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BC
c.12000
Stone Age hunters at Altamira, near Santander,
paint some of Europe’s most sophisticated
cave art.
c. 3000-2000
Spain’s first metalworking culture flourishes
at the Copper Age site of Los Millares, near
Almeria.
c. 1100
Phoenician traders start to found colonies
at Cadiz and elsewhere in Andalucia.
c. 1000-500
Celts settle north of the Rio Ebro, bringing
iron technology to the north.
c. 800-600 The
fabled Tartessos culture, influenced by Phoenician
and Greek traders, flourishes in western Andalucia;
later writers refer to it as a source of fabulous
riches.
237
Carthage invades the Iberian Peninsula.
218
Rome defeats Carthage in the Second Punic
War and begins a 600-year occupation of the
Iberian Peninsula.
AD
3rd century
Christianity reaches Spain.
3rd to 8th centuries
Roman power wanes; a series of invasions of
the Iberian Peninsula by Germanic tribes culminates
in rule by the Christian Visigoths, from the
6th century until 711.
711
Muslims invade the peninsula from North Africa,
overrunning it within a few years, except
for small areas in the Asturian mountains
in the north.
c. 722
Christians defeat Muslims at Covadonga, Asturias,
the first success in the eight-centuries-long
Christian Reconquista (Reconquest) of the
peninsula.
756-1031
Cordoba dominates the Muslim areas of the
peninsula, called Al-Andalus, reaching its
political and cultural peak during the Caliphate
period (929-1031); after 1008 the caliphate
collapses into civil war and in 1031 splits
into dozens of taifas (small kingdoms).
1085
Castile, a northern Christian kingdom, captures
Toledo.
1091-1140s The
Almoravids, a fanatical Muslim sect from North
Africa, rule Al-Andalus.
1137
Aragon and Catalunya unite to form a powerful
north-eastern Christian state, the Kingdom
of Aragon.
1160-73
The Almohads, another North African Muslim
sect, conquer Al-Andalus.
1195
The Almohads rout Castile’s army at
Alarcos, south of Toledo.
1212
The combined Christian armies of Castile,
Aragon and Navarra rout the Almohads at Las
Navas de Tolosa, Andalucia, opening the way
for the last act of the Reconquista, the conquest
of the south.
1248
Sevilla falls to Fernando III of Castile.
1248-1492
The Nasrid Emirate of Granada, comprising
about half of Andalucia, survives as the last
Muslim state of the peninsula.
1469
Isabel, heir to the Castilian throne, marries
Fernando, heir to the Aragonese throne, uniting
the peninsula’s two most powerful Christian
states.
1478
Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic Monarchs
(Reyes Catolicos) set up the Spanish Inquisition.
1492
(January) Isabel and Fernando capture Granada,
the last Muslim possession on the peninsula.
1492 (April)
Isabel and Fernando expel Jews who refuse
Christian baptism.
1492 (October)
Christopher Columbus, funded by the Catholic
Monarchs, lands in the Bahamas, opening the
way for Spanish conquest and colonisation
in the Americas.
1500
Muslims revolt in Andalucia and are ordered
to convert to Christianity of leave Spain.
1517-56
Reign of Carlos I, who also ruled the Low
Countries and many other areas of Europe,
involving Spain in wars that absorbed much
of the new wealth from the Americas.
1556-98
Reign of Felipe II: Spain absorbs Portugal
but loses Holland; the Spanish navy defeats
the Ottoman Turks at Lepanto (1571) but its
1588 Armada is routed by the English; and
Madrid is made national capital (1561).
17th century
Spain enters economic decline and loses Portugal
(1641).
1609-14
The moriscos (converted Muslims) are expelled
from Spain.
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