The writer has been fortunate in that there exists a monumental work in Spanish containing the type of materials which he has wished to present. This is the _Historia de España y de la civilización española_, which has won a world-wide reputation for its author, Rafael Altamira y Crevea.[1] Indeed, the present writer makes little claim to originality, since for the period down to 1808 he has relied almost wholly on Altamira. Nevertheless, he has made, not a summary, but rather a selection from the _Historia_ (which is some five times the length of this volume) of such materials as were appropriate to his point of view. The chapter on the reign of Charles III has been based largely on the writer’s own account of the diplomacy of that monarch, which lays special emphasis on the relation of Spain to the American Revolution.[2] For the chapter dealing with Spain in the nineteenth century the volumes of the _Cambridge modern history_ have been used, together with those on modern Spain by Hume and Butler Clarke. The last chapter, dealing with present-day Spain, is mainly the result of the writer’s observations during a two years’ residence in that country, 1912 to 1914. In the course of his stay he visited every part of the peninsula, but spent most of his time in Seville, wherefore it is quite possible that his views may have an Andalusian tinge. In the spelling of proper names the English form has been adopted if it is of well-established usage. The founder of the Carlists and Carlism, however, is retained as “Don Carlos” for obvious reasons of euphony. In all other cases the Spanish has been preferred. The phrase “the Americas” is often used as a general term for Spain’s overseas colonies. It may therefore include the Philippines sometimes. The term “Moslems” has been employed for the Mohammedan invaders of Spain. The word “Moors” has been avoided, because it is historically inaccurate as a general term for all the invaders; the Almohades, or Moors, were a branch of the Berber family, and other Moslem peoples had preceded them in Spain by upwards of four hundred years. Their influence both as regards culture and racial traits was far less than that of the Arabs, who were the most important of the conquering races, and this fact, together with their late arrival, should militate against the application of their name to the whole era of Moslem Spain. All of these alien peoples were Mohammedans, which would seem to justify the use of the word “Moslems.” The word “lords” in some cases indicates ecclesiastics as well as nobles. “Town” has been employed generally for “_villa_,” “_concejo_,” “_pueblo_,” “_aldea_,” and “_ciudad_,” except when special attention has been drawn to the different types of municipalities. Spanish institutional terms have been translated or explained at their first use. They also appear in the index.