125-825: The N-IV is a major highway in Spain . It connects Madrid to Cádiz . It has generally been up-graded or replaced by the Autovía A-4 . It passes via Valdepenas , Córdoba , Ecija , Seville and Jerez de la Frontera . It forms part of European route E-5 . With the removal of tolls on the Autovía A-4, the amount of traffic on the Carretera Nacional N-IV plummeted, leading to the closure of petrol stations and other businesses. Spain – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in
250-590: A constitution for universal representation under a constitutional monarchy was declared, but after the fall of the Bonapartist regime, the Spanish king dismissed the Cortes Generales, set on ruling as an absolute monarch . The French occupation of mainland Spain created an opportunity for overseas criollo elites who resented the privilege towards Peninsular elites and demanded retroversion of
375-571: A centralised government. They were more an economic part of the Crown of Aragon than a political one. The fact that the King was keen on settling new kingdoms instead of merely expanding the existing kingdoms was a part of a power struggle that pitted the interests of the king against those of the existing nobility . This process was also under way in most of the European states that successfully effected
500-589: A female figure with a rabbit at her feet, and Strabo called it the "land of the rabbits". The word in question actually means " Hyrax ", possibly due to the Phoenicians confusing the two animals. There is also the claim that "Hispania" derives from the Basque word Ezpanna , meaning "edge" or "border", another reference to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula constitutes the southwest corner of
625-528: A foolhardy act of bravado. Thus, the nobility of Toulouse, Foix and other vassals of the Crown of Aragon were defeated. The conflict concluded with the Treaty of Meaux-Paris in 1229, in which the Crown of Aragon agreed to renounce its rights over the south of Occitania with the integration of these territories into the dominions of the King of France . King James I (13th century) returned to an era of expansion to
750-641: A large measure of regional autonomy. Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon ( UK : / ˈ ær ə ɡ ən / , US : /- ɡ ɒ n / ) was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona and ended as a consequence of the War of the Spanish Succession . At the height of its power in the 14th and 15th centuries,
875-890: A legislative body, known as the Cortes in the Kingdom of Aragon (the Courts of Aragon ) or Corts in the Principality of Catalonia (the Catalan Courts ) and the Kingdom of Valencia (the Valencian Courts ). A Diputación del General or Diputació del General was established in each, becoming known as a Generalidad in Aragon and Generalitat in Catalonia and Valencia. From the 15th century onwards, every realm of
1000-615: A puppet kingdom satellite to the French Empire was installed with Joseph Bonaparte as king. The 2 May 1808 revolt was one of many uprisings across the country against the French occupation. These revolts marked the beginning of a devastating war of independence against the Napoleonic regime. Further military action by Spanish armies, guerrilla warfare and an Anglo-Portuguese allied army, combined with Napoleon's failure on
1125-532: A reaction against the gallicised elites and following defeat in the field, peace was made with France in 1795 at the Peace of Basel in which Spain lost control over two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola . In 1807, a secret treaty between Napoleon and the unpopular prime minister led to a new declaration of war against Britain and Portugal. French troops entered the country to invade Portugal but instead occupied Spain's major fortresses. The Spanish king abdicated and
1250-761: A resolution in favour of democracy. With Franco's death in November 1975, Juan Carlos succeeded to the position of King of Spain and head of state in accordance with the Francoist law. With the approval of the new Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the restoration of democracy , the State devolved much authority to the regions and created an internal organisation based on autonomous communities . The Spanish 1977 Amnesty Law let people of Franco's regime continue inside institutions without consequences, even perpetrators of some crimes during transition to democracy like
1375-458: A separate country socially, politically, legally, and in currency and language. Habsburg Spain was one of the leading world powers throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and became the world's leading maritime power . It reached its apogee during the reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs— Charles V/I (1516–1556) and Philip II (1556–1598). This period saw
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#17327909099951500-744: A series of victories against England in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 . However, during the middle decades of the 17th century Spain's maritime power went into a long decline with mounting defeats against the Dutch Republic ( Battle of the Downs ) and then England in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654–1660 ; by the 1660s it was struggling to defend its overseas possessions from pirates and privateers. The Protestant Reformation increased Spain's involvement in religiously charged wars, forcing ever-expanding military efforts across Europe and in
1625-512: A single state, the Kingdom of Spain , as it moved towards an absolutist centralized government under the new Bourbon dynasty. Some of the nationalist movements in Spain consider the former kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon to be the foundation of their nations, the Catalan nationalist movement being the most prominent. Spanish nationalism , on the other hand, tends to place more importance on
1750-527: Is Madrid , and other major urban areas include Barcelona , Valencia , Seville , Zaragoza , Málaga , Murcia and Palma de Mallorca . In early antiquity, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Celts , Iberians , and other pre-Roman peoples . With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula , the province of Hispania was established. Following the Romanization and Christianization of Hispania,
1875-873: The Reconquista , repelling Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492. The dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479 under the Catholic Monarchs is often considered the de facto unification of Spain as a nation-state . During the Age of Discovery , Spain pioneered the exploration of the New World , made
