Episode 233

SPAIN: Spanish History & more – 25th Sep 2025

In this episode, we explore Spanish History in ten minutes. 

Spain History Chat: Tuesday, September 30 · 5pm – 5:30pm (Spain Time Zone)

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Transcript

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 25th of September twenty twenty-five.

This week our writer is taking a break, so we, via an LLM, have written a logarithmic history of Spain. By logarithmic I mean the more recent the period, the greater coverage it gets, so we'll start back in the olden days but accelerate up until now, so the more recent the period, the more play it gets. Many may not be interested in this, but some might, let us know what you think....

Around ten thousand years ago the last Ice Age had ended, and the Iberian peninsula offered fertile valleys, rich coastlines, and varied microclimates. Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups thrived along the coasts and rivers, fishing and hunting red deer and wild boar. Archaeological finds at sites like Muge in Portugal and Mount Valonsadero in Castile show a complex culture of foraging communities with distinctive stone tools and shell middens.

From around:

By:

Different regions diverged. The Atlantic façade developed a megalithic and maritime culture, tied to Brittany and the British Isles. The southeast coast absorbed influences from Mediterranean farming settlements, linking Iberia to trade routes stretching to Italy and Greece. In the interior, less fertile highlands lagged in agricultural adoption but remained culturally significant as burial and rock art sites.

Around five thousand years ago, Iberia moved into the Copper and Bronze Ages, developing regional cultures that began to look distinct from one another. Metallurgy arrived early: copper working spread from the southeast, particularly the Los Millares culture in present-day Almería (ca. thirty-two thousand–twenty-two thousand BCE). Los Millares constructed fortified hilltop settlements with stone walls and towers, showing an unprecedented scale of defense and organization. Their burial chambers, filled with weapons and ornaments, suggest growing social stratification.

Farther north and west, other groups were slower to adopt metal but excelled in megalithic construction. The Tagus and Douro river valleys became dotted with dolmens and passage graves. These were not isolated; they linked Iberia into a broader Atlantic cultural network stretching from Ireland to Brittany. The shared focus on monumentality points to a society where communal ritual and ancestral cults played a central role.

By twenty-two thousand BCE, the Bronze Age was marked by a shift in power centers. The Los Millares culture gave way to El Argar (in southeastern Spain), one of Europe’s most advanced Bronze Age societies. El Argar settlements featured planned layouts, large houses, and evidence of specialized production. Their distinctive pottery and weapons circulated widely, suggesting they dominated trade and regional politics. Burial practices within houses—often with grave goods—show that inequality was entrenched, with elites buried alongside gold, silver, and finely crafted swords.

Meanwhile, western Iberia developed the Bell Beaker phenomenon (ca. Twenty five hundreed–eighteen hundred BCE), a pan-European cultural horizon marked by distinctive pottery and the spread of new burial customs. Iberia may even have been one of the origin points of the Beaker complex, which carried metallurgy and horse domestication across Europe. By two thousand BCE, Iberia was no longer peripheral: it was an exporter of metals, ideas, and people, shaping the Bronze Age world as much as it absorbed from it.

From around 900 BCE, Celtic-speaking peoples migrated into the peninsula from Central Europe, settling especially in the north and west. They mingled with indigenous Iberians, producing “Celtiberian” societies in the central Meseta. These were tribal, warrior-dominated cultures, known later for their fortified hillforts (castros) and distinctive metalwork. At the same time, the southeast remained more urbanized and hierarchical, heirs to the El Argar system.

The Mediterranean coasts drew colonizers. The Phoenicians, maritime traders from present-day Lebanon, established colonies beginning in the 9th century BCE, most famously Gadir (modern Cádiz). They brought alphabetic writing, iron tools, and intensive trade networks. Greeks followed in the 6th century BCE, founding colonies like Emporion (modern Empúries) in Catalonia. These contacts linked Iberia to the wider Mediterranean economy and seeded urban centers along the coast.

Carthage, the great Phoenician offshoot in North Africa, expanded into Iberia by the 3rd century BCE. Hannibal’s base in Cartagena and his march across the Alps into Italy originated here. Rome, perceiving Carthage as a rival, launched the Punic Wars (264–146 BCE). After Hannibal’s defeat, Rome annexed Iberia, though conquest was slow and brutal. The Lusitanians under Viriathus and the Celtiberians fought prolonged guerrilla wars before finally succumbing by 19 BCE.

