When did Spain become Spain?

Homo Sapiens (modern humans) are said to have inhabited the Iberian Peninsula for the past 35,000 years. 

As they migrated north across this mountainous land mass over the course of millennia, tribes were formed, whilst civilisations from other parts of the ancient world also settled. 

Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, ancient Basques, Greeks were all part of Hispania’s demographic melting pot, which towards 200 BC was under Roman rule. 

Then came the Germanic tribe of the Visigoths, who ruled Spain from the 5th to the 8th century AD, and in 711 the conquest of Spain by the Moors of Northern Africa began, giving way to eight centuries of Muslim rule across almost the entire territory. 

According to most history books, the Reconquista began shortly afterwards in 718 when mythical Asturian leader Don Pelayo defeated the Moors in the Battle of Covadonga. 

And so legend has it that slowly but surely over the course of 800 years, the ‘original’ people of Spain regained their land, culminating in 1492 with the defeat of the Emirate Granada, and Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon joining their regions to create a free, Christian nation.

The general consensus is therefore that 1492 - which features heavily in history books everywhere due to the ‘discovery’ of America by Columbus (and whose voyage just so happened to be commissioned by Spain’s new king and queen) - is the year that gave birth to the Kingdom of Spain, Spain the country.

However, in recent years historians and Hispanists have often disagreed over when the official ‘birth of the nation’ was, with many arguing that the term ‘Reconquest’ is a fallacy in itself. 

The majestic Alhambra fortress in Granada, a vestige of Muslim rule for eight centuries. Was Spain not Spain when under Moorish control? Photo: Julio GM/Pexels

 

After all, was it still the Visigoths who were reclaiming Spain 800 years after the Battle of Covadonga? Do eight centuries of Moorish Spain, known for their enlightenment and prosperity, not count towards nation-building? And how about Hispania, as the Romans called the Iberian Peninsula during their seven centuries of rule?

Spanish historian Javier Peña argues that the term Reconquista “was never used during the Middle Ages or in modern times, only from the 19th century onwards”. 

“That word was coined by the romantics and the liberals who identified the notion of Reconquista with the recovery of national unity, the idea of ​​nation, the idea of ​​homeland, which is the crux of the new model of the Spanish State that was being created in the 19th century".

Modern-day Spanish politicians sniffing out the ‘patriot vote’ still play the Reconquista card, such as Santiago Abascal, leader of far-right party Vox, who upon visiting Covadonga in Asturias while campaigning in 2019 declared that “Don Pelayo was a guy with big balls”.

Supporters hold signs reading "Let's go forward Spaniards, without fear of anything or anyone" as Spain's far-right Vox party leader Santiago Abascal (C) delivers a speech in front of a monument of Asturian King Pelayo in Covadonga. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

 

In his book “The Invention of Spain”, British historian Henry Kamen questions the existence of the Reconquista itself by stating that “no military campaign in the history of mankind has lasted that long”, eight centuries.

“Ferdinand and Isabella did not restart a process that had been interrupted; they embarked on a different one,” he told El País about the unstructured nature of the alleged reconquest of Spain.

For Kamen, the Reconquista helped with the concept of inventing a nation “while simultaneously trying to assimilate a thousand years of diversity and contradiction.”

Another recent train of thought among historians is that the birth of modern-Spain was several centuries later, in 1812, when the Spanish Constitution included the term “nation of Spain”.

Others fix the date as 1556 when Charles I abdicated in favour of Philip II, separating the Holy Roman Empire from the Spanish monarchy. 

And yet another theory argues that it was the first Bourbon king Philip V who truly created a Spanish nation when he reached the throne in 1700, thanks to his ideals of an absolute monarchy and with it a united and centralised State.

Quite clearly, there is no empirical evidence that can confirm when Spain officially became a country. Could the same not be said of many other countries with complex histories?

Painting depicting Boabdil, the last Nasrid king of Granada, surrendering and handing the keys to the city to the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon . Painting: Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz (1882)

 

What a growing number of present-day historians tend to agree on is the fact that the term Reconquista caters to an imperialistic and simplified view of history that makes 1492 an easy date to mark out as the creation of Spain. 

It was the year Catholicism finally ‘defeated’ Islam, the year Jews and Muslims were kicked out of Spain, the year when two huge Iberian kingdoms united forces, and last but not least, the year when Spain helped to discover the ‘New World’, ensuring its place on top of the world stage for centuries to come. 

The conquered had become the conquerors, so is it any surprise that politicians and historians in the early 19th century, a period when the Spanish Empire was losing its American colonies after protracted wars of independence, wanted to emphasise this former glory?

Perhaps not, but it fails to encapsulate the rich and diverse influences of other civilizations that have shaped Spain, a nation of nations to this day.

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