HISTORY: Humans reached the territory of modern Spain 1.2 million years ago.

Over
the next millennia the territory was place of settlement Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians,
Carthaginians, Greeks and around 200 a. C. Peninsula became part of the Roman
Empire, constituting the Roman Hispania. After the fall of Rome, the Visigoth kingdom
was established. Such monarchy began in the V century and lasted until the early
eighth century. In 711 there was the first Muslim conquest and in a few years Islam
dominated much of the Iberian peninsula for the next 750 years, this kingdom which
became known as al-Andalus.
Then, the Christian kingdoms gradually seized the territory to the Muslims that
culminated in the conquest of Granada in 1492. During this period the Christian
kingdoms developed remarkably until the most important kingdoms of Castile and
Aragon were united through marriage of Kings Catholic, Isabel I of Castile and
Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1469 uniting all Spain. In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs
financed the project navigator Christopher Columbus in search of a new trade route to
Asia via the Atlantic Ocean .. The arrival in the New World and the subsequent
conquest of America forged the creation of the Spanish Empire. During the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries would take place also the period of greatest height of
Hispanic culture and arts known as the Golden Age, highlighting Don Miguel de
Cervantes Saavedra.

With the death of Charles II in 1700, the house of Austria died to make way for the
Bourbons after the War of Succession. The First French Empire of Napoleon
Bonaparte invades the Peninsula; to be expelled in 1814. After Spain suffered the
Spanish American wars of independence. Between 1873 and 1874 took place the First
Republic. The advent of the Industrial Revolution and Canova end of the century raised
the standard of living of a middle class began to consolidate in the main urban centers.

In April 1931 the Second Republic was proclaimed, King Alfonso XIII leaving the
country in order to avoid a civil war that would come in 1936. The Spanish Civil War
saldara in 1939 with the victory of Franco's side. Spain was officially neutral during
World War II; After the war, he followed a period of strong economic growth and a
certain openness during the decades of the 60s and 70s.

After the death of Franco in 1975, the traditional Spanish monarchy was recovered in
the King Juan Carlos I. Spain entered the European, current EU Economic Community
in 1986, organizing major international events like the 1982 FIFA World Cup or the
Olympics 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and in 2002 adopted the euro as its official
currency.