The Mediterranean peoples were aware of Spain from very early times. Civilization in Spain actually dates back to the Stone Age. There were many people who inhabited Spain most notably the Basques. Later the Carthaginians settled on the east coast and in the Balearic Islands, where Greek colonies also sprang up. In the 3d century BC, the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca began to conquer most of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics and established Cartagena as capital.
In the Punic war the Roman army defeats Hannibal and the Carthaginian Empire is inhibited. (It is actually said they ground the stones of Carthage). By the 1st century Roman rule was complete. But this was not an entirely terrible thing, Rome brought, as they did to many colonies both peace and prosperity. But in Spain the most lasting legacy of the Romans would be the introduction of Christianity to Spain.
In the 5th century the Germanic tribes sweeping from the north began to invade Spain. The Visigoths, with little interruption would be the rulers of Spain for two hundred years. Because the Visigoths were Christian this was a more peaceful invasion than the one to come. During this time Spain establishes a Christian monarchy, much like the one it would have throughout the Medieval period.
This strong Christian following created a terrible clash with the Moors who began invading in 756. Spain became a divided region: the Moors, the Basque, the Umayyad, and some Europeans under Charlemagne each held a peace of Spain. Spain remained a largely divided nation until the 12th and 13th centuries.
In the 12th and 13th centuries the Christian factions began regrouping and reorganizing through marriage, inheritance and a little force. In 1492 t...
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...yalist supported the Republican government with hardly any aid from the democratic countries. With no outside support the Loyalist, though valiant, were doomed. 1939, they gave up and largely fled the country.
Although Spain under France financially aided The Axis powers in WWII they remained in this war, like the first inactive. Though not recognized by the Democratic powers at first, Spain bought the US for a few bases and economic aid, and soon joined the United Nations.
In the 1950's and 60's, tensions again increase and the dictatorial government begins to chafe the people. In 1966, a Constitution balancing power and enacting freedoms was drawn up. Juan Carlos I succeeded Franco in 1975.
Today Spain is attempting to enact political reform and join the rest of the Western world. It is again trying to unite itself peacefully and appropriately.
The Americans now had control over half the territory they wanted, but this did not satisfy them, this only made them more eager to gain control of East Florida. Almost two years after this event peace concluded, Spain still had possession of East Florida. This time, Spain only had two solutions to avoid a shameful political breakdown in this region. One was to gain support of a European ally, and the second was to get some form of honor in this event by winning some of the best land in North America. The first plan fell through, with Britain and other European nations refusing to help Spain.
The passage from Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a clear example of a narrative source. Díaz is presenting his personal account of Hernan Cortes’s expedition into Tenochtitlan. An interesting aspect of this narrative is that it was written almost 50 years after the events described occurred . Bernal Díaz del Castillo was only 24 years old when on November 8, 1519 he and the rest of Hernán Cortés’s expedition first entered the city of Tenochtitlán . He did not finish his account, titled The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, which many suspect was intended as a slight to Francisco López de Gómara’s accounts of the expeditions , until 1567 . This was not his first travel to the New World, in fact, it was his fourth . Díaz del Castillo was 19 years old the first time he traveled to the Americas, this time was to Panama . Díaz later became a governor in Guatemala, mostly as a reward for his actions as a conquistador . The event that is commonly seen as spurring the not-well-educated Bernal Díaz del Castillo to write of his experiences with Cortés was the publication of Francisco López de Gómara’s Coleccion de historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, which Díaz saw as seriously flawed and underappreciating the work of the conquistadors . The book this passage comes from languished on shelves until it was published in 1632, posthumously .
Looking back into the history of certain events affords the modern researcher the ability to examine a variety of documents and artifacts. It is important, however, to take into account biases, inaccuracies, errors in translation, and overall misinformation when examining primary sources, particularly historical documents. Examining the history of the conquest of the Aztec empire is no different, and in a scenario as tense as it was it is extremely important to consider the authorship of the text. Bernal Diaz’ The Conquest of New Spain and Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico offer two distinct looks into the same event in history. Both documents offer differing takes of the same events, so when
William of Orange once stated, “Spain committed such horrible excesses that all the barbarities, cruelties, and tyrannies ever perpetrated before are only games in comparison to what happened to the poor Indians.” This statement is an example of an attempt to discredit the Spanish. Attempts such as these are known as the Black Legend. The Black Legend was the name given to the concept of cruelty and brutality spread by the Spanish during the 14th and 15th century. This legend demonizes Spain and specifically the Spanish empire in an effort to harm the reputation of them. It was through this propaganda that made other countries look down upon the Spanish empire. The Black Legend threw discredit upon the rule of the Spanish by building biases and prejudices against Catholicism and the Spanish treatment of the natives of South America. The Black Legend mainly exaggerated the treatment of the native people in the regions of the Spanish Empire and non-Catholic people such as Protestants and Jews in its European territories. The Black Legend was an anti-Spanish movement, which was started due to political and religious reasons by Northern European Protestant countries who were Spain’s enemies in order to discredit them.
