The
history of Spain dates to contact between the
pre-Roman peoples of the
Mediterranean coast of the
Iberian Peninsula made with the
Greeks and
Phoenicians. During
Classical Antiquity, the peninsula was the site of multiple successive colonizations of Greeks,
Carthaginians, and Romans. Native peoples of the peninsula, such as the
Tartessos people, intermingled with the colonizers to create a uniquely Iberian culture. The Romans referred to the entire peninsula as
Hispania, from which the name "Spain" originates. As was the rest of the
Western Roman Empire, Spain was subject to the numerous invasions of
Germanic tribes during the 4th and 5th centuries AD, resulting in the end of Roman rule and the establishment of Germanic kingdoms, marking the beginning of the
Middle Ages in Spain.
Germanic control lasted about 200 years until the
Umayyad conquest of Hispania began in 711. The region became known as
Al-Andalus, and except for the small
Kingdom of Asturias, the region remained under the control of Muslim-led states for much of the
Early Middle Ages, a period known as the
Islamic Golden Age. By the time of the
High Middle Ages, Christians from the north gradually expanded their control over Iberia, a period known as the
Reconquista. As they expanded southward, a number of Christian kingdoms were formed, including the
Kingdom of Navarre, the
Kingdom of León, the
Kingdom of Castile, and the
Kingdom of Aragon. They eventually consolidated into two roughly equivalent polities, the
Crown of Castile and the
Crown of Aragon. The
early modern period is generally dated from the union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon in 1469.
The marriage and joint rule of
Isabella I and
Ferdinand II is
historiographically considered the foundation of a unified Spain. The
conquest of Granada, and the
first voyage of Columbus, both in 1492, made that year a critical inflection point in Spanish history. The voyages of the various explorers and
conquistadors of Spain during the subsequent decades helped establish a
Spanish colonial empire which was among the largest ever. King
Charles I established the
Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Under his son
Philip II the
Spanish Golden Age flourished, the Spanish Empire reached its territorial and economic peak, and his palace at
El Escorial became the center of artistic flourishing. However, Philip's rule also saw the calamitous destruction of the
Spanish Armada, numerous state bankruptcies and the independence of the
Northern Netherlands, which marked the beginning of the slow decline of Spanish influence in Europe. Spain's power was further tested by its participation in the
Eighty Years' War, whereby it tried and failed to recapture the newly independent Dutch Republic, and the
Thirty Years' War, which resulted in continued decline of Habsburg power in favor of the French
Bourbon dynasty. Matters came to a head during the reign of
Charles II of Spain, whose mental incapacity and inability to father children left the future of Spain in doubt. Upon his death, the
War of the Spanish Succession broke out between the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs over the right to succeed Charles II. The Bourbons prevailed, resulting in the ascension of
Philip V of Spain, who took Spain into the various wars to recapture the Spanish-controlled lands in Southern Italy recently lost. (
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