Political Changes. 297 



rivers as they usually do in such countries similar to 

 our arid plains, form canons and arroyos, and, being 

 uncertain ia their water stages, none of them are navi- 

 gable although hxmdreds of miles long, but useful for 

 irrigation, on which agriculture relies. The great min- 

 eral wealth had made Spain the California of the 

 Carthaginians and Eomans, and it is still its most 

 valuable resource. 



Spain awakened to civilization through the visits of 

 Phoenicians and Carthaginians followed by the 

 Eomans. During the first centuries of the Christian 

 era there occurred one of the several periods of extreme 

 prosperity, when a supposed population of 40 million 

 exploited the country. After the dark days of the 

 Gothic domination, a second period of prosperity was 

 attained for the portion which came under the sway of 

 the industrious and intelligent Moors or Saracens 

 (711 to 1000 A. D.), who made the desert bloom, and 

 whose irrigation works are stUl the mainstay of agricul- 

 ture at present. Centuries of warfare and carnage to 

 re-establish Christian kingdoms stUl left the country 

 rich, when in 1479 the several kingdoms were united 

 into one under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Moors 

 were finally driven out altogether (1493). This king- 

 dom persisted in the same form to the present time 

 with only a short period as a republic (1873). Spain 

 was among the first countries to have a constitution. 



After the conquest of the Moors, and with the dis- 

 covery of America, again a period of prosperity set in 

 for the then 20 million people, but, through oppression 

 by State and Church (Inquisition), which also led to 

 the expulsion of the Jews and large emigration to 