2000-681: The Siglo de Oro , Spanish art , architecture , music , poetry , painting , literature , and cuisine have been influential worldwide, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas . As a reflection of its large cultural wealth , Spain is the world's second-most visited country , has one of the world's largest numbers of World Heritage Sites , and it is the most popular destination for European students. Its cultural influence extends to over 600 million Hispanophones , making Spanish
2125-596: The 12 April 1931 municipal elections . These gave a resounding victory to the Republican-Socialist candidacies in large cities and provincial capitals, with a majority of monarchist councilors in rural areas. The king left the country and the proclamation of the Republic on 14 April ensued, with the formation of a provisional government. A constitution for the country was passed in October 1931 following
2250-602: The Basque Country and the creation of a mass tourism industry. Franco's rule was also characterised by authoritarianism , promotion of a unitary national identity , National Catholicism , and discriminatory language policies . In 1962, a group of politicians involved in the opposition to Franco's regime inside the country and in exile met in the congress of the European Movement in Munich, where they made
2375-605: The Bourbons , was installed. The Crowns of Castile and Aragon had been long united only by the Monarchy and the common institution of the Inquisition's Holy Office . A number of reform policies (the so-called Bourbon Reforms ) were pursued by the Monarchy with the overarching goal of centralized authority and administrative uniformity. They included the abolishment of many of the old regional privileges and laws, as well as
2500-766: The Canary Islands , in the Atlantic Ocean, the Balearic Islands , in the Mediterranean Sea, and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla , in Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France , Andorra , and the Bay of Biscay ; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar ; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city
2625-458: The Catholic Monarchs who began the Inquisition , were contrary to the more plural development that preceded in the Crown of Aragon. The previous religious background was described as "longstanding tradition of Mudejarism , the royal sanctioning and protection of subject Muslim populations within Christian realms." Aesthetic Mudéjar architecture of Aragon has been observed as demonstrating
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#17327909099952750-704: The Cuban War of Independence and the Philippine Revolution broke out and eventually the United States became involved. The Spanish–American War was fought in the spring of 1898 and resulted in Spain losing the last of its once vast colonial empire outside of North Africa. El Desastre (the Disaster), as the war became known in Spain, gave added impetus to the Generation of '98 . Although
2875-731: The European Union (green) Spain , formally the Kingdom of Spain , is a country in Southwestern Europe with territories in North Africa . Featuring the southernmost point of continental Europe , it is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most populous European Union member state. Spanning across the majority of the Iberian Peninsula , its territory also includes
3000-619: The House of Barcelona succeeded in extending its influence to the area that is now south of France through strong family ties, in the areas of the County of Provence , County of Toulouse and County of Foix . The rebellion of the Cathars or Albigensians, who rejected the authority and teachings of the Catholic Church , led to the loss of these possessions in southern France. Pope Innocent III called upon Philip II of France to suppress
3125-988: The Italian Wars , the Schmalkaldic War , the Dutch Revolt , the War of the Portuguese Succession , clashes with the Ottomans , intervention in the French Wars of Religion and the Anglo-Spanish War . Through exploration and conquest or royal marriage alliances and inheritance, the Spanish Empire expanded across vast areas in the Americas, the Indo-Pacific, Africa as well as the European continent (including holdings in
3250-588: The June 1931 Constituent general election , and a series of cabinets presided by Manuel Azaña supported by republican parties and the PSOE followed. In the election held in 1933 the right triumphed and in 1936, the left. During the Second Republic there was a great political and social upheaval, marked by a sharp radicalization of the left and the right. Instances of political violence during this period included
3375-630: The Kingdom of Aragon as the Aragonese noblemen had intended since even before the creation of the Crown of Aragon. The Kingdom of Valencia became the third member of the Crown together with Aragon and the Principality of Catalonia . The Kingdom of Majorca had an independent status with its own kings until 1349. In 1282, the Sicilians rose up against the second dynasty of the Angevins on
3500-633: The Massacre of 3 March 1976 in Vitoria or 1977 Massacre of Atocha . In the Basque Country, moderate Basque nationalism coexisted with a radical nationalist movement led by the armed organisation ETA until the latter's dissolution in May 2018. The group was formed in 1959 during Franco's rule but had continued to wage its violent campaign even after the restoration of democracy and the return of
3625-433: The Mediterranean Lingua Franca as a language. Although its official classification is that of a pidgin, some scholars adamantly oppose that classification and believe it would be better viewed as an interlanguage of Italian. Linguist Steven Dworkin hypothesized that Catalan was the point of entry for Mediterranean Lingua Franca terms into Spain, arguably the source of several Italian and Arabic loanwords in Spanish, citing
3750-406: The Pyrenees and arrived at Muret where they were joined by Raymond of Foix and Raymond of Toulouse's forces, in September 1213 to confront Montfort's army. The Battle of Muret began on 12 September 1213. The Catalan, Aragonese and Occitan forces were disorganised and disintegrated under the assault of Montfort's squadrons. Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of
3875-442: The Reconquista by granting different grades of self-government either to cities or territories, instead of placing the new territories under the direct rule of nobility. In 1410, King Martin I died without living descendants or heirs. As a result, on the Compromise of Caspe , representatives from each Iberian state of the Crown, the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and the Principality of Catalonia, chose Ferdinand of Antequera from
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4000-420: The Sicilian Vespers and massacred the garrison soldiers throughout the island. Peter III responded to their call, and landed in Trapani to an enthusiastic welcome five months later. This caused Pope Martin IV to excommunicate the king, place Sicily under interdiction, and offer the kingdom of Aragon to a son of Philip III of France . When Peter III refused to impose the Charters of Aragon in Valencia,
4125-477: The World Trade Organization (WTO). The name of Spain ( España ) comes from Hispania , the name used by the Romans for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces during the Roman Empire . The etymological origin of the term Hispania is uncertain, although the Phoenicians referred to the region as i-shphan-im , possibly meaning "Land of Rabbits" or "Land of Metals". Jesús Luis Cunchillos [ es ] and José Ángel Zamora, experts in Semitic philology at
4250-411: The expulsion of the Moriscos (1609). It was unable to prevent the separation of Sicily and Naples due to the establishment of the Council of Italy, the loss of Roussillon in 1659 after the Reapers' War in the Principality of Catalonia , the loss of Minorca and its Italian domains in 1707–1716, and the imposition of French language on Roussillon (1700) and Castilian as the language of government in all
4375-598: The fall of the Western Roman Empire ushered in the inward migration of tribes from Central Europe, including the Visigoths , who formed the Visigothic Kingdom centred on Toledo . In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate , and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centred on Córdoba . Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them Asturias , León , Castile , Aragon , Navarre , and Portugal ; made an intermittent southward military expansion and repopulation, known as
4500-435: The first circumnavigation of the globe and formed one of the largest empires in history . The Spanish Empire reached a global scale and spread across all continents, underpinning the rise of a global trading system fueled primarily by precious metals . In the 18th century, the Bourbon reforms centralized mainland Spain. In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic occupation and the victorious Spanish War of independence ,
4625-456: The treaty of Cazorla . The Kingdom of Majorca , including the Balearic Islands, and the counties of Cerdanya and Roussillon-Vallespir and the city of Montpellier , was held independently from 1276 to 1279 by James II of Majorca and as a vassal of the Crown of Aragon after that date until 1349, becoming a full member of the Crown of Aragon from 1349. Valencia was finally made a new kingdom with its own institutions and not an extension of
4750-400: The 11th century, the Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed, fracturing into a series of petty kingdoms ( Taifas ), often subject to the payment of a form of protection money ( Parias ) to the Northern Christian kingdoms, which otherwise undertook a southward territorial expansion. The capture of the strategic city of Toledo in 1085 marked a significant shift in the balance of power in favour of
4875-447: The Albigensians—the Albigensian Crusade , which led to bringing Occitania firmly under the control of the King of France, and the Capetian dynasty from northern France. Peter II of Aragon returned from the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in autumn 1212 to find that Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester , had conquered Toulouse , exiling Count Raymond VI of Toulouse , who was Peter's brother-in-law and vassal. Peter's army crossed
5000-416: The Aragonese Kingdom of Sardinia finally extended throughout the island. The subduing of Sardinia having taken a century, Corsica , which had never been wrested from the Genoese, was dropped from the formal title of the Kingdom. Through the marriage of Peter IV to Maria of Sicily (1381), the Kingdom of Sicily , as well as the duchies of Athens and Neopatria , were finally implemented more firmly into
5125-400: The Aragonese Military) but the title of King of Aragon was reserved for Ramiro II and Berenguer's future sons. Raymond Berenguer IV, the first ruler of the united dynasty, called himself Count of Barcelona and "Prince of Aragon". Alfonso II inherited two realms and with them, two different expansion processes. The House of Jiménez looked south in a battle against Castile for the control of
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5250-452: The Aragonese frontier with Castile. This action should be seen as result of the aforementioned priority given over the Occitan and Catalan dominions of the Crown of Aragon. From the ninth century, the dukes of Aquitaine , the kings of Navarre , the counts of Foix , the counts of Toulouse and the counts of Barcelona were rivals in their attempts at controlling the various counties of the Hispanic Marches and pays of Occitania . And
5375-460: The Aragonese nobility demanded. Like his father, he gave priority to the expansion and consolidation of the House of Barcelona 's influence in Occitania. Alfonso II signed the treaties of Cazorla , a multilateral treaty between Navarre , Aragon , León , Portugal, and Castile to redefine the frontiers and zones of expansion of each kingdom. Alfonso II assured Valencia by renouncing the Aragonese rights of annexing Murcia in exchange for securing
5500-435: The Aragonese out. The war between Arborea and Aragon was fought on and off for more than 100 years; this situation lasted until 1409, when the army of Arborea suffered a heavy defeat by the Aragonese army in the Battle of Sanluri ; the capital Oristano was lost in 1410. After some years during which Arborean rulers failed to organise a successful resurgence, they sold their remaining rights for 100,000 gold florins, and by 1420
5625-561: The Castilian dynasty of Trastámara as king of the Crown of Aragon as Ferdinand I of Aragon . Later, his grandson King Ferdinand II of Aragon recovered the northern Catalan counties—Roussillon and Cerdagne—which had been lost to France as well as the Kingdom of Navarre , which had recently joined the Crown of Aragon but had been lost after internal dynastic disputes. In 1469, Ferdinand married Infanta Isabella of Castile , half-sister of King Henry IV of Castile , who became Queen of Castile and León after Henry's death in 1474. Their marriage
5750-403: The Christian kingdoms. The arrival from North Africa of the Islamic ruling sects of the Almoravids and the Almohads achieved temporary unity upon the Muslim-ruled territory, with a stricter, less tolerant application of Islam, and partially reversed some Christian territorial gains. The Kingdom of León was the strongest Christian kingdom for centuries. In 1188, the first form (restricted to
5875-409: The Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier , Provence , Corsica , and the twin Duchy of Athens and Neopatras in Latin Greece . In the Late Middle Ages, the southward territorial expansion of the Aragonese Crown in the Iberian Peninsula stopped in Murcia, which eventually consolidated as a realm of the Crown of Castile , the Kingdom of Murcia . Subsequently, the Aragonese Crown focused on
