The
Iberian Peninsula
has been occupied for many millennia. Some
of Europe's
most impressive Paleolithic cultural sites
are located here - the famous caves at Altamira
contain spectacular paintings that date from
around 12,000
BC.
However, evidence of human habitation goes
back nearly 800,000
years
with the discovery of Europe’s oldest
human remains in Spain. The Basques
are the first identifiable people of the peninsula
and are the oldest surviving group in Europe.
Iberians
arrived from North
Africa
during a more recent period.
Beginning in the ninth century BC,
Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Celts
entered the Iberian
Peninsula,
followed by the Romans,
who arrived in the second century
BC.
Spain's present language, religion, and laws
stem from the Roman period. Although the Visigoths
arrived in the fifth century
AD,
the last Roman
strongholds along the southern coast did not
fall until the seventh century
AD.
In 711,
North African Moors
sailed across the straits, swept into Andalusia,
and, within a few years, pushed the Visigoths
up the peninsula to the Cantabrian
Mountains.
The Reconquest-efforts
to drive out the Moors-lasted until 1492.
By 1512, the unification of present-day Spain
was complete. During
the 16th
century,
Spain became the most powerful nation in
Europe, due to the immense wealth derived
from its presence in the Americas.
But a series of long, costly wars and revolts,
capped by the defeat by the English of the
"Invincible
Armada"
in 1588,
began a steady decline of Spanish power
in Europe. Controversy
over succession to the throne consumed the
country during the 18th
and 19th centuries,
leading to occupation by France
in the early 1800s.
The 19th
century
saw the revolt and independence of most
of Spain's colonies in the Western Hemisphere;
three wars over the succession
issue; the brief ousting of the monarchy
and establishment of the First Republic
(1873-74); and, finally, the Spanish-American
War
(1898),
in which Spain
lost Cuba,
Puerto
Rico,
and the Philippines
to the United
States.
A period of dictatorial rule (1923-31)
ended with the establishment of the Second
Republic.
It was dominated by increasing political
polarisation, culminating in the leftist
Popular
Front electoral victory in 1936.
Pressures from all sides, coupled with growing
and unchecked violence,
led to the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War in July 1936.
Following
the victory
of his nationalist forces in 1939,
Gen.
Francisco
Franco
ruled a nation exhausted politically
and economically.
Spain was officially neutral during World
War II but followed a pro-Axis policy. The
victorious
Allies isolated Spain at the beginning of
the postwar period, and the country did
not join the United
Nations
until 1955.
In 1959,
under an
International Monetary Fund
stabilization plan, the country began liberalising
trade and capital flows, particularly foreign
direct investment.
Despite the success
of economic liberalisation,
Spain remained the most closed economy in
Western
Europe
- judged by the small measure of foreign
trade to
economic activity
- and the pace of reform slackened during
the 1960s
as the state remained committed to "guiding"
the economy.
Nevertheless,
in the 1960s
and 1970s, Spain was transformed
into a modern industrial economy with a
thriving tourism
sector. Its economic
expansion led to improved income distribution,
and helped develop a large middle class.
Social changes brought about by economic
prosperity and the inflow of new ideas helped
set the stage for Spain's transition to
democracy
during the latter half of the 1970s.
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