History of Spain

What makes a Spaniard unique within Western civilization? Why is Spain so different from other European countries? Some people look for a simple geographic answer. But the fact is that its geography has not changed that much since the days when Spain, as so many other European lands, was but a piece in the grand imperial mosaic put together by Rome. This common background persisted for several centuries as northern European tribes - Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks - overran southern Europe and established themselves there.

What really made the difference was the arrival in Spain of the Arabs early in the 8th century. From that moment on, Spains development took on a distinctive character. While it is true that the Arabs also reached up into France, they were soon thrown back. In Spain it was a different story. The Moslems conquered much of the Iberian peninsula and stayed on for nearly eight centuries.

Small Christian nuclei in northern Spain resisted the Moslem invaders from the beginning. Over the centuries these rugged groups grew into powerful Christian kingdoms that pushed the infidel ever southward. During this prolonged struggle, Spain served as an advance post for Christianity, a religious frontier. The main performers on this medieval stage were the monk and the warrior - the man who prayed and the man who fought; the man who reflected upon death and the man who faced it on the battlefield. The victory achieved after nearly 800 years of effort gave the Spaniard a feeling of superiority, which was reinforced by medieval chroniclers who were quick to remind them that their country had once given great emperors to Rome. In that long contest Spain put ideological values ahead of purely material interests. Rivers were more often used as moats behind which to fight raiders than as trade routes. Cities sprang up not because of economics but because of strategic imperatives. Such was the case of Segovia; and it was as a guardian of the mountain passes that Madrid had its humble beginnings. This also explains why the Spanish landscape often has a warlike appearance. Any knoll, any mountain pass, any meadow, was a good place to build a fortress-castle.

When the Catholic Sovereigns ended the war of reconquest from the Moslems, the Reconquista, and stood at the Moorish towers of the Alhambra at Granada, they once more turned their eyes southward, as Spaniards had done for so many centuries. This time there was only the sea. But that very same year Spanish ships under Columbus succeeded in crossing the great Dark Sea. It was as though Spain, having run out of land to reconquer, had been forced to look beyond the ocean for new lands in which to continue its feats of valor. In a broad sense, the Reconquista grew into the discovery, conquest and colonialization of the New World.

It was at this moment that the concept of manifest destiny - so easy to take hold in any country at the height of its power - sank deep into the Spanish conscience. The Spaniard felt he had a godly mission to carry out, and this was to make it possible for him to withstand bitter defeats in later years. When the Castilian Cortes met after the disaster of the Invincible Armada, someone advised the king to abandon his ambitious foreign policy, which had forced Spain to fight against half of Europe. "If they want to ruin themselves, let them," the adviser added spitefully. To have followed this counsel would have amounted to striking the flag that had let Spain on a universal mission. But at that same Cortes another ringing voice was heard. Recommending that the fight be carried on, a representative from Murcia said: "If what we are doing is defending the cause of God - as I am sure we are - then we must not give it up as impossible, for He will discover new Indies for us, as He discovered the Catholic Sovereigns when we needed them."