6000-425: The Crown of Aragon as being more like a confederacy than a centralised kingdom. The Crown of Aragon originated in 1137, when the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona (along with the County of Provence , Girona , Cerdanya , Osona and other territories) merged by dynastic union upon the marriage of Petronilla of Aragon and Raymond Berenguer IV of Barcelona ; their individual titles combined in
6125-458: The Crown of Aragon is the familiar coat of the Counts of Barcelona and Kings of Aragon . The Pennon was used exclusively by the monarchs of the Crown and was expressive of their sovereignty. James III of Majorca , vassal of the Crown of Aragon, used a coat of arms with four bars, as seen on the Leges palatinae miniatures. As separate states united to the Crown under the aeque principaliter principle, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia each had
6250-460: The Crown of Aragon was Barcelona , followed by Valencia . Finally, Palma ( Majorca ) was an additional important city and seaport. The Crown of Aragon eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon , the Principality of Catalonia (until the late 12th century the County of Barcelona and others), the Kingdom of Valencia , the Kingdom of Majorca , the Kingdom of Sicily , Malta , the Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sardinia . For brief periods
6375-577: The Crown of Aragon was a thalassocracy controlling a large portion of present-day eastern Spain, parts of what is now southern France , and a Mediterranean empire which included the Balearic Islands , Sicily , Corsica , Sardinia , Malta , Southern Italy (from 1442), and parts of Greece (until 1388). The component realms of the Crown were not united politically except at the level of the king, who ruled over each autonomous polity according to its own laws, raising funds under each tax structure, dealing separately with each Corts or Cortes , particularly
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#17327909099956500-445: The Crown was granted its own court of justice in the form of Royal Audience , resulting from the division of the Royal Court and the establishment of the Council of Aragon in its place. After the dynastic union with Castile and the establishment of the monarchs in that realm, the king began to be permanently represented in the realms of the Crown of Aragon by viceroys , one for each state, including Mallorca and Sardinia. The house of
6625-434: The Crown was the Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza from Peter II (12th century). The General Courts of the Crown (the simultaneous meeting of the Courts of Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia) used to gather at Monzón (13th to 16th centuries), the remaining meetings took place at Fraga , Zaragoza , Calatayud and Tarazona . The councillor headquarters were located at Barcelona (13th to 16th centuries) and Naples during
6750-423: The Crown. The Greek possessions were permanently lost to Nerio I Acciaioli in 1388 and Sicily was dissociated in the hands of Martin I from 1395 to 1409, but the Kingdom of Naples was added finally in 1442 by the conquest led by Alfonso V . The King's possessions outside of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands were ruled by proxy through local elites as petty kingdoms , rather than subjected directly to
6875-431: The European Union, the eurozone , North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a permanent guest of the G20 , and is part of many other international organizations such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and
7000-496: The European continent. Archaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated by hominids 1.3 million years ago. Modern humans first arrived in Iberia from the north on foot about 35,000 years ago. The best-known artefacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia, which were created from 35,600 to 13,500 BCE by Cro-Magnon . Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that
7125-425: The Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several major refugia from which northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last ice age . The two largest groups inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman conquest were the Iberians and the Celts . The Iberians inhabited the Mediterranean side of the peninsula. The Celts inhabited much of the interior and Atlantic sides of the peninsula. Basques occupied
7250-411: The Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and the Franche-Comté ). The so-called Age of Discovery featured explorations by sea and by land, the opening-up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginnings of European colonialism . Precious metals , spices, luxuries, and previously unknown plants brought to the metropole played a leading part in transforming the European understanding of
7375-442: The Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia , the Kingdom of Majorca , and the Kingdom of Valencia . The larger Crown of Aragon must not be confused with one of its constituent parts, the Kingdom of Aragon, from which it takes its name. In 1479, a new dynastic union of the Crown of Aragon with the Crown of Castile by the Catholic Monarchs , joining what contemporaries referred to as "the Spains", led to what would become
7500-483: The Mediterranean for hundreds of years, with thalassocratic power to setting rules over the entire sea, (as documented, for instance, in the Llibre del Consolat del Mar or Book of the Consulate of the Sea , written in Catalan , is one of the oldest compilations of maritime laws in the world). However, the different territories were only connected through the person of the monarch. A modern historian, Juan de Contreras y Lopez de Ayala, marquis of Lozoya , described
7625-445: The Mediterranean, governing as far afield as Greece and the Barbary Coast , whereas Portugal, which completed its southward expansion in 1249, would focus on the Atlantic Ocean. Mercenaries from the territories in the Crown, known as Almogavars participated in the creation of this Mediterranean empire, and later found employment in countries all across southern Europe. The Crown of Aragon has been considered an empire which ruled in
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#17327909099957750-413: The Mediterranean. By the middle decades of a war- and plague -ridden 17th-century Europe, the Spanish Habsburgs had enmeshed the country in continent-wide religious-political conflicts. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the economy generally. Spain managed to hold on to most of the scattered Habsburg empire, and help the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire reverse a large part of
7875-400: The Russian front , led to the retreat of French imperial armies from the Iberian Peninsula in 1814, and the return of King Ferdinand VII . During the war, in 1810, a revolutionary body, the Cortes of Cádiz , was assembled to coordinate the effort against the Bonapartist regime and to prepare a constitution. It met as one body, and its members represented the entire Spanish empire. In 1812,
