The medieval Spanish community was one of the most successful, both politically, economically and culturally.
In an environment of constant Muslim-Christian wars, the authorities, as a rule, could not afford to oppress the Jews and do without cooperation with them.
But at the time of the creation of a large unified state, the practice of religious persecution was resumed. Muslim rulers squeezed Jews out of their possessions in the 12th century, Christian rulers at the end of the 15th century.
The scientific interests of Jewish scholars in Spain centered on the study of Hebrew, TANAKH and Talmud, as well as the development and enrichment of the style of religious and secular poetry in Hebrew. In the works of Judah ha-Levi, Moshe Ibn Ezra, Yosef Ibn Tzaddik and Shlomo Ibn Gebirol, Jewish-Spanish poetry reaches its perfection. Yehuda ben Shlomo Alharizi transferred the Arabic poetic form of maqam to Jewish literature.
Interest in poetry had a stimulating effect on the development of Hebrew grammar, the most prominent researchers of which, along with Menahem Ibn Saruk and Dunash ben Labrat, were Yehuda ben David Hayudj, developed the concept of the three-letter root of Hebrew verbs, Yona ibn Janah, Moshe ben Shmuel Gikatila (11th century) and Abraham Ibn Ezra. The theories of Jewish grammarians working in the Muslim lands of Spain became known and were accepted by the Jews of Christian countries.
By the end of the 14th century. The situation of the Jews deteriorated sharply: after the death of Juan I of Castile (1390), the throne passed to his young son, who was unable to limit the violent anti-Jewish campaign of Ferrant Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija, who after the death of the archbishop became the de facto head of the diocese. On June 4, 1391, anti-Jewish riots began in Seville, the Jewish quarter was destroyed, many Jews were killed, others were forcibly baptized, many Jewish women and children were sold into slavery to Muslims, synagogues were converted into churches, and the Jewish quarters were settled by Christians.
The unrest spread to Andalusia, with Jews being attacked in Toledo, Madrid, Valencia, Burgos, Cordoba, Gerona and other cities. The royal administration made no attempt to protect the Jews. In July, riots broke out in Aragon and the Aragonese Jewish communities were destroyed.
The pogromists plundered Jewish property and burned debt obligations in the hands of Jews. However, the main motive for the pogroms was religious hostility, and as soon as the Jews accepted Christianity, attacks on them stopped. The remnants of Aragonese Jewry were saved by one of the most authoritative Jewish scientists of his time, the philosopher Hasdai Crescas, who collected a significant sum of money that “convinced” the king to take pity on the Jews, and turned to the Pope for help.
In 1413, on the initiative of Jeronimo de Santa Fe (Jehoshua Lorca), a Jewish-Christian debate was held in Tortosa; The Jewish side was represented, among others, by Zrahiya ben Isaac ha-Levi and Yosef Albo. Jewish scholars were effectively deprived of the opportunity to defend their position. The dispute, as expected, ended in Christian triumph and led to a wave of conversions to Christianity.
At the end of the 14th century. - early 15th century there was a tendency towards the decline of Jewish-Spanish culture, although Spanish Jewry continues to produce outstanding scientists and writers, such as Hasdai Crescas, Joseph Albo, Profiat Duran, Isaac Abohav I, Isaac Abohav II and others.
At the beginning of the 15th century. There were about 30,000 Jewish families in Castile, as well as a very significant number of Marranos, whose situation became increasingly difficult. Christians were distrustful of the Marranos, guessing that many of them were Christians only nominally and secretly continued to observe the precepts of Judaism. In 1449, the Toledo rebels, relying on the decisions of the IV Toledo Church Council, issued a proclamation declaring all converted Jews dishonest and calling ban them from holding any positions in Toledo and its dependent lands.
After the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella (1469), persecution of the Marranos began in the united kingdom of Castile and Aragon. The royal couple saw the new Christians as a threat to the country's national unity. In 1477, she turned to the pope with a request to establish the Inquisition in Spain. The former rulers, fearing the excessive power of the Inquisition, were not interested in extending its activities to Spain.
The first tribunal of the Inquisition was established in 1481 in Seville, where in the same year several Marranos were condemned to be burned. From the autumn of 1483, when the Spanish Inquisition was headed by the queen's confessor Tomas de Torquemada, its activities became unusually cruel, especially in the persecution of the Marranos.
The fall of Granada (1492), the last stronghold of Islam on the Iberian Peninsula, again aggravated the problem of national-religious consolidation of the country, and on March 31, 1492, the edict expelling the Jews from Spain and its possessions, according to which Jews had to leave the country by the end of July. The Edict was based on the version that Jews were seducing Christians into Judaism, and new Christians could not become honest Catholics due to the influence of Jews.
Attempts by court Jews, in particular Isaac Abravanel and Abraham Senior (1412?-1493?), to achieve the repeal of the edict were unsuccessful, and the vast majority of Jews left Spain. The need to quickly liquidate property forced Jews to sell it for next to nothing. Only a few managed to transport their property abroad in time. Communal property was confiscated by the authorities and mostly transferred to municipalities, sometimes used to build churches or monasteries; cemeteries were turned into pastures and gravestones were torn down.
According to historians, the number of exiles reached 200 thousand people- a huge number according to the demographic concepts of that time.
Most of the Jews (about 120 thousand) found temporary shelter in Portugal, where in 1497 they were forcibly baptized. About 50 thousand headed to North Africa. Many took refuge in Turkey, the only major power to allow access to the exiles. A small number resettled in the French county of Navarre or in Avignon and the papal possessions in Italy.
In the second half of the 12th century. first in Spain and then in Egypt, the greatest Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon, Hebrew abbreviation) acted Rambam). The family of Moshe ben Maimon was forced to leave Spain in 1148 due to Almohad persecution. After long wanderings through the cities of North Africa and Eretz Israel, Maimonides settled in Egypt, where he became the court physician and head (nagid) of the Jewish community and held these two posts until his death.
Among Maimonides' major works are the Mishneh Torah (in Hebrew), a systematic code of laws, dogmas and rituals based on the Bible and the Talmud, a commentary on the Mishnah, as well as philosophical writings in Arabic, of which the most significant is The Teacher of the Wavering; Maimonides also compiled hundreds of responsa on halakhic topics, as well as about a dozen medical works written in Arabic.
The works of Maimonides became widespread and, even during his lifetime, were enthusiastically received by the Jews of Spain and the south of France. But along with Maimonides’ admirers, there were also opponents who challenged, first of all, the Aristotelian element of Maimonides’ philosophy.
Erupted at the end of the 12th century. The controversy surrounding the theological and philosophical teachings of Maimonides, the initiator of which should be considered one of the most prominent Talmudists of Castile, Meir ben Todros Abulafia (1170-1244), reached by the beginning of the 14th century. such poignancy that Shlomo Adret was forced to make a number of changes to soften the text herem, proclaimed in 1305 by scientists of France and Spain against those engaged in the study of secular sciences and the philosophy of Maimonides.
After the death of Maimonides, the dispute became even more intense. The Christian Inquisition intervened in the controversy and burned his books. This act made such a depressing impression on the vast majority of Jews that the discussion itself ceased, and many who had previously hesitated took the side of Maimonides, whose activities had a decisive influence on Jewish religious and spiritual creativity and even on the path of Christian theology.
In Christian Spain, the Jewish community became a conduit for Arab cultural influence. The work of Jewish translators played an important role in the inclusion into the cultural life of Western countries of many works by Jewish and Arab philosophers, astronomers, mathematicians, doctors, poets, as well as those monuments of ancient Greek culture that were preserved only in translation into Arabic.
Already in the 11th century. a significant number of Jews and Arabs in Toledo (as well as in Barcelona) were engaged in translating mainly philosophical works into Latin. In the XIII-XIV centuries. translations into Latin were mostly made from Hebrew translations.
During the 13th century. New trends penetrated Spain and southern France. On the one hand, the influence of the Tosafists, who created their own system of studying and interpreting the Talmud in northern France and Germany, increased, and on the other, the rapid spread of a new mystical teaching - Kabbalah - began. The latter began with mystical associations in Provence; Having gradually won a significant number of adherents and gone through several stages of development, Kabbalistic teachings played an important role in the cultural history of the Jewish people and in their social life.
