Spain Spain

Spain

Spain (pronounced /ˈspeɪn/ spayn; Spanish:
España, pronounced al]ˈpaɲa] listen) , officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish:
Reino de España), is a country
and member state of the European Union
located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian
Peninsula.^{[note 6]}
Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean
Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to
the north by France,
Andorra, and
the Bay
of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic
Ocean and Portugal.

Spanish territory also includes
the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary
Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North
Africa, Ceuta
and Melilla,
that border Morocco.
Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated
inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 km², it is the second
largest country in Western Europe and the European
Union after France.

Because of its location, the territory of Spain was subject to many external
influences since prehistoric times and through to its dawn as a country. Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th
century, following the marriage of the Catholic
Monarchs and the completion of the reconquest or Reconquista
of the Iberian peninsula in 1492. Conversely,
it has been an important source of influence to other regions, chiefly during
the Modern
Era, when it became a global empire that has left a legacy of over 500 million
Spanish speakers today, making it the world's second most spoken first
language.

Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a
parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy.
It is a developed country with the ninth largest economy in the world
by nominal GDP, and very high living
standards (15th highest Human
Development Index), including the tenth-highest quality of life index rating in the world, as
of 2005. It is a member of the United
Nations, European Union, NATO, OECD, and WTO.

Etymology



The true origins of the name España
and its cognates
"Spain"
and "Spanish" are disputed. The ancient
Roman name for Iberia, Hispania, may derive from poetic use of the term Hesperia
to refer to Spain, reflecting Greek
perception of Italy
as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (Hesperia)
and Spain, being still further west, as Hesperia ultima.^[5]

It may also be a derivation of
the Punic Ispanihad,
meaning "land of conies" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck in the region from the
reign of Hadrian show a female figure with a cony at her
feet.^[6]
There are also claims that España derives from the Basque
word Ezpanna meaning "edge" or "border", another
reference to the fact that the Iberian peninsula
constitutes the southwest of the European continent.^[5]

The humanist Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania
evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis,
meaning "city of the western world". According to new research by
Jesús Luis Cunchillos published in 2000 with the name of Gramática fenicia
elemental (Basic Phoenician grammar), the root of the term span
is spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore i-spn-ya
would mean "the land where metals are forged".^[7]

Geography




Main article: Geography of Spain








Teide, the highest
mountain in Spain (Tenerife, Canary
Islands)








Bosost (Lérida), in the Pyrenees

At 504,782 km²
(194,897 sq mi), Spain is the world's 51st-largest country.
It is some 47,000 km² (18,000 sq mi) smaller than France and
81,000 km² (31,000 sq mi) larger than the U.S. state
of California.
The Teide (Tenerife, Canary
Islands) is the highest peak
of Spain and the third
largest volcano in the world from its base.








El Sardinero
beach, in Santander (Cantabria)

On the west, Spain borders Portugal; on
the south, it borders Gibraltar (a British overseas territory) and Morocco, through
its exclaves
in North Africa (Ceuta,
Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera). On the
northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality
of Andorra.

Spain also includes the Balearic
Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary
Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and a number of uninhabited islands
on the Mediterranean side of the Strait of Gibraltar, known as Plazas de soberanía, such as the Chafarine
islands, the isle of Alborán, Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla
Perejil. Along the Pyrenees in Catalonia, a
small exclave town called Llívia is surrounded by France. The little Pheasant
Island in the River Bidasoa is a Spanish-French condominium.

Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and
mountain ranges, such as the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are
several major rivers such as the Tagus, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir.
Alluvial
plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the
Guadalquivir in Andalusia.

Climate



Due to Spain's geographical
situation and orographic
conditions, the climate is extremely diverse;^[8]
discounting the mountain climate, it can be roughly divided into five areas:^[9]








Spain's climatic areas (except Canary
Islands)

• A Continental Mediterranean
  climate in the inland areas of the Peninsula (largest city, Madrid).
  