8000-438: The Second World War, although it was sympathetic to the Axis and provided the Nazi Wehrmacht with Spanish volunteers in the Eastern Front . The only legal party under Franco's dictatorship was the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS (FET y de las JONS), formed in 1937 upon the merging of the Fascist Falange Española de las JONS and the Carlist traditionalists and to which the rest of right-wing groups supporting
8125-415: The South, by conquering and incorporating Majorca , Ibiza , and a good share of the Kingdom of Valencia into the Crown. With the Treaty of Corbeil (1258) , which was based upon the principle of natural frontiers, the Capetians were recognised as heirs of the Carolingian dynasty , and the Capetian king Louis IX renounced any historical claim of feudal overlordship over Catalonia. The general principle
8250-467: The Spanish National Research Council ( Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas , CSIC), conducted a comparative philological study between several Semitic languages and hypothesize that the Phoenician name translates as "land where metals are forged", having determined that the name originated in reference to the gold mines of the Iberian Peninsula. There have been a number of accounts and hypotheses about its origin: Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that
8375-512: The Spanish composite monarchy under Habsburg monarchs . The Aragonese Crown continued to exist until it was abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees issued by King Philip V in 1707–1716 as a consequence of the defeat of Archduke Charles (as Charles III of Aragon) in the War of the Spanish Succession . Formally, the political centre of the Crown of Aragon was Zaragoza , where kings were crowned at La Seo Cathedral . The 'de facto' capital and leading cultural, administrative and economic centre of
8500-642: The Strait of Gibraltar. Upon the conclusion of the Granada War , the Nasrid Sultanate of Granada (the remaining Muslim-ruled polity in the Iberian Peninsula after 1246) capitulated in 1492 to the military strength of the Catholic Monarchs , and it was integrated from then on in the Crown of Castile. In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of their monarchs, Isabella I and Ferdinand II, respectively. In 1492, Jews were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion; as many as 200,000 Jews were expelled from Castile and Aragon . The year 1492 also marked
8625-468: The US to establish a military presence on the Iberian Peninsula as a counter to any possible move by the Soviet Union into the Mediterranean basin. US Cold War strategic priorities included the dissemination of American educational ideas to foster modernization and expansion. In the 1960s, Spain registered an unprecedented rate of economic growth which was propelled by industrialisation , a mass internal migration from rural areas to Madrid , Barcelona and
8750-542: The advances made by Protestant forces, but it was finally forced to recognise the separation of Portugal and the United Provinces (Dutch Republic), and eventually suffered some serious military reverses to France in the latter stages of the immensely destructive, Europe-wide Thirty Years' War . In the latter half of the 17th century, Spain went into a gradual decline, during which it surrendered several small territories to France and England; however, it maintained and enlarged its vast overseas empire, which remained intact until
8875-400: The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World , during a voyage funded by Isabella. Columbus's first voyage crossed the Atlantic and reached the Caribbean Islands, beginning the European exploration and conquest of the Americas. The Treaty of Granada guaranteed religious tolerance towards Muslims, for a few years before Islam was outlawed in 1502 in Castile and 1527 in Aragon, leading
9000-472: The beginning of the 19th century. The decline culminated in a controversy over succession to the throne which consumed the first years of the 18th century. The War of the Spanish Succession was a wide-ranging international conflict combined with a civil war, and was to cost the kingdom its European possessions and its position as a leading European power. During this war, a new dynasty originating in France,
9125-564: The bishops, the magnates, and 'the elected citizens of each city') of modern parliamentary session in Europe was held in León ( Cortes of León ). The Kingdom of Castile , formed from Leonese territory, was its successor as strongest kingdom. The kings and the nobility fought for power and influence in this period. The example of the Roman emperors influenced the political objective of the Crown, while
9250-596: The burning of churches, the 1932 failed coup d'état led by José Sanjurjo , the Revolution of 1934 and numerous attacks against rival political leaders. On the other hand, it is also during the Second Republic when important reforms to modernize the country were initiated: a democratic constitution, agrarian reform, restructuring of the army, political decentralization and women's right to vote . The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936: on 17 and 18 July, part of
9375-547: The conflict between progressives and moderates ended in a weak early constitutional period. The 1868 Glorious Revolution was followed by the 1868–1874 progressive Sexenio Democrático (including the short-lived First Spanish Republic ), which yielded to a stable monarchic period, the Restoration (1875–1931). In the late 19th century nationalist movements arose in the Philippines and Cuba. In 1895 and 1896
9500-488: The customs barrier between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile in 1717, followed by the introduction of new property taxes in the Aragonese kingdoms. The 18th century saw a gradual recovery and an increase in prosperity through much of the empire. The predominant economic policy was an interventionist one, and the State also pursued policies aiming towards infrastructure development as well as the abolition of internal customs and
9625-436: The democratic system of the constitutional monarchy of a two-parties system. The July 1909 Tragic Week events and repression exemplified the social instability of the time. The La Canadiense strike in 1919 led to the first law limiting the working day to eight hours. After a period of Crown-supported dictatorship from 1923 to 1931, the first elections since 1923, largely understood as a plebiscite on Monarchy, took place:
9750-564: The development of railways and incipient capitalism developed in several areas of the country, particularly in Barcelona , as well as labour movement and socialist and anarchist ideas. The 1870 Barcelona Workers' Congress and the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition are good examples of this. In 1879, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was founded. A trade union linked to this party, Unión General de Trabajadores ,
