 1379. In 1348 there were also internal struggles against the nobility of Valencia and Aragon.

Unlike Castile, with which it went to war from 1356 to 1369, the king did not succeed in imposing a centralized, court-oriented monarchy, because his vast empire required enormous monetary resources that only the Cortes could provide. Only by exploiting intra-Castilian antagonisms did Peter IV manage to turn the war in his favor by supporting Henry of Trastamara, an illegitimate son of Alfonso XI of Castile ("War of the Two Peter's").

House of Trastamara (from 1412), dispute with the Cortes and civil war (1462-1472)

John I (1387-1396) had to give up Athens in 1388, Neopatras in 1390. From 1391 to 1410 there was an uprising in Sardinia. During the fighting, the heir to the lands of the Crown of Aragon, Martin I of Sicily, son of King Martin I, was killed. After the death of the king in the following year 1410 and an interregnum of two years, the negotiators of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia agreed in the Arbitration of Caspe on the Castilian Infante Ferdinand of Antequera as the new king. The latter was supported by the Pope. He was the first king in the realms of the Crown of Aragon to come from the house of Trastamara. In 1413 he put down a revolt by his Catalan rival, James of Urgel; in 1414 he consolidated his power in Sicily and Sardinia, but he came into conflict with the Cortes.

The situation was no different for his eldest son Alfonso V, who gave the governorship of Catalonia to his wife Maria, to Galceran de Requesens of the House of Folch de Cardona in 1462, and finally to his brother John of Navarre in 1454 (until 1479). Alfonso often interfered in Castilian politics, where his brothers fought the regime of the favorite Álvaro de Luna. He attacked Corsica in 1420, the port of Marseilles in 1423, achieved the annexation of Naples in 1442 in a war against almost all Italian states, and waged a naval war against Genoa from 1454. With his aggressive foreign policy, however, he damaged trade throughout the Mediterranean. At the same time, he maneuvered around the issue of peasant uprisings, supporting the demands of the Remensas, the unfree peasants of Catalonia, against the landowners, while at the same time having the uprising of the Forans (peasants) crushed in Majorca. On the other hand, in Barcelona, in the dispute between the Biga and Busca parties, he chose the Busca, which was closer to the people, thus alienating parts of the nobility.

Alfonso was succeeded in the Kingdom of Naples by his son, Ferrante, who was born recognized as legitimate by Pope Eugene IV. In the realms of the Crown of Aragon (and thus also in the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Sardinia) he was inherited by his brother John II, who had been King of Navarre since 1425 through his marriage to Blanka of Navarre. John II had incurred the enmity of the nobility, as the nobility and patriciate believed that the royal house did not respect the system of government of pactism and surrounded itself with Castilian advisors. In 1462, an uprising began against him, which developed into a ten-year civil war. The internal and economic crisis worsened, and the center of trade shifted from Barcelona to Valencia.

Alfonso V on a silver medal by Pisanello, 1449

Representation of an assembly of the Catalan Cortes in an incunabulum of the year 1495

Alfonso II of Aragon receives the tributes of the late Count of Roussillon (Liber Feudorum Ceritaniae, end of the 12th century)

"Map" of the Iberian Peninsula, Catalan Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, 11th century, Vatican Apostolic Library.

The church of Sant Julià de Boada (Gerona), first mentioned in 934.

Navarre (until 1512)

The part of the kingdom that had gone to Aragon in 1076 became independent again as the Kingdom of Navarre in 1134, when Alfonso I of Aragon died childless. While in Aragon he was succeeded on the throne by his brother Ramiro, in Navarre García IV, a great-grandson of García III, was proclaimed king. However, the kingdom was enclosed by Castile-León and Aragon, so it had no possibility of expanding southward. Therefore, it sought stronger ties in France.

In 1234, King Sancho VII died. He was succeeded by his nephew Theobald I, the first king from the French House of Blois-Champagne. Navarre's King Henry I, Count of Champagne and Brie, was succeeded in 1274 by his two-year-old daughter Joan I, who was married in 1284 to a son of the French king, who two years later rose to become king of France as Philip IV. From then on, the French Capetians were simultaneously kings of Navarre until 1328.

Under the law in force in France, women were excluded from succession to the throne. However, this did not apply to Navarre, so that Charles' niece Joan II and her husband Philip III of the House of Évreux came to the throne there in 1328, but in France Philip VI of Valois did.

After 1425, the noble parties of the Agramonteses and the Beaumonteses fought each other. The heiress to the throne, Blanka I, had married John, the brother of the Aragonese king, in 1419. When the succession occurred, both ascended the throne. In 1441 Blanka died, leaving, besides two daughters, her widower and the common son Charles of Viana. A conflict developed between the father, supported by the Agramonteses, and the son, supported by the Beaumonteses, when John remarried in 1444. In 1458, after the death of his brother, he also became King of Aragon.

In 1479 Eleonore, a daughter from his first marriage to Blanka, inherited the crown; however, she died only a few weeks later. She was succeeded by her grandson Francis I, but he was supported by only one of the noble parties and was only twelve years old. He died four years later. The new queen was his sister Catherine, but she was only 13 years old.

The dispute between Agramonteses and Beaumonteses resulted in a civil war between 1512 and 1515. Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo conquered the part of the kingdom south of the Pyrenees for King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Castile-León. Catherine and her husband Jean d'Albret fled to the part of the kingdom north of the Pyrenees. The southern part of Navarre, now united with the Kingdom of Castile-León and the lands of the Crown of Aragon to form the Kingdom of Spain, was administered by Spanish viceroys from 1512 to 1702.

From the Mediterranean to the world power

Unification of Castile, Federal Aragon, Matrimonial Union

Of the five kingdoms that existed in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century, Castile, with its 6 million inhabitants, was the largest and most unified. When Isabella took over the reigns of the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile in December 1474, after the death of her half-brother Henry IV, she was proclaimed queen (reina y propietaria del reino y Fernando su legítimo marido) together with "Ferdinand her lawful husband". In the Treaty of Segovia, Isabella and Ferdinand agreed on the foundations of their joint government. King Alfonso V of Portugal supported Joan of Castile, the heiress set aside by Isabella's half-brother Henry IV. In 1479 the War of the Castilian Succession ended, Portugal declared its renunciation of the Castilian throne in the Treaty of Alcáçovas, in return for which Portuguese suzerainty over all waters and lands south of Cape Bojador was reaffirmed. The CanaryIslands, since they lay north of the Cape, were granted to Castile. In 1479, Ferdinand became King of Aragon, effectively creating a dual monarchy.

The Assembly of Estates, whose meetings were no longer attended by the nobility and clergy, was composed only of the 17 privileged cities of Castile, and was also rarely convened. The Santa Hermandad, the protective confederation of the most important cities, was re-established in 1476 as an urban militia and rural police force. On the other hand, the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon were individual states held together only by personal union, in which the respective assemblies of estates enjoyed considerable influence. Ferdinand spent only a few years in his crown lands, appointing a viceroy in each. The Aragon Council, founded in 1494, provided the link between the king and the viceroys. At the same time, Aragon remained excluded from trade with the New World, discovered in 1492. The states of the Crown of Aragon were separated from each other and from Castile by customs borders.

