A language, just like a person, is shaped over time by different experiences and is influenced by the languages ​​that surround it. History has taught us several times that a single gesture is enough to change the course of a language. During the Battle of Hastings, King Harold II was shot in the eye by Norman invaders; resulting in the Franco-Norman language almost completely taking over from English in the 11th century AD. This seemingly insignificant event will change the way English is spoken forever. Similar to English, Spanish belongs to the Indo-European language family. Unlike English, however, Spanish derives from a category of Romance languages, of which it is the most widely spoken today. The Spanish language is also known as Castilian, which is the dialect from which modern Spanish is derived and originates in the Iberian Peninsula of Spain. Today Spanish is the official language of: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish has evolved, in a multilingual environment, over the last 2000 years, starting with Vulgar Latin, evolving into medieval Castilian in the 8th century, then becoming modern Spanish in the 15th century, finally becoming Spanish modern from the 16th century onwards. The Second Punic War, which began in 218 BC, was the second major war between the Roman Empire and Carthage. Around the same time, the Roman Empire deployed troops to Spain's northeastern peninsula to prevent reinforcements, from the Carthaginian south, from reaching Hannibal's armies in Italy to assist them. In A Histor...... middle of paper ....... An introduction to Vulgar Latin,. Boston: D. C. Heath &, 1907. Google Scholar. November 21, 2011. Web. November 4, 2015. Green, Jennifer L. “The Development of Maritime Law in Medieval Spain: The Case of Castile and Siete Partidas.” The Historian 58.3 (1996): 575. Academic OneFile. Network. November 4, 2015. .Penny, Ralph J. A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print. Rodriguez Gonzalez, Felix. "Anglicisms in contemporary Spanish. An overview (1)." Atlantis, Revista De La Asociación Española De Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos 21.1-2 (1999): 103. Academic OneFile. Network. November 4. 2015. .