Spaniards,[a] orSpanish people, are a people native toSpain. Within Spain, there are a number ofnational and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complexhistory, including a number of different languages, both indigenous and local linguistic descendants of theRoman-imposedLatin language, of whichSpanish is the largest and the only one that is official throughout the whole country.
Commonly spoken regional languages include, most notably, the sole surviving indigenous language ofIberia,Basque, as well as other Latin-descendedRomance languages like Spanish itself,Catalan andGalician. Many populations outside Spain have ancestors whoemigrated from Spain and share elements of a Hispanic culture. The most notable of these compriseHispanic America in the Western Hemisphere.
TheRoman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.Hispania, the name given to Iberia by the Romans as a province of their Empire, underwent a process of linguistic and culturalRomanization, and as such, the majority of local languages in Spain today, with the exception ofBasque, evolved out ofVulgar Latin which was introduced by theancient Romans. At theend of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded theIberian Peninsula and established relatively independent realms in its western provinces, including theSuebi,Alans andVandals. Eventually, theVisigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including theByzantine province of Spania, into theVisigothic Kingdom, which more or less unified politically, ecclesiastically, and legally all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was then documented as Hispania.
In the early eighth century, the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by theUmayyad Islamic Caliphate that arrived to the peninsula in the year 711. TheMuslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula, termedal-Andalus, soon became autonomous from Baghdad. The handful of small Christian pockets in the north left out of Muslim rule, along the presence of theCarolingian Empire near the Pyrenean range, would eventually lead to the emergence of the Christian kingdoms ofLeón,Castile,Aragon,Portugal andNavarre. Along seven centuries, an intermittent southwards expansion of the latter kingdoms (known in historiography as theReconquista) took place, culminating with the Christian seizure of the last Muslim polity (theNasrid Kingdom of Granada) in 1492, the same yearChristopher Columbus arrived in theNew World. During the centuries after the Reconquista, the Christian kings of Spain persecuted and expelled ethnic and religious minorities such asJews andMuslims through theSpanish Inquisition.[37]
A process of political conglomeration among the Christian kingdoms also ensued, and the late 15th-century saw the dynastic union of Castile and Aragon under theCatholic Monarchs, generally considered the point of emergence of Spain as a unified country. TheConquest of Navarre occurred in 1512. There was also a period calledIberian Union, thedynastic union of theKingdom of Portugal and theSpanish Crown; during which, both countries were ruled by theSpanish Habsburg kings between 1580 and 1640.
The population of Spain has become more diverse due to immigration of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From 2000 to 2010, Spain had among the highest per capita immigration rates in the world and the second-highest absolute net migration in the world (after theUnited States).[39] The diverse regional and cultural populations mainly include theCastilians,Aragonese,Catalans,Andalusians,Valencians,Balearics,Canarians,Basques and theGalicians among others.
The earliest modern humans inhabiting the region of Spain are believed to have beenPaleolithic peoples, who may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35,000–40,000 years ago. TheIberians are believed to have arrived or emerged in the region as a culture between the4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, settling initially along the Mediterranean coast.[citation needed]
ThenCelts settled in Spain during theIron Age. Some of those tribes in North-central Spain, who had cultural contact with the Iberians, are calledCeltiberians. In addition, a group known as theTartessians and laterTurdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain. They are believed to have developed a separate culture influenced byPhoenicia. The seafaringPhoenicians,[40]Greeks, andCarthaginians successively settled trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries. Interaction took place with Indigenous peoples. TheSecond Punic War between the Carthaginians andRomans was fought mainly in what is now Spain and Portugal.[41]
TheGermanicVandals andSuebi, withIranianAlans under KingRespendial, arrived in the peninsula in 409 AD. Part of the Vandals with the remaining Alans, now underGeiseric, removed to North Africa after a few conflicts with another Germanic tribe, theVisigoths. The latter were established inToulouse and supported Roman campaigns against the Vandals and Alans in 415–19 AD.