Conquest of Granada, Expulsion of the Jews

With the conquest of Granada in 1492, the last Muslim-ruled territory of the Iberian Peninsula was taken. This was the conclusion of the Reconquista, although this term is misleading, because it was by no means a uniform process of reconquest that had been purposefully pursued by the Christians for centuries.

On March 31, 1492, the "Catholic Majesties" signed the expulsion order for all Jews prepared by Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada. Under the influence of Archbishop of Toledo Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, Isabella revoked the Edict of Tolerance against Muslims of 1492 in 1502, and the mudéjares were forced to convert or flee. Of the perhaps 200,000 Jews, half had already been forced to convert to Christianity by the beginning of the 15th century. To keep these new Christians (conversos) away from higher offices, blood purity (limpieza de sangre), which was understood to mean non-Jewish descent, was made a prerequisite for these offices. With the expansion of the sphere of power through the connection with the Habsburgs, this wave of expulsions extended to considerable parts of Europe.

Connection with Habsburgs, Charles I (V)

The heir of Isabella, who died in 1504, was her son Juan. He married Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I, in 1496, but died without heirs in 1497. The younger sister Johanna married Philip the Fair (1478-1506) in 1497, who was also a son of Maximilian and Duke of Burgundy. However, after she showed signs of "madness" in the eyes of contemporaries, Ferdinand took over the reign. With Ferdinand's death, the Spanish inheritance fell to the eldest son of John's marriage, Charles.

To secure the inheritance, Charles concluded the Treaty of Noyon in 1516 to reach an understanding with France. In 1519, after his grandfather Maximilian died, the Austro-Habsburg inheritance also fell to him. He was elected Roman-German king and assumed the title "elected emperor" at his coronation in 1520.

Maximilian's succession was also contested by Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England, and finally by Frederick of Saxony, and Charles' brother Ferdinand was also discussed as a candidate for a time. The decisive factor was the financial support of the Fuggers. The total cost of the election was 851,918 guilders, of which the Fuggers alone contributed 543,585.

Seville became the monopoly port for traffic with America, discovered in 1492, in 1525. The central authority of the colonies, the Council of the Indies, was also located there. In 1535 the Viceroyalty of New Spain was founded, and in 1542 the Viceroyalty of Peru. After the development of the silver mines of Potosí since 1541, 480 tons of silver and 67 tons of gold reached Spain in the years until 1560. Despite the high revenues, the income was not enough to cover the expenses of Charles' power politics.

In Spain, the Comuneros revolt broke out against the rule of Charles, who was perceived as alien to the country and who had raised taxes to finance his wars. The uprising was carried mainly by the bourgeoisie of the cities of Castile, especially Toledo. It found support among parts of the clergy and the nobility. Its goal was to limit royal power in favor of the Cortes. In the Kingdom of Valencia he came to a social revolutionary movement, the Germanía. The rebels under Juan de Padilla were defeated at Villalar in 1521, and the uprising was finally put down in 1522. After securing power, Spain became a central power base for the emperor. He decided to marry Isabella, the daughter of the Portuguese king, whose marriage on March 10, 1526, brought in one million ducats.

Wars with France and the Ottomans (1521-1556)

On the European level, the struggles between France and the Habsburgs were of considerably greater importance. It became dangerous for the emperor when the pope and Venice increasingly tended to side with France. In 1525, Charles's troops captured Francis I at the Battle of Pavia. But Charles joined in the proposals for a moderate peace. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Madrid in 1526, in which France renounced its claims in northern Italy. Charles hoped to persuade Francis to fight together against the Ottomans and against the Lutherans. But after Francis was free again, he revoked the treaty. He succeeded in gaining allies in the Holy League of Cognac from the Pope, Venice, Florence and finally even Milan.

The Ottomans took advantage of the conflicts and threatened the Austrian hereditary lands. They were in front of Vienna in 1529 with an army of 120,000 men. But they were also in Algeria and waged a war of privateering from there in the western Mediterranean.

The imperial troops sacked the city in 1527 during the so-called Sacco di Roma. Charles benefited from the fact that Andrea Doria sided with the Genoese fleet after the emperor had guaranteed the independence of the Republic of Genoa. Francis I had to make peace again. The Ladies' Peace of Cambrai, signed in 1529, stipulated the French king's renunciation of Italian territories and of his feudal claims in Flanders and Artois. For his part, the emperor renounced the Duchy of Burgundy. In the Peace of Barcelona, Charles granted favorable peace terms to the Pope and concluded a defensive alliance with him. This reconciliation led to Clement VII crowning Charles emperor in Bologna on February 24, 1530.

The Kingdom of France and the Ottoman Empire were allied from 1534. Charles won an important victory in 1535 with the conquest of Tunis. In 1538, a league directed against the Turks was concluded between Charles, his brother Ferdinand, Venice and the Pope. In the same year, Pope Paul III brokered the ten-year Nice truce between Charles and Francis.

The situation worsened again when French envoys were assassinated on their return from Constantinople. Instead of helping his brother in Hungary, Charles decided to attack Algiers in 1541. But the attack failed. The Ottomans, for their part, failed because of Morocco's resistance. Francis declared war on Charles again in 1543, but the defeat of Duke William of Cleves, who was allied with France, caused him to lose his last ally in the empire. The threat of a move on Paris prompted him to conclude the Peace of Crépy in 1544.

His successor, Henry II, worked toward a new alliance with the Ottomans beginning in 1550. He also formed an alliance with the Protestant opposition in the empire.

Partition of the Habsburg Empire, Philip II. (1556–1598)

When Charles V resigned the government in 1556, Spain lost the Austrian possessions of the House of Habsburg and the imperial crown, but retained the Netherlands, Franche-Comté, the Duchy of Milan, and the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia.

Spain became the center of a policy set in motion with enormous means of power, which wanted to achieve the victory of Roman Catholicism over Turks and "heretics" at the same time (Counter-Reformation). To this end, Philip II suppressed the rest of the political liberties and subjugated the estates. However, the permanent wars not only consumed the revenues of the colonies, but also led to three state bankruptcies.

In 1556, the Armistice of Vaucelles was concluded with France, in which Henry II was granted the bishoprics of Metz, Verdun and Toul, as well as Piedmont. The renewed war was ended by the Battle of Saint-Quentin in 1557. The new anti-Habsburg alliance between Pope Paul IV and Henry II was again unsuccessful; instead, the Duke of Alba occupied the Papal States and the Pope had to agree to the Peace of Cave-Palestrina in 1557. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis ended the war in 1559. Henry renounced all claims in Italy, Philip received his territories there as well as the Burgundian possessions confirmed.

Philip continued the persecution of heretics begun under his father, which had already caused unrest in the Netherlands. He appointed his half-sister Margaret of Parma as governor there. Some members of the Dutch Council of State, led by William I of Orange and Counts Egmond and Hoorn, protested these changes and forced Granvelle's resignation in 1564. The protest reached a first climax in the same year with the iconoclasts of the Calvinists. Philip then abolished the Inquisition but sent the Duke of Alba as a new governor in 1567.

