Early History of The Hispanic Period and the Iberian Peninsula

According to the history of art periods, amongst the regions of today’s modern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula was known to have the most unique form of civilization.

This came about by the way its inhabitants had linked and blended cultures of the Near East and Western world, affording them the luxury of enjoying the riches of art styles and culture from both the east and the west.

The Iberian Peninsula, for over a thousand years possessed a spectacular drama of Christian and Moor fanaticisms that resulted in a blend of two racial cultures that has produced today's modern Spanish and Portuguese.

The Settlers of the Iberian Peninsula

Great nations of antiquity with their rich art expressions and designs settled in the Iberian Peninsula, with the first set being the Iberians and later the Celtics. These groups of people fused together at some point in time and their most direct descendants, according to historical sources, were the Basques who were majorly inhabitants in the Pyrenees.

Other settlers include the Greeks, Berbers, Romans, and Phoenicians. The Romans it were who called the growing region Hispania, and as the Greeks, Berbers and Phoenicians left the mark of their creative art styles, the Romans left their fine architectural edifices and legions, and subsequently, their ruins. And there ended a blending of features and characteristic styles of a diverse people of the peninsula.

Changes came when the Barbarians invaded Rome and all Roman legions, including the most distant ones, were recalled to the Tiber river banks for the battle against the invading armies. Prior to this, Hispania had enjoyed the privileges of military protection from the Romans, but as the army was recalled for more crucial issues in the Roman Empire, Hispania became vulnerable to outside invaders without Rome's protection.

By the early decades of the 5th century, a people who had become partly Christian-ised and known as the Visigoths, crossed the Pyrenees and occupied (without molestation) all former Roman settlements that the legions had left behind and began to build their own homes and churches.

The art styles of the Visigoths had both Near Eastern and Byzantine influences, and up till the present day, some of the architectural styles of these people still remain in Spain, with the most renowned one sited in Toledo.

By the early 8th century, the Moors, a powerful group of people at the peak of heroic glory who were of Saracen origin invaded the weak and disorganized feudal states of the Iberian Peninsula whose inhabitants plainly had only the Christian faith in common.

The frenzied ardor of the Mohammedan, his reverence for the Holy Koran and his unshaken faith in Allah created a mindset that made the destruction and persecution of believers in rival creeds such as the Christians, become both a pleasure and a religious duty.

Following incessant battles and the fall of important cities like Cordova, Valencia, Granada, Seville and other southern cities, the Arab invaders, victorious in the numerous wars, moved further northwards and were determined to spread their beliefs and eliminate the power and religious authority of the Christians.

By the year 732 they successfully crossed the Pyrenees and at a location close to the city of Tours, an epic battle was fought against the Christians. This was a battle of world history that finally removed the political and religious influence of the Moors and the indoctrinations of the Koran from Western Europe.

The Moors eventually retreated and the Christians slowly gained a hold. The Moors, defeated in battle soon 'ran' back through the Pyrenees to their strongholds in the south of Spain. Here they waged bitter wars against the slowly advancing Christians for over five centuries. And by the 13th century, Moorish properties and holdings were reduced to Granada.

The modern Spaniard and Portuguese can be aptly described as the descendants of a blend of two characteristic races that were born through the linking of two diverse cultures of the Western world and the Near East.

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