The Visigoths became the dominant power in Iberia and reigned for three centuries. They were highlyromanized in the eastern Empire and already Christians, so they became fully integrated into the late Iberian-Roman culture.
TheSuebi were another Germanic tribe in the west of the peninsula; some sources said that they became established asfederates of the Roman Empire in the old Northwestern Roman province ofGallaecia (roughly, present-daynorthern Portugal andGalicia). But they were largely independent and raided neighboring provinces to expand their political control over ever-larger portions of the southwest after the Vandals and Alans left. They created a totally independentSuebic Kingdom. In 447 AC they converted to Roman Catholicism under KingRechila.
After being checked and reduced in 456 AD by the Visigoths, the Suebic Kingdom survived to 585 AD. It was decimated as an independent political unit by the Visigoths, after having been involved in the internal affairs of their kingdom.
Muslim Iberia became part of the Umayyad Caliphate and would be known asAl-Andalus. The Berbers of Al Andalus revolted as early as 740 AD, halting Arab expansion across thePyrenee Mountains into France. Upon the collapse of theUmayyad inDamascus, Spain was seized byYusuf al Fihri. The exiled Umayyad PrinceAbd al-Rahman I next seized power, establishing himself as Emir ofCordoba.Abd al Rahman III, his grandson, proclaimed aCaliphate in 929, marking the beginning of the Golden Age of Al Andalus. This policy was the effective power of the peninsula and Western North Africa; it competed with theShiite rulers ofTunis and frequently raided the small Christian kingdoms in the North.
TheCaliphate of Córdoba effectively collapsed during a ruinous civil war between 1009 and 1013; it was not finally abolished until 1031, when al-Andalus broke up into a number of mostly independent mini-states and principalities calledtaifas. These were generally too weak to defend themselves against repeated raids and demands for tribute from the Christian states to the north and west, which were known to the Muslims as "the Galician nations". These had expanded from their initial strongholds in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque country, and the Carolingian Marca Hispanica to become the Kingdoms of Navarre, León, Portugal, Castile and Aragon, and the County of Barcelona. Eventually they began to conquer territory, and the Taifa kings asked for help from the Almoravids, Muslim Berber rulers of theMaghreb. But theAlmoravids went on to conquer and annex all the Taifa kingdoms.
In 1086 the Almoravid ruler of Morocco,Yusuf ibn Tashfin, was invited by the Muslim princes in Iberia to defend them againstAlfonso VI, King of Castile and León. In that year, Tashfin crossed the straits to Algeciras and inflicted defeat on the Christian army at theBattle of Sagrajas. By 1094, Yusuf ibn Tashfin had removed all Muslim princes in Iberia and had annexed their states, except for the one at Zaragoza. He also regainedValencia from the Christians. About this time a massive process of conversion toIslam took place, and Muslims comprised the majority of the population in Spain by the end of the 11th century.
The Almoravids were succeeded by theAlmohads, anotherBerber dynasty, after the victory of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur over the Castilian Alfonso VIII at theBattle of Alarcos in 1195. In 1212 a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of the Castilian Alfonso VIII defeated the Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. But the Almohads continued to rule Al-Andalus for another decade, though with much reduced power and prestige. The civil wars following the death of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf II rapidly led to the re-establishment of taifas. The taifas, newly independent but weakened, were quickly conquered by the kingdoms of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. After the fall of Murcia (1243) and the Algarve (1249), only theEmirate of Granada survived as a Muslim state, tributary of Castile until 1492.
Iberian Kingdoms in 1400
In 1469 the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile signaled a joining of forces to attack and conquer the Emirate of Granada. The King and Queen convinced thePope to declare their war acrusade. The Christians were successful and finally, in January 1492, after a long siege, the Moorish sultanMuhammad XII surrendered the fortress palace, the renownedAlhambra.
Spainconquered the Canary Islands between 1402 and 1496. Their indigenous Berber population, theGuanches, were gradually absorbed by intermarrying with Spanish settlers.
