A peninsula is a piece of land that has water on three sides but is still attached to the mainland. The Iberian Peninsula faces the Atlantic Ocean on the East and the Mediterranean Ocean on the West. Whoever controlled Iberia and the land immediately opposite it on the north coast of Africa also controlled the Straights of Gibraltar, the only outlet from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean. Past the Straights lay the West Coast of Africa and all of the Atlantic World. Not surprisingly then, most great empires wanted to control Iberia as through it one controlled trade between the major parts of the world. Sephardic comes from the Hebrew sefarad, the name given to this important area.
