Key Historical Milestones: Spain and the World

Posted on Jan 17, 2025 in International Relations

**Chronology of Spain**

  • 711: Arrival of Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula
  • 1492: Discovery of America
  • 1714 (September 11): Catalonia is defeated in the War of Succession
  • 1716: Nueva Planta decrees. Loss of Catalan freedoms
  • 1808-13: French War
  • 1812: Cadiz Constitution
  • 1848: First rail-Mataró BCN
  • 1873-74: First Republic
  • 1898: Loss of Cuba and the Philippines
  • 1923-30: Dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera
  • 1931 (April 14): Proclamation of the Second Catalan Republic. Adoption of the Constitution
  • 1932: Adoption of the Statute of Catalonia (Núria Statute)
  • 1933: Death of Francesc Macià. New President of the Generalitat, Lluís Companys
  • 1936-39: Spanish Civil War. Military uprising in Morocco (July 17) and the Peninsula (July 18) that starts the war
  • 1936 (October 1): Franco is named head of state by coup generals
  • 1939 (April 1): End of the Civil War
  • 1947: Referendum approval of the Act to the Head of State succession. Set in Spain as a kingdom
  • 1953: Concordat with the Vatican. Agreements with the U.S. United States military bases
  • 1955: Spain enters the UN
  • 1969: Juan Carlos was appointed as Crown Prince and future King of Spain
  • 1975 (November 20): Death of Franco. Proclamation of Juan Carlos I, King of Spain
  • 1977: First democratic election: a relative majority of the UCD. Tarradellas returned to Catalonia as President of the Generalitat
  • 1978 (December 6): Constitution adopted by referendum
  • 1979: Elections: The Triumph of the UCD. First democratic municipal elections. Statutes of Autonomy of Catalonia and the Basque Country
  • 1980: Election in Catalonia. CIU obtains a relative majority. Jordi Pujol, President of the Generalitat
  • 1981: Attempted coup de Tejera, Navy and Milans del Bosch
  • 1981-82: Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo
  • 1982: Spain enters NATO. The PSOE won the general elections
  • 1982-96: Felipe González, Prime Minister
  • 1986: Spain joins the EEC
  • 1996: The PP won the elections. Aznar, Prime Minister
  • 2003: Pasqual Maragall, President of the Generalitat
  • 2004: The PSOE won the elections. Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister

**World Chronology**

  • 476: End of the Western Roman Empire
  • 1453: End of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)
  • 1789: French Revolution. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
  • 1815: Waterloo. Final defeat of Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna agreed on a new path of European borders. Holy Alliance
  • 1914-18: World War I
  • 1917: The Tsar of Russia abdicates. In October the Bolshevik revolution
  • 1919: Treaty of Versailles
  • 1929: Crack of the New York Stock Exchange: global economic depression
  • 1933: Triumph of Nazism in Germany
  • 1939 (September 1): Germany invades Poland
  • 1939-45: World War II
  • 1941: Japanese attack on U.S. (Pearl Harbor)
  • 1944: Allied landings in Normandy
  • 1945 (August): Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • 1948: Founding of the State of Israel
  • 1949: Founding of NATO
  • 1955: Foundation of the Warsaw Pact
  • 1957: Founding of the EEC
  • 1959: Cuban revolution with Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara (El Che). Fidel Castro, President of Cuba
  • 1960-73: American intervention in Vietnam
  • 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall
  • 1962: Missile Crisis in Cuba
  • 1973: Pinochet’s coup in Chile
  • 1989: Berlin Wall falls
  • 1990: German Reunification
  • 1991: Disappearance of the USSR. The EEC becomes the European Union
  • 1991-92: Civil war in Croatia
  • 1992: Independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Top civil war
  • 2001: Euro ticket. Islamic attack on the Twin Towers in New York (September 11)
  • 2003: Iraq War
  • 2008: Kosovo is created (February 17)