For the next six centuries, Hispania was a Roman province. Rome built roads, aqueducts, cities, and theaters, integrating the peninsula into the empire’s administrative and cultural system. Latin spread, displacing older languages. Figures like Seneca, Quintilian, and the emperors Trajan and Hadrian were Iberian-born, underscoring its prominence.

Rome collapsed in the 5th century CE, and Visigothic tribes from Central Europe established a kingdom with its capital at Toledo. The Visigoths adopted Catholicism and maintained Roman law, but their state was fragile. In 711, Muslim armies crossed from North Africa, defeating the Visigothic king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete. Within a decade, most of Iberia became al-Andalus, part of the Islamic world.

A thousand years ago al-Andalus was at its cultural and political peak. The Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (established in 929) made the city one of the largest in Europe, famous for its libraries, mosques, and intellectual life. Advances in medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and agriculture flowed between the Islamic world and Christian Europe through Iberia. Figures like the philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and the Jewish thinker Maimonides represent the cosmopolitan character of the time. Yet fragmentation soon followed: the caliphate broke apart into taifas (small kingdoms) after one thousand thirty-one, each vying for dominance and often paying tribute to Christian powers in the north.

Meanwhile, Christian kingdoms were consolidating. Asturias had resisted Islamic conquest from the 8th century, and by the 11th century, León, Castile, Navarre, Aragón, and Catalonia had become major players. They pushed southward in the Reconquista, a centuries-long campaign framed as a religious war but driven just as much by politics and land. The capture of Toledo in one thousand eighty-five was a turning point, though Muslim dynasties like the Almoravids and Almohads (from North Africa) countered with military and religious revivals in the 12th century.

By the 13th century, Christian expansion accelerated. Ferdinand III of Castile took Córdoba (twelve thirty-six) and Seville (twelve forty-eight). Aragón expanded eastward across the Mediterranean, acquiring Sicily and Naples, while Catalonia became a maritime commercial hub. Only the Emirate of Granada remained under Muslim rule, surviving as a tributary state. Within Christian territories, "convivencia", coexistence among Christians, Muslims, and Jews...was real but uneven, often punctuated by violence and forced conversions.

The 15th century brought unification. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabella of Castile in fourteen sixty-nine created a dynastic union that set the foundation for a single Spanish monarchy. In fourteen ninety-two, Granada fell, completing the Reconquista. That same year, the Catholic Monarchs expelled Spain’s Jews, enforced religious uniformity through the Inquisition, and sponsored Christopher Columbus’s first voyage west, linking Spain to the Americas. Iberia entered the modern age as a rising global power.

From fifteen thousand onward, Spain became the first truly global empire. Under the Catholic Monarchs’ successors, the crowns of Castile and Aragón were inherited by Charles I (who was also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), inaugurating Habsburg rule. His reign (fifteen sixteen–fifteen fifty-six) linked Spain not only to its European possessions in the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, but also to the vast new territories in the Americas. Silver from Potosí in present-day Bolivia and Zacatecas in Mexico poured into Seville, fueling both Spain’s military power and inflation across Europe.

Philip II (fifteen fifty-six–fifteen ninety-eight) made Madrid the capital and pursued an aggressive defense of Catholicism. He built the Escorial palace-monastery as a symbol of monarchy and faith, fought the Protestant Reformation, and clashed with rising powers. His reign saw the Battle of Lepanto (fifteen seventy-one), where Spanish-led forces defeated the Ottomans, but also the disastrous defeat of the Spanish Armada against England (fifteen eighty-eight). Spain’s wealth funded near-constant wars, but overstretch and reliance on American silver weakened the economy.

The 17th century, often called Spain’s “siglo de oro” (Golden Age) in art and literature, was politically one of decline. Writers like Cervantes and painters like Velázquez flourished, but military defeats piled up. Spain lost Portugal (sixteen forty), endured the costly Thirty Years’ War, and by the Treaty of Westphalia (sixteen forty-eight) and the Treaty of the Pyrenees (sixteen fifty-nine) ceded territories to France and the Dutch Republic. The Habsburg line ended with Charles II in seventeen thousand, leaving no heir.

The War of Spanish Succession (seventeen one–seventeen fourteen) pitted Europe against itself. By the Treaty of Utrecht, Philip V, grandson of France’s Louis XIV, took the Spanish throne, founding the Bourbon dynasty. Spain lost its European holdings but retained its American empire. Bourbon reforms began modernizing administration, reducing regional autonomy, and centralizing authority in Madrid. By seventeen fifty, Spain was no longer the dominant power of Europe, but remained a major imperial state with a still-vast overseas empire.

