25,000 to 10,000 B.C.: The cave paintings of Pinal, Pena de Candamo, El Pendal, Pasiega, Ribadesella and Altamira express the existence of a fine culture in the Magdalenian period.

1,100 B.C.: The Phoenicians found Gadir or Gades (Cadiz), Baria Adra, Almunecar and Malaga.

1,000 B.C.: Civilization of the Tartessians. The Celts begin to arrive from across the Pyrenees.

7th century B.C.: The Greeks found Hemeroscopion and Manake.

6th century B.C.: Emporio (Ampurias) and Rhodaes (Rosas) founded.

237 B.C.: Hamilcar takes the S. and SE. and founds Akra Leuke (Alicante). Hasdrubal founds Cartago Nova (Cartagena)

218 to 201 B.C.: Hannibal takes Saguntum (Punic War). The Carthaginians invade Italy. Scipio lands in Spain and defeats Hasdrubal in Tarraco (Tarragona), Illipa (Alcala del Rio) and Gadir. Rome annexes the country and divides it into two provinces: Hispanis Citerior and Hispania Ulterior.

The Roman presence in the Peninsula followed the route of the Greek commercial bases; however, it commenced with a struggle between this great empire and Carthage for the control of the western Mediterranean during the second century B.C. In any case, it was at that time that the Peninsula would enter as an entity in the international political circuit then in existence, and from then on became a coveted strategic objective due to its singular geographic position between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and to the agricultural and mineral wealth of its southern part.

The penetration and the subsequent Roman conquest of the Peninsula covered the prolonged period streching from 218 to 19 B.C. Significant dates of that period are:

209 B.C.: Decline of Hannibal's army in Italy and beginning of the great Roman conquest of Spain. Rome annexes the country and divides it into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior.

143 to 139 B.C.: Viriatus and the Lusitanians fight the Roman legions.

133 B.C.: The inhabitants of Numantia prefer to die in the flames of their city rather than surrender to Scipio Aemilianus.

27 B.C.: The Romans pacify the Peninsula once and for all and divide it into three provinces: Tarraconense, Baetica and Lusitania. The Roman presence in Hispania lasted for seven centuries during which the basic frontiers of the Peninsula in relation to other European countries were shaped. However the Romans did not only bequeath a territorial administration, but also left a legacy of social and cultural characters such as the family, language, religion, law and municipal government, the assimilation of which definitively placed the Peninsula within the Greco-Latin and later the Judeo-Christian worlds.

98 A.D.: Beginning of rule of Trajan, the first Roman emperor of Spanish origin.

264 A.D.: Franks and suevi invade the country and temporarily occupy Tarragona.

411 A.D.: The Barbarian tribes sign an alliance with Rome, which enables them to establish military colonies within the Empire.

568-586.: The Visigoth king Leovigild expels the imperial civil servants and attempts to unify the Peninsula. The end of the Roman empire in Spain.

Visigothic Kingdom

By the 5th century A.D., the Visigoths were already a romanized poeple who considered themselves the heirs of the defunct imperial power. Around the middle of this century, the threefold prossures of the Suevi, from the west (Galicia), the Cantabrian-Pyrenaic herdsmen from the north and the Byzantines from the south, the Betica, forced them to establish their capital in Toledo, in the centre of the Peninsula. This decision had implications of great significance; in the first place, because, instead of an east-west delineation of the Peninsula, pivoting between Lisbon and Cartagena, a north-south delineation from Cantabria to the Strait of Gibraltar was created.

In the second place, it was significant because it constituted a first attempt at Peninsular unity idependent of the rest of the empire, and therefore the Visigoths have been considered, practically to up to the present day, the creators of the first Peninsular kingdom, Moreover the Visigothic kingdom would serve, time and again, as the source of legitimacy for any power which tried to unite Hispania; and thirdly, because the Pyrenees and Gibraltar, no longer considered mere places of passage or points within a larger imperial circuit, became the limits or frontiers of a state to be defended.

The Visigoths defended themselves well against the Suevi in Galicia and subdued them in the 6th century A.D.; however, in the north, the Basques, Cantabrians and Asturians were more successful in resisting the Visigoth onslaught than they had been in resisting the Romans, and were almost as adept as they would be against the Moors. The Betica, from the 6th to the 11th century A.D., constituted an exception within western Europe. Facinf a continental Europe which was increasingly closed and fragmented, it would maintain its urban culture and its commercial and cultural connections within the Mediterranean domain; firstly, with the eastern Roman Empire, with Byzantium and later with the Muslim Caliphate.

Significant dates of this period are:

587: Recared, Leovigild's heir, is converted to Catholicism and removes the barriers between Goths and the Hispano-Romans.

633: The 4th. Synod of Toledo takes on the right to confirm elected kings. The Jews are obliged to be baptized. The vernacular language, of Latin origin, prevails over that of the Visigoths.

711: The Muslim troops cross the Strait of Gibraltar and defeat the Visigoth king Rodrigo at the battle of Guadalete.

712: Muza ben-Nosair completes the Muslim conquest. End of Visigothic period.