Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts.

Early
on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe's most ancient
cities Cádiz and Málaga. Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually
incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theatre of the Punic Wars against the
expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman rule.
During the early Middle Ages it came under Visigothic rule, and then much of it was conquered
by Muslim invaders from North Africa. In a process that took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms
in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Muslim state fell in 1492, the same
year Columbus reached the Americas. A global empire began which saw Spain become the
strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest
overseas empire for three centuries.
Continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic conflict in
Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire and left
the country politically unstable. Spain suffered a devastating civil war in the 1930s and then came
under the rule of an authoritarian government, which oversaw a period of stagnation that was
followed by a surge in the growth of the economy. Eventually democracy was restored in the form of
a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a cultural
renaissance and steady economic growth until the beginning of the 21st century, that started a new
globalised world with economic and ecological challenges.

Prehistory and pre-Roman peoples

Main article: Prehistoric Iberia

Celtic castro in Galicia

Archaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated

by hominids 1.2 million years ago.[26] In Atapuerca fossils have been found of the earliest
known hominins in Europe, the Homo antecessor. Modern humans first arrived in Iberia, from the
north on foot, about 35,000 years ago.[27][failed verification] The best known artefacts of these prehistoric
human settlements are the famous paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia,
which were created from 35,600 to 13,500 BCE by Cro-Magnon.[25][28] Archaeological and genetic
evidence suggests that the Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several major refugia from which
northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last ice age.
The largest groups inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman conquest were
the Iberians and the Celts. The Iberians inhabited the Mediterranean side of the peninsula, from the
northeast to the southeast. The Celts inhabited much of the inner and Atlantic sides of the peninsula,
from the northwest to the southwest. Basques occupied the western area of the Pyrenees mountain
range and adjacent areas, the Phoenician-influenced Tartessians culture flourished in the southwest
and the Lusitanians and Vettones occupied areas in the central west. A number of cities were
founded along the coast by Phoenicians, and trading outposts and colonies were established
by Greeks in the East. Eventually, Phoenician-Carthaginians expanded inland towards the meseta;
however, due to the bellicose inland tribes, the Carthaginians got settled in the coasts of the Iberian
Peninsula.