Kabbalah was a continuation and development of the ancient mystical teachings that existed in Jewry. Based on the position that a person can contemplate God through mystical union with Him, Kabbalah attached special importance to the hidden meaning of the names of God and angels and tried to find the key to the secrets of existence and the Divine commandments, in particular, by interpreting the numerical meaning of the words and letters of the Bible.
One of the main representatives of Kabbalistic teaching was Nachmanides (Ramban - Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman; mid-13th century). Supporters of the new mystical movement opposed the religious rationalism that found its most complete embodiment in the writings of Maimonides. Kabbalists accused supporters of Maimonides of treating Greek philosophy with more respect than Talmudic wisdom, wallowing in worldly pleasures, and often neglecting religious precepts. The supporters of Maimonides, for their part, accused their opponents of the fact that their mystical teachings revealed the influence of Christianity and deviations from monotheism; resisting scientific and philosophical comprehension of nature and the Torah, they refuse the only source of religious knowledge.
The further direction of the development of Jewish culture, the education of Jewish youth and the formation of the way of life of Jewish society depended on the outcome of the discussion.
Jews continued to study the sciences, particularly medicine and astronomy. For example, doctors Jonah ben Isaac Ibn Biklarish (late 11th century), the Benvenisti family: Sheshet ben Isaac (1131-1209), Isaac ben Yosef (died probably in 1224) and Shmuel (died in the 60s. XIV century), and the largest Jewish physician of the Middle Ages, Maimonides, as well as astronomers Isaac ben Joseph Israel (first half of the XIV century) and Abraham ben Shmuel Zakuto. Members of prominent Jewish families often received the same education as the Spanish nobility. From the 13th century Franco-German Tosafists began to significantly influence the methods of Talmudic research in Spain.
In the XIII-XIV centuries. Shlomo Ibn Gebirol, Yehuda ha-Levi, Bahya Ibn Paquda and others wrote on religious and philosophical topics. The Gratian (Hen) family, whose members lived mainly in Barcelona, provided Spain with several rabbis and scholars. Its prominent representatives were the physician, philosopher, Hebraist and author of commentaries on the book of the Proverbs of Solomon and on Job, Zrahiya ben Isaac ben Shaltiel (died 1292), Talmudist Shlomo ben Moshe ben Shaltiel (died 1307), who signed with Shlomo Adret and other herem 1305, and the rabbi of the cities of Fraga, Alcala (from 1369), Barcelona (from 1375) Shaltiel ben Shlomo.
In the first half of the 14th century. the work of codifying the Law is again intensified: Yaakov ben Asher's work "Arbaa Turim", published around 1340 and combining Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, served approximately 200 years later as the basis for the comprehensive works "Beit Yosef" and "Shulchan Aruch" r. Yosef Karo. The authors of smaller and less significant works of the time are Shmuel ben Meshullam of Gerona, Yeruham ben Meshullam of Toledo (first half of the 14th century), David ben Yosef Abudarham of Seville (14th century), and Menahem ben Aharon Ibn Zerah of Navarre (born , apparently in 1310 - died in 1385).
The Kingdom of Portugal arose in the 12th century in territory where Jews had lived since Roman times. Before the formation of the united kingdom of Castile and Aragon in the 15th century, Portugal was one of several Christian kingdoms in Spain. Her policy towards the Jews was no different from the policies of others.
After the unification of Spain, Portugal became a separate Catholic state that retained its independence.
By the time of the formation of an independent kingdom in the northern part of the country (1139), Jews lived in its capital Coimbra and a number of other cities. In 1140-47 Lisbon and Santarem, where there were large Jewish communities (the latter housed the oldest synagogue in Portugal), came under the rule of the Portuguese crown; in 1249-50 - an area of the Algarve with a significant Jewish population concentrated in the cities of Évora, Beja, Faro and others.
By the end of the 13th century. There were about 40 thousand Jews in Portugal. After the capital was moved to Lisbon (1255-56), the city's community became the largest in the country. In the first half of the 13th century. A magnificent synagogue was built in Lisbon.
The first king of Portugal, Afonso (Alphonse) Henriques, guaranteed Jews equal economic rights and judicial autonomy (in both civil and criminal cases) with Christians, and introduced the practice of appointing Jews to high government positions. Thus, Don Yahya Ibn Ya'ish, the founder of the Ibn Yahya family, became almosharif under him, that is, the main tax collector and treasurer.
In the 12th century. - beginning of the 14th century The kings of Portugal continued this policy, consistently rejecting the demands of the Catholic Church to remove Jews from public office, as well as to force them to wear a distinctive badge and pay church tithes.
Nevertheless, in 1211, Afonso II approved a decree of the Cortes prohibiting Jews from disinheriting children who had converted to Christianity. The residence of Jews was limited to special quarters - judiarias(there were four in Lisbon, three in Porto). Communities and individuals, as well as Jewish transactions and ritual slaughter, were heavily taxed.
During the reign of Afonso III (1246-79), an extensive system of Jewish autonomy finally took shape in Portugal. The head and plenipotentiary representative of all the Jews of Portugal was arrabi mor, appointed by the king (usually from among those close to him) and considered a government official. He announced elections of rabbis and rezniks (shochets) in the communities, approved the voting results, determined the amount of tax that individual communities had to pay, and checked their financial statements.
To each of the seven provinces of Portugal was appointed rabbi menor, and he was entrusted with the resolution of civil and criminal cases relating only to Jews (Christian judges, under threat of a large fine, were prohibited from accepting such cases for consideration). Appeals or complaints against the sentences passed by the rabbi menor were considered by the arrabi mor, who annually visited all communities of the country.
In the XI-XIII centuries. Portugal's Jewish community flourished; its representatives occupied key positions in the country's economy, primarily in trade and finance, and played an important role in the royal court, where they usually held the positions of treasurer and physician.
Astronomical tables of the astronomer and rabbi Abraham Zacuto, published by the last of the Jewish pioneers in Portugal, Abraham Horta, a year before the expulsion of the Jews. What gives this book particular historical significance is that Christopher Columbus used Zacuto's astronomical tables on his voyages to America. Abraham Zacuto, Tabulae astronomicae, Leiria, 1496. Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.
Unlike Spain, Portugal was not a major center of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages. Only in the 15th century. Prominent philosophers and commentators of the Tanakh (Yitzhak Abrabanel), naturalists (Yehuda Crescas) appeared here, and the study of Kabbalah began.
After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the Talmudist Ya'akov Ibn Habib and the astronomer Avraham Zacuto moved to Portugal.
In the 1480s Three Jewish printing houses opened in Portugal: in 1487 - in Faro (founder Shmuel Gakon?) and in Leiria (founder Shmuel D'Ortas), in 1489 - in Lisbon (founder Eli'ezer Toledano). They lasted until 1497 and produced a number of high-quality incunabula, including the Torah with Rashi's commentary and Abraham Zacuto's astronomical treatise (in Spanish).
In the XIV century. The situation of the Jews of Portugal became less stable. King Afonso IV (reigned 1325-57) increased taxes on Jews and under pressure from the church ordered them to wear a distinctive sign. The right of Jews to leave the country was limited. In 1350, the Catholic clergy declared them to be the culprits of the plague epidemic that broke out in Portugal..
Under Fernando (Ferdinand) I (1367-83), the Jews managed to regain their lost influence for a time, but during this period the community suffered greatly from two invasions of Castilian troops (1373, 1383), who carried out pogroms in the cities they captured, including Lisbon. Joao (Joan) I (1385-1433) reinstated the wearing of the distinctive sign and banned Jews from holding public office(making an exception for a few tax collectors and court doctors). At the same time, he did not allow the anti-Jewish riots that engulfed Spain in 1391 to spread to Portugal.
King Duarte I (1433-38) issued a decree prohibiting all communication between Jews and Christians, but was soon forced to significantly soften his order. The situation of the Jews improved again under Afonso V (1438-81), who was strongly influenced by the Yahya family and Isaac Abrabanel, whom he appointed as his treasurer.
However, already in these years, the propaganda carried out by the Catholic Church caused a rapid increase in anti-Semitic sentiments in Portuguese society. In 1449, the city mob attacked one of the judiarias of Lisbon; many Jews were killed and their property was plundered. The king severely punished the instigators of the pogrom. However, in 1482 it happened again (and the rich library of Isaac Abrabanel was destroyed).
