Spain/Spanish: Development of a Nation
How Spain became Spain, and how the Spanish became Spanish.

How the Spanish as a people, and the country of Spain as a nation-state, evolved and materialized into current form, in terms of ancestral bloodlines, the Spanish language, borders, culture, and even how they received their name.

Ancestral Background
Development of Language
Formation of Borders
Etymology (How Name Received)
Culture
Spain in 2008

Spanish Ancestral Background:

1. Original inhabitants were of homogenous European stock, before the development of perceived ethnic groups. Those that inhabited the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) became known as Iberians.
2. Celts intermixed with original Iberians during Celt migration from about 500-250 BC, forming the majority of the genetic composition of modern Spanish people. Celts were descendents of original inhabitants of central Europe which developed the Celt language (sub-branch of Proto-Indo-European language – the ancestor language of nearly all European languages) and Celt culture.
   
3. Very minor genetic contribution in the south from Greeks and Phoenicians (Carthaginians) who settled colonies along the Mediterranean coast in ancient times.
4. During the Germanic invasions of the 5^th century, Germanic peoples (Visigoths in particular) become ruling class, intermixing with the local Celtiberian population, making a minor contribution to the Spanish genetic composition.
5. Minor Arab contribution was made during Moor invasions and occupation/presence from 711 to 1492, mostly present in people of the south.
6. Christian peoples in Iberia homogenous at this point (Middle Ages), of common ancestry, generally considered to be a unified nationality, also fragmented into various petty kingdoms. This changed when the County of Portugal asserted independence. As the rest of the Iberian peninsula began to consolidate into a unified nation during the 15^th century, they would become known as Spanish, with the exception of Portuguese, who continued to resist the consolidation ambitions of Castile, the dominant Iberian Christian kingdom that would absorb other kingdoms. This separation resulted in a distinction between Spanish and Portuguese peoples.
7. Summary: Genetic composition primarily set between original Iberian population, and Celt immigrants by 250 BC. Minor genetic compositions made by Germanic and Arab invaders of Medieval times. Portugal politically separated from the rest of the peninsula in the 11th century, developing into a separate nationality from the Spanish.

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Development of Spanish Language:

1. After Rome gained control of the Iberian Peninsula by 200 BC, the Roman language of Latin became the dominant language in the region comprising modern Portugal and Spain.
2. After the withdrawal of the Romans in 405, variations of Latin peculiar to the Iberian Peninsula developed, with various kingdoms and petty kingdoms throughout Iberia developing their own dialects of this Iberian-Latin language.
3. Castile would become the dominant kingdom in Iberia, absorbing Leon (1230) then joining with Aragon (other dominant kingdom) in 1469 to form the Kingdom of Spain. Navarre was absorbed in 1513, consolidating all of the Iberian Peninsula under one crown, with the exception of Portugal, which had become independent in 1230, and had developed separately since (politically, linguistically, culturally). Before consolidation during the 15th century, each petty kingdom had its own dialect, rooted in the Iberian-Latin language that originated during the Roman era. The language of Castile, which would become known as Spanish, consumed and/or displaced other non-Portuguese languages on Iberian Peninsula.

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Formation of Spanish Border:

1. Iberian Peninsula forms natural boundaries for a nation, with water on three sides, and the rugged Pyrenees Mountains to the NE, a natural barrier between Spain and France.
2. Between 218 and 201 BC, the Romans would conquer the southern coastal territories of the Iberian Peninsula. By 19 AD, Rome had conquered all of the peninsula, naming it Hispania, which closely approximated modern Spain+Portugal, with the Pryenees Mountains forming the boundary between Hispania, and the province of Gaul (roughly approximate to modern France), just as it has always separated Spain and France.
3. Visigoths (Germanic invaders) entered the peninsula in 405, ending Roman rule. The Visigoths became the ruling class in Iberia, consolidating rule throughout the entire Iberian Peninsula by 624.
4. Moorish invasion of 711 begins the long-time occupation/presence of Muslims in the Southern half. The “white” Christian kingdoms (sub-divided from consolidated Visigothic rule from before Moorish invasions), would gradually push the Muslim borders south.
5. 1230 – As Castile begins to assert itself as the dominant Christian Kingdom to the north, the County of Portugal (from Kingdom of Leon, which became swallowed by Castile), asserts independence, separating from the rest of the peninsula, setting the stage for a peninsula partitioned between Portugal along the western coast, and Spain.
6. By 1300, the Muslims had been pushed into a diminished stronghold along the southern coast.
7. Castile would absorb the rest of the Iberian kingdoms except Portugal by 1513, very nearly achieving the modern boundaries of Spain, unifying all of modern Spain under a single crown. Most of modern Spain achieved with the joining of Castile and Aragon in 1469. The Muslims remaining in a small corner in the southwest were driven completely out of Iberia in 1496. The absorption of Navarre completed the process in 1513.
8. 1713 – UK captures Gibraltar (a tiny parcel of land at the very southern edge of the Iberian peninsula) from Spain during War of Spanish Succession, still possessed by UK to this day.

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Spain Etymology (How Name Received):

Spanish Culture:

Spain and the rest of the Iberian peninsula were very much Romanized during the years of Roman rule (ending in 405), taking upon themselves the Latin language, and becoming fully immersed in Roman rule of law with an emphasis on education. This broke down during the barbaric Germanic invasions upon the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Portugal, along the western coast of the peninsula, slowly developed an identity and culture unique to the rest of the Iberian peninsula (as opposed to shared identity and culture during Roman years).

The Spanish kingdoms of the medieval period became became politically intertwined with the Catholic pope, especially in the face of fending off Muslim domination of their homeland, making the tie to the Catholic Church even more pronounced.

The Catholic connection became further ingrained during the Age of Exploration (beginning in the 15th century), with Spain playing a crucial role in the European naval revolution, as the pope helped define and support Portuguese monopolization of Central and South America. With excellent access to the Atlantic, and a rapidly developing naval tradition, sea travel and exploration became ingrained into Spanish culture. Portuguese culture was then exported throughout the world, as it became a colonial power, remaining dominant in Latin American to this day.

Spain also carried the Catholic banner during the religiously-incited wars of the 1500s and 1600s, with Spain attempting to prevent Protestant territories (such as the Netherlands) from breaking from the Catholic Church and attaining independence from Spain.

Spain in 2008:

Economy: Has experienced ups and downs as the EU in general has, but has outpaced most EU nations in important economic indicators.
Government: Constitutional Monarchy.
Religion: 94% Roman Catholic. Strong Catholic tradition which is still in force today, long the official religion of the state. With modern secularism trend, most Catholics are not active church goers, likely claiming religious affiliation based on family tradition. Survey: 59% believe in God, 21% some other form of intelligent design, 18% do not know (agnostic).
Demographics: 92% European (the vast majority of which are Spaniards, or Spanish people), and 8% non-European (majority of which are from Latin America, and a significant portion from North Africa – former colonial possessions)
Foreign Policy: Contributed troops to Iraq War, but removed them after Madrid terrorist bombings in 2004.
Population: 40,491,051 (2008)

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