Starting: Begin with knowledge of Navigation Ancient: +1 Naval combat Medieval: Double gold earned from villages Industrial: +50% gold production Modern: +1 production from hills Unique Units: Knight becomes Conquistador
Fun Facts
One out of every four words in Spanish is derived from Arabic, due in large part to the nation's seven-hundred year occupation by the Moors.
Isabella's daughter, Joanna, was also known as Joanna the Mad. She was passionately in love with her husband, Philip the Handsome and upon his death is said to have gone stark raving mad. Despite her position as Queen of Castile, Joanna spent much of her reign locked away, unable to rule.
Notes from the Civilopedia: The Spanish :
The Kingdom of Spain is located in the extreme southwest of the European continent, and occupies approximately 85 percent of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain is bordered on the west by Portugal, in the northeast by France, and by the great wall of the Pyrenees Mountains. Throughout its history the Iberian Peninsula that the Spanish inhabited was occupied by various other civilizations, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans. Following the Roman collapse, in the eighth century BC the Muslims in turn invaded the peninsula, overrunning virtually the entire country in just a few short years. The Muslims rule of Spain would last some seven centuries, during which time culture flourished and the capital city of Cordoba became a center of learning and the arts, and one of the richest cities in medieval Europe.
Over time the great Muslim empires of North Africa began to fragment, and in Spain pressure from Christian Europe drove the Muslims steadily southward. By the fifteenth century much of the peninsula was under native rule, and under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand Spain was united and the last of the Muslims were driven out of the country.
As a ruler, Isabella pursued policies of expansion of Spanish power and trade. Her wise decision to back the explorer Christopher Columbus's venture to find a shortcut to India gained for Spain a huge empire in the New World, where gold and silver looted from the natives would make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation for decades to come.
Other European nations viewed Spain's growing wealth and power with envy, and Spain's treasure ships and American possessions were under near constant assault from pirates and privateers. Spain retaliated against its enemies' overseas possessions, and the low-grade war continued unabated for decades. In 1588 King Philip II launched an ambitious invasion of England, but his "Invincible Armada" was defeated by the young English navy.
Thereafter, Spain declined in power quickly; the enormous influx of gold and silver from the Americas debased the Spanish currency and most of the nation's treasure and military might was wasted in the quagmire of religious conflict known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48). By the beginning of the 18th century, Spain had become somewhat marginal in international politics, even though it continued to hold vast territories in the Americas.
Spain was gobbled up by France during the Napoleonic Wars, during which time she lost virtually all of her overseas possessions to the English or to native independence movements. By the twentieth century the Spanish monarchy was on its last legs; the bloody Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) saw the Fascist General Francisco Franco defeat the socialist Republicans. Franco wisely remained neutral during the Second World War, and thus he was able to remain in power following the Allied victory in Europe.
Upon Franco's death in the 1970s Spain adopted a democratic constitutional monarchy form of government somewhat similar to that of Great Britain. In the years since it has undergone something of an economic resurgence, and is an important member of the European Union.
Unique Spanish worker units
Isabella render
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Notes from the Civilopedia: More about Isabella :
Isabella (1451 - 1504 AD) was the daughter of King John II of Castile. At the time of her birth, Spain was divided into a number of smaller kingdoms, with Castile, Portugal and Aragon being three of the largest. The southern part of the country was under Arab rule, the "Moors" having conquered much of Spain in the 8th Century. For Christian Spain, there were two major objectives: unite the country and drive out the Moors. Isabella accomplished both.
After her father's death, Castile was ruled by Isabella's older brother, King Henry IV. At eighteen, and against her brother's express wishes, Isabella married Prince Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Aragon. Henry was furious at her - he had wanted her to marry the King of Portugal - but eventually he forgave her and made Isabella his heir. Upon his death in 1474, Isabella became Queen of Castile, and, after a brief war, made an alliance with Portugal, thus uniting much of Spain.
Isabella and Ferdinand worked surprisingly well together. They co-ruled their two kingdoms equally (according to many historians, Isabella was the better ruler of the two).
Once they were enthroned, the couple set about weakening the Spanish nobility, which Isabella believed had become overly powerful. They created a special military force known as the "Holy Brotherhood" for the express purpose of protecting people and property from attacks by the nobility. They also redistributed some of the nobles' lands and destroyed several of their castles.
Some of Isabella and Ferdinand's other programs were less appealing. The two rulers were Catholic zealots and they had a rabid hatred for non-Catholics, and especially for Jews. In 1478 they petitioned the Pope to establish the Spanish Inquisition. Under Chief Inquisitor Torquemada, the Inquisition tortured and murdered thousands across Spain, driving the heretics out of the country or underground, or forcing them to convert to Catholicism.
Perhaps Isabella's most famous act as monarch was her decision to fund Columbus' voyages of exploration. Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator who was looking for a western route to India; after getting Isabella's backing, he set out to cross the Atlantic to find Asia. Instead, Columbus discovered America.
As a ruler, her record is mixed. She did unite her country along with the help of her husband, Ferdinand. She did drive out foreign powers who had occupied Spain for 700 years. She did bring peace and stability to Spain. She did fund exploration which would bring vast new territory and vast wealth to her kingdom. On the other hand, she did launch a terrible campaign of torture and murder against the most vulnerable population in her lands. To her Christian subjects, then, Isabella probably was the best thing that had ever come their way. However her Jewish subjects probably had a somewhat less positive opinion of Her Majesty. Isabella died in 1504, leaving the kingdom to her daughter.
