Africa, southern Europe, and Asia; via
mountain passes through the Pyrenees,
Spain received migrants from northern
Europe. All of these peoples contributed
many elements to Spain’s dynamic ethnic
mix: Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks,
Romans, Jews, Alans, Vandals, Suevi,
Visigoths, and Moors (all of which are
discussed further below). But once in
Spain, each group of settlers tended to
become isolated by geography, thanks to
the series of mountain ranges and rivers
that cut across the Meseta, Spain’s broad
central plateau, chopping the country up
into discrete regions. Mountains also bor-
der the Meseta, further slicing up the
peninsula, with the Cantabrian moun-
tains in the north and the Sierra Morena
mountains in the south. The result has
been a wide-ranging collection of distinct
local cultures, at times fiercely independ-
ent of each other. Today these cultures
are preserved within autonomous region-
al governments, all of which are united
under Spain’s constitutional monarchy.SPANISH HISTORY TO 1492
Spain’s identity as a diverse melting pot
society has been a primary feature of its
history since at least 3000 b.c., when a
people known as the Iberians arrived on
the peninsula. In time, they were joined
by Phoenicians (ca. 1200 b.c.), Celts (ca.
1000 b.c.), Greeks (ca. 700 b.c.),Carthaginians (ca. 250 b.c.), Romans (ca.
200 b.c.), Visigoths (ca. a.d.400), and
Muslims (ca. a.d.711). As will be seen,
each of these groups has left an imprint
on Spain, its history, and its culture.From Prehistory
to CarthageThe Iberian Peninsula has been populat-
ed since Paleolithic times, as is testified by
magnificent cave paintings at Altamira
that date back some 14,000 years. In about
3000 b.c., a people called the Iberians
crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from North
Africa and settled in the peninsula, ulti-
mately occupying its southern two-thirds
as far as the Ebro River valley in the
northeast. The names “Ebro” and
“Iberian” come from this people’s word
for “river,” iber. They were joined, at
about 1000 b.c., by the Celts, who came
over the Pyrenees from France and min-
gled with the Iberian stock, particularly in
the west, north, and center of the peninsu-
la. The new mix was called Celtiberian.
To this day, people in the northern
Spanish regions of Galicia and Asturias
are more likely to have Celtic blond hair
and blue eyes than the typically dark-
haired people in the southernmost region
of Andalusia.
From across the Mediterranean came
the Phoenicians, beginning in the 12th
century b.c.Traveling from their base in
Sidon and Tyre in what is now Lebanon,2 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
To the ancient Greeks and Romans, Spain marked the western end of the known world.
According to Greek and Roman mythology, Hercules, the fabulously strong son of Zeus, vis-
ited Spain, under the rays of the setting sun, to accomplish two of his 12 labors—capturing
the oxen of Geryon and stealing the golden apples of the Hesperides. At what is now the
Strait of Gibraltar, it is said Hercules raised two columns, the Pillars of Hercules, which cor-
respond to modern Gibraltar and Ceuta. He also left an S-shaped legend around the pillars
reading Non plus ultra, Latin for “Do not go beyond there.”
In The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World,Mexican writer Carlos
Fuentes argues that Spain’s place at the edge of the Greco-Roman world helped to shape
its national character: “Spain became something like the cul-de-sac of the Mediterranean.
You went westward to Spain and there you stopped.... Spanish culture was fashioned to
the highest degree by this finality, this eccentricity, of the country’s geographic position. If
you went to Spain, you stayed there, because there was nothing after it. Or you went back
east, where you came from.”
It is fitting that this end of the world was the embarkation point for Columbus’s jour-
ney of discovery, which transformed Spain from the end of the world into the sovereign
of much of the New World.THE END OF THE WORLD