A BRIEF HISTORY Though prehistoric remains from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Ages have been unearthed in the Manzanares Valley, prior to Madrid’s sudden elevation to capital city in 1561 its history was rather undistinguished. Over a period of many centuries crucial in Spanish history, Madrid’s significance was negligible. The Romans built their most advanced outpost on the Iberian peninsula, but left nothing of consequence in Madrid. Armies of North African nomads, intent on disseminating Islam, invaded the peninsula in a.d. 711. Within 10 years, they had overrun most of Spain. If Madrid played any role in these pivotal events, no record of it remains. The first solid references to this obscure settlement on the Castilian plateau, guarded by the looming Guadarrama mountain range, appear in the 9th century. The Arabic name for “place of many springs,” variously recorded as Magerit, Mayrit or Magrit, eventually evolved into Madrid. The hamlet entered historical chronicles for its military significance; it was located near the main line of resistance to the Christian reconquest. Over centuries of struggle, the defending Moorish army built a full-scale fort, or Alcázar, on the heights of Madrid commanding the Manzanares valley. After several unsuccessful skirmishes, the Christian forces of Alfonso VI captured Madrid in 1083. The Alcázar became a fort of the crown of Castile. During a counter-offensive in 1109, the town was overrun by the Moors, but the Christianized fortress held. The Moors were expelled from the town, but they remained in control of southern Spain for almost four centuries. Meanwhile, Madrid enjoyed brief prominence in 1308 when king Ferdinand IV and his Cortes, an early version of parliament, held a formal meeting in the fledgling town. From then on, the kings of Spain began to visit Madrid, where the air was invigorating and the hunting excellent. Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic monarchs that united all the provinces of Spain, first visited Madrid in 1477. They appreciated the town’s loyalty to the crown, but the idea never occurred to anyone, let alone the two monarchs, that Madrid might one day become the capital. Historically important Toledo seemed secure in the role. Spain’s Golden Age Under Ferdinand and Isabella, Spain underwent a dramatic transformation. In 1492 the royal pair presided over the final conquest over the Moors and discovery of the New World, including the great wealth that feat brought to Spain. Spain flourished during a Golden Age, a century of Spanish economic and political supremacy in international affairs, accompanied by marvels of art and literature. Ferdinand and Isabella were consummate Spaniards, committed to the expansion of the crown. By contrast, their grandson, who assumed the throne in 1516, was born in Flanders in 1500, and Charles I could barely express himself in Spanish. The first of the Habsburgs, he packed his retinue with Burgundian and Flemish nobles. Soon after his arrival in Spain, the young man inherited the title of Holy Roman Emperor, as Charles V. The responsibilities of the crown kept him busy away from the royal residences of Toledo, Segovia, Valladolid, and Madrid. While the monarch was away on one of his many business trips, his increasingly dissatisfied subjects protested violently. A revolt of the comuneros, or townsmen, broke out in a number of Spanish cities, including Madrid. The rebels occupied the alcázar, which had by then been converted to a royal palace. The insurrection was quashed and its leaders executed, but the king got the message. He tried thereafter to pay more attention to his Spanish constituency. Madrid’s Rise to Capital In 1556, Charles abdicated in favor of his son, Felipe II, good news for Spain and even better for Madrid. Felipe moved the royal court from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, converting an unimpressive town of less than 15,000 people into the capital of the world’s greatest empire. Madrid soared onward and upward, increasing nearly eightfold in population; Spain’s fortunes as a whole were more volatile. Felipe II took credit for a rousing naval victory at Lepanto, teaming with Venetians against the Turks, but less than two decades later Spain was subjected to the humiliating defeat of its “invincible” armada, at the hands of Sir Francis Drake and a small English navy. Felipe II’s greatest lasting legacy is El Escorial, a grandiose palace and monastery in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama, northwest of Madrid. Felipe’s son, Felipe III, was unfaithful to Spain’s new capital. For several years he held court in Valladolid, though eventually he returned to Madrid. It was he who ordered the construction of the Plaza Mayor, the magnificent main square that still dignifies the center of the Viejo Madrid. Other tasteful, 17th-century buildings constructed nearby, such as the foreign ministry and town hall, reveal that the capital was at last being taken seriously. The Habsburgs bowed out in 1700 with the death of Charles II. The subsequent war over Spanish succession resulted in the enthronement of the Bourbon candidate, Felipe V. When Madrid’s alcázar burned down in 1734, with the loss of many art treasures, Felipe seized the opportunity to build a new, incredibly lavish royal palace. Madrid’s Palacio Real is still used on occasion by King Juan Carlos I for official ceremonies. Madrid owes much to the civic-mindedness of Charles III, who ruled from 1759 to 1788. He