TASK 2 The Roman Conquest of the Iberian peninsula

wikipedia. Roman conquest (CC BY-SA)

After the victory over the Carthaginians Rome began the conquest of the peninsula. Rome tried to conquest the Iberian peninsula from the Punic Wars against Carthago till the end of the 1st Century BC This was done in three phases
1º STAGE The Mediterranean coast and the south of the peninsula were conquered . Romans fought against Carthaginians due to the siege of the city of Saguntum, which was an ally city of Rome:
o The II Punic War started in the Iberian peninsula in 218 BC when Scipio Africanus disembarked in Emporion and attacked the Carthaginian fortresses in Spain. During the campaigns the Romans were attracted by Spain´s mineral wealth. The Carthaginians were finally defeated in 202 BC and the Spanish Mediterranean coast and the South were conquered by the Romans.
The conquest of the Ebro Valley took place at the beginning of the 2 nd century BC.

2º stage The conquest of the Central Plateau had several problems to the Romans due to the continuous struggles with the indigenous population such as the Lusitanians, Arevaci, and Vaccaei. The Roman forces had to fight against the indigenous people in several wars
a) Lusitanian wars (155-139 BC): Luistanian people ( people from de southwest of the Iberian peninsula) declared the war on Rome and organized many attacks to Roman forces Romans finally conquered the area after bribing two men in order to kill Viriathus, the leader of the Lusitanian people .
b) Celtiberian Wars (143-133 BC): These wars faced the Romans against the Celtiberi of the tribe of Arevaci, inhabitants of the middle valley of the river Ebro. Romans besieged the city of Numantia, which resisted for a long time. Scipio the Younger was sent to stop the Celtiberian rebellion eventually. The city was conquered and destroyed finally.

3º STAGE The north of Spain was much harder to conquer than the rest of the peninsula, Finally this area was conquered by means of the Cantabrian Wars which took place at the mid 1st century BC (29-19 BC) against Cantabri and Astures. The region was occupied by Romans finally but they preserved their culture .