Geography, culture and history of Spain: A quick introduction

The broad streets, the statues in the city squares, the architecture, the yellow leaves drooping wearily from the trees along the two-way lane and the people dressed in winter garments of black, white and grey shades— right before my eyes is the Europe I had read about in books and watched in movies. Madrid, the capital of Spain would forever be that special city that introduced me to Europe. I am writing this quick note focused on the culture and history of Spain, not just for readers of the blog but also for myself, so that when my memory fades, I can quickly come here and read this up.

I am on a culinary and cultural tour focused on Madrid and Segovia. Anytime I am invited on such tours, I am forced to take a deep dive into the place’s history, as without the historical context, the tour would hardly be interesting and the written articles I generate would only sound half-baked. So I am sharing a short and quick overview of Spain’s past and present to help foreigners(to Spain) planning a trip to the country and readers going through my other Spain articles to have some context.

Geographically where is Spain?

Spain is a country in south-western Europe located on the Iberian Peninsula with a continuous land border with Portugal to its west, and France and Andorra to its North-east. Spain’s east and south-east is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and northwest by the Atlantic Ocean. On the south of the Peninsula, Gibraltar is a small offshore territory under British rule; it is also a reason of dispute between Spain and Britain. The Gibraltar Strait connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Beyond the strait lies the North African country of Morocco where Spain holds enclaves at Ceuta, Melilla and Velez de la Gomera. Canary Islands in the Atlantic and Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean are two touristic archipelagos under Spain apart from other small islands.

History of Spain: Throwback

In the earliest times, the Atlantic coast of the peninsula was inhabited by the Celts and the Mediterranean coast by the Iberians. The Basques who lived in the north of the peninsula, is a European indigenous ethnic group that survived the numerous regime changes since antiquity. Several Phoenicians developed cities along the southern coast of the peninsula, which eventually came under the first millennium BC’s Carthaginian Empire (modern Tunisia).

The Roman Republic got the first stronghold in the peninsula by invading these coastal territories under Carthage after the second Punic War of 210BC-205 BC. Over the following 200 years, the Romans captured most of the peninsula, imposed their language and law on the subjects and entirely integrated the Celts and Iberians into their own culture. The citizens were soon brought under the umbrella of Christianity. In 409 AD Germanic tribes invaded the peninsula from the north and soon the Visigoths captured the peninsula and tried to impose Arianism (a theory dissing Jesus’s equivalence with God) on the people. The Visigoth rulers eventually recognized Catholicism alongside Arianism.

Fuelled by revenge over a personal feud, a Visigoth ally invited North African invaders into the peninsula and that led to a 700-years long struggle between the Christians and the Muslims—what is known in Spain as the Reconquista. The Berber Muslims under Umayyad Caliphate conquered most of southern Spain. The Arabs Muslims soon followed them from the Middle-east. The Caliphate recognized Christians and Jews but subjected them to taxes and inferior living conditions. Mass conversions took place. Overtime, these Muslims in Spain with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities were categorized as Moors. They built mosques, buildings and introduced new ingredients in recipes.

When various sects of Muslim rulers fought among themselves in the peninsula, the small satellite Christian territories gained strength and eventually recaptured Spain. Most noteworthy of these Christian kingdoms were Castile, Leon and Aragon. It reflects in the fact that the Spanish language of modern Spain is basically the old Castilian language.

Queen Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon are probably the most important characters in Spanish history. They married each other in 1469, and ruled over the entire Iberian Peninsula. They gave shape to modern Spain. The subkingdoms under their rule enjoyed considerable autonomy. By 1492, they had wiped out the last Muslim ruler in the Iberian Peninsula.

From the 14^th century, led by anti-Semitic sentiments, the Christians in Castile, Aragon and several other places formed gangs and committed mass genocide of the Jews populace. Jewish women and children were sold as slaves to the remaining few Muslims. Queen Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon ordered all the Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave the region. Soon the same fate followed the Muslims. Again mass conversion, expulsion and death took place.

Meanwhile around 1492 itself, Isabella sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus, who discovered America (without realizing). The first colony was established. Loot, don’t rule—the concept of building colonies was thus seeded in the mind of every European superpower. The indigenous people were bluffed, tormented, murdered, enslaved and killed. However, these expeditions and capture of far-away lands gave unprecedented wealth to the Europeans.

The boom of the 16^th century was replaced by gloom in the 17^th century. By this time, Europe was fraught with religious wars and maritime competitions. Politically, Portugal separated from Spain. In the 18^th century, the Bourbon dynasty with roots in France became the ruling family of Spain. A series of regional wars among Spain, France and England de-stabilised the region. By the early 19^th century, Spain had lost control over most of its oversea colonies.

In the 20^th century, the first elections were held and the most important modern reforms happened. Throughout this century, Spain saw dictatorships, democratic republics, monarchies, coups, and even a civil war before finally attaining peace. Currently Spain is a secular democratic constitutional monarchy with King Felipe VI as the state head. Under this setup, the king’s power is severely restricted.

Spain now

Spain comprises of 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities (in Morocco) as the first level of administration. Each of these are further divided into provinces. Spain has 50 provinces. The provinces are split into municipalities. The communities and the individual provinces within them enjoy considerable but varying degree of autonomies.

Spain is very LGBTQ+ friendly and safe for women travellers. The people are mostly approachable. Spanish is the primary language and English is rarely spoken. Anybody not having even an elementary expertise in Spanish would struggle, more so outside Madrid and other big cities. Several Europeans from other countries live and work in Spain; I ran across many French people. Too bad that at that time, I could speak neither Spanish nor French.

In terms of clothing, accessories and jewelleries, Madrid is the shopping capital of Europe. Tourists can shop until they drop and still wouldn’t run out of choice. This is not a surprise, considering Spain is home to so many high street and luxury brands like Desigual, Mango, Zara, Loewe and many more. To add to this, being a part of the EU, shopping in Spain is a tax-free experience for every non-EU citizen. They can claim and get VAT (Value Added Tax) refund on the shopping—VAT is generally 21% but might be 10% and 4% on select goods.

Spain is big on art, culture, food and drinks. Elaborate meals are daily part of life. Typically, lunches and dinners are at least three-four courses long. Social lunches and dinners stretch for 3-4 hours. In my experience, Spanish people love having coffee right after lunch (which is so different from what we do in India). Also, tapas dinners and the group size of the party could stretch on endlessly if Spaniards keep bumping into people they know throughout the evening. Another oddity of these tapas meals is that the group enjoying the tapas don’t need to have all the food from a single restaurant!

Ok, now you are ready to take that trip to Spain. Don’t forget to enjoy some educational armchair travel through my other Spain articles.

Did you enjoy reading this piece on the culture and history of Spain? What surprised you the most? Comment below and let’s talk!

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