Iberian Union - 1636

For centuries, the maps of Spain and Portugal have remained unchanged with respect to the Iberian peninsula. We are not talking about their colonial expansions here as in that regard, a lot changed throughout the past centuries. This post is to discuss the unique Iberian Union that existed as a union of Spain and Portugal for a period of six decades between 1580 to 1640 with a brief introduction of its history. 

Going back to the 4th century AD, the Iberian peninsula was divided into six major portions - Gallaecia, Tarraconenis, Carthaginensis, Lusitania, Baetica and Baleares islands. As we all know, the borders of Lusitania and Gallaecia would adjust in future to become today's Portugal. During the Roman era, the Iberian peninsula was divided into Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior provinces. Later on, it was also known as Hispania Ulterior Baetica, Hispania Ulterior Lusitania and Hispania Citerior / Tarraconensis. As with the downfall of the Roman empire and the rise of the Gothic kingdoms, under the Visigoths, the Regnum Visigothorum majorly stretched from the Iberian peninsula into the coastal regions of southern France. At this time, it was bordered by the Kingdom of Suevi / Suebi, Kingdom of the Franks, and Kingdom of Burgundians while the Vandals were its African neighbours.  

Moving on to the Byzantine era when the peninsula was known as the Provincia Spaniæ in the 6th-7th centuries. With the birth and rise of Islam that was spreading throughout northern Africa and the Middle East, the Iberian peninsula was soon under the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. The territories of Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Jaén, Pamplona, Zaragoza and Barcelona were combined to form the province of Al-Andalus. The Emirate of Cordoba (Imarat Qurtubah) would soon take over between the 9th to 10th centuries AD. In the early middle ages, the Portuguese territory was referred to as Ta'ifa al-Batalyaws or Taifa of Badajoz, covering almost entire Portugal. It would be the early 12th century when the counties of Castile and Aragón would be independent and would be known as Regnum Castellae / Reino de Castilla. At this time, when the Spanish territory would be divided into fragments of various counties, the Portuguese region could be roughly segregated into Badajoz, Silves, Seville and Portugal, as part of the Crown of Castile. Castile would slowly grow in the northern and central part of the peninsula while the southern Iberia would be now under the Almoravids or Al-Murabitun empire, another Islamic dynasty ruling till 1147. 

In the year 1139, the Kingdom of Portugal was born as Reino de Portugal that would slowly expand in the coming centuries to its current form. While Portugal was expanding on the western borders, another Islamic dynasty of Almohads or Al-Muwahhidun would rise in Morocco and coastal Algeria and Tunisia and rising through coastal Iberia. In 1267, with the addition of Algarve to Portugal, the current map of the country is formed that would continue for the next few centuries until the formation of the Iberian Union in 1580. During the period of the Iberian Union or Unión Ibêrica / União Ibérica, the peninsula was divided into the following divisions: 

• Galicia
• Portugal
• Algarve
• Seville
• Extremadura
• Toledo
• Granada
• Murcia
• Valencia
• Barcelona
• Aragon
• Navarre
• Castile
• León
• Álava
• Majorca

This was the period when both Spain and Portugal were expanding their kingdoms outside Europe and the world would be divided into the Spanish and Portuguese hemispheres. The territories of the Indian Ocean (or Mar da Índia) was explored by the Portuguese navigators and the South Atlantic (known as Mar da Etiopía or Ethiopian Sea) coasts (and islands) would belong to the Kingdom of Portugal. The New World and islands of the Pacific Ocean (Mar del Sur) would be in Spanish hands. Colonies such as New Spain, New Granada, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Goa, etc. would spring up all throughout the Union period. 

While Africa and the Americas were heavily dominated by the Portuguese and Spanish colonists, they could do little expansion in Asian countries, especially the Spanish. In Asia, the Portuguese the major colonies were on the coasts of India (Estado da Índia), while the Spanish took over the Philippine Islands, which they originally named Archipelago de San Lazaro in the 16th century. The world at this time was entirely different and every continent was a labyrinth of huge dynasties and empires of all religions. This was also the time when several European powers established India Companies (East and West) to trade (and colonise) Africa, Asia and the Americas. Naval battles were fought with regional rulers, the Mughals, Arabs, the Safavids and the Ottomans being the major ones. Europe itself was a conglomeration of various empires such as the fragmented German-speaking Holy Roman Empire, rising Russia under the Muscovite Empire, the huge Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth, the kingdoms of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the Kingdom of France, and the independent Kingdoms of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The trans-continental Ottoman Empire was spread across the Balkans, the Levant, northern Africa and Arabian coast and the Caucasus. The Crown of Aragon was another political entity that expanded from Catalonia to southern Italy along with the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and the Balearic Islands, between 1162 to 1716. 

Restricting the history of the Iberian Union only till this point, noting down the different names by which the peninsula was known to the Discovery Era cartographers. The names Portvgal and Spaine had started to appear on these maps with cities such as Porto, Lisbon (written as Lisbona), Cadiz, Toledo, Seuil, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Bilbao, S. Iago (or Santiago) etc. On certain maps, Madrid is absent but the neighbourhood of Alcalá de Henares is mentioned though, that is part of today's Community of Madrid, the capital of Spain. Madrid isn't present in several 17th-century maps and even during the Iberian Union period (mentioned on these maps as simply Hispania), the major towns were Valadulid (Valladolid), Salamanca, Toledo, Lisboa (Lisbon), Sibilia (Seville), Granada, Compestella (Santiago de Compostella) and Barcalona (Barcelona). The positioning of Madrid is skewed with different cartographers as it would be present and absent on several maps. For example, the Carte de I'Europe by Michel van Lochom, a Flemish engraver (1601 - 1647) mentions both Madrid and Alcalá de Henares (as Alcaladhenares) while another cartographer named Matthias Quad, a German (1557 - 1613) mentions Madrel and Alcala for the location of Madrid. While on the other hand, Gerhard Mercator, the famous 16th-century cartographer doesn't mention the name 'Madrid' but places Mestal as the neighbourhood of Alcala de Henras. 

As soon as the Iberian Union was dismantled in 1640, a brief period of the Catalan Republic existed in 1641. This has been mentioned as Cataloigne with its capital Barcelona on several maps. However, this republic was short-lived and annexed later to the Spanish monarch. Catalan politics is still an emerging topic with the rise of Catalan nationalism and demand for a separate Catalonia country from the Kingdom of Spain. 

Below here is a recreated map of the Iberian Union, originally sketched by Johannes Cloppenburg (1592 - 1652) in 1636.