The Eighty Years' War began. Alba defeated Dutch troops led by William I of Orange, but his harsh regime was replaced in 1573. Catholics were promised restitution of property confiscated during Alba's governorship, but Protestants were to emigrate over the next six months. The new governor became Juan de Austria, the king's half-brother. On July 24, 1581, the Republic of the United Netherlands declared its independence. William of Orange was appointed governor of the new republic. The parts of the southern provinces that had not joined the Union of Arras were subjugated between 1581 and 1585 under the new governor Alessandro Farnese.

Moorish Revolt (from 1568), war against Ottomans (from 1571), acquisition of Portugal (1580)

In April 1568, the first Moorish uprising occurred in the Alpuaxarras Mountains. The Duke of Mondejar prevented the loss of Granada. In January 1570, Don Juan took over the supreme command and quelled the rebellion until March of that year.

The conquest of the island of Cyprus by the Ottomans in 1571 gave the Christian powers reason to seek confrontation. At the same time, these events were used to begin the forced expulsion of the Moriscos to North Africa in November. Venice and Spain sent a joint fleet to the eastern Mediterranean, which was victorious in the naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Don Juan's fleet succeeded in conquering Tunis, but it was soon recaptured by the Ottomans. The marriage with the Scottish queen Mary Stuart, which had been discussed by the pope, failed due to Philip's objections.

In 1570 Philip II married Anna of Austria (1549-1580). Anne of Austria (1549-1580), who became the mother of Philip, heir to the throne. In 1580, Portugal and its colonial empire passed to Spain (Iberian Union) after the death of the childless King Enrique.

Wars with England (1585-1604) and France (1590-1598)

The English privateers in the Caribbean brought the flow of silver from Potosí to a halt. England also backed Henry of Navarre and supported him against the Catholic party of the Duke of Guise, who in turn was supported by Spain. In the Netherlands, it supported the rebels. The beheading of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, in 1587 and the constant raids on its merchant ships gave Philip the justification for an invasion. His armada sailed from Lisbon with about 130 units and reached the Dutch coast in early August. At Gravelines, the embarkation of strong landing forces was to take place. However, about 30 galleons were lost in counterattacks under Charles Howard and Francis Drake. The retreat was started via the Scottish coast and Ireland, storms brought the heaviest losses to the Armada only now. Only about 65 ships saved themselves in the port of Santander.

After the murder of King Henry III of France, Philip II claimed the throne for his daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia, as she was his niece. However, the rightful king under French hereditary law was the Protestant King Henry of Navarre, who ascended the throne as Henry IV. Between 1590 and 1598, Spain intervened on the side of the French Catholics. In 1595, Henry IV formed a coalition with England and the States General against Spain, where, as a result of the war costs, a new state bankruptcy occurred. On May 2, 1598, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Archduke Albrecht, brokered the Peace of Vervins with Henry, which restored the status quo of 1559.

End of political domination, state bankruptcies, revolts and wars, end of the Spanish Habsburgs (until 1700)

Peace with England (1604), Expulsion of the Moors (1609), Treaty of Oñate (1617)

Philip III placed the governance of the state in the hands of minions, most notably the Duke of Lerma. The latter induced the king in 1609 to expel the approximately 275,000 Moors from Spain. In 1604 he ended the war with England. With the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, he concluded the Treaty of Oñate in 1617. Philip renounced his claims to the succession of Emperor Matthias († 1619) and thus to Hungary and Bohemia. In exchange, he was to receive the bailiwicks of Ortenburg and Hagenau in Alsace to improve the connection between the Dutch and Italian possessions. In a secret supplementary treaty, Ferdinand, who took over the Hungarian-Bohemian inheritance, confirmed that the male descendants of the Spanish line had preferential rights in inheritance over the female descendants of the Austrian branch.

Colonial policy

The system of viceroys established in the countries of the Crown of Aragon was transferred to the New World. In 1535, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was established, and in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru. The viceroy exercised governmental power on behalf of the monarch. Because of these "monarchical" duties, he also had to hold his own court and arrange for ceremonial similar to that of the king.

At the beginning of the 16th century, jurisdiction and royal jurisdiction were still handled in the Castilian motherland (Audiencia of Valladolid/Granada), but due to the distance and the lack of legal institutions, it was decided in 1511 to establish a Real Audiencia, i.e. a royal court of appeal, in Santo Domingo on Hispaniola. In 1527, another Audiencia was to be established in Mexico City, joined by Guatemala in 1542, Guadalajara in 1548, and also in the Philippines in 1583. The Audiencias became the colonial authorities proper. In the capitals of the two viceroyalties, Mexico City and Lima, the viceroy simultaneously exercised the office of president of the audiencia, thus creating another factor of control, since viceroys were appointed only by the crown itself.

With the establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, regional and local government began to establish corregimientos in the Indian communities, modeled after the Castilian municipal government, to limit the encomenderos' rule over the population. A town council, known as the Cabildo, was established in each town. From the second half of the 16th century, the Cabildo was exclusively responsible for urban administration.

In the course of enlightened absolutism, the crown tried to make municipal administration more efficient. Thus, city finances were placed under the control of the crown by creating a separate financial authority in the capitals of the viceroyalties. It was not until the Bourbon reforms that reurbanization succeeded.

The Casa de Contratación in Seville, founded in 1503, was a kind of chamber of commerce. It was responsible for the organization of the fleet and received customs duties and revenues from trade with the viceroyalties. All ships and people arriving from the New World came under its jurisdiction, as well as criminal cases in the fiscal and commercial sectors. Emigration to America was regulated through this institution, allowing only those to emigrate who had "purity of blood", that is, who were not Jews, Muslims or Conversos. At the same time, it was a navigation center where knowledge about new travel routes was gathered.

In parallel, a commission chaired by the Archbishop of Burgos developed in the Castilian Crown Council to deal exclusively with America issues. Around 1516 it was given the name Consejo de Indias. In 1523, the Council of the Indies was separated from the Crown Council; from then on, both the Casa de Contratación and all the colonies were subordinate to it. Finally, it was decided to entrust the military defense of the colonies to a separate council, the Junta de Guerra de Indias, founded in 1597. Its members were appointed by the Crown. 1596 saw the publication of the Cedulario Indiano, a compendium of 3,500 laws that was considered the standard work until the Bourbon reforms.

A conflict arose over the question of the treatment of the Indians between the exponents Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, then the missionary orders and the Council of the Indies, as well as the local feudal lords. The crown tried to keep the grandees, who always tended to make their dominions independent, under control through an alliance with the lesser nobles, the hidalgos, and with the church. At the same time, the Indians were to be missionized, grouped into encomiendas since 1503, and protected from excessive violence (Laws of Burgos, 1512). They were intended as a labor force. These laws stipulated that the Indios were to be surrendered to the feudal lords - hence the term encomienda - but not considered slaves.

However, the exploitation of the precious metal deposits was particularly important for Madrid. Through the system of the mita, the provinces were already forced in the Inca Empire to provide labor in turn for a certain period of time.

