Changes

From this new perspective, the Ancient Age on the Iberian Peninsula is thought to have begun during the Iron Age II, although the last two millennia BC appear to be more typical of the Neolithic period, which was characterised by the use of metallurgy, and therefore cannot be dated to Prehistory with total certainty. Nevertheless, it is much more complicated to define the ending of the Ancient Age. According to some scholars, it concluded with the rise of the Visigoths in the 6th 6^th century, while others contend that it was the Moorish invasion (in the Battle of Guadalete) in the year 711 (three centuries later) that marked its ending. Additionally, these theories raise the question of whether the reign of the Visogoths can be referred to as the first Spanish nation-state. If so concluded, the Middles Ages would only have been a period of re-conquest (la Reconquista). Or perhaps, this three-century-long period was merely a continuation of Roman rule (Antiquity). There is a longstanding historiographical debate about whether the origin and essence of Spain begin with Hispania, or if Spain is something much more recent, as far as the 19th 19^th century. In any case, as previously mentioned, belief in one historical theory does not preclude consideration of other differing theories.

One thing we know for certain is that at the end of the Iron Age, the Iberian Peninsula was in the throes of war for the first time. This violent reality marked the dawning of the Ancient Age on the Peninsula and the transition to the historical era. The ending of the Ancient Age is widely taken to have occurred sometime between the 5th 5^th and 8th 8^th centuries AD. These three centuries, spanning from the end of Antiquity to the beginning of the Middle Ages, have been termed The Transition to the Middle Ages. By this time, a definition of the Iberian Peninsula was taken into account as a unified territory, already medieval in nature, with its own borders and institutions. Its development paralleled the rise of the Republic of Venice, the expansion of the Franks with its epicentre in Paris, the shift from Latin to Greek in the Eastern Roman Empire, and the appearance and spread of Islam from Anatolia to Gibraltar, ending at the “mare nostrum”.

In the initial years of the Ancient Age on the Peninsula, Carthage, an ancient Phoenician colony of Tyre, near modern day Tunis, had become a great maritime island empire in the Western Mediterranean. After Tyre had been conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the 6th 6^th century BC, Carthage´s influence began to grow, eventually dominating the region. Over time, on the coasts and Balearic Islands, the Carthaginians replaced the Phoenicians who had periodically disembarked on the Iberian Peninsula to work in factories and storehouses since the 9th 9^th and 8th 8^th centuries BC. Greek explorers from Phocaea and the enclave of Massilia (Marseille) also arrived, and according to older historical sources, established a number of colonies; however, further studies of some of the remains in these areas suggest they belonged to Greeks who were only there engaging in trade with the earlier Phoenician enclaves.

Between the 5th 5^th and 3rd 3^rd centuries BC, the Carthaginian Empire had already consolidated its power. By the 3rd 3^rdcentury, it was embroiled in a series of conflicts with the emerging, powerful Roman Empire over the control of Sicily. In the first Punic War, the Carthaginian settlements of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia were lost to the Romans. The Carthaginians, led by the Barca clan, were in search of a strategic base with logistical advantages on the Iberian Peninsula. In 227 BC, Carthago Nova (Cartagena) was founded.