Antiquity It has been maintained that, before the Roman conquest of Hispania, the lands that the municipality currently occupies were inhabited by the
Sedetani, an Iberian group from the 3rd century BCE. However, recent investigations place the
Ausetani (Ositans) in the Caspe region, whose capital, Osicerda, may have been located in the Cabezo Palao de Alcañiz. This city-state and its territory possibly reached the Ebro to the north and the
Matarraña river to the east, a border between Ositans and
Ilercavones.
Middle Ages From the arrival of the Muslims in 713 to the Christian reconquest in the first half of the 12th century, the lands of the Ebro constituted the northernmost mark of Al-Andalus, a sector occupied by the Yemeni contingent. In this territory, Latin culture predominated over the Hispanic-Roman and
Visigoth indigenous population of Christians and Jews; but from the 10th century on, Arabization and Islamization of the population prevailed, leaving Christians and Jews relegated to a small percentage. Between June and September 1169, Caspe was integrated into the
Crown of Aragon by King
Alfonso II. The conquest of the town was carried out under the direction of the
Count of Pallars,
Arnau Mir de Tost, and his son Ramón, in collaboration with other feudal lords. In the
Annals of the Crown of Aragon by , the following is narrated:At this time, the Moors who were in the region of the Edetanos in the castles and forces they had on the banks of the Algas river were waging a great war ... And Caspe was won, a very important place along the banks of the Ebro And from there the war continued on the banks of Guadalob and the Calanda river. It is estimated that the number of inhabitants of Caspe, at the time of the
Reconquista, could have been somewhat higher than 1,000 inhabitants, overwhelmingly Islamic. Muslims were allowed to keep their religious practices, but had a year to leave their own homes and move outside the city walls. It cannot be specified when Jews arrived in Caspe, but what is certain is that when the troops of Alfonso II entered, Jews already lived in the La Muela neighborhood, sharing it with Muslims. The town then passed to the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem through a land swap carried out with Alfonso II for other assets of the order. Its castle was used as residence of the bailiwick of the hospital. The population stabilized in the last quarter of the 13th century, after Garcelán de Timor was appointed commander of the bailiwick of Caspe. The town, which then had about 1,500 inhabitants, expanded from La Muela to the surrounding farmhouses with the castle of the Order at the top and the church of Santa María for the whole of the Christian community. In 1392,
Juan Fernández de Heredia, grand master of the order, bought all the possessions in the town (from the Sesé family) to found a convent. He raised the church to the category of collegiate church and increased the importance of the Sanjuanista Convent by endowing it with treasures and relics such as a
lignum crucis. When he died, his body was brought from
Avignon and buried in the convent church, in a tomb that he himself had carved. In medieval times, Caspe was the largest Aragonese center for the production of glass; and one of the largest in Spain. Thirty glass furnaces are known to have existed in its municipal area. The large amount of saline soils favored the growth of
Salsola kali (syn.
Kali turgidum), a type of plant from which the ashes are useful in the production of glass, and this, together with the quality and quantity of the sand, were the basic elements for that manufacture. It seems that Jews were the first involved in this industry, mainly between the 14th and 15th centuries. Many of the glaziers belonged to the most important families in the town. In the fourteenth century, the
black plague ravaged the Kingdom of Aragon; There is evidence that the epidemic had reached in Caspe in 1371, even forcing the sessions of the
Cortes Generales to move elsewhere. According to the
Anales de Valimaña, about 300 people in the town died of the plague. The population was the scene in 1412 of the historic "Compromiso de Caspe", when
Martin I of Aragon died without descendants. On April 22 of that year, the deliberations of the delegates began, and on June 28 he was proclaimed King Fernando de Trastamara, called that of Antequera, as
Fernando I of Aragón. In front of the door that gives access to the
apse of Santa María la Mayor, a platform was erected, from which the people were informed of the declaration of right voted by the delegates of the States of the Crown of Aragon in favor of Don Fernando. The following day, Fray
Vicente de Ferrer, who had taken a very active part in the sessions of the well-known Commitment, preached at the church. Caspe remained for the rest of the 15th century a thriving town with its neighborhoods of La Muela, San Roque and El Pueyo, and an agricultural economy that took advantage of irrigation by the Ebro and Guadalope. At that time
Pope Benedict XIII, better known as Pope Luna, visited the town to settle matters between his own family, the Luna, and the Urrea.
Modern age Until 1610, the Christian and Muslim communities continued to populate the town. Although they shared the old irrigated land, each had its own municipal area, as well as its own communal assets. Both were vassals of the
Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. Due to its geographical situation, Caspe has been one of the most affected populations by the different conflicts that have occurred in Spain since the 17th century. In the
Catalan uprising (1640-1652), it was victim of incursions and raids by the Franco-Catalan troops, as well as fiscal exactions from the monarchy, both of which made a serious impact on its economic situation. In the
War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1711) it was a follower of the Bourbon cause, while its neighbors opted for the Austrian aspirant.
