Province of Valladolid

, the first people with stable presence in the middle valley of the Douro River documented in historical times. in 1521, during the Revolt of the Comuneros. (of Santervás de Campos), one of the first Europeans to arrive in the current United States. He led the first European expedition to Florida. ). The province of Valladolid was established by the Royal Decree of 29 September 1833, promoted by Minister Javier de Burgos; it was attached to the historic region of Old Castile. The first stable population to settle in the present province were the pre-Roman Vaccaei people (Spanish: vacceos; the area they inhabited is called the "Vaccea Region"). They belonged to a very advanced culture when the other Celtic peoples arrived in the peninsula from northern Europe (there is evidence that they also occupied territories corresponding to other provinces). Chronicles defined the region as "free and open" and "an open country, fields of wheat, deforested land"; the Vacceos engaged in livestock farming and especially agriculture (cereals). In 178 BC, the Romans conquered the territory. The lands that make up the current province came under their occupation until the barbarian invasions of the early fifth century AD, when the province came under the control of the Visigothic Kingdom. Following the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, Muslims arrived in the area in 712. Later, during the Reconquista, this area was the subject of battles between the Muslims and the Christian Kingdom of León in the first half of the eleventh century. In 939, the Battle of Simancas secured control of the Douro river basin for the Christian kingdoms. Valladolid was founded in 1072 by Count Pedro Ansúrez. From here its history was linked to that of the Crown of Castile. Cities such as Medina del Campo or Valladolid became important Castilian administrative centres and experienced an economic boom (including the mesta and fairs). The province was of great importance in the Discovery of the Americas in 1492; Christopher Columbus spent the last years of his life in Valladolid until his death in 1506. It played a role in the subsequent colonization with explorers such as Juan Ponce de León, discoverer of Florida (United States). The Treaty of Tordesillas, which decided the partition of the New World between the Catholic Monarchs and the Kingdom of Portugal and shaped Latin America, was signed in Tordesillas. The Revolt of the Comuneros occurred in 1520 and ended with the ringleaders publicly executed in Villalar de los Comuneros. Valladolid became the capital of the Spanish Empire between 1601 and 1606. When the Empire began to decline due to continued wars and the emergence of new powers, there was an economic decline in the area, as in the rest of the Spanish monarchy. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1700–1715), the province sided with the Bourbon pretender, who eventually secured the throne. In the Peninsular War against France (1808–1814), a succession of small battles occurred, led by guerrilla fighters such as "The Undaunted". In the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Valladolid was the "most significant regional nucleus" of Falangism in the Spanish Second Republic, garnering the second-highest provincial vote for the party in the otherwise dismal (for Falangists) elections of 1936, just behind Cádiz. The province was controlled by Franco's Nationalists throughout the Civil War. During the Franco period there was an exodus from the rural countryside to the industrial cities. A further exodus occurred with the arrival of democracy in Spain (early 1980s), when the province was made part of the new autonomous community of Castile and León. A process of economic growth began that peaked with the Spanish property bubble and then suffered from the economic crisis of 2008–2015, similar to the rest of southern Europe. Subsequently, there was some economic growth until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the declaration of a state of alarm throughout Spain, resulting in a strong economic standstill. After the lifting of lockdown measures, economic activity reactivated. == Geography ==