Shall I keep going into the seventeen fifty–nineteen hundred (about 250 years ago to nineteen hundred) chunk — Enlightenment, Napoleonic invasion, decline of empire, instability at home?

By the mid-seventeen hundreds, Bourbon monarchs like Charles III (seventeen fifty-nine–seventeen eighty-eight) sought to modernize Spain along Enlightenment lines. His ministers reformed taxation, curtailed the power of the Church, reorganized colonial administration, and tried to stimulate agriculture and commerce. Scientific expeditions were dispatched to the Americas and the Pacific, reflecting Spain’s desire to match the intellectual currents of France and Britain. But reforms met resistance from entrenched elites, and the benefits remained uneven.

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars upended Spain. In eighteen eight, Napoleon invaded, forcing King Ferdinand VII to abdicate and installing his brother Joseph Bonaparte. The Peninsular War (eighteen eight–eighteen fourteen) became a brutal conflict of guerrilla warfare and mass resistance, supported by Britain under the Duke of Wellington. It devastated Spain but also started liberal politics: the Cortes of Cádiz in eighteen twelve drafted one of Europe’s earliest liberal constitutions, though Ferdinand restored absolutism after his return.

The eighteen thousands were marked by instability. Spain lost nearly all of its American colonies between eighteen ten and eighteen twenty-five, as independence movements swept from Mexico to Argentina. At home, the monarchy veered between absolutism and liberal constitutionalism. The Carlist Wars (beginning in eighteen thirty-three) pitted conservative supporters of Don Carlos against liberals backing Isabella II, entrenching a cycle of civil war and factionalism.

Industrialization lagged compared to Britain or France, though Catalonia developed a textile industry and the Basque Country expanded mining and steel. Political life oscillated between weak parliamentary regimes and military coups (pronunciamientos). The Glorious Revolution of eighteen sixty-eight briefly deposed Isabella II, ushering in a short-lived monarchy under Amadeo of Savoy, followed by the First Spanish Republic (eighteen seventy-three–74), which collapsed amid factionalism. The Bourbon monarchy was restored in eighteen seventy-four under Alfonso XII, with a two-party system of alternating liberal and conservative governments.

The 20th century began with Spain reeling from the “Disaster of eighteen ninety-eight,” when defeat by the United States stripped it of its last major colonies, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. The early decades were defined by attempts to modernize a society still divided between a conservative monarchy, a restless working class, and nationalist movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country. King Alfonso XIII presided over a fragile parliamentary system marred by corruption and regional unrest.

By the nineteen twenties, instability ushered in a military solution. General Miguel Primo de Rivera led a coup in nineteen twenty-three, ruling as dictator with the king’s support. He sought to modernize infrastructure and suppress labor unrest but alienated nearly every political faction. His regime collapsed in nineteen thirty, and Alfonso XIII left the country after municipal elections in nineteen thirty-one signaled overwhelming support for republican parties. The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed, initiating bold reforms: separation of church and state, women’s suffrage, land redistribution, and regional autonomy statutes.

The Republic, however, faced fierce opposition. Conservatives, monarchists, the Church, and much of the military resisted its program, while socialists and anarchists demanded deeper transformation. Political polarization worsened through the nineteen thirties, culminating in the July nineteen thirty-six military uprising that ignited the Spanish Civil War. Nationalists under General Francisco Franco, backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, fought Republicans supported by the Soviet Union and international volunteers. After three years of brutal fighting, Franco captured Madrid in nineteen thirty-nine and established a dictatorship.

Franco’s Spain was authoritarian, Catholic, and nationalist. The regime executed or imprisoned tens of thousands of opponents, censored the press, and suppressed regional languages. During World War II, Spain remained officially neutral but leaned toward the Axis. After nineteen forty-five, Franco became a pariah in Europe, though his staunch anti-communism later gained him U.S. support during the Cold War. By nineteen sixty-two, Spain was still poor and repressive, but slowly opening to foreign investment and tourism, laying the groundwork for its later transformation.

