History of Andalucia

An historical overview of Andalucia, Spain

The prehistoric Beginnings

Neanderthal man is known to have lived on the Rock of Gibraltar, 50,000 years ago. In about 8,000 BC an influx of North African tribes established farming settlements throughout the region, and these people are known today as the Iberians. Andalucia's seaboard was extensively settled by the Phoenicians, who established a chain of trading posts, founding the sea port of Cadiz in 1100BC - which makes its Europe's oldest city - and strongly influencing the way of life of the native Iberians. The Phoenicians were followed by the Celts, who in 800 BC moved south across Europe and into Andalucia. By 700 BC the Tartessus Kingdom was flourishing in Andalucia, and a century later Greek sailors founded trading ports along its shore. By the year 500 BC, the Carthaginians had colonised southern Spain. More>

Copper Bronze and iron

The Chalcolithic period marked the dawn of metallurgy, with copper, silver, and gold being worked for the first time. This era also saw increasing social complexity, the rise of early civilizations, and the development of extensive exchange networks stretching as far as the Baltic for amber and North Africa for ivory and ostrich-egg products. The Copper Age settlement of Los Millares in Almeria, for example, boasts evidence of a copper furnace and specialized buildings. This metallurgical development progressed into the Bronze Age, defined by the production of bronze, achieved in southern Iberia by smelting mined copper and alloying it with imported tin. Bronze, harder and more resilient than other metals, provided Bronze Age civilizations with a significant technological advantage. Finally, the Iron Age in the Iberian Peninsula emerged from the influence of two distinct migratory cultures: in the north, the Hallstatt and Urnfields cultures from central Europe, and in the south, the trading colonies established by Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians. The Celts subsequently arrived in several waves from around 600 BC, further shaping the Iron Age landscape. More>

Phoenicians

The first contacts between the Phoenicians and Iberia were made in the 11th century BC. This led to the emergence of towns and cities on the southern coast, including Gadir (Cadiz) near Tartessos in 1104 BC. Many artefacts from this period can be seen in the archaeological museums of Malaga, Cadiz and Huelva. Around 850 BC, Phoenicians from the city-state of Tyre founded the colony of Malaka. More >

Greeks

The Greeks tended to remain in the eastern Mediterranean. However, the Phocaeans — Greek colonists from the ancient Ionian Greek city of Phocaea (modern-day Foça, Turkey) — founded the colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille) in 600 BC. They began trading with the Iberians on the eastern coast, establishing Emporion (modern-day Empúries in Catalonia, Spain) in 575 BC.

Ancient sources, notably the geographer Strabo, refer to a Greek settlement called Mainake, founded by the Phocaeans, which was located on the coast to the east of the Phoenician colony of Malaka (modern-day Málaga). It was probably a small trading post that was eventually abandoned following the Battle of Alalia (c. 537 BC), after which the Carthaginians blocked the Phocaeans' trade network.

There were certainly no Greek settlements west of the Strait of Gibraltar, only voyages of discovery. According to Greek historian Herodotus the Phocaeans were the first Greeks to make these long sea-voyages reaching as far as Tartesus. Herodotus relates that they so impressed Arganthonios, king of Tartessus, that he invited them to settle there, and, when they declined, gave them a great sum of money to build a wall around their city.

Tartessians

The legendary kingdom of Tartessus in the Guadalquivir basin has never been found; however, there is plenty of evidence of the distinct Tartessian culture that began around 720 BC. This culture was actually an earlier local culture that had been modified by eastern Mediterranean influences, particularly those of the Phoenicians. Initially, its influence was limited to the lowlands of the modern provinces of Huelva and Seville, but it later extended to eastern Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia and Valencia. More>

Celtic Tribes

Celtic tribes move down to northern Spain from northern Europe about 800 BC, merging with the Iberian culture. After the fall of Tartesus in 520 BC three different tribes expand south. More >

