Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar) and to two provinces created there in the period of the Roman Republic: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. In the period of the Roman Empire, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two other provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed to Tarraconensis.

Visigoths and Arabs

With time, a secondary form of the word Hispania gained usage: Spania. According to Isidore of Seville, it is with the Visigothic domination of the zone that the idea of a peninsular unity is sought after, and the phrase Mother Hispania is first spoken. Up to that date, Hispania designated all of the peninsula's lands. In Historia Gothorum, the Visigoth Suinthila appears as the first king of "totius Spaniae"; the history's prologue is the well-known De laude Spaniae ("About Hispania's pride") where Hispania is dealt with as a Gothic nation.

Related Topics:
Isidore of Seville - Visigoth - Suinthila - King - Goth

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With the Muslim Moorish invasion of Hispania (???????, Isbá-nía ), which they called Al-Andalus (???????), the different chronicles and documents of the high Middle Ages designate as Spania, España or Espanha only the Muslim-dominated territory. King Alfonso I of Aragon (1104-1134) says in his documents that "he reigns over Pamplona, Aragon, Sobrarbe y Ribagorza", and that when in 1126 he made an expedition to Málaga he "went to the España lands".

Related Topics:
Muslim - Moor - Al-Andalus - Middle Ages - Alfonso I of Aragon - 1104 - 1134 - Pamplona - Aragon - Sobrarbe - Ribagorza - 1126 - Málaga

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But by the last years of the 12th century the whole Iberian Peninsula, whether Muslim or Christian, became known as España or Espanha and the denomination "the Five Kingdoms of Spain" became used to refer to the Muslim Kingdom of Granada, and the Christian Kingdom of León and Castile, Kingdom of Navarre, Kingdom of Portugal and Crown of Aragon (including the County of Barcelona).

Related Topics:
12th century - Muslim - Kingdom of Granada - Christian - Kingdom of León - Castile - Kingdom of Navarre - Kingdom of Portugal - Crown of Aragon - County of Barcelona

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The process of the Reconquista (Reconquest) of Hispania from the Moors, produced the emergenge of several Christian kingdoms, as the ones mentioned above. Some of these eventually merged into a single country. In fact, with the union of Castille and Aragon in 1492 (and specially with the incorporation of Navarre in 1512), the word Spain (España, in Spanish, or Espanha, in Portuguese), began being used only to refere to the new kingdom and not to the whole of the Iberian peninsula, now formed of two independent countries, Portugal and Spain.

Related Topics:
Reconquista - Castille - Aragon - 1492 - Navarre - 1512 - Spanish - Portuguese - Portugal - Spain

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