The Portuguese Cortes repeatedly (in 1451, 1455, 1473, 1481) demanded the adoption of restrictive measures against the Jews. Such measures were introduced by King Joao II (1481-95). He, in particular, forbade Jews to hire Christian servants, wear silk and jewelry, and ride horses. By royal decree the son of Jewish parents who converted to Christianity immediately received the right to their property. Isaac Abrabanel, accused of participating in an anti-government conspiracy, fled to Spain. At the same time, Joao II opposed the introduction of the Inquisition in the country and in 1487 canceled the decisions of the municipal councils of Lisbon and a number of other cities on the expulsion of Jews.
When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, Joao II allowed them to resettle in Portugal, but only for eight months and on the condition that they pay a poll tax. The local community protested against allowing Spanish Jews into the country, fearing that the influx of emigrants would undermine its already precarious position.
In a short period of time, about 120 thousand Jews arrived in the country. The exiles were placed in small towns along the Spanish border. 30 families led by Isaac Abohav II received permission to settle in Porto. In overpopulated judiarias Soon a plague epidemic broke out.
After this, Joao II ordered the Spanish Jews to leave the country early. Those who failed to fulfill this order by the deadline (mainly due to the prohibitively high fares on Portuguese ships) were sold into slavery. Children between the ages of three and ten were separated from their parents and sent to the uninhabitable island of Sao Tome in the Gulf of Guinea for subsequent conversion to Christianity.
Many of those who managed to leave the country were robbed by Portuguese sailors and landed on the desert coast of Africa, where they died of starvation. Only 600 of the wealthiest families were able to buy the right to stay in Portugal for a total of 60 thousand gold cruzados.
At the end of the 15th century. in Portugal there were supposedly about 80 thousand Jews; they lived in all regions of the country.
In 1495, Manuel the Fortunate became king of Portugal (reigned until 1521). At first, he abolished the restrictive measures against Jews introduced by his predecessor and appointed Abraham Zacuto as his adviser.
However, for political reasons, he entered into marriage with the heir to the Spanish throne, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. At their request, he issued on December 4, 1496. a decree ordering all Jews in Portugal to be baptized within ten months or leave the country. In reality, only 8 people were expelled, the rest were not released. In an effort to keep part of the Jewish population in Portugal for economic reasons, the king ordered the forced baptism of children between the ages of four and 14 (later extended to those under 20). However, this only accelerated the flight of Jews from the country.
An instruction followed that the exiles could leave Portugal only through the port of Lisbon. About 20,000 Jews, who had gathered in the capital waiting for ships, were herded into one of the palaces on March 19, 1497 and, after numerous but unsuccessful attempts to convince them to voluntarily convert to Catholicism, they were subjected to forced baptism.
At the same time, all remaining Jews in Portugal were baptized, including refugees from Spain. The leaders of the community, including the last chief rabbi of Portugal, Shim'on Maimi, preferred martyrdom under torture to apostasy. Only a few (for example, Abraham Zakuto and Ya'akov Ibn Habib) managed to avoid baptism and leave the country.
By royal decree of May 30, 1497 new Christians were declared full citizens of Portugal; It was forbidden until 1517 to persecute them for heresy. However, Jews, the vast majority of whom remained faithful to Judaism, continued to leave the country. This led to disorganization of economic life. Therefore, on April 21, 1499, Manuel prohibited new Christians from traveling outside Portugal without permission from the authorities. Those who had such permission lost the right to sell their property or collect debts.
Despite the king's "protective" decree, the Catholic Church and the majority of the Portuguese continued to consider the new Christians Jews, hating them as heretics and hypocrites. One of the nicknames of the Marranos was zhenti di nasaon- “people of a [known] nation.” Pogroms of the “new Christians” began, which subsequently led to their mass emigration.
The first documentary information about Jews dates back to 1135, when the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berengar III took under the protection of several Jews the island of Mallorca, which had been an Arab possession since 798. It is possible that among the inhabitants of Andalusia who fled to Mallorca in the middle of the 12th century. from the persecution of the Almohads, there were also Jews.
After the conquest of Mallorca in 1229 by James I (James) of Aragon, the Jewish population of Mallorca increased markedly due to immigrants from southern France and North African countries. The king who patronized the Jews gave them plots of land in the cities of Palma (the main city of Mallorca), Inca, Petra and Montiori. There were also Jewish settlements in the cities of Felanich, Sineu, Alcudia, Soller and Pollensa.
Jews quickly became involved in the international trade of Mallorca, and also took up jewelry and shoe making. At the insistence of Christian merchants, the king was forced to limit the interest rates for Jewish moneylenders on money loans, and in some cases forced them to return part of the profits. At the same time, Jaime I allowed the Jews of Mallorca to contact him personally with complaints about the actions of the administration, confirmed their right to have their own slaughterers, and the Jews of Palma allowed to purchase real estate in the city and its surroundings.
By the beginning of the 1270s. The economic position of the Jews of Mallorca strengthened: in 1271, the community of Palma paid an annual tax of five thousand solidi and, together with the communities of Catalonia, Perpignan and Montpellier, donated 25 thousand solidi for the war with the kingdom of Leon.
In the independent kingdom of Mallorca, formed in the Balearic Islands after the death of Jaime I in 1276, the privileges he granted to the Jews were confirmed both by his successor Jaime II of Majorca and by King Alfonso III, who seized power in Majorca in 1285. However, as a result of his frequent and large extortions and demands for “loans,” the economic situation of the community weakened and did not improve either after the return to the throne of Jaime II (1295), or under his heir Sancho I (from 1311).
During this period there was community governance structure. Thus, from 1296, community life in Palma was supervised by elected trustees (muqaddamin; at first there were three, later six) and with them an executive council of eight notables.
Some of the Jews expelled from France in 1306 settled in Mallorca, among them the halakhist Aharon ben Ya'akov of Lunel.
Among the spiritual leaders of the community of Mallorca in the second half of the 14th century. there were the philosopher and exeget I. L. Mosconi (born in 1328), Rabbi Sh. T. Falcon, Talmudist Sh. Tsarfati, head of the Palma yeshiva I. Desmestre and Shim'on ben Tsemach Duran. During this period, the astronomers and cartographers Yitzhak Nifosi (Nafusi), V. E. Gerondi (died in 1391), A. Creskes (died in 1387) and his son Yehuda (born, apparently, in 1360; after forced baptism in 1391 - Jaime Ribes).
In 1305, the Catholic clergy provoked anti-Jewish riots, which were repeated in 1309 in connection with the blood libel. The king punished the thugs and forbade members of the clergy from entering the Jewish quarters. However, soon many Jews died during the riots in Inca.
In 1314 the Jews of Palma agreed accept two Christians into the fold of Judaism from Germany, who were denied this by other Jewish communities in Spain. As punishment, Sancho I ordered the transformation of the city synagogue into a church and imposed a heavy fine on the community, in repayment of which almost all the property of the city's Jews was confiscated a year later.
After this, in a series of decrees, the king established regulations for the communal, religious and economic life of the Jews of Mallorca and allowed the construction of a new synagogue in Palma. In 1325, the regent for the young Jaime III, Philip, confirmed the former privileges of the Jews of Mallorca, granted them citizenship, the right to choose governance without outside interference and prohibited the forced baptism of even their slaves. In 1337, the king granted the community the right to judge for violations of religious precepts and for immorality, but forbade sentences to exile or corporal punishment.
Pedro IV, who annexed Mallorca to the Kingdom of Aragon in 1343, confirmed the rights of Jews and encouraged the return of Jews who had left the island and the settlement of new ones. The community suffered greatly from the pogroms of the late 1340s associated with the plague epidemic, but soon recovered. Since 1373, when a mob attack on Jews in the city of Inca forced many Jews to leave Mallorca, the situation of the community deteriorated sharply. In 1374, Christian merchants who owed significant sums to Jews staged a pogrom and demanded the expulsion of Jews from Mallorca. In 1376, the Jews of the city of Porreras were attacked by the Christian population.
Juan I of Aragon (reigned 1387-95) tried to support the Jews and even granted the community the right to try for criminal offenses. However, in 1391, pogroms and massacres throughout Spain led to the death of many of the Jews of Palma and to the complete extermination of communities in the cities of Inca, Soller, Sineu and Alcudia.
