Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe. It is bordered on the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean. The Pyrenees form the northeast edge of the peninsula, connecting it to the rest of Europe. At Gibraltar in the south, it approaches Africa.

Table of contents

1 Countries & Territories 2 Languages 3 Pre-Roman languages 4 History 5 External Links

Countries & Territories

• Spain, occupying the majority of Iberia
• Portugal, the western most part
• Andorra, a microstate bordering France and Spain in the Pyrenees
• Gibraltar, British territory in the southern-most tip

Languages

The following official languages are spoken in the Iberian peninsula:

• Andorra:
  • Catalan
• Gibraltar:
  • English
• Portugal:
  • Portuguese
  • Mirandese (official recognition)
• Spain:
  • Basque
  • Spanish (also called Castilian)
  • Catalan (called Valencian in the Valencian Country)
  • Galician
  • Asturian (official recognition)
  • Occitan (locally called Aranese, official recognition)

Pre-Roman languages

The following languages were spoken in the Iberian peninsula before the Roman occupation:

• Lusitanian
• Aquitan (Basque)
• Iberian
• Celtiberian
• Tartessian

History

In 711 CE, a "Moorish" Umayyad army from North Africa invaded Visigoth Christian Spain. Under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar on 711 April 30 and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. Al-ʾAndalūs; (Arabic الإندلوس) is the Arabic name given the Iberian Peninsula by its Muslim conquerors.

In medieval times the peninsula housed many small states including Castille, Aragon, Navarre and Leon. The peninsula was part of the Islamic Almohad empire until they were finally uprooted. The last major Muslim stronghold was Granada which was eliminated by a combined Castillian and Aragonese force in 1492, these small states gradually amalgamated over time, until the end of the Napoleonic Wars (including the Peninsular War) in 1815. At that point the modern position was reached and the peninsula now consists of the countries of Spain and Portugal (excluding their islands and Ceuta and Melilla), Andorra, and the territory of Gibraltar.

External Links

• IberianatureA guide to the environment, geography, climate, wildlife, natural history and landscape of Iberia

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