|  Spain's
history was shaped by many forces. Celts, Romans, Phoenicians,
Carthaginians and Germanic tribes all had a part in influencing
the people of Spain.
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth
century, Spain was held by a barbaric white tribe, the Visigoths.
Though they were Christians, their brand of Christianity was cruel
and unjust. For this reason, Spain's Jews, serfs, and slaves aided
the Islamic conquerors called Moors, that crossed the Straits
of Gibraltar in the early 700's and took over Spain. The Moors
ruled the area of Andalucia for more than seven hundred years
and were perhaps the greatest influence on artistic and intellectual
strength in Spain. Despite periods of instability, Andalucia flourished
as a center of learning, trade and culture characterized a blend
between the Christian and Arab worlds.
After a struggle with Christian forces, the
Moors were finally shut out in 1492. Most of the Reconquests had
been done by the mid-13th century and Spaniards slowly continued
to take back the land. The Spanish church was a unifying factor.
The Spanish were very devout Christians, who believed that they
had the duty to convert others to the faith, by persuasion or
force.
The same year that Columbus crossed the Atlantic
under the Spanish flag and revealed the New World to Europe. The
following century saw the culmination of Spain's power and influence
on a world scale. The spanish army was formidable and had a tradition
of victory. For 150 years, no Spanish army was defeated in a pitched
battle. Spanish kings controlled all or parts of what are now
Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy and France and was a great power
in Europe for a long time.
In addition to focusing their attention far abroad, imperial
ambitions brought on excess that eventually slowed the strength
of Spain. By the late 1800s, the country nearly lost all of its
colonial possessions.
The 20th century began with an economic disaster
as its traditional culture clashed with modern political and social
forces. The culminating turmoil snapped in 1936 at the start of
the horrific Spanish Civil war. Fascist dictator, General Francisco
Franco, with the help of Hitler and Mussolini, emerged victorious
from the civil war and ruled until Franco died in 1975. Spain
was taken over by King Juan Carlos I, who soon led Spain toward
democracy. As a fruit of its new freedoms, the country celebrated
a cultural renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s, and in 1992 hosted
both the Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the Expo '92 in Sevilla.
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