19th century During the
Peninsular War (known in Spanish as the War of Independence), French troops occupied Caspe on 4 March 1809. Abandoned soon after, it was definitively occupied from June 1809 to 1813. The most important figure in that period was that of the local lawyer Agustín de Quinto, an
afrancesado who collaborated in government tasks with the French. In November 1810,
Suchet appointed him General Commissar of the left bank of the Ebro, making Caspe, thanks to Quinto's residence in the town, the capital of the lower half of Aragon. At the end of the war (June 1813), Colonel
Ramón Gayán arrived in Caspe to take the city from the French. To lift the siege, which lasted fifteen days, he resorted to the construction of two tunnels: one, from Calle de San Juan to the cellars of the Convent, and the other from the Revuelta. The explosion of the latter damaged the basement of the Castle, where the French had barricaded themselves, forcing them to flee to Mequinenza. Later, the town was affected by the
Carlist Wars, which had special relevance for the population. This was a consequence of the strategic location of the Caspe region, as well as the confiscation of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, which generated the discontent of the peasantry at the expectations created, and the loss of purchasing power of peasants, day laborers and artisans, due to the fall in the price of oil. These factors led to the start of the war when a mediocre group of Caspolinos escaped to the Carlist faction in 1814. Caspe was the object of the Carlist incursions, suffering sieges, assaults and ephemeral occupations. In May 1835, during the First Carlist War, General Cabrera managed to seize part of the population; in the few hours that the Carlists occupied it, they took important spoils, looting the houses of the Queen's supporters. The following month, Llagostera took control of the first urban enclosure, burning the city afterwards; a year later he managed to take it again, to abandon it soon after. In November 1836 he returned to seize the town, retaining it in his power for eleven days. And in June 1837, Carlist troops took Caspe but, before retiring, burned the town. According to official reports, 223 houses burned, and the fire could not be quenched until the next day. The economic consequences derived from these events must have been significant, causing that henceforth, when there was news of the Carlists entering, the inhabitants flee to the farms.
Pascual Madoz, in his
Geographic-Statistical-Historical Dictionary of Spain (1845), describes Caspe in the following terms: It is located on the banks of the Guadalope river, near its confluence with the Ebro, on 3 or 4 small hills ... It is formed by 1,500 fairly regular houses, distributed in 70 fairly wide streets, 9 squares and a main square with an almost circular figure in the center of the town ... It also has a small fort supported by what was previously a parish church and the convent of San Juan.Regarding its production, it indicates that:The main of these is that of oil; many cereals are also harvested; the wine harvest has declined somewhat and the same happens with that of silk. There are abundant and exquisite fruits of all kinds and legumes and vegetables; likewise hemp and flax; sheep and goats are raised. In 1861, in the interval between the Second and the Third Carlist Wars, Caspe obtained the city title. However, the political instability of the revolutionary six-year period led to a new boom for Carlist activities and, with the proclamation of the First Republic (11 February 1873), the Third Carlist War reached its greatest intensity. The most notable event took place in October of that same year when the Carlist troops from Vallés entered Caspe without encountering any resistance; in fact, 600 Caspolinos joined the Carlists, setting fire to the Bailío Castle and the old Convent of San Juan. In February 1874, a new Carlist raid took place, led this time by Marco de Bello, in order to raise funds for the purchase of weapons and to pay for the uniforms worn by his combatants. The most relevant economic event for Caspe in the 19th century was probably the arrival of the railway. In June 1876, the municipality agreed to grant a series of privileges to the company that carried out the layout more quickly. Thus, in September 1891, work began on the municipal area of the city, finally reaching the route on 13 October 1893.
Twentieth century In 1926 the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation was created in Caspe, an organization that manages the waters and irrigation of the Ebro
hydrographic basin, the most important of the ten that have been designated in the peninsular territory. With the
Second Spanish Republic, the Statute of Autonomy of Aragon of 1936, also known as the Statute of Caspe, was drafted in this city, which had not been ratified by the Cortes at the time the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War. During the first part of the war, Caspe was the seat of the
Regional Defense Council of Aragon, a government body created by the anarchists in 1936. This entity continued its functions until it was dissolved by government authorities in the summer of 1937, due to its independence from the Republican government. On August 4, the Minister of National Defense,
Indalecio Prieto, issued orders to the Army and the 11th Division, under
Enrique Líster, was sent to Aragon, officially dissolving the Council of Aragon in August. This dissolution took place through a military intervention that took Caspe by surprise. The Local Federation of Trade Unions (
CNT) was taken by assault, tanks and artillery were concentrated at the exit of the city and some confrontations with casualties took place.
Joaquín Ascaso, President of the Council of Aragon, and its anarchist members were arrested on various charges. With the offensive of Aragon in 1938, the republican chief of staff, General
Vicente Rojo, set up his operations center in this city, concentrating there all the
International Brigades that he was able to gather. On March 15 the
Battle of Caspe began, when three Francoist divisions of the Moroccan Army Corps reached the suburbs of the town. The 1st Division of Navarra undertook the siege of Caspe, being present, in the first phase of the battle, the International Brigades XI, XIII and XV; In a second phase that took place on the right bank of the Guadalope river, XII and XIV intervened. Although the
interbrigadistas, especially those of the XV Brigade, deployed a strong defense against the attackers, at dusk on March 17 the town was finally conquered by Franco's troops. The war part of the "national" side recorded the fact with these words: This morning the important city of Caspe has been occupied, also establishing a bridgehead 5 kilometers to the east, despite the stubborn resistance opposed by five international brigades. After the conquest, the town became the headquarters of the Moroccan Army Corps, in charge of the troops of the Ebro river. == Demography ==