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.
