Did you know that The Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited for more than 1.000.000 years? Nevertheless, the name Iberian Peninsula has its origin in the people who lived there not such a long time ago, around 1.000 B.C. - the Iberians. It was actually not just a single one, but a number of seperate tribes, such as the Basques who nowadays live in the North East of Spain as well as in Southwest France. It was the Second Punic War that took place from 218 to 201 B.C. and sealed the Carthaginians´s fate and by about 200 B.C., the area was controlled by the Roman Empire.   

During the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.), the continuously expanding Roman Empire captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast (from roughly 210 B.C. to 205 B.C.). Eventually, this led to the Roman control of almost the entire Iberian Peninsula. This control lasted over 500 years, including the establishment of roman laws, latin as official language, as well as the Roman road. However, the base Celt and Iberian population remained in various stages of romanisation, and local leaders were admitted to join the Roman aristocratic class.

The Roman occupation did not only imply disadvantages; the Romans improved various cities, such as Lisbon and Tarragona (Tarraco), and founded new ones like Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Valencia, León ("Legio Septima"), or Badajoz ("Pax Augusta"). Furthermore, Hispania's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. The peninsula served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbors exported goods like gold, olive oil, wine and wool. Due to several irrigation projects, agricultural production could be increased to a great extent. Even nowadays, some of them are still in use. Several emperors such as Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius I, as well as the philosopher Seneca, were born in Hispania.

As far as religion is concerned, christianity was the religion of the Roman people and had to be introduced into Hispania. This happened in the first century and the christian religion became popular in the cities of Hispanina during the second century. Even today, more than 76% of the Spanish say that they are catholic. This fact has its origin in the period of the Roman Empire, as well as the Spanish language that derived from Latin, like French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.

The first Barbarians that invaded Hispania arrived in the 5th century, and the end of the Roman Empire had begun. Different tribes such as the Alans, Suebi, Vandals and Visigoths, arrived in Hispania by crossing the Pyrenees. In 415, the romanised Visigoths entered Hispania, and, after the conversion of their monarchy to Roman Catholicism, and after conquering the disordered Suebic territories in the northwest and Byzantium territories in the southeast, the Visigothic Kingdom eventually included the entire Iberian Peninsula.