Everything about Castile Historical Region totally explained
A former
kingdom,
Castile ( or [kasˈt̪iʝa]), gradually merged with its neighbors to become the
Crown of Castile and later the
Kingdom of Spain. In modern-day
Spain, it's usually considered to comprise the regions of
Castilla y León in the north-west, and
Castilla-La Mancha and
Madrid in the center and south of the country, including sometimes
Cantabria and
La Rioja as well, for historical reasons. However, there are different versions about the exact boundaries of Castile, and since it lacks an official recognition, it has no official borders. Modern Spanish monarchs are numbered according to the system of Castile.
Castile's name is thought to mean
land or
region of castles, in reference to the castles built in the area to consolidate the Christian
Reconquest from the
Moors.
History
Historically, the
Castilian Kingdom and
people were considered to be the main architects of the Spanish State by a process of expansion to the South against the Muslims and of marriages, wars, assimilation, and annexation of their smaller Eastern and Western neighbours. From the advent of the Bourbon Monarchy following the
War of the Spanish Succession until the arrival of parliamentary democracy in
1977, the Spanish language, often called
castellano (Castilian) in Spanish, was the only one with official status in the
Spanish State.
Originally an eastern county of the kingdom of
León, in the
11th century Castile became an independent realm with its capital at
Burgos and later
Valladolid, and the leading force in the northern Christian states' 800-year
Reconquista ("reconquest") of central and southern Spain from the Muslim rulers who had dominated most of the peninsula since the early
8th century.
The capture of
Toledo in
1085 added
New Castile to the crown's territories, and the
battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (
1212) heralded the Muslim loss of most of southern Spain. León was finally reunited with Castile in
1230, and the following decades saw the capture of
Córdoba (
1236),
Murcia (
1243) and
Seville (
1248). By the
Treaty of Alcaçovas with
Portugal on
March 6,
1460, the ownership of the
Canary Islands was transferred to Castile.
The dynastic union of Castile and
Aragon in
1469, when
Ferdinand II of Aragon wed
Isabella of Castile, would eventually lead to the formal creation of Spain as a single entity in
1516 when their grandson
Charles V assumed both thrones. See
List of Spanish monarchs and
Kings of Spain family tree.
Nowadays many people consider that the territory traditionally regarded as Castile corresponds to the Spanish autonomous communities of
Cantabria,
Castile and Leon,
Castile-La Mancha,
Madrid and
La Rioja. Other territories in the former
Crown of Castile are left out for different reasons. In fact, the territory of the Castilian Crown actually comprised all other autonomous communities within Spain with the exception of
Aragon,
Balearic Islands,
Valencia and
Catalonia, which all belonged to the late Crown of Aragon, and
Navarre, heir of the older Kingdom of the same name.
Language
The language of Castile emerged as the primary language of Spain — known to many of its speakers as
castellano and in English sometimes as Castilian, but generally as
Spanish. See
Names given to the Spanish language.
Castilian identity and cultural expansion
Castilians are a defined as a community with a shared culture and history. Their origin is, as well as most of other parts of the Spain, a heterogeneous mixture of
Celtiberian,
Roman,
Visigothic (see also
Spanish people). Thus, it isn't correct to establish a strict common origin, but a common
cultural identity. Over time, most Castilians have mixed with other Spaniards due to their past political dominance, and present-day cultural dominance. Castilians and their cultural influence spread throughout the entire plateau of central Spain during the
Reconquista, carried out principally by the Kingdom of Toledo which was renamed
New Castile. Castilian
ethnicity is the product of the conquest, by a small kingdom in northern Spain, of vast tracts of sparsely populated lands (the central
"mesetas"). These lands were populated, during the reconquest, by peoples from all over the peninsula (even from southern Spain (see exile of
Mozarabes from
Al Andalus and even the dispersal of
Moriscos from Granada in the
16th century).
The Castilian language (for example Spanish) became the main language in Spain; it's often referred to as "Castilian" in both Spain and Latin America. At present, Castilians are known as the inhabitants of those regions of Spain where there's no regional identity which conflicts with that of "Castilian". The Castilian regions roughly coincide with the plateaus of north-central Spain, historically sparsely populated highlands.
Castilian identity is now defined negatively rather than positively. The reason for this is that
Castilian nationalism was the first to have been destroyed by the Spanish Crown during the revolt and war of the
Castilian War of the Communities against the Spanish Monarchy, between
1520 and
1521.
Castilian identity is thus excluded from the historical nationalities of Spain such as
Catalonia,
Galicia and the
Basque regions, but also other regions which due to historical reasons have their own identity and culture, such as the 8 million strong
Andalusian region,
Asturies,
Aragon or the
Canary Islands. Both Andalusia and the Canary Islands experienced an early Castilian colonisation and subsequent immigration, but the survival and absorption of (or by) local populations allowed for cultural traits particular to those regions. Certain regions are not considered Castilian, such as
Valencia and the
Balearic Islands because historically they belong to the
Crown of Aragon and because their local languages are
Catalan dialects.
Galicians are not considered to be Castilian, although their region was annexed by the
Crown of Castile. Their language,
Galician, is akin to
Portuguese, and they possess a local culture and identity.
Navarre, a historical kingdom in its own right, has a culture that's mainly Basque in the north and closer to the rest of Spain, especially to
La Rioja and
Aragon, in the south.
Extremadura, a region in western Spain, is usually not considered to be Castilian; it has many links to neighbouring Andalusia. The list goes on with
Murcians,
Cantabrians,
Leonese,
Manchegos etc, but establishing whether these people are to be considered "Castilian" is a more difficult matter.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Castile Historical Region'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://castile__historical_region.totallyexplained.com">Castile (historical region) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
