When did the Spain become united as a nation?

Answer 1

Spain became a European country the moment it was founded in 1492. Spain has never existed a country whose central authority was outside of Europe (as opposed to Portugal where the King of Portugal ruled from Brazil from 1807-1820).

Answer 2

Spain had been segmented into a number of small kingdoms and principalities and divided between Christians and Muslims. Not until 1469, when the Crowns of Aragon and Castile were united, did Spain take its first steps to becoming a unified nation.The reconquista (the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Spanish Muslims or Moors) played an important part in creating a national identity for the Christian peoples of Spain.

Kishlansky, Mark A., Patrick J. Geary, and Patricia Brien. "The European Empires: The Marriage of Spain."Civilization in the West. 7th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. 288 & 289. Print.

The unification in 1479 was merely dynastic, King Ferdnand II of Aragon was married to Queen Isabella of Castile. After Isabella of Castile died, the dynastic unification was interrupted. Their daughter, Joanna the Mad, became Queen of Castile. It wasn't until Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the first King of Castile, Aragon and Leon simultaneously in his own right, that Spain was unified under one King. But this was closer how England and Scotland were under a single monarch than, Great Britain (after the Act of Union). Spain wasn't officially unified into a single state until the Nueva Planta decree, signed by Philip V in 1715 after the Spanish War of Succession.

Answer 3

The unification of Spain was essentially complete in 1492 when the last of the Moors were expelled from the country.