Theme:
A country whose situation lay in the path of great world events, so that the Spanish (sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly) repeatedly played a central role in changing the course of world history. And whose site in pre-industrial times served as an admirable cradle for some of the world's most successful political organizations. But, whose site was ultimately proved to be inadequate to support her political ambitions during Europe's ascent to industrial power and world domination--so that the 20th Century found Spain not master of half the world, but a pitiable ruin--living on memories of past glories.
Sub-theme:
That despite Spain's lamentable condition in recent times, her political behavior on earlier, more successful times helps explain the condition of the areas she conquered and dominated--Hispanic America in particular.
Corollary and persisting argument: That the present cannot easily be understood without understanding the past: in short, the present is incomprehensible outside an historic context. BUT, that history makes little sense unless it is studied in its geographic context. In sum, we cannot expect to understand the past unless we understand the geography of the past--a geography which was perceived and manipulated by people very different than ourselves--whose logic often seems perverse or ridiculous in contemporary terms, but seemed quite sensible at the time.
Spain's central role in Europe's main periods of ascendancy: Roman, Renaissance, and modern.
Spain's ambivalent role in Europe. Access to both Mediterranean and Atlantic, Africa and Europe, yet central to none. The idea of Spain as off-sides, and the consequences of that idea.
Spain's ambivalent history: disaster and glory. A quick account.
Recent disasters: Napoleonic hopes and Bourbon repression. Repression of republican hopes in the 19th Century. The loss of empire, 1810-1989. Political polarization and terrorism. Spain's failure to modernize. The Civil War (1936-1939) and its attendant horrors. The Franco regime as final vestige of western European fascism. Juan Carlos, and what he is up against. What 1992 means to Spain.
The contrast with earlier glories: Spain's participation in "world" affairs during Phoenician, Greek, Carthaginian times. Iberia as major Roman colony. What the Romans did. The Moorish invasion: the Guadalquivir Valley as perhaps the most civilized part of Europe. The Reconquista, and the Siglo de Oro. Creation of American empire, and Spanish domination of Europe. The decline.
The Geographic underpinnings of Spain's rise and decline.
Site:
A microcosm of Europe, and the deficiencies of Spanish site as a seat of major political power.
Landforms and rivers: the Meseta. Absence of a "natural" center. Toledo and Madrid as garrison towns. Economic activity along the fringes. The beginnings of fragmentation. Lusitania, Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia, Vascongadas (the Basque Country). Barcelona and Santander as major industrial centers.
Climate:
Spain as boundary between desert and forest. Northern vs. Southern Spain. Temperatures and olive trees. Aridity in the Meseta. Reinforcement of a hollow center. Importance of rivers for irrigation, especially in the south. Guadalquivir again. Arabic perceptions.
Situation:
Why Spain was hard to overlook, but still lay off-sides.
Spain's two-sea frontage. Comparisons with France.
Spain as Afro-European bridge.
Spain's off-center location, which enabled Spain to miss some of Europe's main events, especially in recent times: Protestantism, the commercial and industrial revolution.
The heavy hand of history on contemporary Spanish politics: analogues with South Africa. A brief chronicle to make the point.
-- Spain at the end of Roman times.
-- The Moorish invasion, and why it occurred. Where the Moors turned back, and why. The Guadalquivir as center of Moorish power. Granada, Cordova, Sevilla. Importance of irrigation to Moorish power.
-- Christian reactions. The Reconquista. The character of Spanish Christianity during the Reconquista, and why it made a difference in later time.
-- 1492 as watershed.
(1) The fall of Granada and what happened as a result, especially to Moors and Jews, but also to the mentality of Spanish Christians
(2) The Discoveries, and what the Spanish exported to the New World in the way of ideas. The horrendous impact of Spanish rule on Hispano-American governmental organization, land tenure, and political institutions.
-- The gradual decline of Spanish power, and the rise of regional factionalism. The road to Civil War. Reintegration with Europe and its effects.
Basically unmodified from Dr. Peirce Lewis's fine original.