Some of the Jews of Mallorca managed to escape to North Africa, some converted to Christianity, and many chose martyrdom over forced baptism. The authorities tried to return the refugees to Mallorca, promising to compensate them for their losses and guaranteeing immunity. The governor of the island was executed as the main culprit of the riots; Queen Violante imposed a significant fine on the Christian population.
But a year later, King Juan I canceled the fine, amnestied the rioters and canceled all debt obligations of Christians to Jews over the past 10 years.
In 1395, at the invitation of the king, who was trying to revive the Jewish community in Mallorca, 150 Jewish families from Portugal moved there.
In 1413, Ferdinand I issued a decree prohibiting the Jews of Mallorca from living outside the ghetto and from communicating with Christians. The situation of the Jews improved somewhat under Alfonso V (from 1416).
Israel is a people in diaspora. In medieval Christendom Notification: The preliminary basis for this article was the article
Arabs in Spain
The Arab conquest of Spain at the beginning of the 8th century. led to the creation of the powerful Emirate of Cordoba (from the 10th century - caliphate) on the Iberian Peninsula. Arabs and North African tribes - the Berbers, who later received the common name - Moors, took possession of almost all of Spain, with the exception of the mountainous regions in the north of the peninsula. The areas richest in natural resources and economically developed since Roman times fell into Muslim hands.
The conquest of Gothic Spain by the Arabs took place at a stage of its development when an intensified process of feudalization was underway there. This process was accelerated by the strong Romanization of Spain: slaves and colons made up the bulk of the direct producers here. The ancestral nobility of the barbarians by the 7th century. either took the place of the slave-owning class or merged with it. The Visigothic free communities quickly submitted to the nobility, who soon became large landowners after the conquest of southern Gaul and Spain. The feudal dependent peasantry was formed mainly at the expense of the serfs and libertines (Spanish-Roman and German), as well as the colons. The Arabs captured the lands of the Visigothic and Spanish-Roman nobility, the church and the royal fisc. Many Visigothic feudal lords fled north to the mountainous regions of Asturias and the Pyrenees. The peasantry, in most cases, remained in their former places and even experienced some relief at first. But the peasants remained in personal and land dependence and paid feudal rent. In addition, they paid taxes to the conquerors. The oppression of feudal duties and state taxes became increasingly heavier over time. Its severity was subsequently aggravated by outbreaks of Muslim religious fanaticism towards the conquered Christian population.
The Arabs of Spain, who maintained ties with the more highly developed countries of the East, enriched its agriculture. They introduced a number of new crops: rice, sugar cane, date palms, pomegranates, mulberries. Under the Arabs, the system of irrigation canals expanded, which greatly contributed to the rise of agriculture, and viticulture and winemaking flourished. Cattle breeding also developed (mainly transhumance sheep breeding). Mining and various crafts (silk production, cloth making, weapons, glass, ceramics, leather goods, luxury goods, and rag paper) played a significant role in the economy.
Cities experienced a great boom in Arab Spain. Already in the 10th century. there were up to 400 of them. The capital of the Arab state - Cordoba - became in the 10th century. one of the largest craft, trade and cultural centers in Europe. Arab Spain had a strong navy, which contributed to the cities' brisk trade with Africa, Italy, Byzantium and the Levant; overland trade was carried out with southern France and Lombardy. Spanish goods reached India and Central Asia. The main export items were agricultural products, mining products and handicrafts. The slave trade was of great importance. Internal trade also developed.
The economic successes of Arab Spain were accompanied by its cultural rise. There was a huge library and university in Cordoba. Many other cities in the country were famous for their libraries. Higher schools in Arab Spain were among the first in Europe. The sciences are experiencing significant growth: medicine, mathematics, geography. Arab Spain is the birthplace of the most prominent progressive philosophers of their time: Ibn Roshd (Averroes) and Maimonides. The flowering of art and literature, especially poetry, in Spain occurred at a time when the level of culture in the rest of Western Europe was still very low; some Europeans came to study at the universities of Cordoba, Seville, Malaga, and Granada.
Arab culture in Spain influenced not only Europe; it occupies an important place in the history of world culture. Through the Kbrd Caliphate, European countries became acquainted (in translation) with the works of Arab scientists in mathematics, astronomy, geography, physics, alchemy, medicine, anatomy, zoology, and philosophy. The West learned (mainly in Latin translations from Arabic) many works of ancient Greek thinkers and scientists. The construction industry has reached a high level in Spain. Magnificent monuments of Arab-Spanish architecture have survived to this day: the famous mosque in Cordoba, built in the 8th-10th centuries, and in the 13th century. converted into a Christian temple, the palace of the rulers of Granada Alhambra (XIII-XV centuries), the Alcazar palace-fortress in Seville (XII century), etc.
Reconquista
In the north of the Iberian Peninsula, territories independent of the Arabs remained - Asturias, Galicia and Baskonia. From these Christian states, the reconquest (in Spanish - reconquista) of the lands captured by the Arabs began. The beginning of the reconquista is considered to be the Battle of Covadonga in 718, when the Visigoth army led by Pelayo defeated a detachment of Arabs. At the beginning of the 10th century, Asturias, having expanded its borders during the reconquista, turned into the kingdom of Leon. In the 10th century a new state emerged from it—Castile, which became a kingdom in 1037. Somewhat later, these two kingdoms united. At the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th century. as a result of the campaigns of the Franks in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish March was formed with its capital in Barcelona; in the 9th century Navarre emerged from the Spanish Mark, and somewhat later - the states of Catalonia and Aragon. In 1137, Catalonia and Aragon united into one kingdom - Aragonese. At the end of the 11th century. in the west of the Iberian Peninsula the County of Portugal arose, which also became in the 12th century. kingdom.
By the end of the 12th century. Christian states conquered a significant part of the peninsula from the Arabs. Their victory over the Arab Caliphate, which was economically more developed, is partly explained by the collapse of the Arab state, which turned into a state at the beginning of the 11th century. in a series (over 20) of emirates at war with each other. However, this was not the main reason: there was no unity in the Spanish states either. In them, despite the presence of royal power, large feudal lords waged a fierce struggle with each other and in this struggle even resorted to the help of Muslim states. And yet the Spanish North turned out to be both more united politically and militarily stronger than the Arab-Moorish South.
For the victors, the Arabs, the local Christian population of Spain was an object of exploitation. The vanquished, not excluding those who had adopted the Arabic language and some Arab customs, but who retained the Christian religion (Mozarabs) and even converted to Islam (renegados), remained in the position of a subject and exploited population - the lower strata in the cities, serfs in the countryside. The initial relative tolerance of the Arabs gradually gave way to ardent fanaticism. The oppressed Christian population of cities and villages rebelled more than once and went to the North, which greatly weakened the Arab states.
Despite the ongoing struggle between the Christian states, especially between Castile and Aragon, despite the constant enmity of the feudal lords with each other, at decisive moments the Spaniards stood united against the common enemy. From the very beginning, the Reconquista took on the character of a massive military-colonization movement, in which all segments of the population actively participated. The peasantry, which made up the bulk of the troops of Christian states and therefore had weapons in their hands, received not only land in the newly conquered territories, but also personal freedom, formalized in “fueros” (customs recorded in charters) and settled charters. Therefore, it was interested in the reconquista and acted in it together with the feudal lords, with whom they were also united by a common nationality and religion. In addition to the Spaniards, French and Italian knights also took part in the reconquista at different periods. The papacy more than once declared the campaigns of the reconquista “crusades” and invited violent European knights to show their prowess in a “holy” war against the “crescent”.
The Reconquista determined the features of the social and political system of the countries of the Iberian Peninsula. According to K. Marx, “the local life of Spain, the independence of its provinces and communes, the lack of uniformity in the development of society” were initially determined by the “geographical appearance of the country”, and then developed historically “thanks to the fact that various provinces were independently liberated from the rule of the Moors, forming at the same time small independent states...”
The reconquista became especially active in the 12th-13th centuries. The Spaniards won an important victory in 1085, when they captured Toledo, one of the largest cities in Arab Spain. Exhausted by the war and internecine struggle, the Muslim sovereigns turned for help to the Almoravids - North African Berbers, who defeated the Castilian troops and temporarily suspended the reconquista. In the middle of the 12th century. The Almoravids were replaced by new conquerors - the Almohads (tribes living in the mountains of the Moroccan Atlas), who were called by the emirs to overthrow the rule of the Almoravids. However, the Almohads were unable to unite the Muslim emirates of the peninsula.
