History of Galicia

The history of Galicia is that of an autonomous community of Spain, located at the North-West of the Iberian peninsula. The Galicia was also an area, a field (even a kingdom), whose limits did not always coincide with those of the current autonomous community.

Prehistory

The first traces of human occupation of the Iberian peninsula go back to more 800 000 years (layers Paleolithic S of Atapuerca). Those show the succession of the species Homo antecessor , Homo heidelbergensis (pre-néanderthalien), then Homo neanderthalensis which persists up to 30000 years BP. Homo sapiens which replaces it is of a quite different type; finally, of recent research allot the introduction of agriculture to the north of Spain, around 7000 years BP, to migrations of population coming from Anatolia.

Megalithic culture

Since the Neolithic and the Chalcolithique, towards 4500 with 1500 av. J. - C., Galicia, the north of the Portugal, the Asturies, the west of the León, and Zamora constitute a single megalithic area .

The megalithic culture, first field crop to be appeared in Galicia, is characterized by its astonishing aptitude for construction and architecture. It joins a deep religious feeling, based on the worship of deaths, regarded as the intermediaries between the men and the gods.

Many historians distinguish two components with this megalithic culture: one Eastern, which prevailed in the areas the Mediterranean, and the other Atlantic, whose origin is located at the north of the Tage. This last component would explain, because of its geographical proximity with Galicia, the abundance of the remainders of megalithic culture in the area.

From this time, remain of the thousands of Dolmen S distributed in all the area. Those testify to an social organization, and it was confirmed that this one was structured in Clan S.

Bronze Age

The introduction of the techniques of work of bronze initiated a new cultural era, when the new importance of metals was accompanied by the intensification of the mining activities. Some historians allot the strong development of this sector to the strong erosion accompanying the very hot and wet climate, which made reveal the mining richnesses of North.

As Galicia was also very wet from its proximity of the Atlantic Ocean, the population of the cities of the Castilian plate migrated towards the area, increasing its settlement.

This increase in population was the cause of conflicts, but strongly supported the mining activities, which were accompanied by a strong production of weapons and utility objects. Metals of Galicia also made it possible craftsmen to manufacture splendid jewels of gold and bronze, which were diffused in all the Iberian peninsula, and even in the rest of Europe.

First ages

Gallaecia pre-Roman

According to Strabon, geographer of the 1st century, the first colonists who resided at the north of the Douro were known under the name of Kallaikoi ; this name of Kallaikoi was then transcribed Gallaeci , Callaeci or Gallaicoi in Latin.

The Lebor Gabála Érenn, mentions that the last invasion of Ireland, is that of the children of Miles come from the Iberian peninsula. Nothing attests of a historical reality. However the indices of the text from which have can calculate that the milésiens are originating in Galicia which they are the children of Bréogan, which even would be to him a mythical king of Galicia were used only by Irish who sought refuge in Galicia at the 17th century. These indices were then taken for money cash by the intellectuals at the 19th century in the same type of romantic mobility which developed in addition in Europe (Mac Pherson, etc).

Archaeological elements indicate to us that about the period of, the influence of the Celtic culture of Hallstatt starts to appear in Galicia and in the north of Portugal. Mixed with other identified elements, like those originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, or those remaining of the preceding culture (known under the name of Atlantic Bronze Age , certainly brought by the brythonic Celtic , Brigantins, Albions, to quote some of their tribal names) dominating in Galicia, they led to the formation of a new culture amalgamating these elements, which is known like the Culture Castrexa , name which evokes the principal type of village that they built, called Castro. Nevertheless, this culture still suffers, as art in Galicia of sufficient studies to consider that its specificity is obvious. It is thus excluded only this culture from the " castros" is not an original culture having integrated by the war or the trade of the elements of even Celtic culture celtibère.

Our knowledge of this company of castros is very limited; if we trust so that the Roman historians paid, the Galicians were an assembly of barbarians who spent the day to be fought and the night to be eaten, to drinking and dancing with the moon. But today, it appears in a limpid way, that during the last five front centuries J. - C., they developed an aristocratic social model and perhaps even Féodal. The division of the area - in concelhos , concept similar to that of the counties of the islands or Romania -, seems to be based on this same type of social organization.

Thus, the structure based on the castros appears associated with an occupation strengthened with the ground, similar to that of the traditional Celtic habitat of the center of Europe. On another side, this kind of territorial occupation was probably related to attraction caused by the mining resources, comparable to the certain shape of “fever of gold”. In any case, it is also obvious the Romans were interested in this area mainly because of its gold mines.