Spanish conquest of the Iberian part of Navarre was begun by Ferdinand II of Aragon and completed by Charles V. The series of military campaigns extended from 1512 to 1524, while the war lasted until 1528 in the Navarre to the north of the Pyrenees. Between 1568 and 1571, Charles V armies fought and defeated a general insurrection of the Muslims of the mountains of Granada. Charles V then ordered the expulsion of up to 80,000 Granadans from the province and their dispersal throughout Spain.
The union of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon as well as the conquest ofGranada, Navarre and the Canary Islands led to the formation of the Spanish state as known today. This allowed for the development of a Spanish identity based on the Spanish language and a local form of Catholicism. This gradually developed in a territory that remained culturally, linguistically and religiously very diverse.
A majority of Jews were forciblyconverted to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th centuries and those remaining were expelled from Spain in 1492. The open practice of Islam by Spain's sizeableMudejar population was similarly outlawed. Furthermore, between 1609 and 1614, a significant number ofMoriscos— (Muslims who had been baptized Catholic) wereexpelled by royal decree.[42] Although initial estimates of the number of Moriscos expelled such as those of Henri Lapeyre reach 300,000 moriscos (or 4% of the total Spanish population), the extent and severity of the expulsion has been increasingly challenged by modern historians. Nevertheless, the eastern region of Valencia, where ethnic tensions were highest, was particularly affected by the expulsion, suffering economic collapse and depopulation of much of its territory.
Those who avoided expulsion or who managed to return to Spain merged into the dominant culture.[46] The last mass prosecution against Moriscos forcrypto-Islamic practices took place in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. By the end of the 18th century, Indigenous Islam and Morisco identity were considered to have been extinguished in Spain.[47]
Colonialism and emigration
Spanish and Portuguese empires in 1790
In the 16th century, following the military conquest of most of the new continent, perhaps 240,000 Spaniards entered American ports. They were joined by 450,000 in the next century.[48] It is estimated that during the colonial period (1492–1832), a total of 1.86 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era (1850–1950); the estimate is 250,000 in the 16th century, and most during the 18th century as immigration was encouraged by the new Bourbon Dynasty. After the conquest ofMexico andPeru these two regions became the principal destinations of Spanish colonial settlers in the 16th century.[49] In the period 1850–1950, 3.5 million Spanish left forthe Americas, particularlyArgentina,Uruguay,Mexico,[citation needed]Brazil,Chile,Venezuela, andCuba.[50] From 1840 to 1890, as many as 40,000 Canary Islanders emigrated toVenezuela.[51] 94,000 Spaniards chose to go toAlgeria in the last years of the 19th century, and 250,000 Spaniards lived inMorocco at the beginning of the 20th century.[50]
By the end of theSpanish Civil War, some 500,000 Spanish Republicanrefugees had crossedthe border into France.[52] From 1961 to 1974, at the height of theguest worker in Western Europe, about 100,000 Spaniards emigrated each year.[50] The nation has formally apologized to expelled Jews and since 2015 offers the chance for people to reclaim Spanish citizenship. By 2019, over 132,000Sephardic Jewish descendants had reclaimed Spanish citizenship.[53][54]
The population of Spain has become more diverse due to immigration of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From 2000 to 2010, Spain had among the highest per capita immigration rates in the world and the second-highest absolute net migration in the world (after theUnited States).[39] Immigrants now make up about 10% of the population. But Spain's prolonged economic crisis between 2008 and 2015 reduced economic opportunities, and both immigration rates and the total number of foreigners in the country declined. By the end of this period, Spain was becoming a net emigrant country.
Spain is home to one of the largest communities ofRomani people (commonly known by the Englishexonym "gypsies", Spanish:gitanos). The Spanish Roma, which belong to the Iberian Kale subgroup (calé), are a formerly-nomadic community, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa, and Europe, first reaching Spain in the 15th century.
Data on ethnicity is not collected in Spain, although the Government's statistical agency CIS estimated in 2007 that the number ofGitanos present in Spain is probably around one million.[72] Most Spanish Roma live in the autonomous community of Andalusia, where they have traditionally enjoyed a higher degree of integration than in the rest of the country. A number of Spanish Calé also live in Southern France, especially in the region ofPerpignan.
