The name of Galicia , an autonomous community of Spain and former kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, derives from the Latin toponym Callaecia, later Gallaecia, related to the name of an ancient tribe that resided north of the Douro river, the Gallaeci or Callaeci in Latin, or Kallaikói (καλλαικoι) in Greek. [1]
The etymology of the name has been studied since the 7th century. The earliest known attempt at this was due to Isidore of Seville, who related the name of the Galicians and of the Gauls to the Greek word γάλα, milk, 'they are called Galicians because of their fair skin, as the Gauls. For they are fairer than the rest of the peoples of Spain.' [1] Currently, scholars [1] relate the name of the ancient Callaeci either to the Proto-Indo-European *kal-n-eH2 'hill', derived through a local relational suffix -aik-, so meaning 'the hill (people)'; or either to Proto-Celtic *kallī- 'forest', so meaning 'the forest (people)'. [2]
The Callaeci were the first tribe in the area to help the Lusitanians against the invading Romans, and gave their name to the rest of the tribes living north of them, [3] [4] and to their victor, Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus, who defeated them in 137 BC and was acclaimed in Rome.
From the beginning of the Christian era, after the campaigns of Augustus had brought all of Hispania under Roman control, the lands of Gallaecia—including Galicia and northern Portugal to the Douro river—were organized into two conventi iuridici , Bracarense and Lucense, [5] belonging to the province Tarraconensis. During the last years of the 3rd century during Diocletian's reforms these two convents, together with the Asturicense, and maybe also the Cluniacense, [6] were organized in a single presidential province, Gallaecia, later promoted to consular status in the 4th century, with the city of Bracara Augusta its capital.
In 411 the Suevi, a Germanic people, settled in Gallaecia, establishing a kingdom which maintained its independence till 585, when it was annexed by the Visigoths of Spain. During these two centuries Gallaecia and its evolved form Gallicia [7] became the name associated with the kingdom of the Suevi and with its territory, which included current Galicia, much of northern Portugal as far as Coimbra and Idanha-a-Velha, much of the Spanish provinces of Asturias, León, and Zamora, and parts of Salamanca. [8]
In 666 the southern extreme of the province, beyond the Douro, was formally reincorporated into Lusitania, but the destruction of the Visigothic kingdom in 711 by the Arabs, and the early reconquest of Coimbra by Galician forces in 866 led to the name Gallicia being applied not just to the westernmost areas north of the Douro, but also to much of the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, [9] from the Bay of Biscay to Coimbra, and from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Eo, Navia and Cea [10] rivers in the east, including the city of León. [11] So, from that time and to the twelfth century the name Galicia maintained some kind of duality, which is exactly symbolised by the Arab geographers and historians, who gave the name Jillīqīyah (adaptation of Gallaecia) to the Christian kingdom of the northwest and to the lands north and west of the Sistema Central mountains, now known as Kingdom of Asturias and Kingdom of León, whilst the term Ghālīsīyah (adaptation of Galicia) was more usually reserved for Galicia and Portugal, although both terms were used interchangeably. [12] On the other hand, Gallaecia or an evolved form of it was a common name used by other Europeans to refer in general to the Christians of the northwest of Hispania and to their kingdom. [13] [14] But from the 11th-12th century the independence of Portugal in the south, and the prominence of the city of León in the east as capital of the Christians, led to the restriction of the name Galicia to roughly its actual territorial boundaries.
During the 13th century, with the written emergence of the Galician language, Galiza became the most usual written form of the name of the country, being replaced during the 15th and 16th centuries by the current form, Galicia, which coincides with the Castilian Spanish name. The historical denomination Galiza became popular again during the end of the 19th and the first three-quarters of the 20th century, and it is still used with some frequency by among others the Galician reintegrationists. Nevertheless, this alternative is now seldom used by the Xunta de Galicia, the local devolved government. Besides, the Royal Galician Academy, the institution responsible for regulating the Galician language, whilst recognizing it as a legitimate current denomination has stated that the only official name of the country is Galicia. [15]
Galicia is an autonomous community of Spain and historic nationality under Spanish law. Located in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, it includes the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.
