Spain and Portugal are 1ESCAPE linked to one another by their geographical position and their 2HISTORY experience. That these two countries have preserved their separate identities within the Iberian Peninsula is due to a complex array of physical, political, economic, and cultural factors and, at times, 3PREDICT accidents of fate. Modern Spain and Portugal emerged from more than 2,000 years of life on the periphery of Western civilisation. Like most of the Mediterranean peoples, The Iberian and Celtic 4INHABIT of the peninsula experienced Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman influence in varying degrees. Roman rule, as elsewhere, yielded to the triumph of Christianity and the 5ASCEND of Germanic tribes. The arrival of Muslim invaders in the Iberian Peninsula in 711 created a distinct dimension of European history. For the next eight centuries Islam, Christianity, and Judaism 6EXIST in a relationship that was often financially and intellectually enriching but 7PERIOD disrupted by religious tensions and civil strife. During the Middle Ages, a number of Christian kingdoms 8RISE pursuing a “Reconquest” of the territory lost to the “Moors”.