Charlotte Guillain - Spain

Fossils found in Spain tell us that early humans lived there 1.2 million years ago. Prehistoric cave paintings show animals that people would have hunted around 12,000 BCE.

People from various Mediterranean civilizations later traded and settled in Spain.Phoenicians, from today's Lebanon, had settled in southern Spain by 800 BCE. Theyexchanged goods such as perfumes, oils, and jewelry for precious metals. Greek tradersfollowed, bringing olive trees and grapes. By the 6th century BCE people from Carthage,in modern-day Tunisia, were colonizing southern Spain.

The settlers from Carthage were pushed out by the Romans, who arrived in Spain in218 BCE and ruled for 600 years. The Romans introduced a good infrastructure and Christianity , but during the 400s CE a tribe called the Visigoths began taking landin the north. Then, in 711 CE, Muslims from North Africa invaded the south of thecountry.

The Muslim settlers were known as Moors. They ruled almost all of Spain and Portugal.Their territory was called Al-Andalus, with its capital in Crdoba.

Muslim rule saw many great achievements in science and the arts, including farmingdevelopments and stunning architecture . The Arabic language also influenced the Spanishlanguage. Christian rulers fought to regain land from the Moors for centuries, andby the mid-1200s only the southern Muslim kingdom of Granada remained.

The impressive Alhambra palace in Granada was built by Moorish rulers in the 1300s.

CALIPH ABD-AL-RAHMAN III (891 961 CE)

Abd-al-Rahman III became the emir of Crdoba in 912 CE. He was an intelligent ruler,who defeated rebels and fought Christians from the north. Under his rule MoorishSpain became rich and powerful, and he became caliph in 929 CE. He had firm controlof the country, and he even executed his own son for turning against him in 949 CE.

In 1469, two Spanish kingdoms were united when Isabella of Castile and Ferdinandof Aragon married. They were heirs to the thrones of their kingdoms, and their marriageunified Spain's most important Christian states. This united power drove the lastof the Moors out of Spain.

Isabella was a strong Catholic , and under her rule Spanish Jews were persecuted.The Spanish Inquisition was set up to force Jews to convert to Christianity or besent away from Spain if they refused. Muslims were also forced to convert. AlthoughFerdinand and Isabella ruled together, their kingdoms kept their own unique traditionsand identities.

Ferdinand and Isabella paid explorers such as Christopher Columbus to find new traderoutes. In 1492, Columbus arrived in the Bahamas and later reached the coast of SouthAmerica. He was followed by the conquistadors , who traveled to this "New World" toclaim land in Spain's name. Two notable conquistadors were Hernn Corts, who defeatedthe Aztec Empire in Mexico, and Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Incas of Peru.Spanish colonies were set up there and elsewhere in South and Central America, andgold, silver, and jewels were sent back to Spain. This was a golden age for Spain,but its wealth and power were gradually reduced by expensive foreign wars.