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Unit 11: Our Past
Prehistory
The First People
The first people were hunter and gatherers. They were also nomads. They did not know how to make fire.
Neanderthals
After many years another group of people, neanderthals, evolved. They learned how to make fire and they used more sophisticated weapons and tools. They also used a simple language to
communicate.
Cro-Magnons
Cor-Magnons were the first homo-sapiens. They had the same body shape as us today. The made even more sophisticated tools and weapons like fishooks and bows and arrows. They learnt to store food for the winter and they built houses from logs and stone. They also began to form bigger social groups and they learnt how to paint and sculpt.
Pre-Roman History
Before the Romans there were six different tribes that settled in Spain.
The Celts
The Celts lived in the northern and western areas and had a great knowledge of how to use iron.
The Celtiberians
The Celtiberians settled in the central zones. They were influenced by both the iberians and the celts.
The Iberians
The Iberians settled in the southern and eastern areas. They had an advanced culture and lived in cities.
The Phoenicians
The Phoenicians lived to the east of the Mediterranean and on the western edge of Asia Minor. They were traders and excellent sailors. They founded Cadiz and Almuñecar.
The Greeks
The Greeks founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean.
The Carthaginians
The Carthaginians lived in the north of Africa. They were traders and found the city of Cartagenas.
Rome and Hispania
The Romans
The Romans invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC. They called it Hispania and divided it into three parts:
Tarraconensis
Baetica
Lusitania
The Roman Influence
During the Roman Empire the Spanish economy grew. Gold, wool, olive oil and wine were exported to the rest of the empire.
The Romans built many roads and aqueducts.
They also founded important gold, iron, tin and lead mines.
The Middle Ages
The Middle Ages was between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. It had a system called a Feudal System. The system consisted of kings, lords, knights and peasants.
People lived in small communities in a manor. A manor was a castle owned by a lord. It had a church, a village and the surrounding farms and forests.
The Catholic Church was very powerful at this time. It controlled most of the educational institutions during the Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula
Germanic Invasions
When the Roman Empire fell, the Suebi, Vandals and Alans took control of part of Hispania.
The Visigoths
Un the 5th century AD, the Visigoths conquered Hispania. The Visigoth Kingdom lasted until 711 AD.
Al-Ándalus
In 711 AD the Moors from the north of Africa invaded Hispania.
The Reconquest and the Catholic Monarchs
During the Reconquest, the Christian Kingdoms began to fight against the Muslim kingdoms. The Reconquest lasted around 700 years.
Isabel and Fernando united the whole of Christian Spain which became Portugal, Aragón and Castilla.