In 1212, the combined forces of Castile, Aragon, Portugal and Navarre inflicted a terrible defeat on the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa, from which they could no longer recover. In 1236, the Castilians took Cordoba, in 1248 - Seville, in 1229-1235. The Aragonese kingdom captured the Balearic Islands and, in 1238, Valencia. In 1262, the Castilians, having recaptured Cadiz, reached the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. By the end of the 13th century. The Moors only had the Emirate of Granada with its center in Granada - a rich region in the south of Spain with a high agricultural and urban culture. The Moors stayed in this territory until 1492.
The reconquista was accompanied by the assignment of the conquered territories to the victors and the settlement of areas devastated by the war. Along with the peasantry, a major role in the reconquista was played by the population of the cities - artisans, drawn to the developed urban centers of Southern Spain, and small knights. The benefits from the reconquista were mainly received by large feudal lords, who created huge estates on the conquered lands. Particularly large were the land acquisitions of the spiritual knightly orders that emerged during the reconquista period - Sant'Iago, Alcantara and Calatrava. The Catholic Church also received vast lands, which played an even greater role in Spain in connection with the long wars against Muslims than in other European countries. A monument to the heroic struggle for independence of the emerging Spanish people is the poem about Cid, a Castilian nobleman, the organizer of the victorious war against the Moors.
The history of each of the states formed on the Iberian Peninsula had its own characteristics.
Castile
The central part of Spain - the kingdom of Castile - occupied three-fifths of the entire peninsula and played a major role in the reconquista.
In Castile, during the process of conquest, a powerful and independent large landholding of the church, spiritual knightly orders and secular feudal lords emerged. But along with this, small noble land ownership received significant development. Knights - hidalgos, who took an active part in the reconquista, were especially numerous in Castile. He was distinguished by indomitable belligerence and contempt for peaceful labor. Most of them lived very poorly.
Castile translated from Spanish is a country of cities or castles. There really were many cities of a unique character here. They were primarily fortresses intended for defense and served as strongholds for the further advancement of the reconquista. The population of these cities had to perform military service, forming infantry and cavalry detachments, with the leading role played by the knightly cavalry. Their role in the reconquista gave the cities considerable independence. Each city had written rights, customs and privileges - the so-called fueros. Any attempts to eliminate them were met with energetic resistance from the cities. Cities entered into alliances with each other - hermandades (i.e. brotherhoods), with the goal of joint actions against the Moors, as well as defending their interests against the feudal lords, and sometimes against the king. In the struggle for their rights, cities often acted in alliance with peasant communities. Initially (until the 12th century), Castilian cities differed little in character from villages. Only gradually did they turn into developed centers of craft and trade, and guild organizations arose in them. In the cities conquered from the Arabs, crafts and trade continued until the end of the 15th century. were in the hands of the Arab and Jewish population, which remained in significant numbers in the conquered territory until the middle of the 14th century. was not subject to severe persecution.
In the initial period of the Reconquista, the peasantry in the original northern regions of Castile was enslaved, and its situation was very difficult. The situation of the peasants in the provinces conquered from the Moors was different. Settlers were brought into the vast devastated territories to develop and protect these territories; they were given all kinds of benefits and liberties, and above all personal freedom. The settlers formed already in the XII-XIII centuries. a large layer of free peasants who lived in communities. Free communities, “begetria,” became widespread, whose members had the right to freely elect and change lords. The presence of a significant layer of free peasants could not but influence the position of serfs in the primordially Christian territories. The wide opportunities for peasant escape that the reconquista opened up forced the Castilian feudal lords to gradually weaken the exploitation of peasants in the old regions of the kingdom. This was also facilitated by the unique nature of Castile's agriculture. The vast rocky plateaus of this area were well suited to sheep farming, which did not require large numbers of labor and corvee labor. Spanish wool found good sales in Italy, in particular in Florence. Therefore, the development of commodity-money relations in Castile was mainly associated with the growth of sheep breeding. Large owners, especially spiritual knightly orders, started huge herds of sheep, which were driven from one pasture to another, often across the whole of Castile. Already at the end of the 13th century. To regulate the pasture business, a union of Castilian sheep breeders, “Mesta,” arose. This organization of large cattle breeders received a number of important privileges from the kings and had its own treasury, administration and court.
The Aragonese kingdom emerged in the 12th-13th centuries. from Aragon itself, which made up its western part, and the coastal regions - Catalonia and Valencia, which joined in the 13th century. Aragon itself was one of the economically backward regions of Spain, and Catalonia was distinguished by significant development of cities, crafts and trade. But the political advantage always remained on the side of the powerful Aragonese feudal lords. Both in Aragon and in Catalonia, the peasantry was completely dependent on the feudal lords and was deprived of any protection from the arbitrariness of the lords. The peasants were oppressed not only by ordinary serfdom, but also by “bad customs.” According to these customs, the lord seized all the property of a peasant who died childless, and most of the inheritance if there were children left. Special fines were taken from peasants for violation of marital fidelity, in case of a fire in the possessions of the lord, etc.
“Bad customs” also include the right of the first night, the forced bringing of wet nurses and a number of other humiliating duties. In Catalonia, the plight of the peasantry was aggravated by the significant development of commodity-money relations. The growing needs of the lords and the wide opportunities for selling agricultural products to the cities here caused increased pressure from the feudal lords on the dependent peasantry.
The large feudal lords of the Kingdom of Aragon (“ricos ombres,” i.e., rich people) were distinguished by significant political independence. Free from any lordship, they entered into alliances among themselves, elected and deposed the king themselves, and could declare war on him. The lower nobility was dependent on them. Economically weak cities in Aragon itself did not enjoy political influence. In Catalonia and Valencia, which were connected with Mediterranean trade and maintained lively relations with Italy and Southern France, the cities had greater political weight. The cities of Catalonia, most notably Barcelona, were not only shopping centers; Crafts developed and flourished in them: mining and processing of metals, tanning, shipbuilding, etc.
As a result of the annexation of the Balearic Islands (13th century), Sicily (1302), Sardinia (1324) and the Kingdom of Naples (1442), the Kingdom of Aragon turned into a powerful maritime power.
Portugal
The third independent kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula was Portugal. Its political and social development had much in common with Castile, of which it was an integral part for a long time. In the middle of the 12th century. The Portuguese kings finally separated from the Leono-Castilian monarchy, recognizing themselves as vassals of the papal throne with the obligation to pay it an annual qualification. This largely determined the enormous importance of the church in the political life of the country. The spiritual knightly orders gained great influence here, including the Aviz order, which played an important role in the reconquista and during it seized large land holdings. The free peasantry also took part in the conquest of lands from the Moors and their colonization. Therefore, in Portugal, as in Castile, along with the large land holdings of feudal lords, the church and spiritual knightly orders, there were many urban and free peasant communities, the legal status of which was enshrined in the “forais”, similar to the Castilian fueros.
In the 13th century. The cities of Portugal flourished, which was facilitated by its position on trade routes from England, France, Flanders to the Mediterranean. Of the coastal cities of Portugal, Lisbon acquired the greatest importance, becoming in the middle of the 13th century. its capital (instead of Coimbra) and one of the major shopping centers in Europe. Cities were the support of royal power in its combat with the separatist aspirations of, first of all, spiritual as well as secular feudal lords.
In the middle of the 13th century. With the liberation of the Algarve region in the south, the reconquest in Portugal was largely completed. But in the XIV century. North African tribes repeatedly raided the southern regions of the country. The fight against them contributed to the development of shipbuilding, as well as navigation. In this regard, there are the first geographical discoveries of the Portuguese, who, already in the 14th century, marked the beginning of the formation of the Portuguese colonial empire. Its contours are already clearly visible in the 15th century.
Royalty and the Cortes
In all the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the XII-XIII centuries. class monarchies emerge. Royal power was limited to meetings of representatives of the estates - the Cortes. The estates sat in them separately. The Castilian Cortes had three chambers: the clergy, the nobility and the cities. Until the beginning of the 15th century. representatives of cities sometimes sat together with representatives of peasant communities. This was a feature of the Castilian Cortes. A feature of the Aragonese Cortes was that the small and middle nobility sat separately from the large feudal lords. There, the Cortes consisted of four chambers: the highest nobility, the minor and middle nobility, the clergy and the cities. Cortes were also in Portugal, Catalonia and Valencia. They limited the actions of monarchical power, voted taxes, resolved controversial issues of succession to the throne, and influenced domestic and foreign policy.
