Before 1492

Antes de 1492

15000 BC–1492. For thousands of years Iberia and the Americas had separate histories.

What happened

For thousands of years Iberia and the Americas had separate histories. In Iberia, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and the Muslims of al-Andalus each left their mark, and Latin slowly became the Romance languages, Castilian among them. Across the Atlantic, peoples such as the Maya, the Mexica and the Inca built cities, states and calendars of their own. These are the two pasts that 1492 brought together.

Within it

• Before Rome (c. 15th millennium BC–218 BC)
• Roman Hispania (218 BC–409)
• The Visigothic kingdom (415–711)
• Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms (711–1492)

Its events

1. between 17000 BC and 12000 BC: The painters of Altamira
2. c. 8th century BC: The Phoenicians found Gadir
3. c. 8th century BC–550 BC: Tartessos, the kingdom of silver
4. c. 570s BC: Greeks settle at Emporion
5. c. 5th century BC: Iberians, Celts and Celtiberians
6. 219 BC: Hannibal takes Saguntum
7. 218–19 BC: Rome lands in Hispania
8. 133 BC: The fall of Numantia
9. 25 BC: Augustus founds Mérida
10. 98: Trajan, an emperor from Hispania
11. 8 May 589: The Visigoths become Catholic
12. c. 600–636: Isidore of Seville writes down the ancient world
13. 654: One law for Goths and Romans
14. 711: The Muslim conquest
15. between 718 and 722: Pelayo at Covadonga
16. 14 May 756: Abd al-Rahman I founds the emirate of Córdoba
17. c. 780s: The Great Mosque of Córdoba is begun
18. between 820 and 830: The tomb of St James
19. 16 January 929: The Caliphate of Córdoba
20. between 950 and 1100: The Glosas Emilianenses: the first written Romance?
21. 25 May 1085: Alfonso VI takes Toledo
22. 17 June 1094: El Cid takes Valencia
23. between 1140 and 1207: The Cantar de mio Cid
24. 16 July 1212: The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
25. between 1236 and 1248: Valencia and Seville fall to the Christian kings
26. 1252–1284: Alfonso the Wise and the Castilian language
27. 1333–1391: The Nasrids build the Alhambra
28. March 1348–1350: The Black Death reaches the peninsula
29. 6 June 1391–1392: The anti-Jewish riots of 1391
30. 2 January 1492: The fall of Granada