Iberia

The Iberian Peninsula because of its close proximity to Africa, has been inhabited for at least 1,000,000 years. At about 45,000 B.C. the Khoisan type African “Grimaldi,” became the first “Modern Man” to enter Europe; as he crossed the Gibraltar straits and started his journey across Europe. (Europe and Africa are NOW separated by 7.7 nautical miles - during glacial periods it was much less).

During the Neolithic expansion, various megalithic cultures developed in Iberia. An open seas navigation culture from the east Mediterranean, probably from Crete, called the Cardium culture, also extended its influence to the eastern coasts of Iberia, possibly as early as the 5th millennium B.C.

In the Chalcolithic or Copper Age (c. 3000 B.C. in Iberia) a series of complex cultures developed, which would give rise to the first civilizations in Iberia and to extensive exchange networks reaching to the Baltic, the Middle East and North Africa. At about 2150 B.C. the Bell Beaker culture intruded into Chalcolithic Iberia, being of Celtic origin.

Around 1100 B.C. Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 8th century B.C. the first Whites arrived, the Greeks established colonies such as Emporion (modern Empúries), these were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (Ebro). In the 6th century B.C. the Phoenician Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).

In 219 B.C. the first Roman troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula, this during the Second Punic war against the Carthaginians. After two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes, and also the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies, Rome annexed it under Augustus, resulting in the creation of the province of Hispania. It was divided into Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic, and during the Roman Empire, it was divided into Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the southwest.

In the early 5th century A.D. new Whites invaded, these were Germanic tribes from Eastern Europe, namely the Suevi, the Vandals (Silingi and Hasdingi) and their allies, the Sarmatian Alans. Only the kingdom of the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni) would endure after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders - The Visigoths; who had earlier established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse France. They slowly extended their authority into Hispania, displacing the Vandals and Alans. The Visigoths, subsequently conquered all of the Iberian peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually conquered the Suevi kingdom and its capital city Bracara (modern day Braga) in 584-585 A.D. They would also conquer the province of the Byzantine Empire Spania, in the south of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands.