Andalucia - A Little History

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History tells us that the area around Seville, Huelva and Cadiz was occupied between 1000 to 600 BC by the Tartessos people, a prosperous civilisation who traded with Eastern Mediterranean countries.

Little is known as to the disappearance of this people group, but its likely that this is the area known as Tarshish in the Old Testament.

Around the 3rd century Christianity reached Spain and under the Christian Visigoths remained, until 711 when it was invaded by the Muslims.

In 756 Prince Abd ar-Rahman I proclaimed the independent emirate of al-Andalus in Cordoba.

They conquered the majority of Cordoba, Jaen, Sevilla and Granada and held their reign until 13th century in Cordoba and Sevilla when the Catholic Kings Fernando III or El Santo and Isabella reduced the Moorish kingdom to Granada.

The Giralda minaret was finished in Sevilla in 1198. In 1212 the Muslims were defeated in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in Jaen province.

Ferdinand III of Castile conquered Cordoba in 1236 and the Muslim rule was reducing steadily.

The building of the Alhambra Fortress and Palace began in 1238 and Ferdinand III began to dominate the Guadalquivir valley.

Jaen was reclaimed by the Christian kings in 1246 and Ferdinand III took Sevilla in 1248.

In 1314 work began on the Generalife, the summer palace, in the Alhambra.

The Christian kings advanced taking Alcala la Real and Antequera by 1410, Archidona followed in 1462.

1482 saw the final thrust of the reconquista with a slow edge towards the Alhambra and finally in 1491 the last Muslim king surrender and with it the end of the Nasrid kingdom.

Then in 1492 The Alhambra Palace and the kingdom of Granada alonmg with great wealth were handed over to Isabella and Ferdinand. It was this wealth that enabled the Catholic Kings to finance Columbus' voyages and his discovery of the Americas.

In 1500 the remaining Muslims revolt and are ordered to convert to Christianity or leave Spain.

The reign of Carlos I between 1517-1598 saw most of the new wealth from the America's being absorbed by skirmishes, he also ruled over the Low Countires and much of Central Europe.

Between 1609 and 1614 the converted Muslims or moriscos were expelled.

The 17th century saw dwindling shipments of silver and the country began to slip into decline. Spain lost Portugal, Gibraltar and Menorca.

Spanish sea power was defeated in 1805 by Britain at Trafalgar and Napoleonic troops begin to gain much of Spain.

1808-13 saw the Spanish War of Independance or Peninsular War, when the French were driven out with help from Britain and Portugal.

1813-25 Most of the American colonies won their independance.

1898 The Spanish-American War saw the loss of their last overseas territories.

1936-39 Spanish Civil War with the loss of 350,000 lives.

1939-75 General Franco in power, an estimated 100,00 people were killed or poisoned. Along a UN-sponsored trade boycott the late 1940's became known as the years of hunger.