By the nineteen sixties, Spain remained under Franco’s dictatorship but was no longer isolated. Technocrats within the regime, many linked to the Catholic organization Opus Dei, launched the nineteen fifty-nine “Stabilization Plan,” which opened Spain’s economy to foreign investment and tourism. What followed became known as the Spanish Miracle: rapid industrialization, mass urbanization, and a consumer boom. Millions left rural villages for Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao, while northern Europeans flocked to Spain’s beaches. Beneath the prosperity, censorship and political repression continued, though underground labor unions, student movements, and regional nationalist groups gained momentum.

Franco’s death in nineteen seventy-five forced a reckoning. His chosen successor, King Juan Carlos I, surprised many by steering Spain toward democracy. Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez negotiated a delicate transition, legalizing political parties, including the Communist Party, and overseeing the drafting of the nineteen seventy-eight Constitution. The new charter established Spain as a parliamentary monarchy with autonomous regions, balancing unity with recognition of Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The transition was fragile. In nineteen eighty-one, armed Civil Guards stormed parliament in an attempted coup, but the king’s televised defense of democracy helped secure the new order. Spain’s first decades of democracy were dominated by the Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) under Felipe González, who won a landslide in nineteen eighty-two. González modernized the economy, expanded welfare, and brought Spain firmly into the Western fold. Spain joined NATO in nineteen eighty-two (with a referendum ratifying membership in nineteen eighty-six) and the European Economic Community in nineteen eighty-six, anchoring itself to Europe after decades of isolation.

The nineteen eighties also saw modernization accompanied by social change: legalization of divorce, expanded women’s rights, and the flowering of cultural movements like La Movida Madrileña, which symbolized a new, liberal Spain. By the early nineteen nineties, Spain had hosted the nineteen ninety-two Barcelona Olympics, the Seville Expo, and Madrid’s tenure as European Capital of Culture illustrating to itself that Spain had rejoined Europe not just politically but culturally.

The Socialist government of Felipe González was weakened by corruption scandals and economic malaise, leading to the victory of José María Aznar and the conservative People’s Party (PP) in nineteen ninety-six. Aznar’s tenure marked a shift toward economic liberalization: privatizations, deregulation, and integration into global markets. Spain adopted the euro in nineteen ninety-nine, and the early two thousands brought a real estate and construction boom that fueled rapid growth and transformed the skylines of Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. Immigration surged, with millions arriving from Latin America, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, making Spain one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe almost overnight.

Aznar also redefined Spain’s foreign policy. He cultivated close ties with the United States, most controversially by supporting George W. Bush in the two thousand three invasion of Iraq despite widespread public opposition. That decision cost him politically. The Madrid train bombings of March 11, two thousand four—carried out by Islamist extremists inspired by al-Qaeda—killed 191 people and shook the nation. The government’s initial attempt to blame ETA backfired, fueling a backlash that brought the Socialist Party back to power under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Zapatero’s government, beginning in two thousand four, was socially transformative. It legalized same-sex marriage, expanded women’s rights, pushed forward regional autonomy, and withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq. Yet it also coincided with deepening divides over nationalism, especially in Catalonia, where demands for greater autonomy gained momentum. The two thousand eight global financial crisis hit Spain particularly hard. The collapse of the real estate bubble sent unemployment soaring—especially among youth—and exposed structural weaknesses in the economy. By twenty ten, Spain was a modern European democracy with progressive laws and global integration, but economic dislocation, high joblessness, and rising regional tensions.

The Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero quickly lost credibility as unemployment climbed above 20 percent and the housing crash devastated families. By twenty eleven, the conservative People’s Party (PP) under Mariano Rajoy swept into power, promising stability and fiscal discipline. Rajoy’s government implemented austerity measures, spending cuts, labor reforms, and tax hikes—under pressure from the European Union and financial markets. These policies stabilized public finances but fueled anger across society, especially among young people unable to find work.

Grassroots protest movements, most famously the Indignados who occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol in twenty eleven, signaled a broader disillusionment with the political establishment. Their critique of corruption, inequality, and austerity laid the groundwork for new political actors like Podemos on the left and Ciudadanos in the center, ending Spain’s long-standing two-party dominance.

Meanwhile, the Catalan question escalated into the most serious constitutional crisis since the transition to democracy. Catalonia’s regional government, led by Artur Mas and later Carles Puigdemont, pushed aggressively for independence, citing both cultural identity and economic grievances. Tensions peaked in October twenty seventeen, when the Catalan government staged an independence referendum declared illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court. Rajoy’s decision to deploy police to block the vote, followed by the invocation of Article 155 to suspend Catalan autonomy, polarized the country. Puigdemont fled into exile, and dozens of Catalan leaders faced prosecution.

