Spaniards
- This article is about the Spanish as an ethnic group. For information on residents or nationals of Spain, see demographics of Spain. Spaniard redirects here. For other uses, see Spaniard (disambiguation)
| File:Spn.JPG | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Spain: 50 million Argentina: 8 - 10 million | |
| Languages | |
| Castilian and other Spanish languages and dialects. | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Catholic, with small Atheists, Agnostics and other minorities. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| • Latins • French |
The Spanish people or Spaniards are the ethnic group or nation native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. Substantial populations descended from Spanish colonists also exist in other parts of the world, most notably in Latin America.
Historical Background
Spaniards are a Southern European Mediterranean population. The earliest inhabitants of Spain are believed to have been the Iberians who arrived in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast. These early Iberians may have had some relationship with the Basques who are largely believed to have been an aboriginal population that may have existed in the region before the coming of peoples speaking Indo-European languages in the 1st millennium BCE. Most scholars believe the Iberians came from a region farther east in the Mediterranean although another theory links them possibly to the North African peoples from which the Canarian Guanches and modern-day Berbers descend. [6] [7]
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Northern regions were inhabited by Indo-European tribes (Astures, Cantabri, Galicians), either Celtic or pre-Celtic.
Celtic tribes arrived in northern Spain between the 9th century BCE and the 6th century BCE. The Celts merged with the Iberians in central Spain, creating a local hybrid culture known as Celtiberian. In addition, a group known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain and who are believed to have developed a separate civilization of Phoenician influence. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries. The Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain. Map of pre-Roman peoples of Iberia
The Roman Republic annexed Spain during the 2nd century BCE and transformed most of the region into a series of Latin-speaking provinces. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of local languages, with the exception of Basque, stem from a type of vulgarized Latin that was spoken in Roman Spain, which evolved into the modern languages of the Iberian peninsula, including Spanish. Spain emerged as an important part of the Roman Empire and produced notable historical figures such as Trajan, Hadrian and Seneca.
The Germanic Vandals and their subordinates the Iranic Alans arrived around 409 CE, but were displaced to North Africa by another Germanic tribe, the Visigoths who conquered the region around 415 CE and became the dominant power in Iberia for a time. Iberian-Roman culture eventually romanized the Visigoths and other tribes. Another Germanic tribe, the Suebi, who arrived at roughly the same time as the Vandals, became established in the old North western Roman province of Gallaecia a kingdom which survived until late 6th century when it too was destroyed by the Visigoths.
In 711, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by Muslim Arab-Berbers, popularly known as the Moors, who conquered nearly all the peninsula except a narrow strip in the very northern part and subsequently ruled part of the region as Al-Andalus, but were driven south during their reign, ruling areas from between three to nearly eight centuries, ending with their defeat in 1492. These Muslim invaders were mainly of Berber origin with prominent Arab tribal leaders mixed in and they converted many locals to Islam to the point that local Iberian Muslims outnumbered those of North African and Middle Eastern origin. Other local Muslims included the so-called Muladis or Muwalladin, in Arabic, or those born of foreign parentage. Muslim Iberia was known as Al-Andalus. Ultimately, the vast majority of Muslims as well as local Sephardic Jews were either expelled after the Christian reconquest (Reconquista) or converted (many forcibly) to Catholicism (see conversos).
Modern Spaniards are linguistically Latin, while their ancestors are derived primarily from native Iberians as well as varied Basque, Phoenician, Greek, Celtic, Roman, Germanic, and Berber elements.
Spain is home to a large number of Spanish-Roma (Gitanos). Roma are a formerly-nomadic group, originating in Northern India, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa and Europe, reaching Spain in the 15th century. Gitanos, for a number of historical and cultural reasons are not considered a separate or "foreign" population in Spain, but a distinct sub-ethnicity which overlaps with the wider Spanish ethnicity. This is not generally the case in other European countries. There are no official statistics on the Gitano population in Spain. Estimates range from 600 000 to 800 000, making Spain, together with Romania and Bulgaria, home to one of the largest Roma communities in Europe. Over 40% of Gitanos live in the region of Andalusia, where they have traditionally enjoyed a higher degree of integration than in the rest of the country. A number of Spanish Gitanos also live in Southern France, especially in the region of Perpignan. Gitanos play an important role in Spanish folklore, music and culture as well as in aspects of Andalusian identity itself. In-spite of their cultural contributions, they also suffer from the mistrust and rejection by a large segment of the wider Spanish population.