9875-708: The dispute between the Anjevins and the Aragonese over Sicily, Pope Boniface VIII created ex novo a Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and entrusted it as a fief to the Aragonese King James II , ignoring already existing, indigenous states. In 1324, James II finally started to seize the Pisan territories in the former states of Cagliari and Gallura . In 1347 Aragon made war on the Genoese Doria and Malaspina houses, which controlled most of
10000-638: The first to use it were the Genoese and Venetian trading colonies in the eastern Mediterranean after the year 1000. As the use of Lingua Franca spread in the Mediterranean, dialectal fragmentation emerged, the main difference being more use of Italian and Provençal vocabulary in the Middle East, while Ibero-Romance lexical material dominated in the Maghreb. After France became the dominant power in
10125-712: The following political divisions between liberals and absolutists led to the breakaway of most of the American colonies . These political divisions finally converged in the 20th century with the Spanish Civil War , giving rise to the Francoist dictatorship that lasted until 1975. With the restoration of democracy and its entry into the European Union, the country experienced an economic boom that profoundly transformed it socially and politically. Since
10250-569: The globe. The cultural efflorescence witnessed during this period is now referred to as the Spanish Golden Age . The expansion of the empire caused immense upheaval in the Americas as the collapse of societies and empires and new diseases from Europe devastated American indigenous populations. The rise of humanism , the Counter-Reformation and new geographical discoveries and conquests raised issues that were addressed by
10375-406: The history of the Crown of Aragon remains a politically loaded topic in modern Spain, especially when it comes to asserting the level of independence enjoyed by constituents of the Crown, like the Principality of Catalonia, which is sometimes used to justify the level of autonomy (or independence) that should be enjoyed by contemporary Catalonia and other territories. The origin of Coat of arms of
10500-487: The influence of Andalusian and Arab culture in Aragon proper. Gothic architecture was also developed. The Mediterranean Lingua Franca was a mixed language used widely for commerce and diplomacy and was also current among slaves of the bagnio , Barbary pirates and European renegades in precolonial Algiers . Among the speakers who created the language, also called Sabir, were Muslims from Aragon called "Tagarins" (a term mentioned by Miguel Cervantes ). Historically,
10625-465: The influence of Castile. And so, Ramiro was forced to leave his monastic life and proclaim himself King of Aragon. He married Agnes, sister of the Duke of Aquitaine and betrothed his only daughter Petronilla of Aragon to Raymond Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona . The wedding agreement provided Berenguer with the title of Princeps Aragonum and Dominator Aragonensis (Ruler of the Kingdom and Commander of
10750-741: The initial invasion. The Kingdom of Asturias-León consolidated upon this territory. Other Christian kingdoms, such as Navarre and Aragon in the mountainous north, eventually surged upon the consolidation of counties of the Carolingian Marca Hispanica . For several centuries, the fluctuating frontier between the Muslim and Christian-controlled areas of the peninsula was along the Ebro and Douro valleys. Conversion to Islam proceeded at an increasing pace. The muladíes (Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin) are believed to have formed
10875-658: The intellectual movement now known as the School of Salamanca , which developed the first modern theories of what are now known as international law and human rights. Spain's 16th-century maritime supremacy was demonstrated by the victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and over Portugal at the Battle of Ponta Delgada in 1582, and then after the setback of the Spanish Armada in 1588, in
11000-517: The introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. Emperors Hadrian , Trajan , Theodosius I , and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania. Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century CE, and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century. Most of Spain's present languages and religions, as well as the basis of its laws, originate from this period. Starting in 170 CE, incursions of North-African Mauri in
11125-525: The kingdom of Alfonso V. On the other hand, the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon , which was the official repository of royal documentation of the Crown since the reign of Alfonso II (12th century), was located in the Monastery of Santa María de Sigena until the year 1301 and then moved to Barcelona. In the early 15th century, the de facto capital was Valencia until Alfonso V came to
11250-585: The kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula, save the Kingdoms of Portugal and the Algarve, under one monarch—his co-monarch and mother Queen Joanna I in confinement—thereby furthering the creation of the Spanish monarchy, albeit a composite and decentralized one. The literary evocation of past splendour recalls correctly the great age of the 13th and 14th centuries, when Majorca, Valencia and Sicily were conquered,
11375-412: The lands of the former Logudoro state in north-western Sardinia, and added them to its direct domains. The Giudicato of Arborea , the only remaining independent Sardinian state, proved far more difficult to subdue. The rulers of Arborea developed the ambition to unite all of Sardinia under their rule and create a single Sardinian state, and at a certain point (1368–1388, 1392–1409) almost managed to drive
11500-545: The later dynastic union with the Crown of Castile , considering it the origin of one Spanish nation. The reprisals inflicted on the territories that had fought against Philip V in the War of Succession is given by some Valencian nationalists and Catalan nationalists as an argument against the centralism of Spanish nationalism and in favor of federalism, confederation, or even independence. Some Catalans associated their ancient political status with their Generalitat and resistance to Castile. Because restoration of fueros
11625-526: The latter area in the 19th century, Algerian Lingua Franca was heavily gallicised (to the extent that locals are reported having believed that they spoke French when conversing in Lingua Franca with the Frenchmen, who in turn thought they were speaking Arabic), and this version of the language was spoken into the nineteen hundreds... The similarities contribute to discussions of the classification of
