This section and its timeline serve to highlight the fact that Spain’s history as a nation is more complicated than it seems at a passing glance. While events like the Spanish Inquisition and the departure of Columbus for the Americas are well-known, historical treatments of the Iberian peninsula often skip or ignore the periods of Spanish Romanization and Al-Andalus. Both of these periods radically change Spain’s overall history, and they demonstrate how diverse the country’s roots are in reality. The era of Romanization brought modern infrastructure and technology to an otherwise unevolved area, paving the way for the development of a more advanced civilization. Further, during the seven century Muslim rule of Spain, many of the countries most recognizable architectural landmarks were constructed, such as the Royal Alcázar and Giralda Tower. Yet, despite the importance of these periods, they are still rarely taught in academia, both in the US and Spain itself.

Common knowledge of Spain’s history begins with the Reconquista, meaning the period when the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabela, forcibly retook the country from the Muslims in the name of Christianity in the 8th century and ended Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. This marks a radical shift in the country’s attitude towards other religions and ethnicities. After the reconquest, the Spanish Inquisition sought to send anyone who would damage the religious purity of the country (conversos and non-Christians) into exile, often through violent methods. In addition to growing violence against non-Christians, the Inquisition intensified the religious discrimination in Spain, and unfortunately, echoes of the Inquisition still reverberate throughout the country today.

This explains the central question that this section poses: if this history is so important to Spain as a nation, why do so few people know about it or study it? The truth lies in the one-dimensional view of otherness that was established during the Inquisition. Even in modern times, a diverse history of Spain is one that many of the country’s citizens would reject, mainly because it goes against the narrative that Spain has always been a pure, Catholic country, even if its history proves otherwise.