HISTORY OF SPAIN

[12]
Spain (Spanish: España [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de
[a][b]
España), is a country in Southwestern Europe with some pockets of territory across the Strait of
[12]
Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian
Peninsula. Its territory also includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa,
and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and
[13]
Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, make Spain the only European country to have a physical border
[i]
with an African country (Morocco). Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are also part of
Spanish territory. The country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean
Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra,
and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.
2
With an area of 505,990 km (195,360 sq mi), Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the
second-largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, and the fourth-largest country
by area on the European continent. With a population exceeding 46 million, Spain is the sixth-most
populous country in Europe, and the fourth-most populous country in the European Union. Spain's
capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville,
Zaragoza, Málaga, and Bilbao.
Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures
along with ancient Phoenician, Greek, Celtic and Carthaginian settlements developed on the
peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named
[14]
Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Sp(a)n or Spania. At the end of the Western
Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the
Iberian peninsula and established relatively independent realms in its western provinces, including
the Suebi, Alans and Vandals. Eventually, the Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining
independent territories in the peninsula, including the Byzantine province of Spania, into the
Visigothic Kingdom, which more or less unified politically, ecclesiastically and legally all the former
Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was then documented as Hispania.
In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by the Umayyad Islamic
Caliphate, that arrived to the peninsula in the year 711. The Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula (al-
Andalus) soon became autonomous from Baghdad. The handful of small Christian pockets in the
north left out of Muslim rule, along the presence of the Carolingian Empire near the Pyreneean
range, would eventually led to the emergence of the Christian kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon,
Portugal and Navarre. Along seven centuries, an intermittent southwards expansion of the latter
kingdoms (metahistorically dubbed as a reconquest: the Reconquista) took place, culminating with
the Christian seizure of the last Muslim polity (the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada) in 1492, the same
year Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. A process of political conglomeration among
the Christian kingdoms also ensued, and the late 15th-century saw the dynastic union of Castile and
Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs, sometimes considered as the point of emergence of Spain as
unified country. The Conquest of Navarre occurred in 1512, while the Kingdom of Portugal was also
ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty between 1580 and 1640.
In the early modern period, Spain ruled one of the largest empires in history which was also one of
the first global empires, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 570 million
[15]
Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after
Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were also many advancements in the arts, with the
rise of renowned painters such as Diego Velázquez. The most famous Spanish literary work, Don
Quixote, was also published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of
UNESCO World Heritage Sites