The population of Spain has become increasingly diverse due to recent immigration. From 2000 to 2010, Spain had among the highest per capita immigration rates in the world and the second highest absolute net migration in the World (after theUnited States)[39] and immigrants now make up about 10% of the population. Since 2000, Spain has absorbed more than 3 million immigrants, with thousands more arriving each year.[73] In 2008, the immigrant population topped over 4.5 million.[74] These immigrants came mainly fromEurope,Central America,South America,Asia,North Africa, andWest Africa.[75]
Languages spoken in Spain includeSpanish (castellano orespañol) (74%),Catalan (català, calledvalencià, in theValencian Community) (17%),Galician (galego) (7%), andBasque (euskara) (2%).[76] Other languages with a lower level of official recognition areAsturian (asturianu),Aranese Gascon (aranés),Aragonese (aragonés), andLeonese, each with their own various dialects. Spanish is the official state language, although the other languages are co-official in a number of autonomous communities.
Peninsular Spanish is typically classified in northern and southern dialects; among the southern onesAndalusian Spanish is particularly important. The Canary Islands have adistinct dialect of Spanish which is close toCaribbean Spanish. The Spanish language is aRomance language and is one of the aspects (including laws and general "ways of life") that causes Spaniards to be labelled aRomanic people. Spanish has a significantArabic influence in vocabulary; between the 8th and 12th centuries, Arabic was the dominant language inAl-Andalus[77] and some 4,000 words are of Arabic origin, including nouns, verbs and adjectives.[78] It also has influences from other Romance languages such asFrench,Italian,Catalan,Galician orPortuguese. Traditionally, theBasque language has been considered a key influence on Spanish, though nowadays this is questioned. Other changes are borrowings from English and other Germanic languages, although English influence is stronger in the Americas than in Spain.
The number of speakers ofSpanish as a mother tongue is roughly 35.6 million, while the vast majority of other groups in Spain such as theGalicians,Catalans, andBasques also speak Spanish as a first or second language, which boosts the number of Spanish speakers to the overwhelming majority of Spain's population of 46 million.
Spanish was exported to the Americas due to over three centuries of Spanish colonial rule starting with the arrival ofChristopher Columbus toSanto Domingo in 1492. Spanish is spoken natively by over 400 million people and spans across most countries of the Americas; from the Southwestern United States in North America down toTierra del Fuego, the southernmost region of South America inChile andArgentina. A variety of the language, known asJudaeo-Spanish or Ladino (orHaketia in Morocco), is still spoken by descendants of Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews) who fled Spain following adecree of expulsion of practising Jews in 1492. Also, a Spanishcreole language known asChabacano, which developed by the mixing of Spanish and nativeTagalog andCebuano languages during Spain's rule of the country throughMexico from 1565 to 1898, is spoken in thePhilippines (by roughly 1 million people).[79]
Roman Catholicism is by far the largest denomination present inSpain,[80][81] although its share of the population has been decreasing for decades. According to a study by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research in 2013 about 71% of Spaniards self-identified asCatholics, 2% other faith, and about 25% identified as atheists or declared they hadno religion. Survey data for 2019 show Catholics down to 69%, 2.8% "other faith" and 27% atheist-agnostic-non-believers.[76]
Outside of Europe, theAmericas have the largest population of people with ancestors from Spain. These include people offull orpartial Spanish ancestry.
10,017,244 who identify themselves with direct ancestry from Spain.[82] 26,735,713 (53.0%) (8.7% of total U.S. population) Hispanics in the United States who identify as white (sometimes mixed with other European origins) orMestizo via Mexico, Central and South America.
The listing above shows the nine countries with known collected data on people with ancestors from Spain, although the definitions of each of these are somewhat different and the numbers cannot really be compared.Spanish Chilean of Chile andSpanish Uruguayan of Uruguay could be included by percentage (each at above 40%) instead of numeral size.
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