Speak the Culture: Spain: Be Fluent in Spanish Life and Culture

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1. Identity: the
   building blocks of
   2. Literature
   and philosophy
   3. Art and
   architecture
   4. Performing
   arts
   5. Cinema
   and fashion
   6. Media and
   communications
   7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
   the details of

From mirabilis to horribilis: Spain’s big year

1492 turned out to be quite a year for Spain. Not only

did Boabdil, King of Granada, surrender the last vestige

of Moorish power in Iberia to Isabel and Fernando,

dubbed theReyes Católicosby Pope Alexander VI;

it was also the year in which Christopher Columbus,

financed by Isabel, touched down on American soil.

Less gloriously, 1492 was also the year in which the

Reyes Católicossigned the Alhambra decree expelling

all Jews from the country on pain of death.Territorially,

Spain began taking on a familiar shape. Fernando

added most of Navarre to the Castile-Aragón union in

1512 before his Habsburg grandson Carlos (native of

Flanders) acceded to what many historians consider

the first unified kingdom of Spain four years later.

Portugal re-entered the fold for 60 years from 1580,

but essentially Spain as we know it was on the map.

Tolerance on the rack: the Spanish Inquisition

In theory he ruled Castile and she Aragón, but in

practice theReyes Católicosdivvied their power up

thus: Fernando dealt with foreign affairs and Isabel

handled domestic issues. And so the Spanish

Inquisition is often seen as her handiwork. Established

in 1478 with papal sanction, the Inquisition sought to

make Spain a solely Catholic state. Anyone of Jewish

(and later Muslim) faith was told to leave or convert.

Many of the so-calledconversoswere suspected of

faking it and attracted the Inquisition’s attention. Often,

it gave people an excuse to denounce anyone they had

a personal beef with.The unpleasantly devout Isabel

oversawautos-de-fé(shows of faith) in which the

accusedconversoshad no defence, were probably

suffering the effects of torture and had the loss of their

1492 Columbus finds the

Americas and theReyes

Católicosexpel the Jews

from Spain.

1516 Carlos I becomes

the first Habsburg to sit

on the Spanish throne.

1532 Pizarro subjugates

the Incas as the Spanish

empire reaches vast

proportions.

1588 England defeats

the Spanish Armada and

Spain enters a lengthy

slump.

1700 The Bourbon

dynasty begins its

Spanish tenure with

Felipe V.

1808 The people of

Madrid rise up against

Napoleon and the

Peninsula War begins.

1868 Isabel II is removed

from the throne in the

Glorious Revolution.

1873 Declaration of the

First Republic, which

lasts less than a year.

1898 Defeat in the

Spanish-American war

snatches Spain’s

remaining land in the

Americas.

Key dates

1.2.2 Rise and fall: kings,conquistadores

and cultural highs