Castile's name is generally thought to mean "land of castles" (castle in Spanish iscastillo), in reference to the castles built in the area to consolidate the ChristianReconquest from theMoors.[2]
Originally an eastern county of thekingdom of León, in the 11th century, Castile became an independent realm with its capital atBurgos. The County of Castile, which originally included most ofBurgos and parts ofVizcaya,Álava,Cantabria andLa Rioja,[3] became the leading force in the northern Christian states' 800-yearReconquista ("reconquest") of central and southern Spain from theMoorish rulers who haddominated most of the peninsula since the early 8th century.
The capture ofToledo in 1085 addedNew Castile to the crown's territories, and thebattle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) heralded the Moors' loss of most of southern Spain. The kingdom of León was integrated in the Crown of Castile in 1230, and the following decades saw the capture ofCórdoba (1236),Murcia (1243) andSeville (1248). By theTreaty of Alcaçovas with Portugal on March 6, 1460, the ownership of theCanary Islands was transferred to Castile.
The dynastic union of Castile andAragon in 1469, whenFerdinand II of Aragon wedIsabella I of Castile, would eventually lead to the formal creation of Spain as a single entity in 1516 when their grandsonCharles V assumed both thrones. SeeList of Spanish monarchs andKings of Spain family tree. The Muslim Kingdom of Granada (roughly encompassing the modern day provinces of Granada, Malaga and Almeria) was conquered in 1492, formally passing to the Crown of Castile in that year.
Since it lacks official recognition, Castile does not have clearly defined borders. Historically, the area consisted of theKingdom of Castile. After the kingdom merged with its neighbours to become theCrown of Castile and later theKingdom of Spain, when it united with theCrown of Aragon and theKingdom of Navarre, the definition of what constitutedCastile gradually began to change. Its historical capital wasBurgos. In modern Spain, it is generally considered[by whom?] to compriseCastile and León andCastile–La Mancha, withMadrid as its centre. West Castile and León,Albacete,Cantabria andLa Rioja are sometimes included in the definition[by whom?] (controversial for historical, political, and cultural reasons[which?]).
Since 1982 there have been two nominally Castilianautonomous communities in Spain, incorporating thetoponym in their own official names:Castile and Leon andCastile-La Mancha. A third, theCommunity of Madrid is also regarded as part of Castile,[according to whom?] by dint of its geographic enclosure within the entity and, above all, by the statements of its Statute of Autonomy, since its autonomic process originated in national interest and not in popular disaffection with Castile.[improper synthesis?][4]
Other territories in the formerCrown of Castile are left out for different reasons.[which?] The territory of the Castilian Crown actually comprised all other autonomous communities within Spain with the exception ofAragon,Balearic Islands,Valencia andCatalonia, all belonging to the former Crown of Aragon, andNavarre, offshoot of the older Kingdom of the same name. Castile was divided[when?] between Old Castile in the north, so called because it was where the Kingdom of Castile was founded, and New Castile, called the Kingdom of Toledo in the Middle Ages. The Leonese region, part of the Crown of Castile from 1230, was from medieval times considered a region in its own right[clarification needed] on a par with the two Castiles, and appeared on maps alongside Old Castile until the two joined as one region -Castile and Leon - in the 1980s. In 1833, Spain was further subdivided into administrativeprovinces.
The language of Castile emerged[how?] as the primary language of Spain—known to many of its speakers ascastellano and in English sometimes as Castilian, but generally as Spanish. SeeNames given to the Spanish language.Historically, theCastilian Kingdom andpeople were considered[by whom?] to be the main architects of the Spanish State by a process of expansion to the South against theMoors and of marriages, wars, assimilation, and annexation of their smaller Eastern and Western neighbours. From the advent of the Bourbon Monarchy following theWar of the Spanish Succession until the arrival of parliamentary democracy in 1977, the Castilian language was the only one with official status in the Spanish state.
Federal states proposed in the 1st Spanish Republic according to Constitution in 1873. There is an Old and New Castile.
Autonomous communities that use "Castile" in their names (since the 1980s), plus the community of Madrid. The Leonese region joined with Old Castile, Albacete region joined with New Castile, while Cantabria, La Rioja and Madrid became administrative regions of their own.
^Moreno Hernández, Carlos (6 February 2009).En torno a Castilla [About Castile] (in Spanish).Lulu.com. p. 9.ISBN9781409259923.[...] el nombre de Castilla figura como primer título real, por lote de primogenitura, desde Fernando I a Fernando III, lo que origina que pase a designar, por sinécdoque -la parte por el todo- al reino que incluye primero León y luego Toledo y la baja Andalucía. Castilla será siempre, a partir de entonces, o bien el nombre que designa al más grande, rico y poblado de los reinos cristianos peninsulares –los otros son Portugal, Navarra y Aragón- o bien un territorio impreciso, sin fronteras fijas en los mapas, -o con fronteras distintas según el cartógrafo y la época- con una Castilla 'vieja' que puede incluir o no a León y una Castilla 'nueva' y 'novísima' que puede incluir o no unas u otras partes de La Mancha, de Murcia, de Extremadura o de Andalucía. En el siglo XIX, por medio de la extensión de la alfabetización y la enseñanza de la Historia de España en las escuelas, se difundirá una imagen de Castilla y de lo castellano al servicio del centralismo unificador ensayado desde el siglo XVIII por los Borbones que siguen reinando, el que conviene también ahora al nuevo sistema liberal moderado que sigue el modelo francés, aunque rebajado. [...] En paralelo, Castilla va a reinventarse desde las nuevas disciplinas de la Geografía, la Historia y la Lingüística de entonces como ese lugar central, identificado ahora con la meseta o mesetas, que es preciso regenerar, el gran desierto empobrecido sin árboles ni agua alrededor de Madrid, centro y cima de un espacio elevado desde el que se ejerce el poder como núcleo que ha sido y es de la cultura y la lengua española.
^"En efecto, la negativa de las provincias castellano-manchegas a la integración de Madrid en su región, su falta de entidad regional histórica, su existencia como Área Metropolitana y, el ser la Villa de Madrid la capital del Estado significaron que la provincia madrileña partiese de cero en el camino de su autonomía, sin trámites intermedios, sin régimen preautonómico". "La falta de entidad regional histórica de Madrid, hizo preciso acudir a la vía del artículo 144, apartado a) de la Norma Fundamental: "Las Cortes Generales, mediante ley orgánica, podrán por motivos de interés nacional: a)Autorizar la constitución de una Comunidad Autónoma cuando su ámbito territorial no supere el de una provincia y no reúna las condiciones del apartado 1 del artículo 143."Blanca Cid. Directora de Gestión Parlamentaria de la Asamblea de la Comunidad de Madrid. (2003)."Sinopsis del Estatuto de la Comunidad de Madrid" (in Spanish). Archived fromthe original on 2009-12-11. Retrieved2009-12-26.
.jpg)
