Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, also called Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe. You say it as "eye-BEER-ee-un," and its pronunciation is shown with the IPA symbols. Other uses of the name Iberia can be found on Iberia (disambiguation) and Iberian.

The peninsula is mostly separated from the rest of mainland Europe by the Pyrenees, a range of mountains. It includes Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, which together cover almost all of the region. It also includes Andorra, Gibraltar, and a small part of Metropolitan France.

The Iberian Peninsula covers about 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 square miles). About 53 million people live there. This makes it the second-largest peninsula in Europe by area. Only the Scandinavian Peninsula is bigger.

Etymology

The Iberian Peninsula has long been linked with the River Ebro. The river was called Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. In a treaty of 226 BCE between Rome and Carthage, now called the Ebro Treaty, the Ebro marked the edge of Carthaginian interest. The Greek word Iberia came from the Latin Hiberia and was used by Greek geographers under Roman rule for the whole peninsula. Strabo was the first to report that the Pyrenees separated Iberia from Gaul. Today, the Basque word ibar means "valley," but no proof connects it with the names Ebro or Iberia. The early people of the region are called "Iberian," after their unknown language.

Main article: Hispania

The Romans called the whole peninsula Hispania, and ancient writers in Latin and Greek often used Hispania and Hiberia to mean the same thing. The name Hispania was divided into "near" and "far" parts, and it was made up of three Roman provinces: Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Hispania Lusitania. The modern name "Iberian Peninsula" was first used by the French geographer Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent in his 1823 book. Before that, geographers had used names like "Spanish Peninsula" or "Pyrenaean Peninsula."

Prehistory

Main article: Prehistoric Iberia

The Iberian Peninsula has been home to members of the Homo genus for at least 1.2 million years, as remains found at sites in the Atapuerca Mountains show. At the cave of Gran Dolina, six hominin skeletons from between 780,000 and one million years ago were found in 1994. Experts have debated whether they belong to Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or a new species called Homo antecessor. About 200,000 years ago (BP), during the Lower Paleolithic, Neanderthals first entered the peninsula. Around 70,000 BP, in the Middle Paleolithic, the Mousterian culture was established. Around 37,000 BP, the Châtelperronian culture began, spreading from Southern France into the north of the peninsula. It lasted until around 30,000 BP, when Neanderthals faced extinction. About 40,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans arrived from across the Pyrenees. They developed cultures such as the Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, some known for complex art of the Upper Paleolithic. During the Neolithic expansion, various megalithic cultures developed. The Cardium culture, a seafaring people from the east Mediterranean, also spread to the eastern coasts, possibly as early as the 5th millennium BCE. These people may have been linked to the later Iberian civilization. Most modern Iberians descend mainly from Early European Farmers who arrived in the Neolithic. Around 3000 BCE, and later during the Bronze Age, new groups with steppe ancestry also arrived, replacing 100% of the paternal ancestry and 40% of the overall ancestry in Iberia. The large share of Y-chromosome type R1b, common throughout Western Europe, reflects these waves of mostly male Western Steppe Herders from the Pontic–Caspian steppe.

In the Chalcolithic (around 3000 BCE), complex cultures developed that would lead to the peninsula's first civilizations and to trade networks reaching the Baltic, Middle East and North Africa. Around 2800 to 2700 BCE, the Beaker culture, which produced the Maritime Bell Beaker, probably began in the copper-using communities of the Tagus estuary. The Bronze Age began on the peninsula in 2100 cal. BC, according to radiocarbon dating of several key sites. Bronze Age cultures developed from around 1800 BCE, when the Los Millares culture was followed by El Argar. From southeastern Iberia, bronze metalworking spread to other cultures, such as the Bronze of Levante, South-Western Iberian Bronze and Las Cogotas. The Argaric culture flourished in southeastern Iberia from 2200 BC to 1550 BC, when the area became depopulated. In the upper Guadiana basin, the motillas culture built an early system of groundwater supply plants during a time of extreme dryness that followed the 4.2-kiloyear climatic event.

Proto-history

Main article: Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula

By the Iron Age, starting in the 8th century BCE, the Iberian Peninsula had complex farming and town-based societies. These included Pre-Celtic and Celtic peoples (such as the Celtiberians, Gallaeci, Astures, Celtici, Lusitanians and others), the Iberians in the eastern and southern areas, and the Aquitanian culture in the western Pyrenees. As early as the 12th century BCE, the Phoenicians, a thalassocratic seafaring civilization from the Eastern Mediterranean, began to explore the coast. They met metal-rich communities in the southwest, known as the semi-mythical Tartessos. Around 1100 BCE, Phoenician merchants from Tyre founded the trading colony of Gadir. Around 800 BCE, they set up a permanent trading port there because of the growing demand for silver from the Assyrian Empire.

The Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians settled along the Mediterranean coast over several centuries and founded trading colonies there. Greek trade in the Western Mediterranean goes back to the 8th century BCE, but it was in the 6th century BCE that Phocaeans founded Massalia and Emporion on the eastern and northeastern coast. Writing also developed. Along with Phoenician and Greek writing, several paleohispanic scripts appeared during the 1st millennium BCE. In 348 BCE, the peninsula was formally placed under Carthaginian influence by the second treaty between Rome and Carthage. After Carthage lost Sicily and Sardinia to the Romans, the Barcids conquered the peninsula's lands in 237 BCE. They brought coastal Iberians, Turdetani and some Celtic inland peoples under their control, and founded Akra Leuké and Qart-Hadast.

History

See also: Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula

In 218 BCE, during the Second Punic War, the first Roman troops arrived on the Iberian Peninsula, which the Romans called Hispania. The Romans divided the land and put down local rebellions, and they spent about 600 years ruling the peninsula. Over this time, they brought the Latin language, which later grew into the languages spoken there today, except Basque. In the early fifth century, Germanic peoples took over much of the peninsula, and later the Visigoths took control of nearly all of it. In 711, a Muslim army conquered the Visigothic kingdom. The land they ruled was called Al-Andalus. Over time, most people there became Muslim. Christian kingdoms in the north slowly grew and took land back from the Muslim rulers in a long process known as the "Reconquista." The Muslim rule of Granada ended in 1492, and the Jews and Muslims who lived in Christian kingdoms were ordered to convert to Christianity or leave.

See also: Massacre of 1391

Between 1580 and 1640, the whole peninsula was united under the Iberian Union, after Portugal came under the rule of the Spanish Hapsburg kings. In the 17th century, the Iberian economies went through a difficult period. Many cities declined, while Portugal and the Mediterranean coast later recovered. The 1640–1668 Portuguese Restoration War brought the House of Braganza to power in Portugal and ended the union. In the 19th century, both countries began to modernize, but the biggest changes came after World War II, when cities grew quickly and many people moved from the countryside, a trend known as rural flight.

Geography and geology

Main articles: Geography of Spain, Geography of Portugal, and Geography of Andorra

The Iberian Peninsula is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas: the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan. It is the westernmost part of the larger Eurasian landmass. The Mediterranean Sea lies to its southeast and east, and the Atlantic Ocean lies to its north, west, and southwest. The Pyrenees mountains run along its northeast edge, where it meets the rest of Europe. Its southern tip, Punta de Tarifa, is the southernmost point of the European continent. It is very close to northwest Africa and is separated from it by the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea. The peninsula covers 583,254 km² and has very uneven land. Its mountain ranges mostly run from west to east, and some reach about 3,000 mamsl. This gives the region the second highest average altitude (637 mamsl) in Western Europe. From Punta de Tarifa to Punta de Estaca de Bares is about 865 km (537 mi) north to south, based on a degree length of 111 km (69 mi). From Cabo da Roca to Cap de Creus, at 40° N latitude, it is about 1,155 km (718 mi) east to west. The peninsula's rough, quadrangle-shaped outline was compared by the ancient geographer Strabo to an ox-hide.

About three quarters of the peninsula is the Meseta Central, a large plateau, roughly in the centre. It is ringed by mountains, and most of the peninsula's rivers start there. The traditional centre of the peninsula is considered to be Getafe, just south of Madrid.

The coastline is 3,313 km (2,059 mi) long, with 1,660 km (1,030 mi) on the Mediterranean side and 1,653 km (1,027 mi) on the Atlantic side. Sea levels rose after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), flooding the coast until they reached their current level about 4,000 years BP. The continental shelf is narrow on the Atlantic side, where it drops steeply into deep water. The shelf drops into the Bay of Biscay to the north, and the Iberian abyssal plain to the west. The Nazaré Canyon marks the southern edge of the shelf features. The isobath and seamounts are also part of the seabed's shape.

Main articles: List of rivers of Spain and List of rivers of Portugal

The major rivers, the Ebro, Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, and Guadalquivir, flow through wide valleys between the mountains. Their flow changes with the seasons. The Tagus is the longest river on the peninsula. The Guadiana forms part of the border between Spain and Portugal.