Replacement of the Fuggers by the Genoese in state financing, colonial supply of precious metals, state bankruptcies

While the Fuggers and Welsers were family trading companies, their Genoese competitors succeeded in becoming the dominant force on the financial market. In doing so, it relied on a system of bills of exchange that matured in Antwerp. In this way, the Genoese needed little equity capital. They paid the bills of exchange with ever new bills of exchange. This mere back-and-forth exchange in the Ricorsa process ended only when the loan transaction was terminated by repayment. The Genoese bankers regularly made arbitrage profits in this process, which enabled them to escape the state bankruptcies of 1575 and 1596. But in 1607 they took the renewed insolvency as an opportunity to transfer the money they had earned with Spain to Italy. The suspension of payments by France and Spain in 1614 ruined the Welser banking and trading house.

Despite certain successes in coinless money and credit, Europe's economy still remained dependent on the supply of precious metals. The supply of silver and gold depended heavily on America. Around 1660, precious metals worth about 365 tons of silver came from the Spanish colonies, while Europe produced only 20 to 30 tons. But Spain invested most of this precious metal flow in wars, introduced a profitable copper coinage in its own territory, which was abandoned only after 1660. In the long run, this policy triggered inflationary spurts and damaged the economy. Now Amsterdam became the most important precious metal market.

Finally, the economic impulses of the great powers increasingly failed to materialize. The Mediterranean region began to stagnate. By and large, the economy continued to be based on means of exchange that depended on the yields from gold and silver mines. The first gold rush in history, triggered by discoveries in Brazil beginning in 1693/95, brought 10 to 15 tons of gold a year to Europe for most of the 18th century. By mid-century, moreover, the yield from silver mines in Mexico had doubled, delivering over 700 t per year by 1800. These precious metal quantities boosted trade to Asia immensely. Anyone who wanted to be successful in this trade therefore had to maintain good contacts with the Iberian powers.

Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), war with France (until 1659), independence of Portugal (1640/68), uprising in Catalonia

At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Philip III sent Emperor Ferdinand II. troops. Philip IV. (1621-1665) relied even more heavily on the military. In alliance with the Austrians, he wanted to restore Catholic supremacy, if not the unity of the Church.

The rule was in the hands of the royal favorite and first minister Gaspar de Guzmán. He aspired to a central state. This provided for uniform taxes and the creation of a common army, which met with rejection in Catalonia. Spain had to declare state bankruptcy in 1627.

By 1637, fighting was deadlocked roughly along the present borders of Belgium and the Netherlands. Ambrosio Spinola conquered the Electoral Palatinate in 1620, the Spanish took part in the victorious Battle ofWhite Mountain against the rebellious Bohemians in 1620, occupied the Valtellina in the same year, and took part in the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634.

The war of succession over Mantua, which began in 1627, increased tensions with France. Paris supported the Dutch and the Swedes with subsidies, and open warfare began in 1635. The French succeeded in cutting off the communication routes, the camino español, between Milan and the Netherlands.

In 1640, the Catalans rose up in the Reapers' Revolt, which lasted until 1659. Pau Claris, the president of the General Assembly, knew how to direct the social unrest toward a political goal and proclaimed the Catalan Republic. The Catalans won a victory at the Battle of Montjuïc on January 26, 1641, but shortly thereafter Pau Claris died and the General Assembly elected Louis XIII of France as Count of Barcelona and thus ruler of Catalonia.

In the Restoration War of 1659 to 1668, Philip tried in vain to reconquer Portugal, which had also been lost in 1640. In the peace treaty between Spain and the Netherlands, he had to recognize the independence of the free Netherlands, but was able to secure the continued existence of the Spanish Netherlands against France. However, in connection with the peace treaty, the alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs broke down.

The desperate financial situation forced the king to raise taxes and introduce others. He was finally forced to pledge silver supplies from America. In 1652, there was another national bankruptcy. In Italy there were popular uprisings in 1647/48, and in Aragon and Navarre parts of the nobility rose up in 1648.

The war with France, which allied with England in 1655, continued after 1648. Englishmen managed to conquer Jamaica in 1655, in 1657 they attacked the silver fleet. The war against France ended in the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659. Spain had to cede border provinces such as Roussillon, Artois and Cerdagne.

When, after the death of Philip IV, Charles II. (1665-1700) ascended the throne, the French king Louis XIV, as the husband of Philip's daughter Maria Teresa, laid claim to the Spanish Netherlands, but was prevented from seizing the land in the War of Devolution.

By the end of Charles II's reign, the population had declined to 5.7 million. For lack of money, many provinces reverted to barter. Only in the Basque Country did ironworking flourish; iron mined and forged near Bilbao was exported to England.

Louis XIV and Philip IV at the adoption of the Peace of the Pyrenees.

Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde de Olivares was the authoritative minister of Philip IV until 1643(Painting by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, Conde Duque de Olivares on Horseback, 1634, oil on canvas, Prado)

The main communication routes between the Habsburg parts of the empire

The Ottoman Empire around 1600

Solemn entry of Charles V and Francis I in Paris in 1540

Domain of Charles V. Wine red: Castile Red: Aragonese possessions Orange: Burgundian possessions Yellow: Austrian hereditary lands Pale yellow: Holy Roman Empire

Wars of succession, reforms and backwardness under the Bourbons (from 1701).

Wars of Succession

With the end of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, succession struggles involving the major European powers began in 1701, the War of the Spanish Succession. An alliance around the Austrian Habsburgs and England fought against a coalition led by France. In the end, France succeeded in installing a grandson of Louis XIV, Duke Philip (V) of Anjou. England was drawn into the war by the fact that after the death of the English king, Louis recognized his son from his second marriage to the Catholic Mary Beatrix of Modena as King James III of England. To counteract Louis' hegemonic aspirations, the Hague Grand Alliance was formed on September 7, 1701, at England's instigation.

In 1703, Pedro II of Portugal sided with the Habsburgs. In 1704, with an Anglo-Dutch corps, Archduke Charles landed in Lisbon as a Habsburg claimant to the Spanish throne. At the same time, a French army came to the aid of Philip V. The English fleet succeeded in permanently capturing Gibraltar on August 4, and the rushing French fleet was defeated at the Battle of Vélez-Málaga on August 24.

In these operations, the allies were helped by the fact that Catalonia in particular resisted the Bourbon government. The Habsburgs besieged Barcelona, which surrendered on October 7, 1705. Spanish attempts to retake Catalonia failed at the Battle of Fuentes, after which the siege of Barcelona had to be abandoned. The Anglo-Portuguese army moved as far as Madrid. After the victory over this army at Almanza on April 25, 1707, the southern provinces fell into the hands of Philip, who had already recovered Madrid.

France's exhaustion caused Louis XIV to offer the naval powers to renounce Spain. But the naval powers and the emperor wanted to break France's supremacy. At sea, the allied fleet was victorious off Menorca in 1708. Louis was now prepared to make far-reaching concessions, but he rejected the demand to help drive his grandson out of Spain himself. On July 27, 1710, his troops were defeated at Almenara and again on August 20 at Saragossa. Thus Charles of Austria was able to enter Madrid on September 28. Against a French army, however, the allies had to evacuate Madrid again on November 11. On December 10, there was a drawn battle at Villaviciosa. The French tried in vain to regain Catalonia.

