Hello wonderful people! Joins us today in this Panel AMA where a team of our very own flaired users will answer your questions on anything related to Iberian peninsula and the people and polities that inhabited it. Anything you ever wondered, ask away!
We will be covering period from the Roman times, through Middle ages with Islamic and Christian states, across the Early Modern Empires and the fate of Iberian Jewish population, all the way to modernity and Spanish Civil war, World Wars and Franco.
Our amazing flair team today consists of:
u/cerapus is a master's student in early medieval Christianity and popular belief, and is happy to answer questions especially on the late eighth and early ninth centuries in Spain and the Pyrenees. He is particularly interested in questions about Carolingian relations, early medieval architecture, Visigothic continuities, and is also happy to delve into seventh-century Visigothic Spain!
u/crrpit is a historian of interwar Britain and Europe, with a particular focus on anti-fascism and the Spanish Civil War. Their PhD explored transnational participation in this conflict, particularly the International Brigades that fought on the Republican side. They will be answering questions on the civil war, and 1930s Spain more broadly.
u/drylaw is a PhD student working on indigenous scholars of colonial central Mexico. For this AMA he can answer questions on the Aztec-Spanish wars, and Spanish colonisation in Mexico and early Spanish America more broadly. Research interests include race relations, indigenous cultures, and the introduction of Iberian law and political organisation overseas.
u/ekinda is happy to answer questions about Habsburg Spain in the context of early modern Europe. Some curious topics are the relations between its constituent states (excluding the Americas), reasons, means and the results of Spanish involvement in European politics and wars during the 16th and the 17th centuries (especially the 80YW and the 30YW), and the economic situation in Iberia with regards to the wider European economy.
u/FlavivsAetivs is a late Roman historian whose undergraduate research included political communication and post-Roman administration in late Roman Spain. He is happy to answer questions about late Roman and early migration era Spain, the Visigoths, and other topics pertaining to that era (c. 300-500).
u/hannahstohelit is a master's student in modern Jewish history who is eager to answer questions about medieval Iberian Jewry, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition/Expulsion, and the Sefardic diaspora in Europe, the Americas, Northern Africa and the Ottoman Empire. She especially loves questions about religious history, such as: rabbinical figures; Biblical, Talmudic, halachic and liturgical works; religious schisms and changes; development of Jewish communities; and Hebrew printing.
u/Janvs is a historian of the Atlantic world, with a focus on empire, memory, culture, and social movements. He’s more than happy to answer what he can about the Iberian New World or the places where empires intersect.
u/mrhumphries75 focuses on Christian polities in the North, roughly between 1000 and 1230 with an emphasis on social structures and kinship in the early 1200s, Aragon in particular.
u/riskbreaker2987 is a historian and professor of early Islamic history and Arabic historiography. While his research primarily focuses on the central Islamic world, he is comfortable answering questions related to the Islamic conquest of Iberia and Umayyad rule in Cordoba.
u/ted5298 can answer questions about the World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, fascism in both Spain and Portugal, Spain's role in World War 2 including the service of 250th Infantry and the decolonisation of the countries' African possessions.
u/terminus-trantor will give his best to answer questions on Portugal in the late middle ages and early modern period with the accent on their naval and maritime aspects, as well as general questions about Iberian maritime, geographical and navigational science of the time.
u/thejukeboxhero will try to answer questions on early medieval Iberia: the Visigoths up through 711 and the northern kingdoms up through around 1000.
u/Yazman specialises in 8th to 11th century al-Andalus, with a particular focus on the 10th century and the Iberian Umayyads, but any topic relating to pre-12th century al-Andalus is open.
/u/611131 can field questions about Spanish conquest and colonization efforts in the Americas and the Atlantic World during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.
Reminder: our Panel Team is consisted of users scattered across the globe, in various timezones with different real world obligations. Please, be patient, and give them time to get to your question! Thank you!
I have a million questions related to Portuguese imperialism/colonialism. I'll make a short list below.
Why was al-Andalus unwilling/unable to conquer the Christian kingdoms in Northern Spain? They're isolated geographically, divided, and pacifying them would secure the flanks. Seems like a no-brainer to conquer them.
What was the relationship like between the Iberian nations (both Muslim and Christian), and the nations of Morocco?