The land is mostly mountainous. The Pre-Pyrenees and the Pyrenees cross the northeast of the peninsula, with Aneto in the Maladeta massif the highest point at 3,404 m. The Cantabrian Mountains, with the Picos de Europa, run along the north coast, and Torre de Cerredo is their highest point. The Galicia/Trás-os-Montes Massif in the northwest is made of very old, worn-down rock, and Pena Trevinca is its highest point. The Sistema Ibérico lies in the centre and east, and Moncayo is its highest point. The Sistema Central divides the Iberian Plateau and stretches into Continental Portugal, where the country's highest point is in the Serra da Estrela. Pico Almanzor in the Sierra de Gredos is the highest point of the system. The Montes de Toledo reach into Portugal from the eastern end of La Mancha. Their highest point is La Villuerca in the Sierra de Villuercas, in Extremadura. The Sierra Morena has Bañuela as its highest point. The Baetic System runs from Cádiz and Gibraltar northeast toward Alicante Province. It has three parts. The Prebaetic System begins west of the Sierra Sur de Jaén, and its highest point is La Sagra. The Subbaetic System runs from Cape Trafalgar in Cádiz Province across Andalusia to the Region of Murcia, with Peña de la Cruz in Sierra Arana as its highest point. The Penibaetic System lies in the far southeast, and it includes Mulhacén in the Sierra Nevada, the highest point on the peninsula.

Main article: Geology of the Iberian Peninsula

The peninsula has rocks from every geological period, from the Ediacaran to the Recent, and almost every kind of rock. It has world-class mineral deposits. Its core is a Hercynian cratonic block called the Iberian Massif, and the Alpine belt surrounds it. The peninsula also has one of the largest lithium deposit belts in Europe, and some uranium deposits. The Iberian Pyrite Belt, in the southwest, is among the most important volcanogenic massive sulphide districts on Earth, and it has been mined for thousands of years.

Main articles: Climate of Portugal and Climate of Spain

Rainfall decreases from the northwest to the southeast, from about 2,000 mm to 300 mm a year, because of the peninsula's location and land shape, along with large atmospheric circulation patterns. The northeast has an oceanic climate, with little difference in rain between winter and summer. Most of Portugal and Spain have a Mediterranean climate, with the warm-summer Mediterranean climate and the hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Along the Portuguese and Galician Atlantic coasts, upwelling and downwelling can change summer temperatures by up to 10 °C (18 °F) within a few kilometres, as seen between Peniche and Santarém. Central Spain has steppe climates, and the Sierra Nevada has highland alpine climates. Some areas, such as Almería, Murcia, and southern Alicante, have semi-desert climates. The southwest interior has some of Europe's hottest temperatures, with Córdoba averaging about 37 °C (99 °F) in July and August. In contrast, A Coruña in northern Galicia has a summer daytime high average of just below 23 °C (73 °F). Winters are mostly mild, though frosts are common in higher areas of central Spain. Rainfall and sunshine vary a lot from place to place. Insolation ranges from about 1,600 hours in the Bilbao area to over 3,000 hours in the Algarve and the Gulf of Cádiz.

Political divisions

Today, most of the Iberian Peninsula belongs to Portugal and Spain. The tiny landlocked microstate of Andorra is also here, as is a small part of the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales (called French Cerdagne), and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. French Cerdagne lies on the south side of the Pyrenees mountains, which form the border between France and Spain. The Segre river starts on the French side and flows west and then south to meet the Ebro. The Pyrenees are often seen as the northeastern edge of the peninsula. However, the French coast curves away from the rest of Europe north of the mountains, so Perpignan, also known as the capital of Northern Catalonia, is often seen as the entrance to the peninsula.

Portugal's and Spain's parts of the peninsula leave out some islands and areas. These include the Macaronesian island groups, the Azores and Madeira (Portugal) and the Canary Islands (Spain). They also leave out the Balearic Islands (Spain) and the Spanish territories in North Africa, such as the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, along with some uninhabited islets and rocks. The countries and territories on the Iberian Peninsula are listed below:

Cities

The Iberian Peninsula's cities are led by three large international cities: Barcelona, Lisbon, and Madrid. Four big regional cities are Bilbao, Porto, Seville, and Valencia. These cities are not very closely linked, so they tend to compete with one another. Madrid stands out as an important centre for services and has the most connections to other places.

Major metropolitan regions

According to Eurostat (2019), the metropolitan regions with a population over one million are listed as follows:

See also: Cities of Spain and Cities of Portugal

Ecology

Main article: Forests of the Iberian Peninsula

The woodlands of the Iberian Peninsula are distinct ecosystems. Each region has its own plants, but there are some similarities across the peninsula. The endangered Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is a symbol of the Iberian Mediterranean forest and of the peninsula's wildlife. Many species are almost or completely endemic to the peninsula, including Iberian ibex, European rabbit, Pyrenean desman, Spanish eagle, Iberian green woodpecker and Iberian magpie. In 2020, a new lizard species, Podarcis virescens, was accepted. It is native to the peninsula and is found near its rivers.