On April 17, 1711, Emperor Joseph I died without leaving a male heir. Since his brother, the pretender to Spain, became emperor, the naval powers feared that the Austrian House of Habsburg could become overpowering through a union with Spain. Therefore, London began secret negotiations with Paris. Despite all the emperor's efforts to the contrary, negotiations were opened on January 29, 1712, and led to the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. However, Barcelona was not taken until September 11, 1714 (national holiday in Catalonia).

In Spain, Philip V implemented the model of a centralized state based on the French model, which was essentially based on concepts of the French economist Jean Orry, against resistance from the provinces. He appointed José de Grimaldo as the first prime minister in this modernized state. His policy was aimed at recovering the lost territories in Italy. The resulting conflicts, which culminated in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720), were initially unsuccessful. It was not until the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738) that Spain was able to regain Naples and Sicily in the short term.

Institutions that opposed centralized state power were eliminated, provincial privileges were abolished, and a unified tax collection system was established (Decreto de Nueva Planta 1715). This law ensured the status of Castilian as an official language. Under the influence of his second wife Elisabetta Farnese, he left the rule of the Curia and the Inquisition untouched.

Cardinal Giulio Alberoni advanced to the position of Minister of State in 1715. He succeeded in stabilizing the economy and the financial system. Alberoni and Philip supported the queen in her efforts to win Italian territories for her children. Against these efforts and the Spanish claim to the throne in the event of the death of the child who had succeeded Louis XIV to the French throne in 1715, England, the Netherlands and France joined forces in the Triple Alliance on January 4, 1717.

In 1716, when the Austrian Habsburgs entered the war against the Ottomans on the side of the Republic of Venice, which had begun two years earlier, about 8,000 men landed in Sardinia in November 1717. After the Peace of Passarowitz with Istanbul on July 21, 1718, Austria joined the alliance, which thus became a quadruple alliance. In it, Emperor Charles VI renounced his claims to the Spanish throne, agreed to exchange Sicily for Sardinia, and agreed to allow a Spanish-Bourbon dynasty in Italy.

However, a Spanish army had already landed in Sicily on July 3. Great Britain then defeated the Spanish fleet off the southern tip of Sicily on August 11, 1718 (naval battle off Cape Passaro). Around the turn of the year, France also entered the war after a plot by the Spanish ambassador against the regent was uncovered (Cellamare conspiracy). In 1719, a French army marched into the Basque Country, an advance that failed, as did a later one into Catalonia. In America, French troops captured the Spanish city of Pensacola. Finally, in 1719, the Austrians succeeded in conquering Sicily.

To weaken Great Britain, Spain supported the Scottish Jacobites in their struggle for independence, sending a fleet of 5,000 men on March 6, 1719, and another in April. However, the force was defeated in the Battle of Glen Shiel. In a counter-action, the British in turn landed a small force in Galicia. In August, the Netherlands also entered the war. Under pressure from the allies, Alberoni was released on December 5, after which the Treaty of The Hague was concluded on February 20, 1720.

Spain had to vacate all the conquered territories. However, Elisabetta Farnese's son, later King Charles, was awarded the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Tuscany, which were to fall to him after the male Farnese line died out. Florida was also returned to Spain. The Habsburgs renounced Sardinia and were granted Sicily in exchange. In return, however, Charles VI had to renounce his claims to the Spanish throne. Spain was soon able to free itself from political isolation and bring Naples and Sicily under its rule in the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738).

Economic recovery and reforms, Bourbon family contract.

During the peaceful reign of the thrifty Ferdinand VI. (1746-1759), the country took a considerable economic upswing, which, however, extended mainly to Catalonia, Andalusia and the Basque Country. In the second half of the 18th century, the economy of Catalonia in particular developed despite high taxation. Catalonia rose to become a commercial power, while Castile remained relatively stagnant.

The reign of Charles III represented a step in the development of the modern state. (1759-1788) represented a step in the development of the modern state. He was assisted in his reforms by Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, conde de Aranda, José Moñino y Redondo, Count of Floridablanca and Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes.

However, Spain was obliged by the Bourbon family treaty of August 15, 1761, to participate in France's war against Great Britain during the Seven Years' War, which delayed reforms. This also increased competition with Britain in the colonies. Spain had to cede Florida to London in the Peace of Paris in 1763. Western Louisiana, thought to extend to the Rocky Mountains, remained under Spanish control until the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in October 1800, and was acquired by Thomas Jefferson of France for the United States in April 1803.

Reforms were pushed forward in 1767 by the expulsion and in 1773 by the abolition of the Jesuit order by Pope Clement XIV, under pressure from the dominant heads of France, Spain and Portugal. Nevertheless, the backwardness in agriculture, commerce and education compared to other countries in Europe increased. The government invested in settlements, mines, factories and infrastructure, and opened up trade with America. The population grew slowly in relation to the competing powers, reaching 10,270,000 in 1788. The second war against Great Britain (1780-1783), to which Spain was again obliged by the Bourbon family treaty, was financed by means of interest-bearing paper money. This led to the establishment of the Banco de España in 1782.

Colonial policy

Reforms fundamentally changed the apparatus of authorities and civil servants, thus enabling Madrid to administer the provinces in a streamlined manner. This new concept, later called the intendant system, was gradually applied to the colonies in the New World under Charles III.

Charles, together with his "India Minister" José de Gálvez y Gallardo, wanted to fundamentally change the administrative structures. First, Charles decreed the redivision of the provinces in the viceroyalties. The offices of Alcaldes Mayores and Corregidores were abolished and replaced by Subdelegados, who were no longer appointed by the Crown but by the Intendant in charge. From now on, silver exports were no longer handled through Lima, but through Buenos Aires. In the border area, protracted conflicts continued with the Portuguese of Brazil; in addition, there were fears against the Jesuit reductions settled there that they might form a state within a state.

Charles III abolished the Casa de Contratación, which levied colonial taxes, the royal fifth until then. At the same time, Seville lost its status as a monopoly port. The Consejo de Indias remained as a colonial authority until 1834, but more and more of its powers were transferred to the newly created Secretaría de Marina e Indias.

Resistance to the reforms arose at all levels, so they were gradually withdrawn. In 1787, the powers of the superintendent were transferred back to the viceroys. The intendants, in turn, evolved into mere executors of the viceroys.

The archive of the Casa de Contratación in Seville, with the cathedral on the left.

Main trade routes of the Spanish and the Portuguese

Campaigns in the War of the Spanish Succession

Louis XIV declares his grandson Philippe d'Anjou the new King of Spain at Versailles

French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815).

Manuel de Godoy, overthrow of the French Bourbons, Napoleon

Charles IV was ruled by his wife Maria Luise of Parma, who burdened the finances from 1788 to 1808 with favoritism and extravagance. She gave her favorite Manuel de Godoy, scion of a hidalgo family and a member of the bodyguard since 1784, who was also in high favor with the king, the supreme management of state affairs until May 1798.

Spain did not intervene in the overthrow of the French Bourbons, but in 1793 it was prompted by the execution of Louis XVI to declare war on France. France responded by invading Navarre, the Basque provinces, and Aragón, and committed Spain to a joint war against Great Britain in the second Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796. However, the Spanish fleet was defeated at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on February 14, 1797.