K. Marx noted that during the formation of the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, there were favorable conditions for limiting royal power: “On the one hand, during the long struggle with the Arabs, small parts of the territory were conquered at different times and turned into special kingdoms. During this struggle, folk laws and customs arose. Gradual conquests, carried out mainly by the nobility, enormously increased his power, while at the same time weakening the power of the king. On the other hand, settlements and cities within the country acquired great importance, for the inhabitants were forced to settle together in fortified places and seek protection there from the continuous invasions of the Moors; at the same time, Spain's position as a peninsula and constant relations with Provence and Italy contributed to the formation of first-class commercial coastal cities on the coast. Already in the 14th century, representatives of the cities constituted the most powerful part of the Cortes, which also included representatives of the clergy and nobility.”
Exacerbation of class struggle
The development of commodity-money relations in the states of Spain entailed increased exploitation of the feudally dependent peasantry. The free peasantry also felt the power of the lords to a large extent. The development of sheep farming in Castile resulted in the XIV-XV centuries. massive conversion of peasant lands into pastures. All this intensified the class struggle in the Castilian countryside, which was complicated by conflicts between feudal lords and cities and the struggle of the feudal lords themselves for power.
Particularly famous was the uprising of the "Hermandinos" (brothers) in Castile, suppressed by the government in 1437. Peasant uprisings took place in the 14th-15th centuries. in the Balearic Islands, where the peasants were joined by the urban poor oppressed by the merchants.
The arena of particularly persistent and massive peasant movements during several decades of the 15th century. There was Catalonia, where, as noted, the situation of the peasantry was especially difficult. A movement among Catalan serfs arose at the beginning of the 15th century. The peasants demanded the abolition of personal dependence and “bad customs.” In 1462-1472, a real peasant war broke out in the north of Catalonia. The rebel serfs were also joined by free peasants, land-poor and landless, who demanded the redistribution of land. The uprising took on a fairly organized character: its participants were divided into military detachments, and contributions for military needs were collected among them. The rebels were led by the poor hidalgo Verntaliat. The Aragonese king Juan II, who was at enmity with the Catalan nobility and cities, used the uprising for his own purposes. With the help of Vertagliat and his peasant army, Juan II asserted his power over Catalonia. Verntaliat received rich land holdings and the title of viscount for this, and the peasants were reassured by some insignificant concessions, which, however, were soon canceled by the Cortes.
In 1484, a new powerful uprising began in Catalonia under the leadership of the peasant Pedro Juan Sala. The actions of government troops against the rebels were unsuccessful, since the soldiers were reluctant to oppose the peasants. The capture and execution of Sala did not stop the movement. In 1486, the government had to come to an agreement with the rebels and abolish the personal dependence of the peasants in Catalonia, which was recorded in the “Guadalupe Maxim”. “Bad customs” were abolished, but almost all for a large ransom. The peasants became personally free and could leave the land with their movable property, but their plots still remained the property of the lords and feudal rent was collected for them. Extortions in favor of the church were completely preserved.
Thus, peasant wars in Spain in the 15th century. Unlike the vast majority of peasant uprisings of the Middle Ages, they achieved at least partial success. The intensification of the class struggle accelerated the process of centralization of the state.
Unification of Castile and Aragon
Relying on an alliance with the church, cities and minor nobility, with large incomes from maritime trade, the royal power of both Castile and Aragon in the XIV-XV centuries. launched a decisive attack on the political rights of large feudal lords and deprived them of a significant share of independence. By the end of the 15th century. she deprived large feudal lords of the right to mint coins, wage private wars, and confiscated many lands from them. The king also took possession of the lands of the spiritual knightly orders.
In 1479 Aragon, and. Castile united into a single state under the rule of a married couple - Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. This event was one of the important stages in the strengthening of royal power in Spain. In crushing the power of large feudal lords, the royal authorities were supported by the cities. In 1480, the cities of Castile entered into an alliance with each other - the “holy hermandada”, which organized its own militia to fight the feudal lords. But, having used the military forces of the cities to curb the feudal lords, the royal power gradually curtailed the independence of the cities themselves. The church also provided enormous support to royal power, especially the Inquisition, introduced in Spain in 1480.
Fighting all kinds of anti-church heresies, the Inquisition thereby persecuted all social and political opposition to the existing system. In Spain, according to Marx, “thanks to the Inquisition, the church became the most indestructible weapon of absolutism.” The first to lead the Spanish Inquisition was the ferocious Torquemada, whose name became a household name.
Having strengthened their positions within the country, the Spanish kings directed their attack on the Emirate of Granada, the last possession of the Arabs in Spain. After a long siege in 1492, Granada capitulated. With its fall, the entire Iberian Peninsula, with the exception of Portugal, fell into the hands of the Spanish kings. The Moors surrendered Granada on the condition that they and the Jews retained property and freedom of religion. But these promises were not kept. The persecuted Muslims launched a series of uprisings. They were faced with a dilemma: either be baptized or leave Spain. A significant part of the Muslims and Jews who lived in the south of the country moved to Africa. Thus, most of the trade and craft population, who played an important role in the economic development of the country, left Spain. The Moors (Moriscos) who remained in Spain and converted to Christianity were subjected to constant persecution by the church.
Under Ferdinand and Isabella, an absolute monarchy is established in Spain. Large feudal lords lost their political independence and turned into a court aristocracy. The Cortes are losing their former importance and are convened less and less often. Management takes on a bureaucratic character, concentrating at the center in the hands of royal councils, and locally in the hands of royal officials (corregidors). However, the provincial and class disunity of Spain that has developed over centuries is reflected in the extreme cumbersomeness and lack of coordination of the administrative apparatus.
Flamenco music and dancing, bullfights, lots of sun and fantastic beaches... In fact, Spain has much more to offer tourists. Spain has been the cultural center of Europe for many centuries. This country has preserved a large number of monuments from the times of the Celts, Goths, Romans and Moors. The Alhambra Palace in Granada, the Mezquita Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba and the Royal Palace in Madrid will be no less interesting to tourists than the beaches of the Costa del Sol or, for example, the Costa Dorada.
Spain is located on the famous Iberian Peninsula, in southern Europe. In the west, Spain borders with Portugal, in the south with Gibraltar (belongs to Great Britain), and in the north with France and Andorra. In North Africa, Spain borders Morocco (their common border is 13 km). In the south and east, Spain borders the Mediterranean Sea, and in the west and northwest it is washed by the Atlantic Ocean.
Spain includes the small Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the “Dog Islands” (as the Canary Islands were once called) in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, as well as two semi-autonomous cities - Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa.
The total area of Spain is 505,992 square meters. km, including islands, and the total length of the state border is 1,917 km.
Mainland Spain is a mountainous country dominated by plateaus and mountain ranges. The main mountain systems in Spain are the Pyrenees, Cordillera, Cantabrian Mountains, Catalan Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The highest peak in Spain is the extinct volcano Teide on the island of Tenerife (3,718 m).
The capital of Spain is Madrid, which is now home to more than 3.3 million people. Madrid was founded by the Moors in the mid-10th century.
Spain is a multilingual country. Throughout Spain, the official language is Spanish (aka Castilian).
Other official languages:
About 96% of Spain's population is Catholic, belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. However, only 14% of Spaniards go to church every week (or more often).
In addition, about 1.2 million Protestants and more than 1 million Muslims now live in Spain (many people come from Morocco and Algeria).
Spain is a constitutional monarchy in which the head of state, according to the Constitution, is the King.
The source of legislative power is the General Cortes, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (350 people are elected to it) and the Senate (258 people).
The main political parties in Spain are the right-wing People's Party, the Spanish Social Workers' Party and the Communist Party of Spain.
Spain consists of 17 communities (regions) and 2 autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla).
In general, the climate of Spain can be divided into three main climatic zones:
The Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada have an alpine climate, while the Canary Islands have a subtropical climate.
In Spain in January the average air temperature is 0C, and in July - +33C.
The Mediterranean Sea washes the coast of Spain in the south and east, and the Atlantic Ocean lies in the west and northwest of the country. In the north of Spain there is the large Bay of Biscay.