11750-411: The lives of over 500,000 people and caused the flight of up to a half-million citizens from the country. On 1 April 1939, five months before the beginning of World War II , the rebel side led by Franco emerged victorious, imposing a dictatorship over the whole country. Thousands were imprisoned after the civil war in Francoist concentration camps . The regime remained nominally "neutral" for much of
11875-557: The majority of the population of Al-Andalus by the end of the 10th century. A series of Viking incursions raided the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula in the 9th and 10th centuries. The first recorded Viking raid on Iberia took place in 844; it ended in failure with many Vikings killed by the Galicians' ballistas ; and seventy of the Vikings' longships captured on the beach and burned by the troops of King Ramiro I of Asturias . In
12000-641: The meseta; however, due to the bellicose inland tribes, the Carthaginians settled on the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. During the Second Punic War , roughly between 210 and 205 BCE, the expanding Roman Republic captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast. Although it took the Romans nearly two centuries to complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula , they retained control of it for over six centuries. Roman rule
12125-570: The middle valley of the Ebro in the Iberian peninsula. The House of Barcelona looked north to its origins, Occitania , where through family ties it had significant influence, especially in Toulouse , Provence and Foix , towards the south along the Mediterranean coast and towards the Mediterranean sea . Soon, Alfonso II of Aragon and I of Barcelona committed to conquering Valencia as
12250-668: The military carried out a coup d'état that triumphed in only part of the country. The situation led to a civil war, in which the territory was divided into two zones: one under the authority of the Republican government , that counted on outside support from the Soviet Union and Mexico (and from International Brigades ), and the other controlled by the putschists (the Nationalist or rebel faction ), most critically supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . The Republic
12375-601: The nobles and towns united in Zaragoza to demand a confirmation of their privileges, which the king had to accept in 1283. Thus began the Union of Aragon , which developed the power of the Justícia to mediate between the king and the Aragonese bourgeois. When James II of Aragon completed the conquest of the Kingdom of Valencia, the Crown of Aragon established itself as one of the major powers in Europe. In 1297, to solve
12500-604: The nobles benefited from feudalism . Muslim strongholds in the Guadalquivir Valley such as Córdoba (1236) and Seville (1248) fell to Castile in the 13th century. The County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon entered in a dynastic union and gained territory and power in the Mediterranean. In 1229, Majorca was conquered, so was Valencia in 1238. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the North-African Marinids established some enclaves around
12625-631: The old Aragonese Crown lands in Spain (1707–1716). The Crown of Aragon and its institutions and public law were abolished between 1707 and 1716 only after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) by the Nueva Planta decrees , issued by Philip V of Spain . The original political structure was swept away, the administration was subsumed into the Castilian laws, the states of the Crown of Aragon loss their status of separate entitites and were united formally with those of Castile to legally form
12750-480: The only American colonies Spain held were Cuba and Puerto Rico . The Napoleonic War left Spain economically ruined, deeply divided and politically unstable. In the 1830s and 1840s, Carlism (a reactionary legitimist movement supportive of an alternative Bourbon branch), fought against the government forces supportive of Queen Isabella II 's dynastic rights in the Carlist Wars . Government forces prevailed, but
12875-411: The period around the turn of the century was one of increasing prosperity, the 20th century brought little social peace. Spain played a minor part in the scramble for Africa . It remained neutral during World War I . The heavy losses suffered by the colonial troops in conflicts in northern Morocco against Riffians forces brought discredit to the government and undermined the monarchy. Industrialisation,
13000-508: The permanent political capital, but not the economic or administrative capital, owing to the obligation for kings to be crowned at the Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza . During the Crown of Aragon, the Catalan culture and language underwent a vigorous expansion. During the period of trade, Occitan-Catalan contributions to Maltese occurred. King Fernando II and Queen Isabella , as
13125-433: The person of their son Alfonso II of Aragon , who ascended to the throne in 1162. This union respected the existing institutions and parliaments of both territories. The combined state was initially known as Regno, Dominio et Corona Aragonum et Catalonie (only between 1286-1291), and later as Corona Regum Aragoniae , Corona Aragonum or simply Aragon . Petronilla's father King Ramiro, "The Monk" (reigned 1134–1137) who
13250-553: The population growth could be handled without social conflict, and the urban prosperity, which peaked in 1345, created the institutional and cultural achievements of the Crown. The Aragonese crown's wealth and power stagnated and its authority was steadily transferred to the new Spanish crown settled in Castile after that date—the demographic growth was partially offset by the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492), Muslims (1502) and
13375-591: The province of Baetica took place. The Germanic Suebi and Vandals , together with the Sarmatian Alans , entered the peninsula after 409, weakening the Western Roman Empire's jurisdiction over Hispania. The Suebi established a kingdom in north-western Iberia, whereas the Vandals established themselves in the south of the peninsula by 420 before crossing over to North Africa in 429. As
13500-581: The rebels also added. The name of " Movimiento Nacional ", sometimes understood as a wider structure than the FET y de las JONS proper, largely imposed over the later's name in official documents along the 1950s. After the war Spain was politically and economically isolated, and was kept out of the United Nations. This changed in 1955, during the Cold War period, when it became strategically important for
13625-460: The reduction of export tariffs. Projects of agricultural colonisation with new settlements took place in the south of mainland Spain. Enlightenment ideas began to gain ground among some of the kingdom's elite and monarchy. In 1793, Spain went to war against the revolutionary new French Republic as a member of the first Coalition . The subsequent War of the Pyrenees polarised the country in