From November 1800, Napoleon corresponded only with Godoy, who had returned to power. In 1801, Godoy led another war against Portugal in the French interest, being the first to claim the title of generalísimo. In 1802, at the Peace of Amiens, Spain had to cede Trinidad to Great Britain and Louisiana went to France.

Godoy was forced to commit an exhausted Spain to war against Britain in 1803 by another unfavorable treaty with France, in which the Spanish fleet was destroyed at Cape Finisterre on July 22 and at Trafalgar on October 20, 1805. Popular protest arose against Godoy, whose secret diplomacy established contacts with France's adversary, Prussia. However, these plans became obsolete when Prussia was defeated by Napoleon in 1806. When Godoy allied with France against Portugal in the Treaty of Fontainebleau on October 27, 1807 - he himself wanted to become sovereign prince of the Algarve in the south of the country - and Napoleon ordered his troops to move in, there was a popular uprising in Aranjuez on March 18, 1808. Godoy was overthrown and only saved from being lynched by the intervention of a French general. The king abdicated on March 19 in favor of his son Ferdinand. As Ferdinand VII, the latter did indeed hold his entry into Madrid on March 24, 1808, but his father was forced to retract his abdication of the throne as forced in a letter to Napoleon. The emperor summoned the royal family to Bayonne, where Ferdinand renounced the crown in favor of his father on May 5. Charles immediately ceded his rights to Napoleon. Napoleon in turn appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain on July 6, 1808.

War of Independence (1808-1813), People's War

→ Main article: Napoleonic Wars in the Iberian Peninsula

The resistance against Napoleon soon took on the character of a popular war, and the Junta Suprema Central, established in Aranjuez in September 1808, took charge.

In January 1810 the French dominated Andalusia and in August an army of 80,000 men invaded Portugal to expel the British. The said central junta fled from Seville to Cadiz, where it was forced to abdicate on February 2, 1810. In 1812, the Cortes of Cadiz approved Spain's first modern constitution, colloquially known as La Pepa because it was promulgated on the feast day of Saint Joseph (Pepe). On July 22, the French were defeated at Salamanca and on August 12, the British under Wellington entered Madrid. But they had to retreat again to the Portuguese border before the French superiority.

Only Napoleon's defeat in the Russian campaign of 1812 forced King Joseph to leave Madrid on May 27, 1812 and retreat with his army to Vitoria. Here it was defeated by Wellington on June 21, 1813. On December 11, the Treaty of Valençay was signed between Spain and France. It established the return of Ferdinand VII to the throne and the recognition of the Spanish possessions.

Swearing in of the deputies of the Cortes in 1810, José Casado del Alisal, 1863

Constitution of 1812, Spanish Revolution (until 1823).

→ Main article: Spanish Revolution (1820) and Carlism

In 1808, the Junta Suprema Central had met in the Palace of Aranjuez. It saw its task as taking power during the king's absence. It did not recognize King Joseph and acted in the name but without the mandate of King Ferdinand. This Junta convened an Assembly on January 1, 1810, and its Constitution was promulgated on March 19, 1812. In it, the sovereignty of the people was assumed for the first time; in addition, liberal economic laws were enacted and the guild obligation was abolished. Catholicism remained the state religion and any other religion was still forbidden, but the Inquisition and feudal jurisdiction were abolished.

On February 3, 1814, the Cortes invited Ferdinand to Madrid to swear allegiance to the Constitution. Ferdinand entered Spanish soil in Girona on March 24, but refused to recognize the Constitution after General Elío joined him with 40,000 men. On May 11, he had the Cortes dispersed and ruled absolutist.

The independence of some colonies led to the loss of almost all state revenues. Ferdinand was under the influence of advisors who stopped all reforms. Spain lost its Latin American possessions in the wars of independence there, ceding Florida to the United States in 1819 for $5 million. But the army felt neglected, and on January 1, 1820, there was a rebellion among the troops assigned to fight the insurgents in America.

In a coup d'état, Lieutenant Colonel Rafael del Riego forced the king to recognize the liberal constitution of 1812 (Trienio Liberal). On March 7, 1820, a crowd formed outside the royal palace in Madrid. General Francisco Ballesteros refused to take armed action against the crowd. As a result, the king felt compelled to announce to his ministers, through a new decree, that he intended to swear by the Constitution of Cadiz. On March 9, the King convened a Junta Provisional Gubernativa, which would initially perform the duties and exercise the rights of the Cortes. A decree of the same day abolished the Inquisition. A general amnesty was issued on April 23.

On March 18, at the urging of this junta, Ferdinand appointed a new cabinet. Then, on March 22, he convened the Cortes for 1820 and 1821. The inaugural session of July 9, 1820, produced a majority of the moderate wing of the Liberals (Moderados). The Doceañistas (from doce twelve, 1812, the year the Constitution of Cadiz was approved) were mostly participants in the Cortes of Cadiz. They saw the Constitution as essentially achieving their goals. The other wing, the Veinteañistas (from veinte = twenty, as short for 1820), demanded more far-reaching changes.

The constitution granted the king the right of veto. This led to clashes with the cabinet. After the opening of the second session on March 1, 1821, the king dismissed the ministers. However, the new cabinet again consisted of politicians from the moderate wing. The budget presented by this cabinet showed a deficit of 550 million reales, which was to be covered by borrowing from abroad and by a national loan. The Cortes carried out two administrative reforms, both of which served to strengthen the centralized administration. On the one hand, the country was divided into 49 provinces with corresponding tax authorities; on the other, the Public Education Law divided the education system into primary, intermediate and higher education. The number of universities was set at ten.

The elections of 1822 resulted in a majority of Veinteañistas in the Cortes. Rafael del Riego was elected president of the Cortes. However, the work of the Parliament came to a virtual standstill due to the wing wars among the liberals. In August, the king appointed Evaristo de San Miguel, a politician of the more radical wing, as prime minister.

At the end of 1822, this wing was opposed by absolute monarchists. A counter-government, which found a large number of supporters especially in Catalonia, Aragon and the north, was put down under General Francisco Espoz y Mina, and the members of this Regencia de Urgel fled to France.

The Holy Alliance, with the agreement of the representatives of Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia, but without the vote of England, called on the French government to restore the status quo in Spain on November 22, 1822. Paris assembled an army under the supreme command of the Duke of Angoulême. Nearly 80,000 soldiers crossed the border near San Sebastián, and another 21,000 advanced on Barcelona via Figueras. The Duke of Angoulême set up a Council of Regency in occupied Madrid. This exercised King Ferdinand's rights until October 1, 1823.

As a result, on March 22, 1823, the Cortes moved their headquarters from Madrid to Seville. In their first session, on June 11, they issued a decree establishing a Regency Council, since in their opinion the king was mentally incapable of carrying out his duties. The president of the three-member council was Cayetano Valdés y Flores, former captain general of Cadiz. In mid-June, the Cortes moved its seat and that of the government to Cadiz. The last session was held on September 19, 1823. Cayetano Valdés y Flores had to hand over the king to the Duke of Angoulême at the end of September.

On October 1, the King declared that he had not been free in his actions since March 7, 1820, and therefore all the actions of the governments of the last three years should be considered invalid. General Rafael del Riego, who had been captured by French troops at Arquillos in the province of Jaén on September 15, 1823, was handed over to the new government and executed in Madrid on November 7, 1823.

Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga, President of the Junta Provisional Gubernativa, Goya

Rafael del Riego (1785-1823), Museo Romántico de Valencia

Carlist Wars (1833-1876)

→ Main article: Carlist Wars

The Spanish queen Maria Christina became pregnant in 1830. In the course of this, King Ferdinand VII reorganized his succession. He officially declared invalid parts of the Salic Law, which provided only for a male succession to the throne. The king thus bypassed his younger brother Don Carlos, who had previously been destined for the throne. Finally, on October 10, 1830, the future Queen Isabella II was born. The mood of the court at her birth was captured by the historian Carlos Cambronero, who was present, with the following words: "An heir, albeit female". The followers of Don Carlos, the so-called Carlists, were indeed to deny Isabella recognition after the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833. This laid the foundations for the so-called First Carlist War, a domestic dispute over possession of the crown. This war was won by the liberal forces after six years. The liberal Constitution of Cadiz was reinstated in August 1836.

In 1840, a coup d'état by General Baldomero Espartero forced the regent Maria Christina to flee. The pro-English Espartero ruled de facto as dictator and considered opening the Spanish market to British products, especially cotton fabrics. This threatened the burgeoning Catalan cotton industry. On November 13, 1842, citizens and textile workers in Barcelona rebelled against Espartero, whose general Antonio Van Halen, in return, bombed the city on December 3 with over 1,000 projectiles and executed about 100 people. 462 houses were destroyed. This violent reaction and other punitive actions, for example against the city of Reus and republican forces, led to the strengthening of the opposition to Espartero. After Isabella was declared of age in 1843, rebellions broke out in Catalonia, Andalusia, Aragon and Galicia. General Ramón María Narváez and other military leaders forced Espartero to flee to England. In 1845 a constitution was approved. In 1847 the Second Carlist War began, which ended with Isabella's victory in 1849.

A series of uprisings by the Progresistas (liberals, republicans and socialists) and Moderados (monarchists and Catholics) led to a revolution in 1868 under General Juan Prim, which ended Isabella's rule, while General Francisco Serrano Domínguez temporarily took over the government. A search for a new king became necessary, which dragged on due to a lack of candidates.

In 1869, the Cortes proclaimed a new constitution that provided for a parliamentary monarchy as the form of government. One promising candidate for king was Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, scion of a Catholic collateral line of the Hohenzollerns. He was persuaded by Otto von Bismarck to accept the candidacy in the spring of 1870. A French objection to Leopold led to the Franco-Prussian War. Finally, on November 16, 1870, the Cortes elected Amadeus of Savoy as king. When the Third Carlist War broke out in 1872 and Amadeus was unable to restore order, he abdicated in February 1873.

Bombardment of Barcelona from the Castillo de Montjuïc

Maria Christina of Bourbon and both Sicilies, regent from 1833 to 1840

First Republic (1873 to 1874), industrialization, war over Cuba and the Philippines.

The First Republic proclaimed by the Cortes lasted barely eleven months. In January 1874, General Serrano's coup put an end to it. He dissolved the Cortes and ruled as dictator with the title of president. An uprising led by Martínez-Campos restored the monarchy in December 1874.

The new regime was constitutional. It had limited electoral rights, and the power of the armed forces was channeled through foreign deployments. Isabella II's son, Alfonso XII, became the new king. After his death in 1885, his wife Maria Christina ruled in place of the minor Alfonso XIII (Alfonso himself ruled from 1902 to 1931). The Third Carlist War, ended in 1876, and the end of the Ten Years' War in Cuba ushered in a prolonged period of peace. In 1893, however, the First Rif War broke out in Morocco.

The new era of the Restauración was marked by a relatively stable power agreement, the Pardo Pact of 1885 to secure the monarchy, between the Conservative Party (whose leader Cánovas del Castillo had supported the restoration of the monarchy) and the Liberal Party under Práxedes Mateo Sagasta. The pact was implemented through electoral collusion, fraud, and the so-called cacique system. Local caciques were large landowners, mayors or parish priests. The assassination of del Castillo in August 1897, foreign policy disasters (Spanish-American War in 1898) and finally Sagasta's death in January 1903 ended this stability.

Late industrialization with foreign help

This period saw an industrial boom with the development of iron and steel production and (since 1890) the exploitation of the Asturian coal mines in the Valle de Turón, although of inferior quality. The old ore mines in Minas de Riotinto, leased by a Swedish entrepreneur in 1775, fell into English hands in 1873 and became the nucleus of the British-Australian Rio Tinto Group. In the 1870s, the steel industry of the Basque Country was developed on the basis of British and German processes and through the construction of railroads, mainly with British and French capital.

Industrialization began on the coast, favored by long-distance trade and imports of cheap English coal, that is, on the periphery of the country. With the exception of the Catalan textile industry, which began using steam engines and mechanical looms around 1830, many new economic sectors, especially mining for iron, lead, copper and mercury and the chemical industry, as well as the expansion of the railroad network, remained dependent on foreign (mostly English and French) imports and foreign capital for a long time, as the bourgeoisie invested primarily in the expansion of its land holdings or in the highly interest-bearing bonds of the notoriously indebted Spanish state. Moreover, investments in mining had hardly any multiplier effects. Capital formation faltered, as did the development of higher technical education.

The Rothschild family was the most important financier of the railroads, the mining industry and also the Spanish state until about 1890. It owned about 50 percent of foreign investments; it controlled large parts of the trade in mining products (such as the entire trade in mercury from 1830 to 1921) and only withdrew from the Spanish business in the 1930s. But some Basque industrialists, such as Francisco de las Rivas y Ubieta, were also able to invest the capital they had partly acquired in the land trade in the iron and steel industry and rise to wealth. In Bilbao, the Compañía de Diques Secos shipyard with the oldest dry dock in Spain (later Euskalduna shipyard) was built in 1868, and the first dynamite factory was built in 1872, marking the birth of a Spanish chemical industry. In 1854, the first trade union federation was formed in Barcelona, the Unión de Clases, with the core of the textile workers.

It was not until 1897 that soda production succeeded with German help and the production of hydrogen and acetylene with Swiss capital. Almost all aniline dyes for the not insignificant textile industry had to be imported from Germany. With increasing economic interdependence, Spain became the scene of a struggle for influence between the major trading powers that intensified until 1914. During the Great Depression in the 1890s, some sectors of the economy fell into distress precisely because of these interdependencies. In 1893, for example, iron and steel production in the Altos Hornos de Marbella industrial area, which had begun in 1832 and was partly owned by the British, came to an end. Around 1900, a period of boom resumed, leading to the creation of some export-strong companies such as Altos Hornos de Vizcaya. However, by 1910, financing conditions deteriorated, and the development of a broad Spanish entrepreneurial class lasted until the early 1930s.