The peninsula is an important stopover on the East Atlantic flyway for birds flying from northern Europe to Africa. For example, curlew sandpipers rest in the area of the Bay of Cádiz. About seven million wading birds from the north spend the winter in the estuaries and wetlands of the peninsula, mainly on the Atlantic coast. In Galicia, places such as Ría de Arousa, home of grey plover, Ria de Ortigueira, Ria de Corme and Ria de Laxe are important. In Portugal, the Aveiro Lagoon has pied avocet, the common ringed plover, grey plover and little stint. Ribatejo Province on the Tagus has pied avocet, grey plover, dunlin, bar-tailed godwit and common redshank. The Sado Estuary has dunlin, Eurasian curlew, grey plover and common redshank. The Algarve has red knot, common greenshank and turnstone. The Guadalquivir Marshes region of Andalusia and the Salinas de Cádiz are especially rich in wintering wading birds, with Kentish plover, common ringed plover, sanderling and black-tailed godwit. The Ebro delta has all the species mentioned above.

Languages

Main article: Languages of Iberia

Further information: Languages of Andorra, Languages of Gibraltar, Languages of France, Languages of Spain, and Languages of Portugal

Almost all modern Iberian languages come from Vulgar Latin and belong to the Western Romance languages. The one exception is Basque, which has an unknown origin. Many other languages were spoken in the peninsula over time, and most of them have disappeared. Basque is the only non-Indo-European surviving language in Iberia and Western Europe.

Today, the most widely spoken languages are Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, and Basque. Spanish and Portuguese have also spread around the world and became global languages. Smaller languages include several varieties of Astur-leonese and Aragonese, which is spoken in the Alto Aragón. In Gibraltar, English is the official language, and Llanito is a mix of mostly English and Spanish.

Transportation

Spain and Portugal have long used a different track width, the Iberian gauge of 1,668 mm, since the first railroads were built in the 19th century. Spain has gradually added the standard gauge of 1,435 mm to its high-speed rail network, one of the most extensive in the world. It opened in 1992 with the Madrid–Seville line, followed by the Madrid–Barcelona line (2008), the Madrid–Valencia line (2010), an Alicante branch of the Madrid–Valencia line (2013), and the connection to France of the Barcelona line. Portugal, however, suspended all its high-speed rail projects after the 2008 financial crisis. For now, this ended the chance of a high-speed link between Lisbon, Porto and Madrid. The Pyrenees mountains make it hard to connect Spain to the rest of Europe, so Spain and, to a lesser extent, Portugal have only two useful rail links to France for freight, at either end of the range. An international line once linked Zaragoza and the French city of Pau through a tunnel in the Central Pyrenees. After an accident on the French side destroyed part of the railroad in 1970, the Canfranc Station has been a cul-de-sac since then. There are four points connecting the Portuguese and Spanish rail networks: Valença do Minho–Tui, Vilar Formoso–Fuentes de Oñoro, Marvão-Beirã–Valencia de Alcántara, and Elvas–Badajoz. Developing the Central, Mediterranean and Atlantic rail corridors, as part of a wider European effort, is expected to help the ports of Tarragona, Valencia, Sagunto, Bilbao, Santander, Sines and Algeciras compete better with the rest of Europe and the world.

In 1980, Morocco and Spain began a joint study on whether a fixed link, either a tunnel or a bridge, could cross the Strait of Gibraltar, possibly by connecting Punta Paloma with Cape Malabata. Years of studies have made no real progress so far. The peninsula is also a transit point for many undersea cables. The Fibre-optic Link Around the Globe, Europe India Gateway, and SEA-ME-WE 3 have landing stations there, and the West Africa Cable System, Main One, SAT-3/WASC, and Africa Coast to Europe also land in Portugal. MAREA connects northern Spain (Bilbao) to North America (Virginia). Grace Hopper is an upcoming cable linking Bilbao to the UK and the US, intended to be operative by 2022. EllaLink is an upcoming high-capacity cable expected to connect Sines to South America, and the 2Africa project intends to connect the peninsula to the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa via Portugal and Barcelona by 2023–24. Two gas pipelines, the Pedro Duran Farell pipeline and the newer Medgaz, bring natural gas from Morocco and Algeria, linking the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula and supplying Spain with Algerian gas. The contract for the first pipeline expires on 31 October 2021, and amid a tense climate in Algerian–Moroccan relations, there are no plans to renew it.

Economy

The main money used across Iberia is the Euro. Gibraltar is the exception, and it uses the Gibraltar Pound, which has the same value as Sterling.

Major industries include mining, tourism, small farms, and fishing. Because the coast is so long, fishing is popular, especially for sardines, tuna, and anchovies. Mined materials include iron, gold, coal, lead, silver, zinc, quicksilver, and salt. Both Andorra and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar have been described as tax havens. The Galician region of Spain, in the north-west of the peninsula, became one of the biggest entry points for cocaine in Europe, on a par with the Dutch ports. Hashish is smuggled from Morocco via the Strait of Gibraltar.