Throughout this decade, Spain also endured repeated corruption scandals, particularly involving the PP, which eroded trust in mainstream institutions. Yet there were stabilizing notes: the monarchy transitioned smoothly after King Juan Carlos abdicated in twenty fourteen in favor of his son, Felipe VI, who projected a cleaner image. By twenty eighteen, however, Rajoy’s government collapsed after a corruption case brought down his parliamentary support, and Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist Party assumed office through a no-confidence vote heading a minority government.

Sánchez’s government quickly took symbolic steps, including the exhumation of Francisco Franco’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen in twenty nineteen, an act meant to close a lingering wound from the dictatorship. But governing proved difficult. Sánchez struggled to pass budgets, forcing snap elections in April twenty nineteen. That vote weakened the traditional parties further: the nationalist and fascist adjacent Vox surged into parliament, becoming the first openly far-right force to do so since the Franco era. Political paralysis deepened after another election in November twenty nineteen produced no clear majority. Eventually, PSOE formed Spain’s first coalition government since the nineteen thirties, partnering with Unidas Podemos on the left.

Catalonia remained at the center of political contention. Trials of independence leaders in twenty nineteen led to prison sentences, sparking massive protests across Barcelona and Catalonia. Sánchez pursued a strategy of dialogue, offering pardons and negotiations, which drew sharp criticism from the right but defused some tensions.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Spain was among the hardest-hit countries in Europe in twenty twenty, with strict lockdowns and a devastating toll on lives and the economy. The Sánchez government launched emergency relief measures and drew heavily on EU recovery funds, reshaping debates about Spain’s economic model. By twenty twenty-one, the country had begun its vaccination campaign, recovering cautiously, but the pandemic had magnified preexisting fractures: polarized politics, the rise of populist parties, and the ongoing Catalan question.

Post pandemic, Spain’s politics continued to reflect deep polarization but also quite a bit of resilience. The coalition government of Pedro Sánchez—PSOE and Unidas Podemos—faced relentless pressure from the right-wing opposition, led by the People’s Party (PP) under Pablo Casado and, increasingly, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the combative president of Madrid’s regional government. Vox, the far-right party, cemented itself as a permanent fixture in national politics, shaping debates on immigration, feminism, and Spanish unity.

Economically, Spain leaned heavily on the European Union’s massive COVID recovery fund, which directed tens of billions of euros toward green energy, digital transformation, and infrastructure projects. These investments gave Sánchez’s government breathing room and a reform agenda, though implementation remained uneven. Meanwhile, inflation and energy costs, aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty-two, tested households and revived concerns about inequality.

The Catalan issue entered a quieter, though not resolved, phase. Sánchez pardoned jailed independence leaders in twenty twenty-one, framing it as reconciliation, a move denounced by the PP and Vox as a betrayal. Negotiations between Madrid and Barcelona continued in fits and starts, but the sense of urgency receded compared to twenty seventeen–twenty nineteen.

Social reforms remained central. The government advanced progressive measures, including a landmark labor reform that strengthened collective bargaining, a “Trans Law” expanding rights for transgender people, and an ambitious climate agenda. Yet coalition tensions between PSOE and Podemos often flared, particularly as Podemos’ influence waned and its successor movement, Sumar, began to emerge.

By mid-twenty twenty-three, Sánchez shocked observers by calling snap elections after PSOE underperformed in local and regional contests. The July twenty twenty-three general election delivered a fragmented outcome: the PP won a plurality, but not enough to govern, since Vox’s support was insufficient to form a stable majority. Sánchez, against expectations, maneuvered to stay in power by negotiating deals with Catalan and Basque nationalist parties, trading amnesties and concessions for parliamentary support—moves that kept him in office but intensified Spain’s partisan divide.

Internationally, Spain has sought to maintain a high profile. It held the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the second half of twenty twenty-three, where Sánchez emphasized climate policy, Ukraine and Palestine support, and EU enlargement. Domestically, however, foreign policy achievements have done little to mute the anger over Catalonia and the amnesty law, which continues to dominate political debate and has emboldened the right-wing opposition.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Want to discuss Spanish History? Join us on Google Meet on Tuesday the 30th of September at 5pm Spain time (11am US Eastern time). We’ll share ideas, exchange opinions. Check out the link in the show notes and schedule the call!

¡Hasta la próxima!

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Rorshok Spain Update