Economic development was particularly difficult where there were no ore deposits, as in the center of the country, which continued to be dominated by agriculture. Large sections of the rural population, which in the 1880s still accounted for more than 70 percent of the total population, were impoverished, and their hopes of acquiring land were dashed as more and more urban citizens bought up the land of the field and farm communities alongside the large landowners. It is in the propertyless rural working class that Spanish anarchism has one of its roots. In the more industrialized regions, however, autonomy movements were gaining strength. In 1894, the flag of the Basque Country flew for the first time in Bilbao, and in 1895 Sabino Arana founded the Partido Nacionalista Vascoa (PNV), the Basque national party.

Loss of the last important colonies to the USA and Germany (1898/99)

In the war with the United States from April 25 to August 12, 1898, Spain lost most of its remaining colonies. When the War of Independence began in Cuba in 1895 and nationalist groups rose in the Philippines in 1896, Spain declared the preservation of its colonies a national issue. By 1898, the government had sent hundreds of thousands of troops, but failed to put down the uprisings. On June 12, 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines.

The war increasingly burdened domestic politics, which were characterized by the arrogant patriotism of many newspapers. Madrid sought a compromise solution in the form of limited autonomy rights. But the entry of the United States into the war brought about a swift defeat, often referred to as El Desastre. In 1899, the First Philippine Republic was declared, but a slim majority in the U.S. was not interested in an independent state. Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico had to be ceded to the USA at the end of 1898, although the Philippines continued to resist the Americans until 1916 (Philippine-American War). This left Spain with enclaves in Morocco, Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea. Finally, the German Empire enforced a treaty in which Spain had to cede the Caroline Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau.

Aggravation of social tensions, Rif War

Literarily, the "disaster" left its mark on a whole series of writers and artists, the so-called Generación del 98. Domestically, tensions intensified, and socialist and anarcho-syndicalist groups were strengthened. The army's discontent was initially deflected by new colonial adventures, as in the 1893 war in the Rif. In 1909, another military conflict took place between Morocco and Spain, again in the Rif region (Rif War (1909)). Paris and Madrid had already agreed in 1904 on a division of Morocco. After initial defeats, Spain was able to deploy 40,000 troops and expand its enclave of Melilla, losing 2500 men. Together with France, it established a protectorate. In the Treaty of Fez of March 30, 1912, Spain and France agreed to form two zones as Spanish Morocco and French Morocco.

Between July 25 and August 2, 1909, there was the Semana Trágica, a workers' uprising in Barcelona and other cities. Over 2500 people were arrested, 1700 convicted by military courts, 17 sentenced to death. The constitution was suspended until November, newspapers were banned, cultural workers' centers and meeting places and well over 100 secular schools were closed.

French Ambassador to the United States Jules Cambon signs the declaration of ratification of the peace treaty on behalf of Spain on May 1, 1899.

Old winding tower, Pozo Espinos Mining Museum in Valle de Turón

Parliamentary monarchy

Democratization 1976-1982

→ Main article: Transition in Spain

Between 1975 and the military coup of February 23, 1981 ("23-F"), there were attacks against Carlists on Montejurra, the Vitoria massacre against striking workers in Vitoria-Gasteiz on March 3, 1976, and the Atocha bloodbath against CC.OO lawyers in Madrid on January 24, 1977. In these years, the terrorist organization GRAPO, which was only dissolved in 2007, was also active on the left with its Marxist-Leninist goals, as was ETA. The Falange's most important successor organization, the Fuerza Nueva (later Frente Nacional), ceased to play a role in the 1980s.

In 1978, 88% of voters approved the constitution in a referendum that made Spain a parliamentary monarchy. Among other things, it re-established women's suffrage, which had been abolished during Franco's regime. On February 23, 1981, members of the army under General Jaime Milans del Bosch and the Guardia Civil under Colonel Antonio Tejero attempted a military coup. Tejero had Parliament stormed and the parliamentarians taken hostage. The coup was thwarted by a televised speech by the king, who spoke out in favor of democracy and rallied the military to his side.

Spain joined NATO in 1982. In 1986 Spain became a member of the European Community and in 1988 of the Western European Union. In 1999 it decided to adopt the euro as its currency from 2002. The Partido Popular won the 1996 elections and José María Aznar became prime minister. His domestic policy priorities were the reorganization of state finances along neoliberal lines, economic growth and the fight against ETA; in foreign policy, he sought proximity to the United States. In 2000, Aznar succeeded in winning an absolute majority. Under U.S. leadership, he joined the "coalition of the willing" despite popular opposition. Germany, Russia and France refused to participate in the war in Iraq.

Madrid train bombings, Socialist government (2004-2011)

On March 11, 2004, a series of Islamist-motivated terrorist attacks on commuter trains in Madrid resulted in 191 deaths. In 2004, the Socialist Party under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero surprisingly won the election. Domestically, social liberalization and the separation of church and state were pursued, and the decentralization of the country continued, with nationalist claims in Catalonia and the Basque Country receiving increasing attention. In the summer of 2006, the government began negotiations with ETA after the latter announced a "permanent cease-fire" in March; however, after the cease-fire was broken by an ETA assassination at Madrid airport on December 30, 2006, these negotiations were suspended. In terms of foreign policy, Spain moved closer to Germany and France. Prime Minister Zapatero withdrew the army from Iraq by July 2004, but a short time later he increased the military contingent in Afghanistan, where 34 Spaniards had died by November 2013, in deference to relations with the United States, which had been damaged by this withdrawal.

Economic crisis (since 2007), emigration and immigration

The expansion phase of the real estate market, which lasted from 1996 to 2006, caused the share of the construction and real estate sector to swell to around 18% of gross domestic product. When this real estate bubble burst in 2007, the economy fell into recession. The unemployment rate rose from 8.6% at the end of 2007 to 21.5% at the end of 2011. In March 2013, it stood at 27.16%, and of those under 25, 57.22% were out of work.

In 2008, the Zapatero government, which was re-elected in the March 9 elections, launched an economic stimulus program. The minimum wage was to be increased and the wealth tax abolished in 2009. Further stimulus packages followed, and in December an additional increase in the minimum wage and a 2.4-7.2 % increase in pensions were decreed. The stimulus programs led to an increase in the budget deficit with increased social benefits; this was covered with borrowing of over 220 billion euros. This was followed in January 2010 by budget cuts of 50 billion euros and tax increases as well as salary cuts.

In the early elections of November 20, 2011, the Partido Popular under Mariano Rajoy won an absolute majority. In August 2012, Rajoy tightened the austerity course (from 65 billion euros to around 102 billion euros). He was responding to the rise in interest rates on loans. Again and again, there were mass protests, such as in Madrid in 2012, when 500,000 people gathered. On June 9, 2012, eurozone finance ministers promised the government a loan of up to 100 billion euros for its banks. These had debt instruments worth around 670 billion euros in their portfolios. In June 2014, Juan Carlos announced his resignation. He was succeeded by his son. There were calls to declare a Third Republic and abolish the monarchy. Against the backdrop of a corruption scandal, Prime Minister Rajoy was ousted by a vote of no confidence on June 1, 2018.

While the population had risen from about 18.3 million to 47.3 million from 1900 to 2012, it fell for the first time in 2012. -, it could fall to 41.5 million by 2052.

Spain's autonomous communities and provinces

Investment ruin in Ibiza (Cala de Bou, Sant Josep)

Gross Domestic Product and Public Debt in Spain