Santiago de Compostela or Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route since the 9th century. In 1985, the city's Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
María Rosalía Rita de Castro, was a Galician poet and novelist, considered one of the most important figures of the 19th-century Spanish literature and modern lyricism. Widely regarded as the greatest Galician cultural icon, she was a leading figure in the emergence of the literary Galician language. Through her work, she projected multiple emotions, including the yearning for the celebration of Galician identity and culture, and female empowerment. She is credited with challenging the traditional female writer archetype.
Galician-Portuguese, also known as Old Galician-Portuguese, Old Galician or Old Portuguese, Medieval Galician or Medieval Portuguese when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. Alternatively, it can be considered a historical period of the Galician and Portuguese languages.
Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities included the port Cale (Porto), the governing centers Bracara Augusta (Braga), Lucus Augusti (Lugo) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and their administrative areas Conventus bracarensis, Conventus lucensis and Conventus asturicensis.
Vímara Peres was a ninth-century nobleman who served as the first Count of Portugal.
García II, King of Galicia, was the youngest of the three sons and heirs of Ferdinand I, King of Castile and León, and Sancha of León, whose Leonese inheritance included the lands García would be given. Garcia first appears in an 11 September 1064 settlement with Suero, Bishop of Mondoñedo, his father confirming the agreement.
This is a historical timeline of Portugal.
The Gallaeci were a Celtic tribal complex who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the Norte Region in northern Portugal, and the Spanish regions of Galicia, western Asturias and western León before and during the Roman period. They spoke a Q-Celtic language related to Northeastern Hispano-Celtic, called Gallaecian or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic. The region was annexed by the Romans in the time of Caesar Augustus during the Cantabrian Wars, a war which initiated the assimilation of the Gallaeci into Latin culture.
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded by the Suebic king Hermeric in 409, with its capital established in Braga. It was the first kingdom that officially adopted Catholicism. In 449, it minted its own currency. In 585, it became a part of the Visigothic Kingdom. In the 8th century, Galicia became a part of the newly founded Christian Kingdom of Asturias, which later became the Kingdom of León, while occasionally achieving independence under the authority of its own kings. Compostela became the capital of Galicia in the 11th century, while the independence of Portugal (1128) determined its southern boundary. The accession of Castilian King Ferdinand III to the Leonese kingdom in 1230 brought Galicia under the control of the Crown of Castile.
The Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Galicia or Suebi Kingdom of Galicia, was a Germanic post-Roman kingdom that was one of the first to separate from the Roman Empire. Based in the former Roman provinces of Gallaecia and northern Lusitania, the de facto kingdom was established by the Suebi about 409, and during the 6th century it became a formally declared kingdom identifying with Gallaecia. It maintained its independence until 585, when it was annexed by the Visigoths, and was turned into the sixth province of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania.
Galicians are a European ethnic group from Spain; it is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland in Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance languages are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native Galician and Spanish.
Portus Cale was an ancient town and port in present-day northern Portugal, in the area of today's Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. The name of the town eventually influenced the name of the subsequent country of Portugal, from the 9th century onwards.
Eduardo Modesto Blanco Amor was a Galician writer and journalist who wrote in Galician and in Spanish.
Galician Solidarity was a Galician regionalist political organization active between 1907 and 1912.
Acción Gallega was one of the most important agrarianist, antiturnista and anti-client politics (anticaciquismo) political movements in Galicia in the 20th century. With a decidedly antiforal and redemptionist character, in its first formulation, constituted the radical sector of the Galician agrarianist in the 1910s.
Galicia irredenta or Galicia estremeira, also spelled as Galiza irredenta and Galiza estremeira and also known as Faixa Leste or Franxa Leste, is a term used for all Galician-speaking territories located outside of Galicia. These are all located in Spain, in either Asturias or Castile and León. These territories are sometimes divided into three subregions: El Bierzo, Eo-Navia and As Portelas.
calzata.
