There are so many cultural sites in Spain and Portugal that it triggered us to dive deeper in the history of the Western Mediterranean. We uncluttered the dates and data and we hope that the common thread helps you to understand this fascinating part of Europe as it helped us.
Iberia was probably inhabited by Celts around 1000B.C., although there is little convincing evidence left. The Phoenicians were a Mediterranean civilisation that originated in the Levant, present area of Lebanon. It spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. Southern Spain was colonised and it is certain that Phoenician trading posts existed along the West coast of what is now Portugal but it was not colonised.
Around 650 BC Carthage (now Tunis) gained independence of the Phoenician state and established political hegemony over the Western Phoenician settlements as the capital of te Punic Empire. Carthage was widely considered the most important trading hub of the Ancient Mediterranean, with Hispania (now Spain) its most valuable possession. Carthage was on hostile terms with the Greek and the Romans.
There were three major wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians (the Punic wars). The Romans eliminated the Carthaginians from Hispania during the second Punic war in 200 BC. They developed the Roman province Lusitania in the South (now Portugal) and Gallaecia (now Galicia Northern Spain). The Romans (under the command of Skipio) defeated and destroyed Carthage (under command of Hannibal) in the third Punic war in 146 BC. Nearly all of the Phoenician city-states and former Carthaginian dependencies were already Roman territory before Carthage fell.
Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside the Italian peninsula until the 3rd century BC when it became an empire. The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Romes impact on the territory is still visible everywhere today. They brought technical advancement, invented the arch, the dome and concrete, enabling them to built roads, dams, water reservoirs, aqueducts and bridges all over the empire. Public toilets were flushed with running water. They brought medical advancement in surgery and dentistry. They re-organised agriculture and were able to achieve food surpluses in the territories. Fashion and arts where thriving. Schools became more numerous during the Empire, and increased the opportunities for children to acquire an education.
The fall of Rome was initiated by the capture of Emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260 AD, becoming the first Roman emperor to be a prisoner of war, causing shock and instability throughout the Roman Empire.
Knowing that Rome was vincible the outside pressure on the Empire increased. The Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate as migration and invasions by the Germanic tribes; the “Goths” and the “Vandals” overwhelmed the capacity of the Empire. Most historians place the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476, when Emperor Augustulus was forced to step down to Odoacer who was a rising Germanic soldier in the Roman army.
The Eastern Roman Empire continued to exist as the Byzantine Empire. The fall of its capital Constantinople (present day Istanbul) to the Ottomans in 1453 ended the Byzantine Empire
There was a sharp decline in urban life in Western Europe during the Dark Ages following the fall of Rome. The Visigoths (West-Goths) were romanized central Europeans who had moved West from the Danube Valley. After the fall of Rome they established their kingdom in Iberia. They controlled Iberia between the 5th and 8th centuries.
The Germanic Vandals took advantage of Roman weakness in North Africa and in 429 crossed by boat from Spain to North Africa. They advanced eastward conquering regions of what is now Morocco, Algeria and Tunesia and made Carthage their capital, the most important city of North Africa. The kingdom then conquered islands in western Mediterranean Sea. The Vandal Kingdom ended in 534 when it was conquered and incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.
North Africa came under attack by Muslims who advanced from Egypt. In 698 Carthage fell and in 709 the Byzantine Roman Empire had lost the Magreb (North-West Africa) to the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate. In 711 an invasion by the Umayyad Caliphate, comprising of Berbers from North Africa plus other Muslims from all around the Islamic world, landed in the vicinity of Gibraltar and conquered the Visigoth Kingdom in a 7 year campaign. They founded the Islamic State of Al Andalus.
The “reconquista” or the attempts to regain control over Iberia started in 722 with the first victory of the Christians against the Moors (people of the Magreb) in Northern Spain leading up to the Kingdom of Asturias. What follows is a rising and falling of Counties – Kingdoms – Alliances – Victories and Defeats.
The Algarve, the Southernmost region of Portugal was finally conquered from the Moors in 1249, and in 1255 the capital shifted to Lisbon.
Neighbouring Spain would not complete its Reconquista until 1492, almost 250 years later.
Not surprisingly, Moorish influences can be found in abundance, mainly in the Southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.