Is there any good movie based on Battle of Alcácer Quibir, or on Christian Iberian military expeditions in North Africa.
What was life like in the anarchist societies during the civil war? How did organisation of these societies differ from both liberal democracies of the era and the Soviet Union?
Here in Spain, Visigothic history is almost entirely ignored in history classes, so I haven't really learned anything about these, and the same is true about a great number of things. As such, I've a lot of questions, I'll try to structure them for greater ease of responding.
Furthermore, I must say, thank you all for coming, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about my country's history.
Visigoths:
Given the capacity for certain nobles to take their army and leave (during the Battle of Guadalete), was Visigothic Spain an early feudal state, a tribal Germanic one, and what was it's political evolution?
Can the Visigothic Code be said to be "better", from a modern perspective, than previous Germanic Visigothic law, or traditional Roman law?
Fascism and the Civil War
What was the relation between fascism in Spain and in Portugal, both movements and countries? Did the Spanish organizations get aid from Portugal before the Civil War?
What happened to those Brigadiers that fled from countries to fight in Spain (Germans, Italians…)?
Does the idea that Spain was an early part of a greater anti-fascist war have any validity in modern historical circles?
The New World
How “democratic” were Indigenous rebellions or local governments in the Spanish New World?
Was indeed, as is often said here in Spain by a large number of historians, the Spanish conquest a “better” one than the English or French? That is, people here often say that Spain built universities, built hospitals, considered it legally as on the same plane as any other Kingdom within Spain, not simply a colony, and that the relults of the 1812 Cortes of Cadiz prove that Spaniards in Europe believed that Americans were on the same level as them and were also Spanish.
Jews
The Expulsion of Jews here is seen as an entirely Spanish thing, I didn’t know that the Portuguese did so too. Did Portuguese and Spanish Jews maintain a close relationship before their expulsion? How exactly did Spain pressure Portugal to expel the Jews in their country?
Have any Sephardic Jews returned to Spain after the 2012 Law granting them citizenship?
Decolonization
The abandoning of West Sahara to Morocco is seen as a cowardly act here in Spain, a dying dictatorship abandoning people they'd brutalized and promised to give independence to, and that's one reason why one of the largest charity drives here is to send aid to their camps. Would this be a correct idea, or did Morocco have any claim to the land? Furthermore, did the planned referendum include any mention of the possibility to vote for union with Morocco (or any other neighbour state)?
What happened to the indigenous peoples from the Americas who had been enslaved in Spain during the 16th and early 17th century and who never returned? Is it possible to reconstruct their lives in Spain from the existing source material?
How did the Basques survive as a distinct group all through pre-history?
How weren't they dispersed/assimilated by the numerous different forces who held sway in the Iberian Peninsula through history?
Were there times when they almost were(dispersed/assimilated)?
Particularly during the Iberian Union period, Spain/Portugal had a huge headstart in global trade and colonialism over every other power, with vast possessions in South America, and colonies and business interests almost everywhere.
Why did this empire fail to achieve the global leadership position that the British Empire later did, and what were the factors behind its seemingly quite rapid decline?
I don’t understand how the influx of silver from the South American colonies during Charles V’s rule cause inflation in a time before money was backed by anything.
Also, how did the Spanish Crown view their asian colony, the Philippines, and why weren’t they able to exert as much influence in the Mindanao region compared to the islands north of it.
When the suebi and visigoths settled in Iberia, they already had a background of latinization (or didn't they?) but I understand they were less literate and less urban than the local roman iberians they came to rule (or am I wrong?). How was the melting together of the political (goths) and economical (local land owners) elites? Did the Latin local elites scrambled to secure roles in church, for instance, or in town/government offices, this generating a two layered system with common people influenced local patricians who were influenced by germanic overlords?
I’m interested in the history of Arabic in Spain during the period of Islamic rule. How far did it spread as a spoken, native language? Was it ever widely spoken by the peasants, if we can know such a thing? In what contexts did people speak Arabic rather than Romance?
And did it survive the end of Islamic rule as a spoken language? Either in towns or rural areas? I’m wondering if you could have found an Arabic speaking village in the 16th century, or later...
Are there any archives that contain oral histories related to the SCW or Franco Era? In Paloma Aguilar's book 'Memory and Amnesia' she references interviews by Daniel Sueiro, but do we know if these interviews are available for perusal?
