Spain historical timeline

Origins

The Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times, but Spain's layered history really begins with successive waves of conquest -- Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and finally the Romans, who controlled the peninsula (Hispania) for over 600 years and left the Latin roots of the Spanish language itself.

Turning points

Visigothic kingdoms ruled after Rome's collapse until 711 AD, when Muslim Moorish forces conquered most of the peninsula, beginning nearly 800 years of Islamic rule (Al-Andalus). The centuries-long Reconquista finally ended in 1492 with the fall of Granada -- the same year Christopher Columbus's voyage reached the Americas and launched Spain's colonial empire. That empire's slow decline culminated in the loss of most remaining colonies by 1898, and the 20th century brought the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and Franco's dictatorship, which lasted until his death in 1975.

Influential people

Isabella and Ferdinand, the Catholic Monarchs who unified Spain's crown, funded Columbus's voyage in the same year they completed the Reconquista. Francisco Franco's decades-long dictatorship shaped, and delayed, Spain's 20th-century development until his death opened the way for democracy.

Cultural evolution

Al-Andalus left an extraordinary architectural legacy -- Granada's Alhambra and Córdoba's Mezquita among the clearest evidence that Spain's culture is a genuine fusion, not a single unbroken tradition. Spain's transition to democracy after Franco, culminating in a new constitution in 1978, is widely regarded as one of the more successful peaceful democratic transitions of the 20th century.

Present-day significance

Spain joined the European Union in 1986 and has since balanced a strong national identity with the distinct regional identities -- Catalan, Basque, Galician among them -- that continue to shape its modern politics and culture, a tension rooted directly in the peninsula's long history of conquest and reconquest.