The
first historical inhabitants of Spain were the Iberians
from where the name of Iberia came, soon came the Celtic
tribes through the Gaul and also the Aryan. When both
cultures fused they give origin to the Celtiberians. From
15th to 3rd centuries BC arrived successively at Iberia
and founded colonies on its coasts the Phoenicians, who
gave it the name of Hispania. They were conquered by the
Romans and were under the Roman power from the 2nd century
BC to the 5th century AC.
When the Roman Empire collapsed it was invaded and conquered
by the Visigoths, that settled their capital in Toledo
and adopted the Latin language and the Catholicism. At
the beginning of the 8th century (in 711) invaded the
Peninsula the Mauritanian Arabs or Moors, whom in just
a short time dominated the territory, exception done of
Asturias and Biscaya. The few Spaniards settled in the
North-western angle of the Peninsula did not manage to
be against to the invasion, after which they undertook
a war of reconquer that extended for more than seven centuries.
By the 9th century the Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Leon
and Navarre and the Marca Hispanica or Catalonia had acquired
importance and the dismemberment of the caliphate of Cordoba
accelerated the work of the Reconquer. This was completed
by the Catholic Kings, whose marriage in 1469 prepared
the union of Aragón and Castile and that in 1492,
when expelling the Muslims from Granada, made the national
unit. To the Catholic Kings, who to the glory of achieving
the national unit added that during their reign the New
World was discovered by Columbus (1492), succeed their
daughter Lady Jane (1504-1516), to whom the death of her
husband Philip I the Beautiful drives crazy, leaving the
crown to Charles I, with whom entered to reign in Spain
the house of Austria.
With Charles I (1516-1556) and his son Philip II (1556-1598),
the Spanish power arrived at its highest degree but the
ruthlessness of Philip and his wars already prepared the
decay that were accentuated in the reigns of Philip III
(1598-1621), Philip IV (1621-1665) and Charles II, the
last of the Austrias (1665-1700). To Charles II, died
without heir, followed Philip V (1700-1746) of the house
of Bourbon, with the archduke Charles of Austria disputing
to him the crown (later emperor with the name of Charles
VI),causing the famous war of succession (1700-1714).
Fernando VI (1746-1759) improved something the situation
of the country and the illustrated government of Charles
IV (1788-1808) facilitated the Napoleon attempt, that
gave rise the war of the independence (1808-1814) during
which, having abdicated the king to Napoleon and having
this one captivated in France the true King Fernando VII,
governed the kingdom Jose Bonaparte, while in Cadiz the
first Constitution was proclaimed (1812).
When Fernando VII (1815) returned to Spain, he annulled
the Constitution of 1812 and established the absolute
regime. During this reign, the loss of the American colonies
was completed, whose independence was assured in the battle
of Ayacucho (1824). His daughter Isabel II followed Fernando
VII (1833-1868) in whose childhood was directed by the
regencies of her mother María Cristina (1833-1841)
and of Espartero (1841-1843), and was disturbed by the
first civil war (1834-1839) motivated by the pretensions
of its uncle Don Carlos. After a turbulent reign, Isabel
II was overthrown by the Revolution of 1868 and, after
two years of provisional government, entered to reign
Amadeo I, of the house of Savoy but this one resigned
to the crown in 1873 and then the Republic was proclaimed
but only lasted until December 1874, when the uprising
of Martinez Campos returned the throne to Alfonso XII,
son of Isabel II.
It was followed in the throne by his son Alfonso XIII,
who had not been born yet when his father died and during
whose childhood (1886-1902) reigned her Maria Cristina
and exploded the last insurrection of Cuba (1895) followed
of the Hispano-American war (1898) that snatched to Spain
the last rest of its colonial Empire.
After World War I - during which remain neutral-, the
social transformation that so deep repercussion had had
in some countries found echo in Spain, giving rise to
strikes and acts of terrorism. The increasing scarcity
of the life increased the general malaise and the serious
misfortunes undergone by the Nation of Morocco (1912)
made the situation worse until the point to make it already
untenable. Trying to put remedy to such state of things
came the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923) who recovered
the order. Nevertheless, once exiled the Dictatorship,
the municipal elections celebrated on 12 April of 1931
were summoned. After a period of relative calm, in which
the Courts approved many laws directed to give Spain a
new social and political structure, the life of the Republic
began to be shaken by subversive movements and conflicts.
Thus started a civil war between the right and left wings
forces, exploding by the end of July of 1936 in form of
military rise, whose spine was the army of the Spanish
zone of Morocco and to which added the Spanish phalanx,
National-Unionists Youths and the Traditionalistic Communion.
The civil war finished on 1 April of 1939 with the triumph
of the forces commanded by the General Francisco Franco,
who by the 1 October of 1939 had been named Governor and
State Chief, ending the second Spanish Republic. During
World War II, Spain stayed neutral in the conflict, but
when the fight finalized it was object of an international
isolation and blockade that extended until 1950.
Once the blockade ended, Spain joined the UN (1955) and
other international organisms. In 1956 it recognizes the
independence of Morocco and its total sovereignty. In
1966, Spanish Courts approved the Statutory law of the
State, institutional ordering that was corroborated by
the referendum celebrated on December 14th. In 1968, it
grants independence to Spanish Guinea, that becomes the
Equatorial Guinea Republic. In 1969 Don Juan Carlos de
Bourbon was named successor of the State Chief for a reason
or purpose of king of Spain. In November of 1975 the Chief
of State Francisco Franco dies and Juan Carlos I is proclaimed
king of Spain.
Then begins a new policy of opening and democratization,
the legalizations in Spain of the political parties and
the project of law for the political Reformation were
fruit, that implied, first of all, the creation of new
Courts and a Senate and the consultation to the people,
by referendum, of any constitutional reform. On June 15
of 1977 are celebrated general elections, that had as
consequence the opening of the first Monarchy Courts.
In 1979 it reinitiated the predicted decentralising process
in the Constitution, that finished in 1983 with the new
territorial division of the country in 17 autonomic communities.
In 1985 it was reached the agreement for the adhesion
in the European Economic Community of Spain and Portugal.
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