Spanish evolved from Vulgar Latin brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers and settlers beginning in the 3rd century BCE. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin mixed with the languages of Germanic invaders such as the Visigoths, and later absorbed considerable Arabic vocabulary during the roughly 800 years of Moorish rule. The dialect of Castile gradually rose to political prominence as the Reconquista advanced southward, and by 1492 — the year Columbus reached the Americas — it was codified as the standard language of the emerging Spanish Empire. Over the following centuries, Castilian Spanish spread across Latin America, the Philippines, and parts of Africa, becoming one of the world's most widely spoken languages. The Real Academia Española, founded in 1713, has since played a central role in standardizing and preserving the language.
