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Málaga - history

The city was probably founded by Phoenicians from Tyre in about 1000 BC and named it Malaka. The name is probably derived from the Phoenician word for salt because fish was salted near the harbour.

In the 8th century, Spain was conquered by the Moors and the city became an important centre of trade. Málaga was first a possession of the Califate of Cordoba and later became the capital of a distinct kingdom, dependent on Granada.

At a late stage of the reconquista, the medieval Christian Spanish struggle to drive the Islamic Moors out of Spain, Málaga once again became Christian in 1487.

Málaga did not reaasert itself as an entrepreneurial centre until the 19th century when a dynamic middle class founded textile factories, sugar and steel mills and shipyards.

During the civil was the city was initially a Republican stronghold. Before the city fell in February 1937, after being bombed by Italian planed, hundreds of Nationalist sympathisers were killed.

Málaga has enjoyed a steadily increasing economic spin-off from mass tourism launched on the nearby Costa del Dol in 1960s.