Tomorrow, I begin a semester-long study abroad in Sevilla, España, or Seville, Spain. Well, I should say I begin the journey TOWARD a semester-long study abroad; I won't actually land in Spain until Monday. Either way, I won't know with whom I'm living or which classes I'm taking until I arrive, but I do know that I'm in for an adventure.
Why Spain? It seems like a good place to start writing, since everyone keeps asking. The short answer is, I'm a Spanish major. The long answer is, I'm fascinated. The following is a brief (believe me, for a country with so long a history, the following is brief!) overview of all the influences that Spain has seen over the centuries, as exerpted from my guidebook, Lonely Planet's Spain, for anyone interested in learning a bit more. Otherwise, check back soon! I plan to update this blog frequently & promise to never again write a long essay on history unless there are plenty of accompanying photos! Hasta pronto, Le <3.
Spain's history begins with the oldest known human bone fragments in Europe, estimated to be around 780,000 years old. From there, civilization can be traced to cave paintings enduring from 12,000 B.C., or 4,000 years before the last Ice Age. By 1000 B.C., culture was flourishing under Greek & Phoenecian influences & with the introduction of the potter's wheel, writing, coins, the olive tree, the grapevine, the donkey & the hen. Between 1000 & 500 B.C., the Iberians & the Celts arrived in Spain, the latter with the introduction of iron technology.
By 500 B.C., the Greeks & Phoenecians were being pushed out by the Carthaginians, & in 218 B.C., the Romans invaded. Around 50 B.C., Pax Romana was finally achieved, & the Romans introduced a road system, aqueducts, temples, theatres, ampitheatres, circuses, baths & its language & legal system. In return, Spain offered Rome gold, sivler, grain, wine, literature, soldiers & 3 emporers. Pax Romana was interrupted by the arrival of 2 Germanic peoples, the Franks & the Alemanni, & 2 further tribes, the Suevi & the Vandals, finished off the period of peace around A.D. 410.
That same year, the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome but settled in Spain when they lost their lands to other Germanic peoples. The new Visigoth kingdom was fraught with problems, mostly due to their lack of sophistication compared to the Spanish they sought to rule.
In A.D. 711, Muslims, or Moors, invaded from Africa & overtook Spain. The Muslims dominated Spain & Portugal for over 400 years, but their territory was constantly shifting due to Christian efforts at Reconquest, which began in A.D. 722. (Although freedom of religion was granted to both Jews & Christians, the latter were forced to pay a special tax, so many either converted to Islam or moved north.) After centuries of struggle, the Reconquest finally succeeded in 1492 with the fall of the city of Granada.
In addition to leading the Reconquest, Catholic monarchs & power couple Ferdinando & Isabel launched the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. Aimed at rooting out those who did not practice Christianity properly, the Inquisition was responsible for an estimated 12,000 deaths. Around 100,000 Jews were converted and a further 200,000 left the region, while most Muslims (around 300,000) converted but never assimilated. Additionally, Ferdinando was responsible for uniting Spain under one rule for the first time since Visigoth rule.
In 1517, Carlos I, grandson of Ferdinando & Isabel, sought out his claim to Spain. Two years later, he had succeeded in acquiring lands in Austria & in being elected Holy Roman Emperor, meaning that he ruled more of Europe than anyone else since the 9th century. During his reign, Cortés conquered the Aztec empire and Pizarro overtook the Incan empire. These new colonies provided huge quantities of silver, gold & other riches to Spain.
Felipe II, Carlos' son, continued to expand the overseas empire; by 1600, Spain controled Florida, the biggest Caribbean islands, nearly all of Mexico and Central America & a large strip of South America. Upon the death of Portugal's king in 1580, Felipe claimed the territory & united the Iberian Peninsula & Europe's two great overseas empires.
In the years that followed the rule of Felippe II, Spain suffered a series of losses. It first lost the territory of Portugal then parcels of its own land to Austria & Britain. Next, Spain lost its sea power in a defeat by the British navy. An attempt at a more liberal constitution met with resistance from the Church & the monarchy that lasted throughout the 19th century. By 1824, all of Spain's New World colonies save Cuba, Guam, the Philippines & Puerto Rico had won independence; these last territories were lost in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
By the 1860s, the anarchist ideas of Russia's Mikhail Bakunin had reached Spain, & by 1910, anarchist unions had gained power. By the 1890s, the push for Basque & Catalan separatism was also on the rise. Although Spain's neutraility in WWI afforded them an economic boom, unrest continued to grow.
In 1931, a new constitution gave women the vote, ended the status of Catholicism as the offical relgion, disbanded the Jesuits, stopped goverment payment of priests' salaries, legalized divorce, banned priests from teaching, gave Catalonia its own parliment & promised land redistribution. Even with the changes, violence rose. On July 17, 1936, the Spanish army garrison rose up against the left-wing government, inciting civil war. The Spanish Civil War lasted 3 years, claiming between 350,000 & 500,000 lives. Finally, on March 28, 1939, the rebel Nationalists claimed Madrid, & on April 1, Franco declared the war over.
After the war, an estimated 100,000 people were killed, & those imprisoned included teachers & intellectuals. Franco ruled absolutely, never allowing the Church, the legal political party, the army, monarchists or bankers to gain too much power. During WWII, Franco promised an alliance with Hitler but never committed himself. After the war, Spain was excluded from the U.N. but was later included during the Cold War in exchange for 4 U.S. bases within the country.
The Stabilization Plan of 1959, which was engineered in part by "Da Vinci Code" bad guys Opus Dei, brought an economic upswing by devaluing the peseta. Modern machinery techqniues & marketing were introduced, transport was modernized, & new dams rovided irrigation & hydropower. Funding came partially from the U.S. but above all from tourism; by 1965, the number of tourists visiting Spain had reached 14 million.
In 1969, Juan Carlos, Franco's hand-picked successor, swore loyalty to the dictator. When Franco died on November 20, 1975, Juan Carlos took power only 2 days later. The new leader removed Franco's prime minister & selected a replacement, Adolfo Suárez. Under the new government that ensued, a general amnesty was granted for acts committed during the war & under Franco's dictatorship, eliminating truth commissions & trials. In 1978, a new constitution was passed that declared Spain a parlimentary monarchy with no official religion.
In 1982, Spain elected a new leader, Felip González, who led Spain into the E.U. (then the European Community) in 1986. Although not without economic troubles, Spain hosted both the Olympics & the Expo 92 world fair in 1992, exactly 500 years after the success of the Reconquest & the first voyage of Columbus.
As much as I'd like to end this history here, I have to add one last historical event: the Madrid bombings. On March 11, 2004, bomps exploded on 4 commuter trains around Madrid, killing 191 people & injuring 1,755 others. Although the government blamed ETA, a Basque separatist organization, a 2-year investigation found that Islamic extremists were inspired but not directed by Osama bin Laden.
