The Iberian Peninsula, also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in the southwest corner of Europe, defining the westernmost edge of Eurasia. It is principally divided between Spain and Portugal, comprising most of their territory, as well as a small area of Southern France, Andorra and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 53 million, it is the second largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula.
The Reconquista was a period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula of about 780 years between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711, the expansion of the Christian kingdoms throughout Hispania, and the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada in 1492.
Castile is a territory of imprecise limits located in Spain. Its extension is often ascribed to the sum of the regions of Old Castile and New Castile, as they were formally defined in the 1833 territorial division of Spain. Those two regions cover the following modern autonomous communities: the eastern part of Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, and Community of Madrid as well as Cantabria and La Rioja. However, it has been pointed out that in practice the modern limits of Castile are imprecise, and that this name has been used mainly as a reference for the image of Spain as a nation.
Castile and León is an autonomous community in north-western Spain.
Asturleonese is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturias, northwestern Castile and León and Cantabria. The name of the language is largely uncommon among its native speakers, as it forms a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties and therefore it is primarily referred to by various regional glossonyms like Leonese, Cantabrian, Asturian or Mirandese. Extremaduran is sometimes included as well.
There are two names given in Spanish to the Spanish language: español ("Spanish") and castellano ("Castilian"). Spanish speakers from different countries or backgrounds can show a preference for one term or the other, or use them indiscriminately, but political issues or common usage might lead speakers to prefer one term over the other. This article identifies the differences between those terms, the countries or backgrounds that show a preference for one or the other, and the implications the choice of words might have for a native Spanish speaker.
León is a province of northwestern Spain, in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León.
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León. The kings of León fought civil wars, wars against neighbouring kingdoms, and campaigns to repel invasions by both the Moors and the Vikings, all in order to protect their kingdom's changing fortunes.
An alcázar is a type of Moorish castle or palace in Spain and Portugal built during Muslim rule although the term is also used for many medieval castles built by Christians on earlier Roman, Visigothic or Moorish fortifications. Most of the alcázars were built between the 8th and 15th centuries. Many cities in Spain have an alcázar. The term is frequently used as a synonym for castillo or castle; palaces built by Christian rulers were also often called alcázars.
The term Catholic Monarchs refers to Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the de facto unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; on marriage they were given a papal dispensation to deal with consanguinity by Sixtus IV. They married on October 19, 1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was eighteen years old and Ferdinand a year younger. It is generally accepted by most scholars that the unification of Spain can essentially be traced back to the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain was formed as a dynastic union of two crowns rather than a unitary state, as Castile and Aragon remained separate kingdoms until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707–1716. The court of Ferdinand and Isabella was constantly on the move, in order to bolster local support for the crown from local feudal lords. The title of "Catholic King and Queen" was officially bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella by Pope Alexander VI in 1494, in recognition of their defence of the Catholic faith within their realms.
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain. It should not be confused with the larger Crown of Aragon, that also included other territories — the Principality of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, and other possessions that are now part of France, Italy, and Greece — that were also under the rule of the King of Aragon, but were administered separately from the Kingdom of Aragon.
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance nation native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history and diverse cultures, including a number of different languages, among which Spanish is the majority language and the only one that is official throughout the whole country.
Iberian federalism, pan-Iberism or simply Iberism are the names for the pan-nationalist ideology supporting the federation of all the territories of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Kingdom of Valencia, located in the eastern shore of the Iberian Peninsula, was one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon. When the Crown of Aragon merged by dynastic union with the Crown of Castile to form the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Valencia became a component realm of the Spanish monarchy.
Castile or Castilla may refer to:
Both the perceived nationhood of Spain, and the perceived distinctions between different parts of its territory are said to derive from historical, geographical, linguistic, economic, political, ethnic and social factors.
Castilians are a subgroup of Spaniards and the inhabitants of the historical region of Castile, in central Spain. The exact limits of this region are disputed, and the western parts of Castile and León, Cantabria and La Rioja are often also included in the definition, but this is controversial for historical reasons and the strong sense of unique cultural identity of those regions. The province of Albacete is also often included but not always, as it was previously has part of the Region of Murcia.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Spain:
The Region of León, Leonese region or Leonese Country is a historic territory defined by the 1833 Spanish administrative organisation. The Leonese region encompassed the provinces of Salamanca, Zamora, and León, now part of the modern Spanish autonomous community of Castile and León. As is the case with other historical regions, and continuing with centuries of history, the inhabitants of the Leonese region are still called Leonese. Even today, according with official autonomous government, the historical territorial adjective is used in addition with the modern annexed territory, the rest of Old Castile, being "Castilians and Leonese".
The Kingdom of Granada was a territorial jurisdiction of the Crown of Castile from the conclusion of the Reconquista in 1492 until Javier de Burgos' provincial division of Spain in 1833. This was a "kingdom" ("reino") in the second sense given by the Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española: the Crown of Castile consisted of several such kingdoms. Its extent is detailed in Gelo del Cabildo's 1751 Respuestas Generales del Catastro de Ensenada (1750–54), which was part of the documentation of a census. Like the other kingdoms within Spain, the Kingdom of Granada was abolished by the 1833 territorial division of Spain.