When Ibérie was implied in the Punic Wars between Carthaginois and Romains, an uninterrupted strategic alliance with the Phéniciens made it possible Hannibal to recruit many Galicians.

The Roman proconsul Decimus Iunius Brutus conducted victorious campaigns in Ibérie, in the south of current Portugal, before moving more to north. The tribe of the Gallaicoi faced the Roman legions in 137 av. J. - C. with the battle of Douro; this battle concludes by one crushing Roman victory against 60 000 Galicians, and the Roman general Brutus was accepted in Rome like a hero, receiving the name of Gallaicus, according to the historian Paulus Orosius.

Gallaecia Roman

After the campaigns of Brutus, Rome controlled the territories ranging between Douro and the Minho, with probably some extensions along the coast and towards the interior. In 61 av. J. - C., Jules César ordered one second invasion, which unloaded in Brigantium (Corogne).

Testimonys suggest that the resistance of the Galicians against the Romans ceased at this place; as from this moment, the Galicians were massively enlisted like auxiliary troops in the Roman legions. More than one third of the Roman auxiliary troops coming from Ibérie belonged to the tribes of the North-West of the peninsula.

The reduction of any resistance was the object of violent one and pitiless combat (Guerres cantabres) under the emperor Octave between 26 and 19 av. J. - C. resistance was savage: collective suicide rather than rendering, mothers who killed their children before committing suicide, crucifiés prisoners singing of the warlike anthems, rebellions of prisoners who killed their guards and returned on their premises since Gaulle.
At the 3rd century, Dioclétien created an administrative division which included/understood the conventus of Gallaecia, Asturica and perhaps of Cluniense. This province was called Gallaecia because Gallaecia was the most populated area and most important of the province. Into 409, when the Roman authority bends, the conquests of Suèves transformed Gallaecia Roman (districts of Lucense and Bracarense) into kingdom of Gallaecia (the Galliciense Regnum brought back by Hydatius and Gregoire de Tours).

The kingdom suève

Galicia medieval

The kingdom Visigoth

Reconquista

During S, the counts of Galicia submit themselves more or less to their sovereign in title, and of the Norman raids/Vikings the coasts of Galicia devastate. The turns Catoira Voir “History of Catoira” '' (in Spanish) '' (Pontevedra) are built within the framework of a network of fortifications intended to stop the raids Vikings on Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle.

The north of Ibérie (previously duchy of Gallaecia), even conquered, is not the place dreamed for the Moors, who restrict themselves to send a military force to it to collect taxes there, and like the Romans, hardly deal of Asturies and the Cantabrie. But, at the end of years 710, Andalusia was afflicted with revolts. The Berbères did not appreciate the grounds which had been allotted to them and were repressed by the forces of the emir at the time of several battles until stopping the rebellion, but the Berber ones turned then to Asturies, claiming more taxes and organizing punitive forwardings against the villages. This led Astures to begin a guerilla. The Moors briefly occupy Galicia until their expulsion in 739 by Alphonse {{Ier}} of Asturies. The kingdom was known under the name of Royaume of Asturies until in 924, then became the Royaume of León.

The constant competition between the kingdoms of León and Castille was exploited by Sanche III of Navarre (1004-1035), which absorbs Castille in the years 1020, then León during the last year of its life, leaving Galicia temporarily independent. After its death, its grounds were divided, and his/her Fernando son succeeds to him the county of Castille.

Two years later, in 1037, it conquers León and Galicia. Into 1065, Ferdinand {{Ier}} of Castille, León and of Galicia divides its kingdom between its sons. Galicia is allotted to Garcia II of Galicia.

Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal

A Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal is made up in 1065 by the Count de Portugal Nuno Mendes, which declares its independence after the death of Ferdinand Ier, benefitting from the dissensions caused by the wars between wire of Ferdinand.

However, in 1071, the king Garcia II demolishes it and kills it with the Bataille of Pedroso, and appendix its field, adding the title of King de Portugal to his preceding titles. In 1072, the king Garcia II itself is beaten by his brother Sanche II of Castille and must flee. The same year, after the murder of Sanche, Alphonse VI becomes king de Castille and of León; it makes imprison Garcia with life, by proclaiming King de Galice and of Portugal , thus reunifying the field of his father. Since this time, Galicia remained part of the kingdom of Castille and León, although profiting from various degrees of autonomy of government.

