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The prehistoric Iberian peoples of Spain built megalithic structures, towns, and cities.

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Much of their culture is shrouded in mystery.

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Beginning in the 11th or 12th century BC,

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Phoenician merchants from modern-day Lebanon began trading with the Iberians

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and would eventually build colonies along Iberia's eastern and southern coasts.

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They would come into contact with the civilization of Tartessos,

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who would be famed throughout the Mediterranean,

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for their wealth in tin, copper, and gold.

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The Phoenicians, who were the renowned seafarers and merchants of their day,

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came under ever-increasing pressure from the growth of the Assyrian Empire.

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To escape the Assyrians, and later the Persians,

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many Phoenicians opted to leave home and colonize the western Mediterranean.

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Their greatest city would be Carthage,

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which would one day dominate all the other Phoenician colonies.

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During this time, Rome was just a regional power struggling to gain control of their Italian neighbors.

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To the east of Rome, the ever-squabbling Greek city-states managed to colonize the area around the Black Sea,

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the coast of modern-day Libya, Sicily, Italy, southern France, and also the northeast coast of Spain.

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Originating near modern-day Hallstatt, Austria, Celtic culture and people would spread as far east as modern-day Turkey

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into northern europe and also into spain here the native iberian tribes incorporated elements

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of celtic phoenician and greek society into their own these extremely warlike people would develop

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a sophisticated culture and a variety of writing forms influenced by celtic greek and phoenician

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The Iberian Peninsula was rich in tin and copper that needed alloy to create bronze,

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as well as gold, silver, and iron.

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These metals were the crude oil of the ancient world, fueling civilized society,

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needed for everything from construction tools, agricultural equipment, weapons and armor to currency.

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By the 3rd century BC, the city-state of Carthage had become an empire,

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consolidating much of the western Mediterranean under its control.

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After a long series of wars, Rome would unite the Italian peninsula.

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Rome would then set its sights on Carthage.

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And after a series of three wars, known as the Punic Wars, Rome was triumphant.

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It took many hard-fought campaigns for Rome to absorb Carthage's Iberian territory.

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It would take Rome more than 200 years to fully subdue the entire Iberian peninsula.

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On my next video on Spain, I will be focusing on the Roman conquest of Spain, Roman Spain, and the collapse of the Roman Empire.

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This has been Ebometheus. Don't forget to hit that like button, and subscribe if you like the content and would like to see more of it,

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and hit that bell icon if you would like to get notifications when I make new videos.

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I'm a one-man operation doing all the drawing, editing, putting the video together, narrating,

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and if you would like to enable me to make more content like this more often,

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