ABSTRACT
The beginning of the modern Spanish nation is with the settlement of the invading Germans. At the height of her power and prestige, Spain contributed largely to the early phases of the migration from Europe to America. The period of Spanish history extending from the invasion of the Moors, in 711, to the fall of Granada, in 1492, was marked by the conflict of two unlike civilizations. The period during which Spanish territory was divided between the Christians and the Mohammedans appears, from the standpoint of social enlightenment, the most hopeful in the history of the Peninsula. The policy of Spain with reference to her American possessions was in its essential features determined by the circumstances which made the Spanish nation and its government what they had become.