In 1095, Portugal separates definitively from the Kingdom of Galicia, these fields remaining under the authority of the Royaume of León, like Castille (Burgos). Its territories, mainly made up of mountains, moors and forests, were delimited in north by Minho, the south by the Mondego.

Saint-Jacob and Galicia

According to the legend, the transfer of the relics of Saint Jacques in Galicia was accompanied by a series of events miraculous: decapitated with the sword by Hérode itself Clutched in the town of Jerusalem, its body was removed by angels, then carried, only on a raft, until Iria Flavia to Spain, where an enormous rock was closed again around its relics with Compostelle.

The Historia Compostellana provides a summary of the legend of Jacques saint such as it was told in Compostelle at the 12th century. This one is centered around two assertions: the first, that holy Jacques preached the Gospel in Spain as well as out of Holy Land; the second, that after its martyrdom by Hérode Clutched, its disciples transported his body as far as Spain by the sea, unloaded in Iria Flavia on the coast of Galicia, then took it along until Saint-Jacob de Compostelle to bury it.

Another later tradition supports than it appeared miraculeusement to fight among the rows of the Christian army during the Bataille of Clavijo, at the time of the Reconquista, and was consequently called Matamoros (killer of Moors). ¡ Santiago will cierra España there! , which means “Holy Jacques and remains firm Spain! ” became the usual Cry war of the Spanish armies.

Holy Jacques the killer of Moors, one of the most valiant saints and knights whom the world never knew… was given by God to Spain to be his benefactor and guard.

- Cervantès, Don Quichotte .

The assumption of the introduction of the worship of Jacques saint in order to replace the Galician worship of Priscillien (carried out in 385), which was very venerated in all the north of Spain like martyr of the bishops, rather than like heretic. A legend is superimposed on that of saint Jacques, in fact the relics of the apostle rest in the cathedral of Saint-Jacob, but the body of the Priscillien bishop brought back of Truces in Galicia.

Modern age

Galicia contemporary

Nationalist and federalistic Galician movements were formed during the nineteenth century, and after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, Galicia became an autonomous region following a Référendum.

October 6th 1934, of the socialist and the anarchistic tries a Coup d'etat in Asturies and in Catalogne. This same day, the Catalan politician Lluís Companys I Jover proclaims Catalonia free and independent republic. The minors of Asturies revolt, occupant Oviedo, and causing the death of approximately 40 people. The attempt of the rebels to seize the ministries with Madrid fails, and it was recognized that the strongest combat were held in Catalonia and Galicia. In the middle of October, however, the revolt had been entirely crushed by the general Francisco Franco. This rising and its repression divided the nation.

During the dictatorship of the general Francisco Franco (native of Ferrol in Galicia), of 1936 with 1975, the autonomous statute of Galicia was cancelled (like were those of Catalonia and the Basque provinces). The mode of Free also removed all measurements in favor of the Galician language (although its use was never prohibited). During the last decade of the pro-Franco era, there was a revival of the nationalist feeling in Galicia.

With the return to the democracy which follows the death of Free in 1975, Galicia recovers its statute of autonomous region of Spain.

Various degrees of nationalist or separatist feelings appear at the political level. The only nationalist party having a certain representativeness, the Blocks Nacionalista Galego or BNG, pleads for a greater autonomy with respect to the Spanish State, and for the safeguard of the Galician inheritance and of its culture. Other factions assert a complete independence, while some bunches wish the meeting with Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking world. However, the nationalist parties have until now obtained only one minority support at the time of the electoral deadlines.

From 1990 to 2005, the government and the regional Parliament, the Xunta de Galicia , were chaired by the Popular party of Manuel Fraga, which was minister and ambassador under the mode of Free.

However, at the time of the Galician elections of 2005, the Party of the People lost the absolute majority, although remaining the party more represented at the Parliament.

For the case, the capacity passed to the hands of a coalition between the Partido Socialista de Galicia (PSdeG) (Socialist party of Galicia), a party-brother of the Spanish socialist principal party, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish working Socialist party) and the BNG. As a principal element of the new coalition, PSdeG appointed its chief Emilio Pérez Touriño with the presidency of Galicia.

See too

Reference

R.A. Fletcher, 1984. Holy James' S Catapult: The Life and Times off Diego Gelmírez off Santiago de Compostela (Oxford University Near). The chapter 1 " Galicia" present an outline of the history of Galicia since the period pre-Roman to the 11th century. (text on line)

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