Average sea temperature in Spain in May:
Average sea temperature in Spain in August:
Despite the fact that Spain is a mountainous country, a large number of rivers flow through its territory. The largest rivers in Spain are the Tagus (1,007 km), Ebro (910 km), Duero (895 km), Guadiana (657 km) and Guadalquivir (578 km).
According to scientists, there are several hundred lakes in Spain, and more than 440 of them are mountain lakes. The largest lake in Spain is Sanabria, whose area is more than 11 thousand square meters. km.
The ancient Greeks called the indigenous inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula (the territory of modern Spain) Iberians. Iberian tribes, according to archaeological finds, came to the Iberian Peninsula from the eastern Mediterranean during the Neolithic period.
Around 1200 BC. Celts appeared in the Pyrenees and began to mix with the Iberian tribes. Then the Phoenicians founded several of their cities in the Pyrenees - Gadir (Cadiz), Malaka (Malaga) and Abdera (Adra). Then the ancient Greeks built their colonies in southern Spain along the Mediterranean coast.
During the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, Roman legionaries invaded Spain and conquered most of it. Then Spain came completely under the rule of Ancient Rome.
In 409 AD. The Goths invaded the Iberian Peninsula and founded their kingdom there. However, in 711 AD. The Visigoth kingdom fell to the Moors from Africa. In the end, the Moors managed to conquer almost all of Spain. In the 10th century, Andalusia created its own Muslim caliphate.
However, Christians are trying to return the Spanish lands captured by the Moors. This period in Spanish history is known as the Reconquista.
The kingdom of Spain itself was formed in 1469 (this year the wedding of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon took place), but only in 1492 did the last Arab emir flee from Spanish territory (this happened after the fall of Granada).
After Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, Spain received tons of silver and gold from there, thereby becoming one of the most influential and powerful countries of that time.
In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte's troops invaded Spain, but the Spaniards stubbornly resisted them. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, King Ferdinand IV was restored to the Spanish throne.
Due to the economic crisis and political instability in the 19th century, Spain lost almost all of its colonies. In 1895, after the war with the United States, Cuba, the last colony of Spain, was lost.
From 1936 to 1939, the Civil War continued in Spain, from which the nationalists led by Franco emerged victorious. During World War II, which began in 1939, Spain maintained neutrality, although it sympathized with Germany.
In 1975, Franco died and a constitutional monarchy was created in Spain.
In 1985, Spain was admitted to NATO, and in 1992 it joined the European Union.
Spanish culture was greatly influenced by the ancient Greeks, as well as the ancient Romans. To this day, a large number of ancient Roman monuments have been preserved in Spain. After Spain was conquered by the Moors in the early 700s, Spanish culture came to be dominated by the Arabs. In general, the entire Middle Ages in Spain was a confrontation between Arab and Christian cultures.
It so happened that the Spaniards showed themselves most noticeably in literature and painting, although, of course, Spain had talented architects, philosophers, doctors and philosophers.
The most famous Spanish writers and poets are Lope de Vega (life years - 1562-1635), Francisco Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645), Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (life years - 1547-1616), Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658 ), Benito Galdos (1843-1920), and Camilo José Cela (lived 1916-2002).
The most famous Spanish painters are El Greco (life years - 1541-1614), Francisco de Herrera (life years - 1576-1656), Jusepe de Ribera (life years - 1591-1652), Diego Velazquez (life years - 1599-1660) , Alonso Cano (lived 1601-1667), Francisco Goya (lived 1746-1828), and Salvador Dali (lived 1904-1989).
For many of us, Spain is flamenco and bullfighting, which have a long tradition.
The dance and song "flamenco" appeared in the Middle Ages in Andalusia. The emergence of this dance and musical style is associated with the gypsies, but from the end of the 18th century “flamenco” became a traditional Spanish dance.
Nowadays, every two years in Seville, Spain, an international flamenco festival is held, called “Bienal de Flamenco”. This festival attracts thousands of participants and visitors.
Another famous Spanish tradition is bullfighting, a bullfight that was started by the Iberian tribes who lived in the Pyrenees around 3000 centuries. BC. At first, killing a bull was of a ritual nature, but over time, it became a real art. Since the mid-18th century, bullfighting has existed in many Spanish cities.
Nowadays, some Spanish cities host bull running – “encierro”. During these races, bulls try to catch up with people running through the streets. Sometimes bulls succeed. The most famous "encierros" are in Pamplona.
Spanish cuisine is characterized by a wide variety of dishes. This is understandable, because each region of Spain carefully preserves not only its cultural, but also culinary traditions. In general, Spanish cuisine can be classified as Mediterranean cuisine. Two characteristic elements of Spanish cuisine are olive oil and garlic.
In Mediterranean Spain (from Catalonia to Andalusia), seafood is often used for cooking. Cold soups (such as gazpacho) and rice dishes (such as paella) are traditional here.
Inland Spain is characterized by thick, hot soups and stews. Ham and various cheeses are popular here.
The northern coast of Spain (Atlantic Ocean), including the Basque Country, Asturias and Galicia, is characterized by dishes with meat, fish and vegetables.
It is impossible to imagine sunny Spain without wine. The traditions of winemaking on the Iberian Peninsula were laid down by the ancient Greeks, who founded their colonies there. Nowadays, a large number of different wines are produced in Spain.
In our opinion, the Top 5 best red wines in Spain include:
Top 5 best white wines in Spain:
Spain may not rank first in the number of attractions, but there is no doubt that tourists have something to see in this ancient country. The top ten best attractions in Spain, in our opinion, include the following:
The largest Spanish cities are Madrid, Barcelona (1.7 million people), Valencia (850 thousand people), Seville (720 thousand people), Zaragoza (more than 610 thousand people), and Malaga (about 550 thousand people).
The total coastline of Spain is about 5 thousand kilometers. This means that Spain has a large number of beautiful beaches with clear water. Despite the fact that most tourists for some reason choose the Costa Blanca and the sunny Costa del Sol, Spain also has beautiful beaches in other resorts.
Top 10 Spanish beaches, in our opinion:
When people talk about beach resorts in Spain, they immediately think of the Costa del Sol, the Canary Islands, and the island of Ibiza. But in Spain there is also the Costa Brava, Tenerife, Mallorca, Costa Dorada, Balearic Islands, Costa Blanca, Costa del Maresme, and Costa de la Luz.
Returning from Spain, tourists may simply not pick up their suitcases, there may be so many souvenirs in them. Therefore, we advise tourists who have visited Spain to stop at the following best Spanish souvenirs:
Banks are open:
Mon-Fri: 08:30-14.00
Some banks are also open on Saturdays.
Store opening hours:
Mon-Fri: from 09:00 to 13.30 (or 14:00) and from 16:30 (or from 17:00) to 20:00.
Every Saturday, Spanish shops are open until lunchtime.
Large supermarkets are open all day.
Iberian Peninsula in the XIV-XV centuries. In the middle of the 13th century. The reconquista paused for a long time. The Moorish possessions, the Emirate of Granada, sought to maintain peace with its northern neighbors, especially after 1340, when Christian forces defeated Granada and its North African allies at the Battle of Salado. This battle marked the end of Berber military assistance to al-Andalus. The borders between Castile and Aragon were constantly changing during internecine wars. Throughout the entire period, Aragon carried out a systematic expansion in the Mediterranean: it subjugated the Balearic Islands (at the end of the 13th - first half of the 14th centuries there was an independent state there - the Kingdom of Mallorca), established itself in Sicily (1282) and in the Kingdom of Naples (1442), conquered the island Sardinia. Castile, early 15th century. annexed the Canary Islands, and Portugal began its colonial expansion in the Atlantic in 1415 with the capture of the city of Ceuta in North Africa. After the marriage of the heirs to the Castilian and Aragonese thrones - Infanta Isabella and Prince Ferdinand - the unification of these kingdoms took place in 1479. Navarre, which did not play a significant role on the peninsula, at the end of the 15th century. was divided between Aragon and France. In 1492, the troops of Castile and Aragon took Granada and thereby completed the Reconquista. Thus, by the end of the century, both the reconquest and the unification of the territory of Spain into a single state ended.