Spain emerged with a central identify in 1469. Until this point, Spain was involved in a civil war. Fighting ceased with the marriage of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.(Bowen, 2007) Within a few decades, Columbus made his historic journey with Spain’s backing, and arrived at what is now Central America. With a recently unified identity, and the practically untapped resources of the land, Spain quickly started colonizing the continent.(Bowen, 2007)
This sudden change in rule of the territory provided a sense of relief for all the people living in Spain. The reason for this was because the Muslims treated everyone equally so long as they abided by Muslim authority and paid taxes. After all, the Christians and Muslims living there were people of the book, and Muslims believed that people of the book should all be treated well.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Spanish Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons and founded by the Catholic Kings in 1478 . Spain at the time was a nation-state that was born out of religious struggle between numerous different belief systems including Catholicism, Islam, Protestant and Judaism. Following the Crusades and the Reconquest of Spain by the Christian Spaniards the leaders of Spain needed a way to unify the country into a strong nation.
The Spanish-American War allowed the United States to acquire large amounts of territories. The Spanish-American War happened in the year 1898, and was obviously between the United States and Spain. The start of the war was caused by Cuba’s want and struggle for independence from Spain. American sympathy for the Cuban rebels grew as Spain took to more hostile tactics to calm the rebellion in Cuba. The United States newspapers showed great anger and hatred towards Spain’s hostility towards Cuba during the rebellion. Because the United States became independent from another country, the people of the United States at that time must have felt a connection with Cuba, and wanted to help Cuba free itself of the struggle for independence, because the United States also struggled. The United States wanted to help Cuba so much, most likely due to the reason stated above. The entirety of the Spanish-American war began with Cuba’s struggle for independence, but some other countries and islands also got in the middle of the battling and bargaining. The Philippines and
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
In the early 16th century Hernán Cortés wrote a letter to King Charles I of Spain. The letter being a statement of great accomplishment and power wasn’t just a simple letter; to Hernán Cortés it was a symbol of authority and a step forward towards expansion. The letter acknowledged their achievements of this expedition; the first being their success and the discovery of land to be colonized and this amazing empire known as the Aztec empire. Steel, armor, canons, firearms, and horses presented Cortés and his crew the advantage over the native people they encountered which helped justify the Spanish overcoming of the Aztec empire.
The Ottomans and Spanish built flourishing empires based on different philosophies from 1450 to 1800. The Ottoman and Spanish were two powerful empires during that time. During the building of the two empires, the Spanish and the Ottoman both developed similarities in their social, political, and economic structures. The Ottoman took control of Europe, while the Spanish saw it as easy to monitor new lands. The different tactics employed made the both empires flourish. For instance, the Spanish were not tolerant of religion. They conquered other areas with the aim of converting Christians to Islam, if they refused, they would be killed. On the other hand, the Ottoman leaders incorporated leaders of diverse culture
The United States would declare war with Spain on April 25, 1898. This act of war would throw the entire Western part of the world into conflict. The Spanish-American war would start because of a attack on the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor in February of 1898. The ship would sink taking American lives with it. As a direct result of this war, Spain would lose its influence in what remained of its empire in the west. War would come to a halt following the Treaty of Paris which was signed on December 10, 1898. In this essay we will explore the days leading to the war, key battles, key leaders, and what would happen to Spain’s overseas empire following the Treaty of Paris agreement.
The Spanish people are essentially a mixture of the indigenous peoples of the Iberian Peninsula with the successive peoples who conquered the peninsula and occupied it for extended periods. These added ethnologic elements include the Romans, a Mediterranean people, and the Suevi, Vandals, and Visigoths (see GOTHS), Teutonic peoples. Semitic elements are also present. Several ethnic groups in Spain have kept a separate identity, culturally and linguistically. These include the Basques (Euskal-dun), who number about 2.5 million and live chiefly around the Bay of Biscay; the Galicians, numbering about 2.5 million, who live in northwestern Spain; and the nomadic Spanish Gypsies (Gitanos; see GYPSIES).
Spain was once of the powerful nations in Europe. However, by the 20th century it was poor and backwards country where corruption was experienced on a commonly basis. After losing its overseas possessions Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and Philippines during the Spanish-American War Spain was in a state of political tension due extreme measures of wealth, poverty and clearly social tensions. Essentially Spain was a deeply divided country during this time although it was a constitutional monarchy during 1920. During this year King Alfonso XIII remained as the royal figurehead however, Miguel Primo de Rivera was the dictator. The tension was between the right-wing Nationalists and left-wing Republican parties. The nationalist’s party was made up of monarchists, landowners, employers, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. The Republicans consisted of the workers, trade unions, socialists, and peasants. The nationalists were described as traditionalists and fascists, while the republicans were socialists and communists. The real political tension started occurring post 1930 when growing opposition to Miguel Primo de Rivera right-wing government started growing rapidly and leading to his resignation. Miguel Primo de Rivera was not able to solve Spain’s financial disaster from the result of the Great Depression, where unemployment rates increased drastically and Rivera never provided any solutions. Miguel was so unsuccessful throughout his dictatorship even the army refused to support his dictatorship. This then concluded in republican receiving the majority of the election votes, throwing out King Alfonso XIII the following year. The abdication of the King was the turning point; where Spain was now considered the Republic of Spa...
All in all Spain was weak. Their armed forces were exhausted and Franco did not have the resources to fight a war against or with Germany. Franco also knew that Germany and Italy could not have won the war in Europe against France, England, the Soviet Union, and United States. There were two very powerful enemies on two of Spain’s fronts. For them to have joined the Axis it would have been a military suicide which could have led to the fall of the newborn regime and the return to power of communist and socialist parties in Spain. This was the greatest fear of Franco because his dictatorship may have ceased to exist. Instead, it lasted until his death.