It is possible that the Neolithic revolution,
the discovery of agriculture, and the evolution from nomadic
to sedentary civilization came to Europe from Africa via
what is known today as Andalusia. This influence was completed,
with the passage of time, with the transition from East
to West, from the Mediterranean World to the Atlantic Universe,
which began with the discovery of metals and the arrival
by sea of the eastern colonists. This combination of the
earth´s fertility with metallurgy and seamanship
gave rise to the Tartesos phenomenon, the mysterious lost
civilization which inhabited the southern Iberian peninsula
from the Bronze Age onwards.
The earliest known monarchy in Western Europe, Tartesos was an agricultural,
cattle-raising civilization which exploited mines and worked gold. Its ships
traded with England and Britanny in the West and the Phoenicians in the East.
Tartesos was the first and most magnificent result of a complex geographical
location between two seas and two continents. Rome realized that these lands
were an open door to the threat of Carthage. Its legions appeared for the first
time during the III century B.C. This exuberant province, known as Bética,
formed part of the great civilized world for seven centuries and provided the
empire´s first metals, wines, wheat, philosophers, writers, and the first
two emperors born outside the Italian peninsula: Trajan and Hadrian. Other
settlements appeared in the North. The Vandals descended from the other side
of the Rhine, arriving in the year 411 A.D. and settling in the Guadalquivir
valley and Northern Africa. They united the two coasts for more than half a
century. Before being expelled by the Visigoths, they gave a new name to this
tip of Europe: Vandalusia.
 Following their arrival in the year 711, the Moslems began
a prodigious stay in the region. The caliphate of Cordoba
was the most sophisticated state in Europe. For eight centuries,
the Arabs enlightened the area with agricultural techniques,
botanical and scientific knowledge, poetry and intellectual
development.
The Caliphate´s political breakdown was used by
the Christian kingdoms in the north of the peninsula to
accelerate their Reconquista, or Reconquest. Cordoba fell
in 1236 and Seville in 1248. The last stronghold, the Kingdom
of Granada, was conquered by the Catholic monarchs in 1492.
In the same year, Columbus sailed from the Andalusian port
of Palos, in Huelva, to discover America.
The world´s economic and political center of gravity had been displaced.
One Andalusian city took advantage of this crucial moment in history and went
on to enjoy 150 glorious years, becoming "the beating heart of Europe". Seville
was the nerve center of the Spanish empire. Silver and gold, brought to its harbours
by ships arriving from America, was coined and distributed throughout Europe.
Cádiz later continued Andalusia´s dominance of trade with the Indies.
The Andalusian town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda was the starting and finishing
point of the First Circumnavigation of the World.
 Later, romantic travellers would recall the splendors
of the past, with the aid of archaeological remains, ruined
towers, and patios hidden within old houses and palaces.
They gave rise to the allegorical figures of Carmen, the
typical Spanish woman, Don Juan, generous highway robbers,
brave bullfighters, and the exotic allure of the eastern
expansionists, an image perceived by foreign eyes which
still persists to this day.
Andalusia´s recent history tells of a 19th century plagued by political
upheaval. It all began with the War of Independence and the first ratification
of the Spanish Constitution, at the Court of Cádiz, in 1812. Attempts
at modernization and industrialization, the massive exploitation of mineral resources,
and the spectacular increase in exports of wine and olive oil were the most notable
events within an economy which preferred to remain anchored to its agricultural
roots.
The 20th century began with the goal of regeneration and
was soon imbued with the optimism of the twenties. However,
the persistence of social instability gave way to the Civil
War of 1936 and its aftermath. After the remarkable economic
and social transformation of the sixties and seventies,
democracy returned to Andalusia once again and it was declared
an Autonomous Region in 1981. The Junta de Andalucía
was created as its highest governing body, and its parliament
became the supreme instrument of representation for a population
of approximately seven million inhabitants. |
