Iberian, Basque and Celtic cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania. In the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes (Vandals and Visigoths) and later by the Moorish Muslims from North Africa.
Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th century, following the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs from the Christian States that had not fallen to the Moors, and the completion of the centuries-long re-conquest, or Reconquista, of the peninsula from the Moors in 1492. The same year that Christopher Columbus “discovered America”.
Spain was Europe’s leading power throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and became the first world power. Through exploration and conquest or royal marriage alliances and inheritance, the Spanish Empire expanded to include vast areas in the Americas, islands in the Asia-Pacific area, parts of Italy, cities in Northern Africa, as well as parts of what are now France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
By the middle of the war and plague ridden 17th century, Spain was dragged ever more deeply into the mire of religiously charged wars. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the economy generally.
In the latter half of the 17th century, Spain went into a gradual decline, during which it surrendered several small territories; however, it maintained and enlarged its vast overseas empire, which remained intact until the beginning of the 19th century.
The decline culminated in a controversy over succession to the throne which consumed the first years of the 18th century. The War of the Spanish Succession was a wide-ranging international conflict combined with a civil war,
In the early nineteenth century The Napoleonic War left Spain economically ruined, deeply divided and politically unstable. By the end of the century Spain had lost all of its vast colonial empire.
Although the period around the turn of the century was one of increasing prosperity, the 20th century brought little peace. In the worsening economic situation of the Great Depression, Spanish politics became increasingly chaotic and violent and culminated in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).
In the 1960s, during Franco’s rule, Spain registered an unprecedented rate of economic growth which was propelled by industrialisation, a mass internal migration from rural areas to cities and the creation of a mass tourism industry.
Spain joined the European Economic Community in 1986 and fully adopted the Euro in 2002. In the early 2000s Spain experienced strong economic growth but had a huge housing bubble and a high foreign trade deficit. The global financial crisis of 2007-08 caused the 2008-15 Great Recession of Spain which included a strong economic downturn, a severe increase in unemployment (up to 27%), and bankruptcies of major companies.
Tough austerity measures, an increase in taxes, radical labour and banking reforms and other measures meant that by 2015 the economy had reversed its negative trend and had started to improve.