Carthaginians

The Carthaginians (from Tunisia), reached southern Iberia and took over the Phoencian's the western Mediterranean trade routes. More >

The Romans & the History of Spain

In their struggle against Carthage, the Romans invaded the peninsula in 206 BC, crushing the resistance of the native Iberians and soon transforming Andalucia into one of their richest and best organised colonies, which they called Betis, crisscrossing the region with paved roads. Roman galleys sailed up its main river, now called the Guadalquivir, as far as Cordoba, where they took on board amphorae of olive oil and wine for exportation to Rome. Under the Romans, in the 4th century AD, Spain became a Christian country, and the Spanish language - perhaps the closest modern tongue to Latin - began to take its current shape. More>

The Dark Ages

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Andalucia was devastated by successive waves of barbarian tribes coming from northern Europe, with the eventual predominance of the Visigoths.  This warlike people reigned chaotically over the peninsula for almost two centuries, leaving Spain open to the invasion of the Moors - Islamic warriors from Arabia and North Africa - in the year 711, and who called the region al-Andalus because they associated it with the Vandals, one of the barbarian tribes who had, several centuries earlier, swept across the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa. More>

Moors

The Moors made the region their home for eight centuries and permanently marked it with their cultural legacy, signs of which are still visible in monuments such as the Mosque of Cordoba and the Alhambra Palace in Granada. It was not until the 13th century that the Christian reconquest reached Andalucia, seizing the cities of Cordoba and Seville.   By the end of the 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, had taken the last stronghold of the Moors, Granada and the Alhambra Palace.    Read more about Spain’s Moorish History.

Jews in Spain

It is said that the first Jews arrived in Seville in the sixth century BC, and were from David's family. They spoke Ladino, a Judeo form of Spanish. The Sephardic Jews suffered persecution from the Visigoths during the sixth century AD, followed by a period of harmony under Moorish rule, during which Jews, Moors and Christians co-existed, respecting each other's religions and holy days, each with their own skills to offer; they were employed as court envoys. In the 13th century they fled the fundamentalist Almohads to the Christian north of Spain, returning after the Reconquest. Sephardim prospered in banking, medicine, law and commerce, with a far higher literacy rate than other Spanish communities.   More >

Reconquest

The Reconquista is the period of the Iberian Peninsula's history between the Battle of Covodonga (c.718), the first victory of Christian military forces since the Islamic Invasion, and the eventual fall of the Islamic kingdom of Granada in 1492. In the mid-12^th century, the Almoravid dynasty in Morocco, which ruled the southern part of Spain, was overthrown by a different religious movement: the Almohads. By 1150, these Berbers from the Atlas Mountains had conquered the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula that today approximately forms Andalucía, then known as Al-andalus. More>

Christian rule

Andalucia was the launching point for the discovery of America (after the Upper Guadalquivir had silted up, making it impossible to sail as far inland as Cordoba), and Seville became the main port for the imports of gold from the New World during the 16th and 17th centuries.  Whilst Fernando III had made significant progress in the Reconquest his successors for the next 150 year made very little. They concentrated on internal inheritance disputes and those with the the other Catholic Kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon and Portugal. More>

Catholic Monarchs

Isabel I (of Castile and Leon) and Ferdinand II (of Aragon), better known as the Catholics Monarchs, were a marriage which united medieval Spain: the great houses of Castile and Aragon, which between them controlled vast tracts of the peninsula. You can see references to these monarchs all over Andalucia, as their reign marked a key turning point in Spain's history, its fortunes and its power. They reconquered Granada from the Nasrids in 1492. This was the same year Columbus sailed to the New World. More>

Hapsburgs

Much of the wealth from America was spent on the wars waged by Spain's Hapsburg monarchy against the Lutheran countries in northern Europe and the Ottoman Turks in the Mediterranean, and as the flow of riches decreased, Spain and Andalucia sank into economic decline.  Europe was at war and William and Mary were fighting Louis XIV. See HMS Sussex shipwreck. The region suffered the ravages of the Spanish War of Succession in the early 18th century and, one hundred years later. Andalucia's economy suffered the direct effect of the independence movement in South America during the rest of the 19th century.  More>

