The Moors built many mosques and palaces in Spain which are still in use, and they look like buildings from Arabian fairy tales. These Moorish buildings have their rooms built around open courtyards, called patios, where orange and lemon trees and many bright flowers grow, and fountains splash in the sunshine. The rooms have many pillars to support the ceiling, and all the pillars and arches and ceilings are beautifully carved. The Moors could carve hard stone so that it looks like delicate lace, and this is what gives their buildings such a fairy-tale look.
The Spanish Christians, however, didn't like the Moors, and during all of the 800 years the Moors ruled Spain, the Christians were fighting to drive them out. Finally, Queen Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand, led their Christian army to victory against the last Moorish stronghold, Granada. Because of this victory, Queen Isabella didn't have to worry about fighting for a while, and she was able to help Columbus.
When Columbus discovered America on October 12, 1492, he began Spain's most exciting period of history. The next century after Columbus was called the Age of the Conquistadores. Conquistadores were adventurers who set out to find and conquer new lands for Spain in the New World which Columbus had discovered. Many of their conquests later became part of the United States. For instance, De Soto claimed the Mississippi River and all the rivers that run into it, as well as part of the land that is now the American Southwest. Ponce de Leon, looking for a magic fountain that would keep people young forever, discovered Florida and claimed for Spain the land that is now the American southeast. Cortez, who had conquered Mexico for Spain and had sent millions of dollars' worth of gold and jewels back to his homeland, also traveled through the Southwest and as far north as Colorado. The great Pacific Ocean, which washes the western coast of both North and South America, was discovered by a Spaniard named Balboa. One Spanish sailor, Juan Sebastian Elcano, was the very first man to sail all the way around the world.
The Conquistadores sent back a huge treasure of gold, silver, copper and jewels to Spain, and more than paid Queen Isabella and her family for her faith in Columbus. In fact, Spain became one of the most important countries in Europe. Her queens and kings and princesses married rulers of other countries so that soon, in addition to being very rich and owning many countries across the ocean, Spain owned most of Europe too. She was sitting on top of the world. Only England had stood up against the Spanish power. So in 1588, Spain sent a great fleet of warships, called the Armada, to challenge England. England won.
Spain never recovered from this defeat by England. It became harder for her to govern the lands she had conquered. Today only two places outside the country are still Spanish. They are the Canary Islands out in the Atlantic Ocean near the coast of Africa, and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean.
At the same time that Spain was losing lands she had conquered, her own lovely land tempted other countries, and the Spanish people were called upon to fight invading armies from England and France. The real losers during all these years of fighting were the Spanish people. They had to fight instead of grow crops, and natural resources, like forests, were neglected or used up. Spain fell further and further behind other countries, and even today she hasn't been able to catch up as far as she would like.
All the unhappy years of fighting in Spain weren't in the long-ago past. Just a while ago, in 1936, a Civil War broke out between the Spanish people who wanted their king to come back to the throne he'd left in 1931, and the people who wanted Spain to set up a republic, like ours in the United States. This war went on for three years, and in the end, everybody lost. General Francisco Franco and his army defeated the forces which wanted a republic, and also those who wanted to set up Communism. He is now the head of the Spanish government. Because he is considered a dictator, there are many Spanish people who disagree with the way he runs the government and are hoping to change it. In 1947 a new constitution was written in which General Franco agreed that Spain would one day have a king again, but the person who becomes king must be at least twenty-five years old. The old king is dead and there is nobody for the job right now. But the king's grandson, young Prince Juan Carlos, is taking special studies so he will be ready to be king when he is old enough. And of course there are still people who would like to see Spain become a democratic republic, like the United States, and not have a king at all.