Ancestry
The preponderance of European Paleolithic Haplogroups in Spanish men indicates that they may be descended primarily from the earliest paleolithic peoples thought to have colonised Iberia and the rest of Western Europe. There are thought to have been three separated pockets of human habitation in Europe during the last major glaciation (the end of the Paleolithic and the Pleistocene), on the Iberian peninsula, in the Balkans and in the Caucasus. The Y chromosome haplogroups from these populations are thought to correspond to R1b (Iberian or Basque), I (Balkans) and R1a (Caucasus). These three haplogroups occur all over Europe, but their frequencies are not spread uniformly, R1b occuring most often in Iberia and Western Europe, as is evident in Haplogroup maps: 1
More recent Neolithic and historic peoples have also contributed to the Spanish genetic pool, from Neolithic agriculturalists to Celts, Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Berbers, but their contributions seem to be limited compared to the dominant Paleolithic component, as can be seen not only in Haplogroup maps, but also in global studies that take into account more genetic loci: 2 3 4
Language
Languages spoken in Spain include Castilian (Castellano), Catalan/Valencian (Catalàn/Valencià), Basque (Euskara), Asturian and Galician (Galego), each with their own various dialects. Although Castilian is but one of the many languages of Spain, it is this language which is commonly known as being the "Spanish language" since it is the official state language, although minority languages are co-official in a number of autonomous communities.
There are a number of dialects of Castilian Spanish of which perhaps the most distinct are the Andalusian and Canarian dialects. Linguistically, the Spanish language is a Romance language and therefore Spaniards are considered a Latin people. The strong Arabic influence on the language (nearly 4000 words are of Arabic origin) and the independent evolution of the language itself through history partially explain its difference from other Romance languages. The Basque language has also left a strong imprint on the language both linguistically and phonetically. Other changes in Spanish have come from borrowings from English and French, although English influence is stronger in Latin America than in Spain.
The number of speakers of Castilian Spanish, as a mother tongue, is roughly 35.6 million, while the vast majority of other groups in Spain such as the Catalans and Basques also speak Spanish as a second language, which boosts the number of Spanish speakers to the overwhelming majority of Spain's population of 45.9 million.
Spanish was also exported to the Americas and is spoken natively by tens of millions of Spanish descendants, and by many others who have adopted the language, and spans across into most countries of the Americas; from the Southwestern United States in North America down to Patagonia, the most southernly region of South America. A variety of the language, known as Judæo-Spanish or Ladino, is still spoken by descendants of Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews) who fled Spain following the Inquisition of 1492.
Religion
94% of Spaniards are Catholics,[8] while Muslims and Jews and other religious groups are also found in Spain.
Other related peoples
Tens of millions of Spanish descendants can be found throughout the Hispanic countries of Latin America in the form of criollos (unmixed Spaniards born in the Americas), mestizos (mixed Spanish/Amerindian), mulattos (mixed Spanish/African) or triracial (Spanish/African/Amerindian). In the United States, the number of Mexican-Americans represent a significant portion of the Spanish descended population, as the majority -over 70% of the population of Mexico- have Spanish blood flowing through their veins thought most are also mixed with amerindian. [9].
Spain itself consists of various regional sub-nationalities and ethnicities including the Castilians (a large culturally-dominant minority [10] who most strongly identify with a Spanish identity), the Catalans, Valencians and Balearics (speakers of a distinct yet related Romance language in eastern Spain), the Basques (a distinct people inhabiting the Basque country), and the Galicians, who speak a language which is very close to Portuguese. Regional diversity is important to many Spaniards and some regions (other than the ones associated with the different nationalities) have strong local identities and dialects, such as Asturias, Aragon, the Canary Islands, and Andalusia.
On a smaller scale, in addition to approximately 17,000 Spanish citizens in the Philippines, there is also a small but important minority of Mistisong Espanyol (mixed Spanish/Filipino) constituting around 1.5% of the population — according to recent genetic studies, up to 3.6% of Filipinos may have some European ancestry.
Footnotes
- Including those of mixed Spanish and other European ancestry, mestizos and/or mulattos.
- Including mestizos and/or mulattos.
- Including other Hispanics of direct Spanish descent, and Spanish-descended mestizos and mulattos.
- Including Brazilians of mixed Spanish and other European ancestry, and Spanish-descended mestizos and/or mulattos.
- Including mistisong espanyol.
References
Offline references
- Castro, Americo. The Spaniards: An Introduction to Their History (Univ. of Calif. Press 1980).
- Chapman, Robert. Emerging Complexity: The Later Pre-History of South-East Spain, Iberia, and the West Mediterranean (Cambridge 1990).
- Goodwin, Godfrey. Islamic Spain (Chronicle Books 1990).
- Harrison, Richard. Spain at the Dawn of History (Thames & Hudson 1988).
- James, Edward. Visigothic Spain (Oxford 1980).