Spring Framework 4.0 is a Java application framework created in 2003 by Rod Johnson to make Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) applications easier to develop. It aims to simplify common tasks, promote best practices, and allow developers to focus on domain problems rather than infrastructure concerns. Spring uses dependency injection and inversion of control to manage components and dependencies. It supports full web applications, mid-tier applications, microservices, and more. Common annotations like @Component, @Service, @Controller, and @Repository are used to configure beans.