Spain and the Middle East

SPAIN AND THE MIDDLE EAST

The Kingdom of Spain, located in southwest Europe, has ties with the Middle East and North Africa that go back to the early medieval period.

Between 711 and 1492, the Iberian Peninsula witnessed the growth of several Islamic administrations, which ruled over a multiethnic and multireligious population in a space that would be known as alAndalus. The arrival of Berber troops under Arab leadership in 711 was followed by the establishment of a governorate dependent on the Umayyad caliphate based in Damascus (711–756). With the onset of the Abbasid revolution in the east, the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman I established an independent emirate based in Cordova (756–929). In 929, Abd al-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph and turned Cordova into the most important cultural and intellectual center of Western Europe (929–1008). Cordovese splendor lasted for a century, after which the Christian kingdoms of the north began pushing southward, conquering Muslim territory while taking advantage of the weakness of the petty kingdoms (1031–1086). An invasion by North African Berber tribes (Almoravids and Almohads; 1086–1232) temporarily halted the Christian advance. The Nasrid kingdom of Granada (1232–1492), last Muslim stronghold in the peninsula, fell in 1492 to the armies of the Catholic monarchs of Castile and Aragon, Isabella and Ferdinand. The monarchs decreed that Iberian Jews must either convert or be expelled; in 1502, Castilian Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity, and Aragonese Muslims were forced to do so in 1525. Zealous religious authorities were suspicious of the fidelity of new Christians (Jewish conversos and Muslim moriscos ), who fell under the scrutiny of the Inquisition. Morisco rebelliousness against the abuses of the old Christian settlers led to the uprising of the Alpujarras (1568–1571). In 1609, Phillip III decreed the mass expulsion of the remaining moriscos. Throughout the sixteenth century, the rivalry between imperial Spain and the Ottoman Empire led to the Spanish occupation of several North African ports—Oran, Budjia, Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis—under Charles V. The diminution of the rivalry with the Ottoman Empire, the economic crisis that affected the Spanish Empire in the seventeenth century, and Spain's colonial enterprise in the Americas put a hold on Spanish incursions in North Africa.

In 1859–1860, Spain waged war against Morocco. Franco-Spanish rivalry in North Africa led to the establishment of a Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco (1912–1956) and the Western Sahara (1884–1975); Spanish troops fiercely repressed the Berber liberation movement of the Rif region (1921–1927). After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), General Francisco Franco maintained an official policy of "friendship" toward Arab countries. In 1975, King Hassan II of Morocco organized the Green March toward Western Sahara and occupied the former Spanish protectorate. The signing of the Madrid Agreements (1975), in which Spain ceded the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, ignored the wishes of the inhabitants of the region and was opposed by POLISARIO; almost thirty years after the signing of the Madrid Agreements, the Saharan conflict is pending resolution under UN supervision. Upon joining the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) in 1986, Spain—then under a democratic socialist government—established diplomatic ties with Israel. In 1991, the socialist government supported the international coalition against Iraq. That same year, Spain hosted the Madrid Peace Conference. Subsequently, Spain became an important mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Throughout the last quarter of the twentieth century, Spain and Morocco maintained a bitter contest over the sovereignty of the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and over fishing rights along the Moroccan coast.

Under the Conservative government of Prime Minister José María Aznar (1996–2003), Spain aligned itself with the policies of the United States. In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, Aznar was a staunch ally of U.S. policies in the Middle East and became one of the international anchors of the war against Iraq in 2003. Despite widespread popular opposition—90 percent of the population opposed military intervention in Iraq—the Spanish government supported the U.S. occupation and stationed troops in the Diwaniyah region.

see also green march; polisario; war in iraq (2003); western sahara.

Bibliography

Castro, Américo. The Structure of Spanish History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1954.

Hess, Andrew. The Forgotten Frontier: A History of the Sixteenth Century Ibero-African Frontier. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

Menocal, Maria Rosa. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002

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