Class overview

This course offers an overview of Spanish History from the year 711, with the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, through 1898, when the last territories of the Spanish Empire were finally lost.  These two points in time are of special importance to Spain’s history.  The first marks the beginning of the era in which the Iberian Peninsula came to be known as al-Andalus, a powerful Muslim territory that “broke” the homogeneity of Christian Iberia and greatly impacted what Spain would eventually become.  The second marks the fall of the Spanish Empire with the loss of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.  As a result, this moment also brought a new national focus onto internal, enduring problems, such as the need for modernization, economic development and the conquest of democratic values. The struggle to achieve all of the above was evidently reflected in 20th century Spain.