Castile (historical region)

Castile (Spanish Castilla ) is a community on the central plateau of Spain landscape whose name dates back to the medieval kingdom of the same name.

It includes the present-day autonomous regions Castilla -La Mancha, Madrid, and the greater part of Castilla y León. The Castilian vagina Mountains immediately to the north of Madrid shares the landscape in the northern and southern Old Castile La Mancha, which also includes the Mancha ( from Arabic al - المنشرة mans chara, flat land ''). Since Castile but does not represent their own political or administrative unit more today, the exact territorial extent is not clear-cut to distinguish.

After this scene, the Spanish language, especially to distinguish it from the other languages ​​spoken in Spain Languages ​​often as castellano ( Castilian) is called, since that dialect was spoken and which formed the basis of modern standard Spanish.

History

Origins, name origin

Castile, the area of the upper Ebro, was called up by 800 Bardulien ( after the tribe living there Bardulier ). The name is first attested Castile in a Latin document from the year 800, where of a church in territorio Castelle ( " Burgenland " ) is mentioned. This name owed ​​the region the many forts (Latin castella, Spanish castillos ), which had been built there to protect against attacks by the Arabs. The country was conquered in the 8th and 9th century by the kings of Asturias in the fight against the Arabs and was one of its successor kingdom, the Kingdom of León later.

County of Castile

The kingdoms of Asturias and Leon Castile were managed by local counts (see List of rulers of Castile ). This rose to 925 against the king of León and built the area from to self rule, first as allies of the Caliph of Cordoba. Ferdinand González was the first time as an independent count of Castile. By rebellions against the kings of Ramiro II ( 931-950 ), Ordoño III. ( 950-957 ) and Sancho I. ( 957-966 ), he sought his country's independence from León to achieve.

His son García Fernandez ruled almost independently also by the year 1000. His son and successor of Sancho left the reign of his son, Count García and after his assassination in 1026, she went on to Sancho's son, the King of Navarre Sancho Mayor, at his death in 1035 his son Ferdinand Castile inherited.

Kingdom of Castile

→ Main article Kingdom of Castile

1037 Count Ferdinand of Castile conquered the Kingdom of León, and is crowned as the king, so Leon and Castile were united again. For short periods 1065-1072 and 1175-1230 Castile was, but now, again separated from the kingdom as the kingdom of Castile and Leon, before 1230 was now the final union to Castile and León. This Kingdom is often referred to as " Crown of Castile " or simply Castile. It acquires in the course of the Reconquista and includes extensive areas in their completion ( 1492) to the north, the center and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. To the west it borders on Portugal and on the east by the territories of the Crown of Aragon and Navarre.

Unification of Spain

Even after the unification of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs kept the parts of the empire of the Crown of Castile - as well as the Crown of Aragon and Navarre - their own legal systems and institutions. First, it is a purely personal union. It was not until the early 18th century transformed the Bourbons in Spain a central government and extend the Castilian legal and administrative system largely also to the other parts of the empire.

Modern administrative divisions in 1833

Associated with the Crown of Castile kingdoms were divided in 1833 as part of a study conducted by the minister Javier de Burgos territorial reorganization of Spain in historical regions, which in turn were divided into provinces. This province division is still going largely unchanged. The provinces were grouped into " historical regions ". Two of these were designated Castile on behalf of:

• Old Castile ( Castilla la Vieja ) Santander (now Cantabria ), Valladolid, Palencia, Burgos, Logroño (now La Rioja), Ávila, Segovia, Soria
• New Castile ( Castilla la Nueva ): Madrid, Guadalajara, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca

However, had the " historical regions " no own skills or institutions, they served only the conceptual summary of various provinces.

In this structure, it remains until 1975, during the Franco dictatorship ( 1936/39-1975 ) regionalization efforts were suppressed rigid. In the period of transition to democracy ( transición ), therefore, the issue of regionalization was one of the most pressing and most controversial questions. When debating the future constitution you agreed to a minimum compromise, which only provided a very wide framework for the later formation of " Autonomous Communities " ( based on the existing provinces ) and their responsibilities.

The result of the process of constituting the Autonomous Communities in the Castilian territories was as follows:

• The border provinces of Santander and Logroño, which had belonged to the " historical region " Old Castile, Cantabria and La Rioja formed as own uniprovinziale Autonomous Communities.
• The remaining provinces of Old Castile formed together with the provinces of the "historical region" León (León, Zamora, Salamanca ), the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leon ( Castilla y León).
• The province of Madrid, which is historically and geographically to count to Castilla La Mancha, also formed its own uniprovinziale Autonomous Community.
• The remaining Provinzien the " historical region " Castile formed together with the province of Albacete, the Autonomous Community of Castile -La Mancha.

At least since 1833 is thus Castile as their own political or administrative unit no longer.

Today Castilla

Castile is therefore now only the name of a landscape whose territorial extent is defined differently depending on the perspective, which is particularly true for the following areas:

• Today's autonomous communities of Cantabria and La Rioja were historically part of the Kingdom of Castile. Geographically, they are, however, beyond the edge surrounding the Meseta Mountains ( Cantabria on the Atlantic, La Rioja in the Ebro basin ).
• The provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca (sometimes additionally Valladolid and Palencia ) can be viewed in part as a distinctive landscape of Castile to Leon. From a historical perspective suggests that these areas always the Kingdom of León (or partly Kingdom of León in the crown of Castile ) and never the actual kingdom of Castile were, and also the southern part of the former Kingdom of León, Extremadura, not conceptually under " Castile " is taken. However Scenic go Castile and Leon in the northern Meseta indistinguishable overlap.
• Until the establishment of the province of Albacete in 1833, their territory had heard at about the half part of the Kingdom of Toledo ( Castilla La Mancha ) and partly Kingdom of Murcia. 1833 she was assigned to the " historical region " Murcia. Today it belongs to the autonomous community of Castile -La Mancha.

Pictures

Alcázar of Segovia

Plaza Mayor of Salamanca

Cathedral of Burgos

San Lorenzo de El Escorial near Madrid

University of Alcalá de Henares

View over Toledo

Hanging houses in Cuenca

Peñafiel ( Old Castile )

Windmills of Consuegra ( Castilla La Mancha )

Quotes

" Castile made ​​Spain, Castile and destroyed it. "