including headings Cave-dwellers, Neolithic villages, Arrival of the Celts, Spain and the Roman empire, Visigoths, ...
including headings Saul of Tarsus, The first missionary, The first epistle, The appeal to Caesar, An unknown end, ...
including headings The Arab Spring, ...
including headings New European empires, Spaniards in a new world, Panama, A glimpse of Aztec gold, Arrival of Cortes, ...
including headings Spain's distant cousins, Partition treaties and wills, Europe takes sides, Fortunes of war, Peace proposals, ...
including headings The art of our species, Cave paintings, The Egyptian style, Minoan art, The Greek classical ideal, ...
In October 1807 Napoleon decides that the only certain method of securing the Continental System is a French occupation of Portugal. He despatches an army for the purpose and summons Spanish envoys to Fontainebleau.<...
During the years when Philip II plots secretly against Elizabeth, a more public clash of interests is steadily pushing Spain into a position of open hostility. After Elizabeth's appropriation of Spanish gold on its way t...
Relations between Spain and Portugal are peaceful for most of the 16th century. Each has its own half of the world to exploit, with the dividing line of Tordesillas accepted on both sides. A similar division in the Pacif...
From early in the colonial period Mexico is a cornerstone of the Spanish empire. Royal officials are sent out in 1523 to rule what Cortes has conquered, and the area is given in 1535 the status of a viceroyalty under the...
The process by which Morocco drifts into the colonial care of France (and of Spain, in the northern regions) provides a notable example of how the European powers jockey for position in Africa.In 1900 France and...
The bitter fighting of 1572-3 is the prelude to a prolonged war between the northern provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish monarchy. The struggle becomes part of wider European wars, and is not finally concluded u...
The first book on the game of draughts, or checkers, is written in 1547 by Antonio Torquemada. The game is no doubt at this time already ancient, but it is more sophisticated than the very earliest board games, differing...
The short journey across the water from Africa, bringing an army into Spain in 711, begins the final thrust of Arab expansionism in the west. In a frequently repeated pattern of history the invaders, invited to assist on...
The defeat of the Arabs in 732 by Charles Martel in Gaul is followed by Berber rebellions in north Africa and in Spain. The effect is to limit Arab territorial ambitions in Europe to the Iberian peninsula. Even this prov...
