The History of Spain

ISBN-13: 9783565081646 / Angielski / Miękka / 2025 / 204 str.

Auke de Haan

Opis

Spain's cradle rocked with Celtiberian clashes and Carthaginian elephants trampling Pyrenees passes, till Rome's eagles perched heavy, aqueducts snaking Segovia's stones while gladiators bled in Mérida's dust. Visigoths shuffled in post-empire shuffle, their Toledo thrones wobbling till Moorish blades sliced from Gibraltar in 711, birthing Al-Andalus' mosaic marvels-Córdoba's caliphs stacking libraries while Granada's gardens whispered poetry. Reconquista's slow grind reclaimed inch by inch, Ferdinand and Isabella sealing the deal in '92, expelling Jews and Muslims amid bonfires of books, their cross-and-sword zeal fueling Columbus' sails across the Atlantic foam.Golden Age gleamed with Habsburg crowns: Charles V juggling European empires from Madrid's austere halls, Philip II dispatching armadas that shattered on Drake's cannons, while Cervantes scribbled Quixote's windmill tilts in debtor's jail. Baroque painters like Velázquez captured court jesters' smirks, but decline gnawed-wars draining coffers till Bourbon reforms patched the leaks, Enlightenment inks stirring colonial cracks that erupted in independence shouts from Mexico to Manila. Napoleon's boot in 1808 sparked guerrilla grit, birthing Goya's nightmare etchings and a liberal constitution that flickered faint.Civil War's '36 thunder tore the tapestry: Republicans rallying red flags against Franco's falangist fists, bombs raining on Guernica while Hemingway typed dispatches from the rubble. Dictatorship's gray grip lasted till '75, transition whispers blooming into democracy's roar under Juan Carlos' steady hand, EU bucks greasing the gears. Spain's no straight siesta-it's a paella pot of pirates and partisans, proving a sunburnt shore can scorch the world's stage.

Spain's cradle rocked with Celtiberian clashes and Carthaginian elephants trampling Pyrenees passes, till Rome's eagles perched heavy, aqueducts snaking Segovia's stones while gladiators bled in...