13750-589: The remaining Muslim population to become nominally Christian Moriscos . About four decades after the War of the Alpujarras (1568–1571), over 300,000 moriscos were expelled , settling primarily in North Africa. The unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile by the marriage of their sovereigns laid the basis for modern Spain and the Spanish Empire, although each kingdom of Spain remained
13875-537: The root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy , meaning "to forge metals ". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged". It may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania , meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck in the region from the reign of Hadrian show
14000-597: The sovereignty to the people . Starting in 1809 the American colonies began a series of revolutions and declared independence, leading to the Spanish American wars of independence that put an end to the metropole's grip over the Spanish Main . Attempts to re-assert control proved futile with opposition not only in the colonies but also in the Iberian peninsula and army revolts followed. By the end of 1826,
14125-521: The throne. During the 15th and the 16th centuries, the Crown's de facto capital was Naples . After Alfonso V of Aragon , Ferdinand II of Aragon settled the capital in Naples. Alfonso, in particular, wanted to transform Naples into a real Mediterranean capital and lavished huge sums to embellish it further. Later the courts were itinerant until Philip II of Spain . The Spanish historian Domingo Buesa Conde has argued that Zaragoza ought to be considered
14250-531: The transition to the Early Modern state. Thus, the new territories gained from the Moors —namely Valencia and Majorca—were given furs as an instrument of self-government in order to limit the power of nobility in these new acquisitions and, at the same time, increase their allegiance to the monarchy itself. The trend in the neighbouring kingdom of Castile was quite similar, both kingdoms giving impetus to
14375-453: The western area of the Pyrenees mountain range and adjacent areas; Phoenician-influenced Tartessians flourished in the southwest; and Lusitanians and Vettones occupied areas in the central west. Several cities were founded along the coast by Phoenicians , and trading outposts and colonies were established by Greeks in the East. Eventually, Phoenician- Carthaginians expanded inland towards
14500-419: The western empire disintegrated, the social and economic base became greatly simplified; the successor regimes maintained many of the institutions and laws of the late empire, including Christianity and assimilation into the evolving Roman culture. The Byzantines established an occidental province, Spania , in the south, with the intention of reviving Roman rule throughout Iberia. Eventually, however, Hispania
14625-468: The world's second-most spoken native language and the world's most widely spoken Romance language . Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy , with King Felipe VI as head of state . A developed country , it is a major advanced capitalist economy, with the world's fifteenth-largest by both nominal GDP and PPP . Spain is a member of the United Nations ,
14750-525: Was a dynastic union which became the constituent event for the dawn of the Monarchy of Spain . At that point both the Castile and the states of the Crown of Aragon remained distinct polities, each keeping its own traditional institutions, parliaments and laws. The process of territorial consolidation was completed when their grandson King Charles I , known as Emperor Charles V, in 1516 ruled over all of
14875-553: Was bound together by law, language, and the Roman road . The cultures of the pre-Roman populations were gradually Romanised (Latinised) at different rates depending on what part of the peninsula they lived in, with local leaders being admitted into the Roman aristocratic class. Hispania (the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula) served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbours exported gold, wool , olive oil , and wine. Agricultural production increased with
15000-474: Was clear, Catalan influence north of the Pyrenees, beyond the Roussillon , Vallespir , Conflent and Capcir , was to cease. James I had realized that wasting his forces and distracting his energies in attempts to keep a footing in France would only end in disaster. In January 1266, James I besieged and captured Murcia, then settled his own men, mostly Catalans, there; and handed Murcia over to Castile with
15125-509: Was founded in 1888. In the anarcho-syndicalist trend of the labour movement in Spain, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo was founded in 1910 and Federación Anarquista Ibérica in 1927. Catalanism and Vasquism, alongside other nationalisms and regionalisms in Spain, arose in that period: the Basque Nationalist Party formed in 1895 and Regionalist League of Catalonia in 1901. Political corruption and repression weakened
15250-562: Was not supported by the Western powers due to the British-led policy of non-intervention . General Francisco Franco was sworn in as the supreme leader of the rebels on 1 October 1936. An uneasy relationship between the Republican government and the grassroots anarchists who had initiated a partial social revolution also ensued. The civil war was viciously fought and there were many atrocities committed by all sides . The war claimed
15375-399: Was one of its tenets, Carlism won support in the lands of the Crown of Aragon during the 19th century. The Romanticism of the 19th century Catalan Renaixença movement evoked a "Pyrenean realm" that corresponded more to the vision of 13th century troubadours than to the historical reality of the Crown. This vision survives today as "a nostalgic programme of politicised culture". Thus,
15500-478: Was raised in the Monastery of Saint Pons de Thomières, Viscounty of Béziers as a Benedictine monk was the youngest of three brothers. His brothers Peter I (reigned 1094–1104) and Alfonso I El Batallador (The Battler, reigned 1104–1134) had fought against Castile for hegemony in the Iberian peninsula. Upon the death of Alfonso I, the Aragonese nobility that campaigned close to him feared being overwhelmed by
15625-679: Was reunited under Visigothic rule . From 711 to 718, as part of the expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate which had conquered North Africa from the Byzantine Empire , nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Muslims from across the Strait of Gibraltar, resulting in the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. Only a small area in the mountainous north of the peninsula stood out of the territory seized during
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