History of Málaga

The economic crisis of 1893 forced the closing of the La Constancia iron foundry and was accompanied by the collapse of the sugar industry and the spread of the phylloxera blight, which devastated the vineyards surrounding Málaga.

Paintings of seals from the Paleolithic and post-Paleolithic eras found in the Nerja Caves and attributed to Neanderthals may be about 42,000 years old and could be the first known works of art, according to José Luis Sanchidrián of the University of Córdoba.

Baetica by this time was rich and completely Romanised; the emperor Vespasian rewarded the province by granting it the ius latii, which extended the rights of Roman citizenship (latinitas) to its inhabitants, an honor that secured the loyalty of the Baetian elite and the middle class.

After the division of the Roman Empire and its final crisis in 476, Malaca was one of the areas of the peninsula affected by further migrations of the Germanic tribes, especially the Silingi Vandals, who during the 5th century introduced the Arian heresy to western Europe.

[31] When Hafs, son of Umar ibn Hafsun, finally laid down his arms in 928 and surrendered the town of Bobastro, Abd-al-Rahman III imposed the Islamic system of civil organisation in Mālaqa province.

Besides the splendid Alcazaba, the marble gate of the Nasrid shipyards (atarazanas), and part of the Jewish quarter, other vestiges of Moorish Mālaqa remain today: a section of the monumental cemetery of Yabal Faruh, considered the largest in Andalusian Spain, has been excavated on the slopes of Mount Gibralfaro.

A ship's registry (logbook) written by Filippo de Nigro in 1445 shows that Mālaqa was an important part of this trade network and describes the regional system controlled by the Genoese Spinola family.

[40] There are two heraldic shields above the arch, designed in Castilian style and having diagonal bands inscribed in Arabic with the Nasrid motto, Wah lâ ghâlib ilâ Allâh (There is no victor other than God).

At the western corner was a square tower attached to the portal and from there a wall joined the Borch Hayta, or Torre del Clamor, which closed the natural inlet between it and the Genoese castle, which is no longer extant.

The generally mountainous land around Mālaqa did not favor agriculture, but the Muslim peasants organised an efficient irrigation system, and with their simple tools were able to grow crops on the slopes; spring wheat being the staple of their diet.

Its warden (arraez), the Moorish chieftain Hamet el Zegrí (Hamad al-Tagri), refused Ferdinand and Isabella's offer to accept his vassalage, and took refuge in Mālaqa, where he led the Muslim resistance.

King Ferdinand decided to make an example of the resistors and refused to grant them an honorable capitulation, The civilian population was punished by enslavement or execution, with the exception of twenty-five families allowed to stay as Mudéjar converts in the Moorish compound.

During the second half of the 18th century Málaga solved its chronic water supply problems with the completion of one of the largest infrastructure projects carried out in Spain at the time: the building of the Aqueduct of San Telmo,[43] designed by the architect Martín de Aldehuela.

After the success of this impressive feat of engineering, the city enjoyed an economic recovery with a new expansion of the port, the revival of the works of the Cathedral, and the erection of the new Customs building, the Palacio de la Aduana, begun in 1791.

Major urban renovations were made in Málaga under the influence of the ideas of the European Enlightenment, bestowing on it many of its most characteristic features: the Cathedral, the harbor of the port and its Customs House, the Alameda, and the Antequera and Velez roadways.

[45] The city suffered the further ravages of the Peninsular War, conflicts between royal absolutists and liberals, the end of the transatlantic trade with the Americas, the collapse of its industry, and finally the phylloxera epidemic that destroyed the vineyards of the region.

It held power continuously during the so-called Década moderada ("Moderate decade", 1843–1854) under the leadership of General Ramón María Narváez, the Duke of Valencia, using the executive office to advance its economic goals and maintain public order.

During the railway boom years of the early 1850s self-enrichment by senior Moderate politicians and members of the royal family was coming under mounting press criticism,[54] a mood which would culminate in a fourth bourgeois revolutionary insurrection in the summer of 1854.

Although riots in December 1854 accompanied the demobilisation of Málaga's radical proletarian Militia companies,[58] a new Progressive Town Council was elected and port and consumer levies were withdrawn, taxes that the lower classes, who supported the uprising, abhorred.

There were large disturbances in the city during the insurrection led by local militia leader Eduardo Carvajal; on 22 July a telegram from the civil governor, Francisco Sorlier, announced the proclamation of the Cantón Federal Malagueño Independiente.

The Customs House was assaulted and many of its files and dossiers were burnt; factional clashes continued until General Manuel Pavía entered the city with his troops and ended the Cantón de Málaga on 19 September 1873.

[61] There were social changes as well as economic ones in Málaga during the reign of Isabel II—the bourgeoisie solidified its position as an oligarchy in control of local politics, while a laboring class of industrial workers developed in the factories.

The presence of these large factories resulted in the growth of an industrial and workers' suburb on the banks of the Guadalmedina river, separate from the residential areas of the bourgeoisie in the center and the eastern part of the city.

The end of the economic boom in 19th century Málaga started in 1880 when the high cost of importing coal for steel production made its foundries less competitive with those of the industrial complexes in northern Spain.

The economic crisis of 1893 finally forced the closing of the La Constancia iron foundry and was accompanied by the collapse of the sugar industry and the spread of the phylloxera blight, which devastated the vineyards of the province.

The abandonment of farms and consequent neglect of the terraces where the vineyards were cultivated resulted in gradual deforestation of the slopes, causing increased flooding after heavy rains, with severe erosion in the beds of the streams and rivers of virtually the entire coastal area.

According to the historian Antonio Garcia Sanchez,[67] the historical precedents of the burning of the convents may be found in the adoption of vehement anti-clerical positions by the workers' political parties prior to the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic.

The participation of Moroccan regulars and Italian tanks from the recently arrived Corpo Truppe Volontarie resulted in a complete rout of the Spanish Republican Army and the capitulation of Málaga in less than a week on 8 February.

[70] The occupation of Málaga led to an exodus of civilians and soldiers on the road to Almería, who were bombarded by Franco's air force, navy cruisers,[71] tanks and artillery on 8 February, causing hundreds of deaths.

On 27 September 1988, the Andalusian Parliament (Junta de Andalucía) unilaterally approved the separation of the suburb of Torremolinos and its incorporation as its own municipality, depriving the city of Málaga of ten percent of its population.