Hi! Thanks for doing this AMA:)
I have a couple of questions relating to Spanish/Portuguese empires and Iberia as I’ve been reading a mix of books on the subject, I’m hoping someone can clear things up for me.
2)could families in both the Spanish and Portuguese empires easily keep in touch having conquered the americas? I’d imagine it would take a long time to send letters back and forth and then the letters themselves would have low priority.
should occupation of the americas ( 16th century?) be seen as a conquest during this time? Is it the correct term for what happened?
And my last question, if it really was a conquest of sorts, we’re there any ways in which the locals could resist or even challenge colonial rule ? Or were they truly oppressed 24/7?
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions !
This question is primarily for u/crrpit. Can you tell me more about the support for the Republicans from the Spanish diaspora? My grandmother was born in Michigan in the 1920s to Spanish immigrants from Galicia. She told me once that when she was young, her family was part of a local group called "Hispanos Unidos" that raised money for the Republican cause. It sounded like it was quite popular in her community. Was there a lot of similar support among Spanish Americans? How significant were the funds and attention they raised?
Why is Portugal 'Britain's oldest ally?'
Even after the Reconquista, what prevented Iberia from fracturing politically like Italy or the Holy Roman Empire?
How did the Habsburgs manage to take control of Spain?
Why weren't Spain and Portugal massive industrial powerhouses like France or even Italy?
Why were Spain and Portugal dictatorships as soon as the 1970s?
Why isn't Spain a member of the G20?
And finally, why do so many Germans flock to Ibiza?
I often read that sixteenth century Spain was a composite monarchy. How useful do you find this conception of the monarchy? Has it held up well? Have scholars proposed different interpretations of the Spanish crown or perhaps reinterpreted its structure?
Camino de Santiago
Do we know anything about the pre-Christian use or history of the Camino? Was it a pagan pilgrimage before it was a Christian one? Was it simply a trading route?
After it becomes a Christian pilgrimage route, how would knowledge of its existence have been disseminated throughout Christendom? Would my local priest, for example, have told me about it or suggested it? How would he have heard about it? What type of person would be walking the route in the early days when it hugged the coast?
I've got several questions.
What were the reasons a kingdom as large as the visigoths fell so quickly and near-completely to the Muslims?
Directed mainly at u/Yazman for these ones.
What were the continuities within visigothic/iberian culture in the decades/centuries after muslim conquest?
How did visigothic traditions manifest themselves under ummayad rule?
Could you explain the dynamic between later rulers of al-Andalus and the Maghrebi tribes?
Are there some particular cases where a native from mesoamerica came to Iberia? If so are there descendants of such natives? How where they treated? In general what’s their story?
During Late Empire Roman Spain, what was the political and military organisation of the province?
edit: /u/FlavivsAetivs
I guess I have more questions than I thought.
Prior to the Punic wars, IIRC, Iberia was a land of indigenous people and Greek, Roman, and Carthaginian colonies. My first question is about the Punic wars. How influential was Iberia buring those wars? I know that Hannibal was a HUGE pain in the ass to Roman generals, but my information was very glossed over. I heard that Hannibal carved a path through the rocks of the Pyrenees mountains to get his war elephants across. I also heard that one of the most embarrassing defeats the Romans had (aside from the Teutoburg Forrest) was st the hands of Hannibal in Iberia. Are those stories accurate or inflated? Where can I get more information on those stories?
Next might I ask about Roman occupation of Iberia. The History of Rome podcast, by Mike Duncan (which was amazing!) focused less on Iberia and more on Italy (for good reason) but left me very desirous of Roman life on the peninsula. There was an Emperor from Hispania, can you elaborate perhaps on him pre-employment and as emperor? What was the Roman lifestyle in Iberia from the Punic wars until the Visigoths sacked Rome and settled westward? Did the Vandals have much influence as they migrated to North Africa?
Speaking of Germanic tribes, why didn't they bring their language with them and affect the vulgar Latin that was evolving? Al-Andalus had a large effect on Castillian language (and I presume Portuguese also). Was it simply the amount of time they had on the peninsula to affect the language? Castillian and Portuguese are the vulgar Latin languages spoken in the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal, respectively. What of the vulgar languages of the other kingdoms of Iberia: Leon, Aragon, and Navarre? A final question on language, What are the origins of Basque? They aren't Latin and I haven't gotten a straight answer of the topic either.
