Many cultures have settled in the area of modern Spain, including the Celts, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors. For centuries, much of the area was under the control of Islamic caliphates, however, in 1492, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragón established dominance. That same year, Christopher Columbus reached the New World, leading to the creation of the world-wide Spanish Empire. Spain became one of the most powerful countries in Europe, but years of wars and other problems reduced Spain to a diminished status. The 20th century was dominated in the middle years by the Franco dictatorship; since 1975, Spain has enjoyed an economic and cultural renaissance.
There are a number of hypotheses as to the origin of the Roman name "Hispania", the root of the Spanish name España and the English name Spain.
Spain is a democracy which is organized as a parliamentary monarchy. It is a developed country with the eighth-largest economy in the world.

Modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the Iberian Peninsula from north of the Pyrenees some 35,000 years ago. The best known artifacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the famous paintings in the Altamira cave of northern Spain, which were likely created about 15,000 BCE.
The historical peoples of the peninsula were the Iberians and the Celts, the former inhabiting the southwest part of the peninsula and along the Mediterranean side through to the northeast, the latter inhabiting the north and northwest part of the peninsula. In the inner part of the peninsula, where both groups were in contact, a mixed, distinctive, culture was present, known as Celtiberian.
The earliest urban culture is believed to be that of the semi-mythical southern city of Tartessos (perhaps pre-1100 BCE). Between about 500 BCE and 300 BCE, the seafaring Phoenicians, and Greeks founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries. The Carthaginians briefly took control of much of the Mediterranean coast in the course of the Punic Wars until they were eventually defeated and replaced by the Romans starting in 201 BCE. The base Celt and Iberian population remained in various grades of romanization.