History of Spain

After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the V century AD. Peninsula invaded German tribes - the Vandals, Visigoths, and Franks Sueves. In the VIII century AD. first detachments of the Arabs and Berbers (who later gave a common name - the Moors), led by commander Tariq Ibn Zinda invaded the peninsula through the strait later named Gibraltar, that is Tariq's mountain. The defeat, the Arabs kept her under his rule for eight centuries. During this period, Spain became the richest and most prosperous country in Europe. It should be noted, however, that for nearly eight hundred years of Arab rule in Spain emerged a multitude of small States that have retained autonomy in the Middle Ages. During the Reconquista - the war of liberation against Arab rule - have the Spanish kingdom of Aragon and Castile. In 1497 they merged, and from this time began the creation of the modern Spanish state, resulting in most of the independent States in the Iberian Peninsula has lost, not without fierce resistance from their side, their independence. In a period of great geographical discoveries of Spain took control of vast areas of North, Central and South America, as well as large tracts of land in Asia and Africa, and the beginning of the XVI century. there was Spanish colonial empire - the most powerful state at that time. But after fifty years, Spain began to lose its power. In the wars with England, it suffered a crushing defeat and lost control of the sea. In the XVIII century.