During the Visigoth time on the peninsula, what was their culture like? They brought their Christian faith with them, but beyond that, I know very little on how they lived prior to 711 AD and Al-Andalus.
Thank you in advance. I apologize for the huge wall of text but I love Spainish and Roman history as well as learning language. I have a many other questions in other time periods, but I've already bombarded you with questions.
TL;DR: Questions about the Punic wars. Questions about Roman occupation. Questions about languages in the post-Roman era. Questions on Visigoths prior to the invasion from North Africa.
Ooh boy do I have a lotta questions, hopefully not too much!
Would it have been taboo/illegal for Christians to take Jewish or Muslim spouses/lovers? I assume there were different standards for peasants and nobles/royalty in this regard?
What happened to Muslims and Jews when their village/town/etc was reconquered by the Christians? I’m of course aware of the expulsions in 1492, but what about much earlier, say, 1200?
I know there were several organizations and military orders dedicated to ransoming captives back from the Muslim powers - what befell the captives who remained in captivity? What about Muslim captives in Christian custody? Would “slavery” be an appropriate term for their servitude?
What kind of food would’ve been eaten in High Medieval Iberia?
What kind of weapons would’ve been used by the Christian armies around 1200? I’ve read that lightly armored cavalry were predominantly used for raids and that heavily armored knights were just beginning to be adopted as a tactic, but aside from the elite cavalry what would the infantry be like? I assume the town militias would be mostly spearmen?
Edit: more
Was the Spanish Era used as a dating system only by clergy in their records and historical works, or was it used commonly? I assume most people (not clergy) would just use “In the Xth year of King Y’s reign”?
Is Castilian pronounced with the L as a Y or is it pronounced just like it looks?
How similar is Medieval Castilian to modern Peninsular Spanish?
How strong was the presence of the Inquisition in rural areas of Spain/Portugal/colonial Mexico?
why was it that northern Iberia (modern day Asturias and the basque region) were left alone by the Roman Republic but Octavian decided to conquer that area during the Cantabrian wars?
why were Hispanic legions recruited mostly from Hispania Ulterior and Citerior? why not Lusitania or Tarraconesis?
was their a Vascones legion stationed at Hadrian’s wall?
I’ve read Leonarda A. Curchin’s “Roman Spain” and it really glosses over things like Julius Caesar’s Lusitania campaign when he was governor of Hispania Citerior and the Cantabrian wars. would you recommend any good books on those areas?
How and when was the border between Portugal and Spain formed?
How did visigothic and Muslim culture interact after the Muslim conquest of Al-Andalus? Was Christian apologetic writings in Al-Andulas different then that of others from different areas of the dar al-islam?
Why did Spain, and Portugal fall into decades-long dictatorships while other empires such as France, or the U.K. seemingly did not?
What sparked the Portuguese Carnation revolution?
One of the characteristics of early modern Spanish intelligence is that it's highly centralized and any reports will be forwarded to the central authority. Does the intelligence ever get 'overloaded' with information that it made flawed judgement/decisions because of it?
How did the islands off the coast of Spain give rise to such high levels of horsemanship? The Mayorcan horse masters are among the best the world has ever seen. Any historical context for this?
How was the visigothic reception to the Islamic expansion? Especially considering the babaric political culture (loyalty, etc) in face to Islam. Were they already deeply christianized (and the effacement of their previous culture) or was it still in process?
A Professor that specialized in Mexican History mentioned how Feudalism never took hold in the Iberian peninsula, leading to acceptance of Slavery on the peninsula and, consequently, the Colonies of the New World. Is it true that Feudalism never took hold, or was at least very different from other European states of the Middle Ages?
I just finished reading War God, a fictionalized account of the Cortés expedition. In it, the conquistadors win the fight in Tenochtitlan, and command/loot the city. With how small the expedition was, and with dwindling supplies, how did the Spaniards actually "occupy" a city as large as the Aztec capital? I know they had indigenous allies who disliked the ruling caste. What else contributed to their staying power?
Perhaps u/drylaw or u/611132 might have some insight?