History

The early history of Portugal, whose name derives from the Roman name Portus Cale, is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula.

One of the characteristic features of the early history of Spain is the successive waves of different peoples who spread all over the Peninsula. The first to appear were the Iberians, a Libyan people, who came from the south. Later came the Celts, a typically Aryan people, and from the merging of the two there arose a new race, the Celtiberians, who, divided into several tribes (Cantabrians, Asturians, Lusitanians) gave their name to their respective homelands.

Greeks settled in the southern tip of the Italian Peninsula in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. Etruscans, Romans, and others inhabited the central and northern mainland. The peninsula subsequently was unified under the Roman Republic. The neighbouring islands came under Roman control by the third century B.C. By the first century A.D., the Roman Empire effectively dominated the Mediterranean world. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century A.D., the peninsula and islands were subjected to a series of invasions, and political unity was lost.

Malta’s position - near major Mediterranean shipping routes, yet out of the way - has resulted in long stretches of isolation punctuated with often violent episodes of foreign intrusion. The islands’ oldest monuments are the megalithic temples that date from as far back as 3600 BC.

The Phoenicians colonised Malta around 800 BC and stayed for about 600 years.

Although a small country, Cyprus has an amazing cultural heritage. History in Cyprus dates as far back as 7000 BC. In this time the settlements along the north and south coasts of the island started.

Around 1400 BC, the first Greeks came to the island. They started the Hellenisation of the island.

History, culture and religion

Classical Greece dates from the first Olympic Game in 776 B.C .and the end of the period is the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. Ancient Greece is considered the cultural foundation of Western Civilization. Even though it was invaded by the Roman, its cultural heritage was preserved by the Roman Empire, which carried a version of the Greek model to many parts of Europe, and shaped the way modern a democratic civilization performs.

The Thracians lived in what is now known as Bulgaria from about 3500 B.C. They were incorporated into the Roman Empire by the first century A.D. At the decline of the empire, the Goths, Huns, Bulgars, and Avars invaded. The Bulgars, who crossed the Danube from the north in 679, took control of the region. Although the country now bears the name of the Bulgars, the Bulgar language and culture soon died out, having been replaced by Slavic language, writing, and religion. In the year 865, Boris I adopted Orthodox Christianity.

Most of Romania was the Roman province of Dacia from about A.D. 100 to 271. From the 3rd to the 12th century, wave after wave of barbarian conquerors overran the native Daco-Roman population. Subjection to the first Bulgarian Empire (8th–10th century) brought Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the Romanians. In the 11th century, Transylvania was absorbed into the Hungarian empire. By the 16th century, the main Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Walachia had become satellites within the Ottoman Empire, although they retained much independence.

By 14 B.C., western Hungary was part of the Roman Empire’s province of Pannonia and Dacia. The area east of the Danube was never part of the Roman Empire and was largely occupied by various Germanic and Asiatic peoples. In 896 all of Hungary was invaded by the Magyars, who founded a kingdom. Christianity was accepted during the reign of Stephen I (St. Stephen), 977–1038. A devastating invasion by the Mongols killed half of Hungary’s population in 1241.

According to archaeological findings, the first inhabitants were present in the territory of the present-day Slovak Republic in Early Palaeolithic. An imprint of a Neanderthal man’s skull was found in the village of Gánovce (in the north of Slovakia). A small statue of Venus made of a mammoth bone was found in the village of Moravany nad Váhom. In 179 A.D, the Roman legion inscribed the word "Laugaritio" on the rock of the Trenčín castle – the most northern point of their stay in Europe.