ABSTRACT
I berian hism[y holds invaluable keys to Europe's relations with its neighbours and evemuaUy with the rest of the world. The peoples and political formations of tbe peninsula had much in common-the 'reconquest' of territOry from Muslims, a 'fronuer mentality', early practice in colonialism and evemually the impetus fo r exploration and discovery. The seeds of the consequent 'new world order' were sown in dus period; bur it would he dangerous to see the process from too teleological a point of view. Diversity and disunity are the dominant characteristics, which should nm be brushed aside JUSt because we can see the later consequences of the developments of the period. For example, the partial fusion of the crowns of Aragon and Cascile under Ferdinand and Isabella in the late fifteenth century-and the fac t that this proved to be a preliminary stage in a fuller state-building process so dramatically visible under Charles V--can leave the impression that it was the 'destiny' of'Spain' [0 dominate the peninsula. Yet the area that in the event remained outside the growing Spanish hegemony, Portugal, played its own key role in Iberian and European development as welL Even within 'Spain', with its ethnic and cultural diversity, it is dangerous to assume homogeneity. T he standard and enduring generalisations about the history and temperament of the Spaniards (their pride, their poverty, their faith, their reluctance to engage in commerce and industry) are misleading cari~tures which have at most a partial and regional basis in fact. Indeed regional differences are still extremely striking in Spain. Even today a visi[Or may find the contrasts between Seville and Oviedo yet more marked than those between Marseilles and Lille or between Naples and .Milan.
