THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF IBERIA - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 5

T HE L ANDS AND

P EOPLES OF I BERIA

Spain and Portugal are inescapably linked to one another by their geo-
graphical position and their historical experience. That these two coun-
tries have preserved their separate identities within the Iberian
Peninsula is due to a complex array of physical, political, economic, and
cultural factors and, at times, unpredictable accidents of fate.
Modern Spain and Portugal emerged from more than 2,000 years of
life on the periphery of Western civilization. Like most of the Mediter-
ranean peoples, the Iberian and Celtic inhabitants of the peninsula
experienced Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman influence in
varying degrees. Roman rule, as elsewhere, yielded to the triumph of
Christianity and the ascendancy of Germanic tribes.
The arrival of Muslim invaders in the Iberian Peninsula in 711 cre-
ated a distinct dimension of European history. For the next eight cen-
turies Islam, Christianity, and Judaism coexisted in a relationship that
was often financially and intellectually enriching but periodically dis-
rupted by religious tensions and civil strife.
During the Middle Ages a number of Christian kingdoms arose, pur-
suing a “Reconquest” of the territory lost to the “Moors.” Of these,
Castile and Aragon gained dominance over lesser realms to become the
progenitors of a united Spain. By 1147 the Portuguese had expelled the
Muslim overlords from Lisbon and secured effective independence.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RENAISSANCE
In the conventional periodization of European history, the Renaissance
has long been viewed as the shift between “medieval” and “modern.”
All the major European states are described as making this fundamental
transition some time in the second half of the 15th century. A more
sophisticated understanding of their respective experiences reveals that,
for most of them, modernity came later. In Germany and Italy it was

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