From Al-Andalus to empire
For nearly eight centuries much of Spain was Al-Andalus, ruled by Muslim dynasties whose cities of Córdoba and Granada were among the most advanced in Europe. The Christian Reconquista ended in 1492 with the fall of Granada, the expulsion of Jews and Muslims, and Columbus's first Atlantic crossing under Isabella and Ferdinand. The silver of the Americas made Spain the superpower of the sixteenth century.
Decline, Napoleonic invasion and the loss of the American colonies followed. The twentieth century brought the brutal Civil War of 1936 to 1939 and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted until his death in 1975. The transition to democracy under a restored monarchy and the 1978 constitution is regarded as a model, though Catalan and Basque questions still strain the state.
Spain's African frontier
Spain's African connection is uniquely physical. Ceuta and Melilla, two cities on the Moroccan coast, are Spanish and therefore EU territory, ringed by high fences that migrants storm and where crossings turn deadly. The Canary Islands, off the coast of Western Sahara, are a Spanish region and one of the main Atlantic routes for West African migrants making perilous journeys by boat. Spain also administered Western Sahara until 1975, abandoning it in a way that left the territory disputed to this day.
Spain's formal African empire centred on Equatorial Guinea, ruled until 1968 and the only sub-Saharan state where Spanish is an official language, and on the northern Morocco protectorate. The country was a comparatively minor slaving power but grew rich on the labour of enslaved Africans in its Caribbean colonies, above all Cuba, where slavery lasted until 1886. Today African labour underpins the vast greenhouse farms of Almería that supply Europe's winter vegetables.
A modern, decentralised democracy
Spain is a patchwork of autonomous communities with strong regional identities and languages, a source of both richness and constitutional crisis, as in the Catalan independence bid of 2017. Its economy leans on tourism, services and renewable energy; its football, led by Real Madrid and Barcelona, is a global industry. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has governed through fragile coalitions since 2018, dependent on regional parties to hold a fractured parliament together.
Migration is now the country's hardest domestic argument. Spain is home to large Moroccan, Senegalese, Equatoguinean and other African communities; the manteros, mostly Senegalese street vendors, are a familiar sight in Madrid and Barcelona, and Spanish football and music increasingly reflect an Afro-Spanish generation. Madrid funds patrols and development deals with Sahel and West African states to slow the boats, an approach that treats the frontier at Ceuta, Melilla and the Canaries as a problem to be managed rather than a history to be reckoned with.