The Bourbons

These French rulers dominated Spain from 1700 until the early 1900s. Andalucia suffered the ravages of the War of Succession 1701-1713, when the Bourbons were fighting with Archduke Charles of Austria (allied with the British) over the Spanish throne. In the course of this war, Gibraltar was lost to the British. More>

Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar was the culmination of years of tension between Britain and France, primarily stemming from the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon Bonaparte's ambitions to dominate Europe included plans to invade Britain, and this required control of the English Channel. To achieve this, the French and Spanish navies combined forces to challenge British naval supremacy. Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, touched off the War of Independence or Peninsular War (1808-1813), as Spain's defeat resulted in the Spanish King being forced to abdicate; Napoleon immediately seized power.

French Occupation

In 1808 the French emperor put his brother Joseph Boneparte on the throne; the Spanish government refused to recognise him. The subsequent conflict - the Peninsular War (called War of independence in Spain) - brought Napoleon's troops to Spain, where they occupied many cities, destroying many buildings and looting artistic treasures. Spain was allied with England against France at this stage under the Duke of Wellington, and together the armies eventually succeeded in driving out the French troops. French Occupation

La Pepa - Spain's First Constitution

On 19 March 1812, Spain's first constitution was drawn up in Cadiz, enshrining the rights of Spanish citizens and limiting the power of the monarchy. Although it was not enacted for some years, its influence was considerable, both within peninsular Spain and its territories around the world. More>

Carlist Wars

When Ferdinand VII died in 1833, his fourth wife Maria Cristina became Queen Regent on behalf of their infant daughter Isabella II. This divided the country into the Cristinos, liberal supporters of the Queen Regent and the Carlists, supporters of Carlos V, a pretender to the throne and brother of Ferdinand VII. There followed further wars of succession, called the Carlist Wars. The first Carlist war was 1833 to 1840 in most of the country. The second Carlist war was 1846 to 1849 and was an uprising in Catalunia and Galicia. The third Carlist war caused the deposition of Queen Isabela II in 1868, the abdication of Amadeo and the creation of the First Republic. 

First Republic

First Republic

The Restoration

The Restoration

Second Republic

Second Republic

Early 20th century

The devastating loss of Spain's last colonies, Cuba and the Philippines, led to political instability and further economic decline. In 1913 Blas Infante, the "father of Andalucia" began his fight for an Independent Andalucia.

Civil War

Meanwhile opposition to the autocratic King Alfonso XIII increased, culminating in the deposition of the monarchy and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in 1936, when the Republic was overthrown by General Franco and his Nationalist movement.  Although Spain did not openly take sides in World War II, Franco lent his support to the Axis, (eg Operation Mincemeat) as a result of which Spain suffered the disastrous effects of an international blockade after the war.  More>

Democracy Restored

It was not until Franco died, in 1975, that democracy was restored, under the symbolic monarchy of King Juan Carlos II. Spanish government was decentralised and Andalucia became an Autonomous Region in 1982, with its own regional administration, the Junta de Andalucia (Assembly of Andalucia). More>

On 22 December 1963, a Dutch-built, Greek-owned cruise ship called the TSMS Lakonia caught fire when sailing off Madeira.

Andalucia moves with Europe

Andalucia as a region of Spain, has benefited as member of the European Union. It has experienced a dramatic improvement in the standard of living. The poverty of the Andalucian countryside has been largely eliminated and its people have regained their pride in the local culture, which flourishes alongside the benefits of improved roads, modern health care and high-tech infrastructures. On the other hand the GDP per capita and the levels of unemployment remain the worst in Europe. The romantic image of Andalucia, in spite of progress, is still very much a thing of the present.