PAU History of Spain (Castilla y León) key terms

Archaeological site in Burgos whose Gran Dolina and Sima de los Huesos deposits yielded some of Europe's oldest human fossils, including Homo antecessor and a large collection of Homo heidelbergensis remains.

Extinct human species identified from fossils at Atapuerca dated to roughly 800,000 years ago; regarded as one of the earliest hominins documented in Western Europe.

Earliest phase of the Stone Age, characterised by core-and-flake tool industries such as Oldowan and Acheulean, associated in Iberia with Homo antecessor and Homo heidelbergensis occupations.

Palaeolithic paintings and engravings on cave walls, represented in Spain by Cantabrian sites such as Altamira, notable for polychrome bison and deer painted with mineral pigments.

Later phase of the Stone Age marked by blade tools, hunting of large fauna and figurative art, associated in Iberia with anatomically modern humans and the Cantabrian cave-art tradition.

Period beginning in Iberia around 5500 BCE when farming, herding, pottery and polished stone tools spread, bringing sedentary village life and the first megalithic monuments.

Funerary and ceremonial architecture of large stone monuments, including dolmens and passage graves, widespread in Iberia from the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.

Protohistoric culture of the lower Guadalquivir valley in the first millennium BCE, known from Greek and biblical references and from rich elite burials such as El Carambolo.

Iron Age peoples of the Mediterranean and south-eastern coast of the peninsula, known for fortified hilltop settlements, writing systems and sculpture such as the Dama de Elche.

Iron Age communities of the central-eastern plateau combining Iberian and Celtic cultural traits, organised in cities such as Numantia and remembered for resistance to Roman conquest.

Establishment of trading settlements on the southern Iberian coast, such as Gadir (Cádiz) and Malaka, from the ninth century BCE, linking the peninsula to Mediterranean commercial networks.

Gradual adoption of Roman language, law, urban forms, religion and citizenship across Hispania after conquest, visible in roads, aqueducts, villas and Latin epigraphy.

The peninsula as a Roman province from the late third century BCE until the fifth century CE, divided into provinces such as Baetica, Tarraconensis and Lusitania and integrated into imperial administration.

Germanic monarchy ruling most of the peninsula from Toledo between the fifth and early eighth centuries, known for the conversion to Catholicism, the Councils of Toledo and a territorial law code.

Muslim-ruled territory in the Iberian Peninsula between 711 and 1492, passing through an emirate, a caliphate based in Córdoba, and later Taifa, Almoravid, Almohad and Nasrid phases.

Small successor states that emerged after the collapse of the Córdoba caliphate in 1031, competing politically and culturally before being absorbed by North African dynasties and Christian conquests.

Protracted expansion of the Christian kingdoms southwards at the expense of Al-Andalus between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, culminating in the conquest of Granada in 1492.

Organised settlement of conquered lands by Christian kingdoms, using charters, frontier towns and noble or ecclesiastical lordships to secure territory and define landholding patterns.

Lordship in which a noble or ecclesiastical lord exercised jurisdictional and/or landholding rights over a rural population, a dominant social form in the medieval Christian kingdoms.

Castilian guild of sheep owners, formally recognised in 1273, which regulated transhumant migration of merino flocks and strongly shaped land use and rural economy.

Composite monarchy formed by the union of Castile and León in 1230, with its own Cortes, law codes and expansion into Andalusia and the Atlantic, later joined dynastically to Aragon.

Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose dynastic union in 1469 underpinned a shared monarchy that conquered Granada, sponsored Atlantic exploration and reorganised royal institutions.

Ecclesiastical tribunal established in Castile in 1478 under royal control to prosecute heresy, especially among converted Jews and Muslims, and later a tool of censorship and political control.

Muslims converted to Christianity after the forced conversions of the early sixteenth century, whose distinct culture and eventual expulsion between 1609 and 1614 deeply affected regional economies.

Period from 1516 to 1700 when Spanish crowns were held by the Habsburg dynasty, marked by imperial commitments in Europe and America, silver flows and fiscal and military strain.

Urban and noble revolt in Castile (1520–1521) against Charles V's fiscal demands and foreign political priorities, defeated at Villalar and thereafter commemorated as a symbol of Castilian liberties.

Fleet sent by Philip II in 1588 to support an invasion of England, defeated by weather, logistics and English naval tactics, marking limits of Spanish maritime power.

Administrative, fiscal and military changes introduced in eighteenth-century Spain under the new dynasty, including intendentes, provincial reorganisation and tighter control over the Indies.

Eighteenth-century intellectual movement emphasising reason, education and reform, whose Spanish representatives promoted economic societies, scientific institutions and criticism of traditional structures.

Assembly convened during the Peninsular War that approved the Constitution of 1812, establishing national sovereignty, a single chamber and equality of Spaniards before the law.

Liberal charter known as La Pepa, proclaiming national sovereignty, Catholic confessionalism and a constitutional monarchy; a reference point for later Spanish liberalism.

Conflict from 1808 to 1814 against Napoleonic occupation, combining regular and guerrilla warfare with a political revolution that reshaped Spanish institutions and colonial loyalties.

Traditionalist movement supporting Don Carlos and his heirs against liberal succession, defending dynastic legitimacy, Catholicism and regional fueros through several nineteenth-century civil wars.

State confiscation and sale of ecclesiastical and municipal lands in the nineteenth century, intended to fund public debt and create a landowning peasantry but often reinforcing large estates.

Political system during the reign of Isabella II (1833–1868) in which moderate and progressive liberals alternated, based on a restricted census suffrage and the 1845 Constitution.

Period from 1868 to 1874 opened by the Glorious Revolution, including the 1869 Constitution, the brief reign of Amadeo I and the First Republic before the Bourbon Restoration.

Political system from 1874 to 1923 built on the 1876 Constitution, in which Conservative and Liberal parties alternated through electoral manipulation known as caciquismo.

Practice by which local bosses controlled elections and public administration in rural Spain, guaranteeing the turno of dynastic parties and excluding outsiders from political power.

Republican regime established in 1931 after the fall of the monarchy, marked by reformist constitutions and governments, social conflict and polarisation until the Civil War.

Conflict from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican government and a military rebellion supported by nationalist forces, ending in Franco's victory and a long dictatorship.

Authoritarian regime led by Francisco Franco from 1939 to 1975, based on single-party rule, repression, autarky and later developmentalist policies, without a democratic constitution.

Process from 1975 to 1978 in which institutions were reformed after Franco's death, legalising parties and unions and producing the 1978 Constitution through negotiated consensus.

Current Spanish constitution, approved by referendum, defining a parliamentary monarchy, territorial autonomy and extensive rights, and marking the legal consolidation of democracy.

Any surviving trace, written or material, used to construct historical knowledge; classified as primary or secondary and subjected to external and internal criticism.

Method of interrogating a document by identifying its author, date, purpose, audience and context, and by distinguishing stated facts from the writer's interpretation or bias.

Structured reasoning that supports a thesis with evidence, addressing causation, chronology and counter-arguments, and distinguishing established fact from hypothesis in written or oral answers.