Trivia

• Who where the two Roman emperors born in Spain?
• Why are Hercules and Julius Caesar considered the founders of Sevilla?
• What was the Moors first and last Spanish capital?
• How did the great medieval hero El Cid get this Spanish Arabian name?
• Why was Columbus finally given the money to sail the ocean blue?
• How much of the territory of the USA was first taken by Spain?
• Why did King Felipe II have the world’s largest monastery palace built?
• What tradition promoted by the Greeks is still common in the south of Spain?

Ancient History Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians & Roman Spain. Always a cultural crossroads of history, all major Mediterranean civilizations have spent time in on the Iberian Peninsula due to the great mineral and agricultural riches. The Roman had the greatest influence controlling Roman Hispania for some 600 years and exporting olive oil, wine wheat and garum, a fish sauce and leaving behind cultural values, bridges, temples, aqueducts and four surviving Latin languages including Spanish and Portuguese. Pompey and Julius Caesar also fought their epic battle here in Spain but couldn't prevent the arrival of the Germanic Visigoths 450 years later after the fall of Rome.

Moorish Medieval Spain 8th – 15th Centuries. Arriving from North Africa, Persia and Arabia, the so-called Moors established control of Iberia in some 10 years easily defeating the oppressive Visigoths who had made too many enemies among the proud Iberians. For the Moors, Spain and Portugal was called Al Andaluz. The Moorish period included periods of cultural, academic and economic brilliance while most of Europe lurched through the dark ages. The exotic culinary influences of certain fruits, vegetables, nuts and spices is still notable here in Spain.

Muslims, Jewish and Catholic scholars, doctors and philosophers worked together in Toledo, Cordoba and Seville translating ancient Greek masterpieces into Arabic, Hebrew and Latin. Despite this prosperous situation in the 9th and 10th centuries Moorish Spain fractured into many small kingdoms called Taifas. This opened the door for Catholic Spanish from Northern Spain with some Moslem help and figures like the great warrior El Cid who fought for sultans, kings and finally himself( check out the Academy award winning movie, EL CID with Charlton Heston and a young Sophia Loren) . After over 4 centuries of battles, the Catholic kingdoms of Castilla and Aragon finally conquered the peninsula in 1492.

The Expulsion, Inquisition, Colonial Superpower and Civil War. In 1492 after the Moorish surrender, the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, ordered the expulsion all Jews and Moors who wouldn’t convert, thus ending the largest and most distinguished Jewish settlement in Europe just at the time that they would have benefited greatly from some good financial management. Columbus, Magellan and the Conquistadores sailed the ocean blue from Sevilla. Spain then became a colonial superpower and Europe’s richest country thanks mostly to the gold ,silver, tobacco, rum and other New World “exports” These financial resources were spent on incredible palaces, churches, monasteries, castles and art. The rest was largely wasted by Spanish Hapsburg kings financing mercenary armies in the 100 years war. During this time the Spanish crown and the Vatican’s Holy Office of the Inquisition persecuted many supposed heretics holding public 'autos-da-fe' until the 18th century in Spain and her world-wide colonies.

As the gold dried up the rest of Europe was embracing science and development which in Spain was rejected by the nobility and the clergy, who were still swimming in old money. One curious result of this was very proud largely illiterate peasants in the late 19th century still living an almost medieval lifestyle. This set the stage for numerous civil conflict often along class and regional lines culminating in the bloody Spanish Civil War and an alliance between the Army and the Catholic church. The resulting victory led to the brutal dictatorship of El Generalisimo Franco who ruled from Madrid until his death in 1975 which opened the doors to a democratic transitioned at the hand of the present King Juan Carlos de Borbon.