The Iberian
Peninsula
The Iberian
Peninsula, to clear up any confusion at the outset, simply refers
to the landmass in southwestern Europe that contains the
modern nations of Spain
and Portugal. The term “Iberia” stretches back to the Roman
Empire, and was used by Roman administrators to encompass both the Roman
provinces of Hispania (modern Spain) and Lusitania
(modern Portugal). The term “Hispania”
in turn (whence “Spain,” “España,” and “Hispanic”)
apparently derives from the city of “Hispalis,” modern
Seville, which in turn is probably of Carthaginian (Phoenician) origin,
relating in some accounts to the large number of lagomorphs (rabbits and hares)
that populated the region. Some accounts
alternatively trace the origin of “Hispalis” to a
Greek colony. In any case, “Iberia”
essentially denotes the peninsula west of the Pyrenees mountains which separate France
from Spain. This relatively modest-sized peninsula with a
moderate population has had a tremendous impact on world history, since it was
here that the first European mariners set out into the forbidding, distant
oceans to round the Cape of Good Hope in Africa
under Vasco da Gama, and
head westward to the Americas
under Columbus. The extraordinary breadth, durability, and
historical impact of the Spanish
Empire are detailed here,
while reasons for the pioneering and pivotal role of Spain and Portugal in the
European Age of Exploration—the foundation of the West’s global dominance over
the past half-millennium—are discussed here.
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