Timeline of Spanish History Trivia Quiz

The lands which became modern Spain were inhabited in ancient times by the Iberians on the eastern coast, Celtic tribes in the center and northwest, the Lusitanians in the west, and the Tartessians in the southwest. In the 9th or possibly 8th centuries BCE, the Phoenicians established trading colonies in the southern part of the peninsula, while the Greeks founded settlements on the Mediterranean coast.

About 220 BCE, the Romans began annexing parts of the Iberian Peninsula as the province of Hispania. The Carthaginian colonies in the south were taken in 206 BCE during the Second Punic War. Roman control was gradually extended over the entire peninsula, a process which was completed in 19 CE.

Barbarian Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals, Suebi, and Alans, began conquering the Iberian Peninsula in the early 4th century CE. The Visigoths, allies of the Romans, invaded the region and established their kingdom by 418 CE. The kingdom became fully independent on the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 CE.

This entity remained in power until the Moors invaded in the 8th century CE.

Entering the Iberian Peninsula in 711 in order to intervene in a civil war among the Visigoths, Arabic Berber soldiers won a decisive victory and began to conquer the whole of the region, coming to dominate most of the peninsula by 718. Only a section in the northwest, later known as the Kingdom of Asturias, remained unconquered.

The Moors, as the Berber armies were known, consolidated their hold on the region by 721.

In 739, a revolt in Moorish-controlled Galicia broke out. The rebels were assisted by the Kingdom of Asturias, and when they had driven the Moors out they joined Asturias. This event is marked by some historians as the beginning of the "Reconquista", in which the Christians gradually drove the Muslims from Spain and Portugal by 1492.

By 1469, the most important Christian kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula were Aragon, Castile, and Portugal. In that year, Isabella, sister of King Henry of Castile, wed King Ferdinand of Aragon, and she became Queen of Castile upon Henry's death in 1474.

While Castile and Aragon remained separate kingdoms, their combined strength enabled them to complete the conquest of the last Muslim territories and was the beginning of the modern nation of Spain.

A 1492 Spanish expedition, led by Italian sailor Christopher Columbus, discovered lands in the Americas which were previously unknown to Europeans and the Spanish began colonizing the area in 1493. This was the beginning of the great Spanish Empire.

After a long alliance with England based on the marriages of Catherine of Aragon to first Prince Arthur and then Prince Henry, and the marriage of King Philip II to Henry's daughter Mary I, Spain and Elizabethan England were at war by 1585. In 1588, the Spanish sent a fleet of 137 ships carrying over 50,000 troops to invade the country, but a larger English fleet of 197 ships intercepted and defeated the Spanish in several actions.

Among the possessions of 16th century Habsburg Spain were the Spanish Netherlands, consisting of modern day Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as The Netherlands. A Protestant revolt against Catholic Spain began in 1568 and continued, with several periods of truce, until the Dutch gained full independence in 1648. Spain retained Belgium and Luxembourg until 1714, when they became the Austrian Netherlands.

Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, died in 1700. He was succeeded by Philip V, a French duke and grandson of King Louis XIV. Philip's succession was opposed by Archduke Charles of Austria, leading to the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701-1714. France and Spain fought against Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, and the Dutch Republic, with the result that Philip kept his crown, but lost Gibraltar to the British and the Spanish Netherlands and Savoy to the Austrians and had to renounce any claim to the French throne.

Spain entered the Seven Year's War (1756-1763) in 1762 on the side of France. The Spanish were defeated in Portugal and lost the territory of Florida to the British. France then ceded Louisiana to the Spanish in compensation. Spain supported the American colonies during the Revolutionary War, regaining Florida in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Louisiana was returned to the French in 1801 before being sold to the United States in 1803.

Spain was an ally of the French, and that alliance remained in force throughout the French Revolution. Spain at first opposed Napoleon, but early defeats led to a re-alignment with the French, which cost Spain most of her navy. French troops invaded the country in 1808, and Napoleon installed his brother Joseph as King.

The Spanish people revolted, and, with help from the British, tied down a sizable amount of French troops in the Peninsular War. The French were finally driven out in 1814.

Spanish colonies in the Americas were basically left to their own devices during the Napoleonic Wars, with the result that they began to have a sense of nationhood and a desire for independence grew. The first uprisings began while Spain was occupied by the French in 1808.

After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, Spanish troops tried to put down rebellions in their South American colonies, but they were defeated and Spain lost all of her American colonies but Cuba and Puerto Rico by 1825.

Fanned by the "yellow journalism" of several leading newspapers of the time, the United States began to consider intervention in the Cuban revolt against Spain. The sinking of the battleship "USS Maine" in Havana harbor in February 1898, was blamed on the Spanish and used as a pretext for war. American troops and ships defeated Spanish forces in Cuba and the Philippines, and after the war ended in August, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the USA and a protectorate was established in Cuba.

Spain had been torn by political turmoil since the 1870s. In 1931, King Alfonso XIII fled the country and a republic was proclaimed. While the new government was popular among most segments of society, it was opposed by the military and the Catholic Church.

After a series of attempted coups and violence between the left and right, another military coup in July, 1936, led to civil war, in which the left wing Republicans fought against the right wing Nationalists. The Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, were assisted by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while Soviet Russia aided the Republicans.

After a bitter struggle, Franco's forces won, leading to a Fascist dictatorship that ended with Franco's death in 1975.