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- Uncontested rule over the
whole bull skin-shaped territory that is the Iberian peninsula
has been the ultimate goal for many of the peoples who entered
the territory. This was first attempted by the Romans who, by
the first century B.C. had conquered most of the peninsula, adding
it as a province to their empire. The occupation did not comprise
the whole Iberia, as in the mountains of the rough North, Asturians,
Cantabrians, and Basques always opposed Roman rule and continously
revolted against the invader. The Visgothic king Leovigild was
the next to try the complete unification of the peninsula. He
and his descendants had to face the same problems as their Roman
predecessors with the indomitable men of the North. Only a century
after Leovigild, the Visigothic kingdom was completely wiped
out by the Moors. The Moors, however, were never interested in
the cold North, which was then slowly re-populated by the poor,
scared and hungry Christians. The last and most succesful unification
of the peninsula was accomplished by king Philip II in 1580.
The unity of Iberia was definitively broken in 1640 with the
separation of Portugal from the Spanish empire. Two independent
states have co-existed since in the Iberian peninsula.
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