Socio-economic development. From the middle of the 13th century. In the economies of Spain and Portugal, crisis phenomena associated with solving the main tasks of the Reconquista are intensifying. The Christian conquest caused a massive exodus of the Moorish population to Granada and North Africa; Muslims were often expelled from the country by order of the royal authorities. This could not but undermine the highly developed agriculture of Andalusia, the crafts of large cities. The plague epidemic in the mid-14th century had extremely unfavorable consequences for the peninsula, as well as for the rest of Europe, which in some areas (for example, Catalonia) killed more than half the population. Social conditions for the development of peasant farming and handicraft production have worsened. The weakening of the colonization process allowed the feudal lords of the northern regions of the peninsula to tighten the exploitation of the peasantry. This was especially evident in Catalonia and Aragon. At the end of the 13th - first half of the 14th century, when the process of eliminating servage was underway in neighboring France, here, on the contrary, personal dependence was being legislated. Remens (a collective name for Catalan serfs) had to pay specific servile duties, which were designated as “bad customs”; they were subject to the court of the lord, who had the right to even impose death sentences; The possibility of a peasant leaving the feudal lord was greatly limited. Unfavorable changes also occurred in the position of the peasants of the Castilian kingdom. In Asturias, Galicia, and Leon, the duties of solaregos increased, the rights of begetrias were curtailed; in the central and southern regions of the peninsula, the rates of in-kind and cash land payments increase sharply. Commercial sheep breeding of large lords, churches and orders began to pose a serious danger to peasant farming. At the beginning of the 14th century. In Spain, a breed of long-wooled Merino sheep was bred, whose wool was in great demand in Italy, England and Flanders. This contributed to an increase in the share of cattle breeding in the country's economy and the advance of feudal lords on communal lands in order to expand pastures. The massive export of raw materials abroad led to their rise in price in domestic markets and to the weakening of the position of local textile crafts. Slightly different conditions developed in Portugal, where grain farming successfully developed around port cities that specialized in the export of agricultural products. At the same time, the property differentiation of the peasantry intensified, the number of small land holders who lived by feudal rent increased, and the payment of hired workers in Portugal (as in Spain) was limited by law.
The attack on the rights of peasants, naturally, met their resistance. In the 15th century A series of uprisings occur in Galicia and Old Castile. The peasant movement reached its greatest extent in the second half of the 15th century. in the Balearic Islands (revolts of 1450 and 1463) and in Catalonia. Already in the 50s of the 15th century. The Catalan remens demanded the right to redeem themselves from personal dependence, and from 1462 they rose up in armed struggle, but the Cortes troops easily scattered the peasant detachments. In 1482, the peasants rebelled again under the leadership of Pedro de la Sala. The success of the uprising was facilitated by the sharp political struggle of the king with the rebellious nobility. The scale of the movement forced the ruling class to make concessions. In 1486, “bad customs” were abolished and the redemption of remens for a fairly high fee was allowed.
The ruling class and internal political struggle. In the XIV-XV centuries. in Castile and Portugal, the opportunity for wealthy peasants and townspeople to acquire nobility has largely disappeared. Even earlier, at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries, groups of rural and urban caballeros as special class groups were blurred; their impoverished part becomes part of the small peasantry and unprivileged townspeople, and the elite joins the ranks of the hidalgos and breaks with production activities. From this time on, both legislation and class morality considered work (especially in crafts and trade) incompatible with noble status. At the same time, the hidalgos continued to live not only in the village, but also in the city, forming an influential part of its population, controlling municipal institutions. Another characteristic feature of this period is the strengthening of the isolation of the upper layer of the feudal class - the aristocracy (ricosombres, grandees). This was facilitated by the introduction into Castile at the end of the 13th century. primogeniture, i.e., the indivisibility of the estates of noble lords during inheritance, as well as deliberately created restrictions in the acquisition of a title for hidalgos. Finally, at the end of the XIII-XV centuries. The struggle within the ruling class is noticeably intensifying. The suspension of the Reconquista led to a decrease in the income of the nobility; acute discontent of both feudal lords and cities was caused by the centralizing aspirations of the kings; various factions of the nobility competed for political influence and for the right to appropriate crown lands and revenues. All this created favorable conditions for acute and protracted internecine struggle in all Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula. The XIV-XV centuries were a time of real feudal anarchy, when the royal power, only balancing between warring “unions”, “brotherhoods” and “leagues” of grandees with the help of bribery and terror, could maintain control over the situation. The unification of Castile and Aragon made it possible to somewhat stabilize the situation in Spain. The complexity of the balance of political forces within the country and the presence of a large warlike nobility are among the reasons that prompted the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs in the 15th-16th centuries. encourage external expansion, in particular colonial conquests.
Church and heresies. The role of the Catholic Church in medieval Spain was especially great, because the Reconquista was fought under the slogans of the struggle of Christianity against Islam. The Church not only preached a religious war, but also directly participated in it. Many bishops had their own armed forces and personally participated in battles and campaigns; Spiritual knightly orders played a major role in the Reconquista. The church also had a significant influence on the politics of royal power: the head (primate) of the Spanish church, the Archbishop of Toledo, and other prominent prelates (archbishops of Santiago, Cartagena, Barcelona) were influential members of the royal councils, chancellors of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
The Church in Spain made great efforts to convert Muslims in the conquered territories to Christianity. Religious intolerance became especially noticeable in the 14th and 15th centuries. Forcibly baptized Moors (Moriscos) often practiced Islam in secret. The Mozarab Christian Church, which existed in al-Andalus, developed some of its own rituals and features in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, which were not recognized by the papacy and clergy of Castile and Aragon. All this gave rise to strengthening in the 15th century. the fight against heresies and the establishment in 1481 of a special church tribunal - the Inquisition. In 1483, the Spanish Inquisition was headed by Torquemada, who, with the support of Ferdinand and Isabella (nicknamed the Catholic kings), carried out massive persecution of the Moors, Moriscos and heretics.
"Lion Court" in the Alhambra (Granada). XIV century
Spain and Portugal emerged as single, centralized states in the context of the completion of the reconquista, which affected some of the features of their historical development. As a result of the reconquista, by the end of the 13th century. In the hands of the Arabs, only minor possessions remained in the south of Spain - the Emirate of Granada with its capital Granada.
The entire remaining territory of the Iberian Peninsula was liberated from the Arabs.
Throughout the XIV and most of the XV centuries. Spain still remained divided into the Leon-Castilian and Aragon-Catalan kingdoms, each of which in turn disintegrated into many feudal lordships.
The reign of the Castilian kings Juan II (1406-1454) and Henry IV (1454-1474) was filled with endless feudal unrest, protests by large feudal lords, who significantly increased their possessions during the reconquista, against royal power.
The rebel feudal lords plundered the royal domain, destroyed villages that depended on the cities, and tried to damage the cities themselves, which, as a rule, sided with the royal power.
In the XIV-XV centuries. urban development has achieved significant success. Crafts that were used back in the 12th century. was exclusively occupied by the population of individual cities, for example Sant'Iago, from the 13th century. became widespread in all major cities and especially in those of them that were located on the territory conquered from the Arabs, where the craft existed even under Arab rule.
The statutes of guilds and brotherhoods testified to the development in the cities of Spain of the production of wool and silk fabrics, weapons, jewelry, etc. These crafts in the 14th century. no longer served only the local market.
Handicraft products were exported far beyond the country's borders. Despite poor communications within the country, the importance of fairs grew (in Seville, Murcia, Cuenca and other cities).
The fair in Medina del Campo acquired particular importance, becoming a trading center for the northern and northwestern cities and central regions of Castile.
Crafts and trade developed in the XIV-XV centuries. also in Catalonia and Aragon, especially in cities located on the Mediterranean coast.
The largest urban center there was Barcelona. Catalan merchants competed with Italian ones in trade with various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa located along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Catalan cities had their own consuls in Italian cities such as Genoa and Pisa.
Catalan merchants traded in Flanders, their ships penetrated into the North Sea and the Baltic.
The commercial law of Barcelona was adopted in the cities of Southern France. Cartographers of Catalonia and the island of Mallorca created entire schools of followers of their art, which at that time was considered superior to Italian.
The kings of Aragon and feudal lords, who received considerable income from foreign trade, encouraged merchants in every possible way and gave the cities various privileges and benefits.
However, the existing feudal order simultaneously created many obstacles in the form of numerous customs outposts and duties that constrained internal trade, privileges that were given to some cities to the detriment of others, feudal robberies on high roads and on sea routes.
