Under Muslim rule of what they called al-Andalus, the caliphate of Córdoba became one of the premier centers of the Islamic world. Islam tolerated other People of the Book, as they called Christians and Jews, but with restrictions. Over the eight centuries in which Muslim forces held sway in Iberia, the various cultures and languages of the peninsula developed and blended to a certain extent, which came to be called convivencia (lit., living together). Nonetheless, Christian forces began a reconquest of the land from the Muslims, beginning in the north and moving in stages toward the south. They benefited from the fragmentation of rule in the Muslim areas and the frequent disruptions caused by successive invasions from North Africa. As Christian forces captured territory, they formed various kingdoms in Portugal, Castile-León, and Aragón. Loyal supporters received grants of land from grateful monarchs and thus became a landed aristocracy. By the end of the thirteenth century, what would be known as the Christian Reconquest was virtually complete.

Castile and Aragón stayed amalgamated under the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, which reigned for two centuries. Early on, Spaniards conquered the Aztec and Inca empires in the Americas, and huge transatlantic merchant fleets connected Spain with its growing American Empire. After unprecedented silver deposits were discovered in both North and South America, Spanish silver and other treasure contributed to growth and inflation around the globe. The long-sought return route eastward from Asia to the Americas allowed transpacific trade to begin in 1565, while conquest of the Philippines made Spain’s composite monarchy, as it is often called, truly global. Spanish power declined in the late seventeenth century, the victim of overextension and continual warfare. When the Habsburgs died out in 1700, a Bourbon prince had the best dynastic claim to become king of Spain. As Felipe V, he fought most of Europe to remain on the throne and would father three successive kings, whose reigns saw Spain’s global empire reach its greatest extent. Thereafter, the French Revolution and a Napoleonic invasion would shatter Spain and end the early modern period.

This Chapter deals with cross-linguistic variation in interrogatives. We look at both yes/no questions and wh-questions. Since the use of question particles, grammatical morphemes whose function is to mark (or type) the clause as interrogative, is by far the commonest way of marking clauses as interrogative across languages, we focus to a large extent on these elements.

This chapter deals the nature and typology of null subjects. Three types of null-subject language are distinguished: radical null-subject languages, consistent null-subject languages and partial null-subject languages. Together with non-null-subject languages, these form a four-way typology, which is presented and explained.

The major dynasties and rulers in each period are listed along with their dates, from medieval times through the eighteenth century. For the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, monarchs, regents, dictators, and elected heads of government are listed along with their dates in power.

Roman armies entered Iberia at the end of the third century BCE and conquered the Carthaginians. Nonetheless, it required two centuries to bring what they called Hispania into the Roman orbit, due to the difficult terrain and the resistance of many local populations. Once established, the Romans brought considerable benefits to the inhabitants, including roads, bridges, aqueducts, the Latin language, law, and civic and cultural enhancements such as theaters, all of which left lasting traces into the present. They also converted to Christianity. As the Roman Empire faded in power, barbarians including the Visigoths invaded its borders. The Visigoths eventually arrived in Hispania and established their rule at the end of the sixth century, but they were overwhelmed by Muslim invaders from North Africa in the early seventh century. Nonetheless, although they left few traces of their own way of life, they preserved much of the Roman legacy.

This chapter summarises the principal results of Greenberg’s classic 1963 paper (Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Language, 58–90. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press) and subsequent work in language typology developing Greenberg’s ideas by Lehmann, Vennemann, Hawkins and Dryer, concluding with a section on X’-theory and the Head Parameter.

In this chapter we first review the parameters discussed in the preceding chapters and try to show systematically which values each one has in a range of familiar Germanic, Romance and other languages. This leads to a discussion of the Parametric Comparison Method (PCM). Finally, we consider some of the theoretical issues concerning the nature of parameters and parametric variation and conjecture a new theoretical characterisation of parameters.

Following the text and the Timeline, the Guide to Further Information provides a brief essay for each chapter suggesting publications in English for readers interested in learning more. The essays also discuss major figures in art, literature, architecture, and music pertinent to each chapter, as well as places to see and things to do for visitors to Spain, including museums and archaeological sites.

Portugal, Castile, and Catalonia completed separate reconquests of Muslim territory. In 1469, Princess Isabel of Castile married her cousin, Prince Fernando of Aragón. After inheriting their respective thrones, they fought a war establishing separate areas of the world for Portugal and Castile to explore. In 1492, they defeated the last Muslim king of Granada and allowed Christopher Columbus to seek a westward route to Asia for Castile, avoiding the Portuguese route eastward. Instead of Asia, he happened upon the Americas, which had been unknown to European cosmography. That same year, the monarchs expelled Jewish subjects who refused to convert to Christianity, two centuries after England and France had done so. Isabel and Fernando established a religious inquisition to enforce Christian orthodoxy on the population as a whole, including new converts. In another decision with far-reaching consequences, they arranged marriages for their children with Portugal, France, England, and the Habsburgs of Central Europe. The unplanned consequence of the Habsburg alliance, together with a series of premature deaths, left their grandson, Charles of Ghent, heir to a large collection of territories in Europe, as well as all the lands claimed for Castile in the Americas.

This Chapter discusses ergativity and various kinds of split ergativity, as well as the apparent lack of SVO ergative languages. An analysis of ergativity in terms of inherent Case is proposed, following Sheehan (2017).

Franco prepared the son of the Bourbon pretender to succeed him and officially restored the monarchy in 1969. After Franco died, King Juan Carlos I quietly marshaled support to transform Spain into a true democracy, appointing as prime minister Adolfo Suárez, the former head of Spain’s radio and television networks, a man trusted by the right. While Suárez persuaded the Francoist Cortes to vote itself out of existence, Juan Carlos persuaded his colleagues in the military to allow change to happen. Within two years after Franco’s death, Spain emerged as a full-fledged democracy. Weathering an attempted right-wing coup, terrorism from Basque separatists, and the usual challenges of a modern democracy, Spain joined NATO in 1982 and was admitted to the European Union in 1986. Elected governments have alternated between moderate left and moderate right, and with the new millennium, Spaniards began to deal with the wounds of the past. Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014, and his son ascended the throne as Felipe VI, celebrating the tenth anniversary of his reign in 2024. Meanwhile, the Spanish economy has continued to enjoy impressive growth, fueled by tourism, immigration, and industries such as shipbuilding and automobile construction.