paved and lighted the streets, installed public fountains, built the Prado museum, and laid out vast promenades and gardens. Francisco de Goya painted a court portrait of the next king, Charles IV, in which he looked strangely like George Washington. But Charles was considerably less successful politically than his transatlantic contemporary. His 20-year reign, weak at best, ended in all-round disaster: abdication, arrest, and war. Spain again became a battleground in the early 1800s, with British forces taking on Napoleon’s troops in the Peninsular War. Napoleon invaded Spain in March 1808 and invested his older, taller, and more agreeable brother, Joseph, as King José I. On May 2, 1808, Madrid rose up against the interloper. The Peninsular War (called the War of Independence by Spaniards) went on murderously but inconclusively for six years. Finally, with the help of the British under the duke of Wellington, the Spanish expelled the occupying forces. In truth, Joseph Bo­na­par­te meant well — he built so many pla­zas that Ma­dri­le­ños nicknamed him El Rey Pla­zue­las — but the people loathed a government imposed from abroad. Jo­sé I spent 17 years of exile in, of all unlikely places, New Jersey. Decline and Decadence The son of Charles IV, Fernando VII, was seated on his rightful throne in the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1814. But the war and the repercussions of the French Revolution had helped to create in Spain the nucleus of a liberal national party. Power struggles at home and rebellion by colonies abroad ensued. The spirit of liberalism prevalent in Europe was tardy in reaching Spain. After many reverses, a democratic constitution was finally proclaimed and constitutional monarchy was instituted in 1874. By the time of the Spanish–American War of 1898, the Spanish empire of the Golden Age had been whittled to insignificance. King Alfonso XIII, who linked the 19th and 20th centuries, inaugurated the Madrid Metro (underground railway) and University City. But he was undone by the chronic unrest of his subjects. Neither constitutional government nor dictatorship proved workable, and in 1931 the king went into exile following anti-royalist results in municipal elections. The Civil War In 1931, general elections brought the Republicans to power, and King Alfonso XIII escaped in exile. In the new Republic, bitter ideological conflicts divided parties and factions, and the church was also involved. For the next several years the pendulum of power in Spain swung back and forth between Left and Right. Finally, in 1936, a large section of the army under General Francisco Franco rose in revolt against the government. On Franco’s side were monarchists, conservatives, the Catholic Church, and the right-wing Falangists. United against him was a collection of republicans, liberals, socialists, communists, and anarchists. The civil war developed into one of the great causes of the 20th century, with support for both sides pouring in from outside of Spain. Often unaware of the particular Spanish origins of the struggle, many Europeans saw the civil war as a crucial conflict between democracy and dictatorship, or from the other side, as a conflict between law and order and the forces of social revolution and chaos. The war was brutal and bloody, and both sides committed atrocities. The Civil War ended with some 700,000 combatants dead on both sides; another 30,000 were executed or assassinated, including many priests and nuns, and perhaps 15,000 civilians were killed in air raids. Madrid remained in Republican hands for most of the war, but the government was evacuated in the early stages of a nationalist siege that lasted until March 1939. Even when the war ended, the hardship continued. Despite Hitler’s efforts at persuasion, Spain’s new caudillo (strongman), Generalísimo Franco, managed to keep Spain out of World War II. Spain was admitted to the United Nations in 1955, opening the gates to an overwhelming tourist invasion, which would have profound effects on both the economy and national mentality. When Franco died in 1975, Spain rapidly emerged from its isolation. The coronation of his designated successor, Juan Carlos, the grandson of Alfonso XIII, brought the restoration of parliamentary democracy and a relaxation of customs and laws. The king’s commitment to democracy brought Spain into line with the rest of Western Europe and assured it of membership in the European Union, which was granted in 1986. Madrid flourished in the early 1980s, as characterized by la movida, a hip cultural explosion that rejected the repression of the Franco era through acts of hedonism and creative films, music and theater. Charismatic Felipe González, a Socialist, was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982 to 1986. Spain became a member of the European Economic Community (now called European Union, or EU) in 1986, hastening the country’s modernization. In a single year, 1992, Spain dominated the world stage: Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympic Games, Seville the World Expo, and Madrid held the role of European Cultural Capital. Though González was credited by many as the architect of the new Spain, he finally succumbed to incessant charges of corruption and incompetence in the highest levels of his government. In 1996, the surging Partido Popular, led by a decidely uncharismatic former accountant, José María Aznar, was elected, forming the first conservative government in Spain since the return of democracy.