• An Oceanic
  climate in Galicia
  and the coastal strip near the Bay of Biscay or (largest city, Bilbao). This
  area is often called Green Spain.
  
• A Semiarid climate or arid Mediterranean in the
  southeast (largest city, Murcia).
  
• A Mediterranean climate region extends
  from the Andalusian plain along the southern and eastern coasts up to the Pyrenees, on the seaward side of the mountain ranges
  that run near the coast. Also in Ceuta
  and Melilla (largest city, Barcelona).
  
  
• A Subtropical climate in the Canary Islands
  and some areas in the coast of Granada and Málaga (largest cities, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Motril).
  

The
rain in Spain does not fall mainly in the plain. It falls mainly in
the northern mountains.^[10]

History




Main article: History
of Spain

After a long and hard conquest,
the Iberian Peninsula became a region of the Roman Empire
known as Hispania. During the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but
later was conquered by Muslim invaders. Through a very long and fitful process,
the Christian kingdoms in the north gradually rolled back Muslim rule, finally
extinguishing its last remnant in Granada in
1492, the same year Columbus reached the Americas. A
global empire began which saw Spain
become the strongest kingdom in Europe and the
leading world power in the 16th century and first half of the 17th century.

Continued wars and other problems
eventually led to a diminished status. The French invasion of Spain in the
early 19th century led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore
apart most of the empire and left the country politically unstable. In the 20th
century it suffered a devastating civil war and came under the rule of an
authoritarian government, leading to years of stagnation, but finishing in an
impressive economic surge. Democracy was restored in 1978 in the form of a
parliamentary constitutional monarchy. In 1986, Spain joined the European Union,
experiencing a cultural renaissance and steady economic growth.

Prehistory
and pre-Roman peoples




Main article: Prehistoric Iberia








Altamira
Cave paintings,^[11]
in Cantabria

Archaeological research at Atapuerca
indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated
by hominids
1.2 million years ago.^[12]
Modern humans first arrived in Iberia,
from the north on foot, about 32,000 years ago.^[13]
The best known artifacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the famous
paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia,
which were created about 15,000 BCE by cro-magnons.^[11]

Archaeological and genetic
evidence strongly suggests that the Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several
major refugia from which northern Europe was
repopulated following the end of the last ice age.

The two main historical peoples
of the peninsula were the Iberians and the Celts, the former inhabiting the Mediterranean side from the
northeast to the southwest, the latter inhabiting the Atlantic side, in the
north and northwest part of the peninsula. In the inner part of the peninsula,
where both groups were in contact, a mixed, distinctive culture known as Celtiberian
was present. In addition, Basques occupied the western area of the Pyrenees mountains. Other ethnic groups existed along the
southern coastal areas of present day Andalusia.

Among these southern groups there
grew the earliest urban culture in the Iberian Peninsula, that of the
semi-mythical southern city of Tartessos (c. 1100 BC) in the location of the
present-day triangle between Seville, Huelva and Jerez. The flourishing trade in gold and silver between the people
of Tartessos and Phoenicians and Greeks is
documented in the history of Strabo and in the biblical book of king Solomon. Between about
500 BC and 300 BC, the seafaring Phoenicians and Greeks founded trading colonies all along the Mediterranean
coast. The Carthaginians briefly exerted control over much of the
Mediterranean coastal areas in the course of the Punic Wars,
until their rule was defeated and replaced by that of the Romans.^[14]

Roman
Empire and the Gothic
Kingdom




Main article: Hispania








Roman Theatre of Mérida, in Badajoz

During the Second
Punic War, an expanding Roman Empire captured Carthaginian trading colonies
along the Mediterranean coast from roughly 210 BC to 205 BC, leading to
eventual Roman control of nearly the entire Iberian
Peninsula. This control lasted over 500 years, bound together by
law, language, and the Roman road.^[15]








Cathedral of the Holy Saviour, in
Asturias

The base Celt and Iberian
populations were gradually romanized at differing rates in different
parts of Hispania. Local leaders were admitted into the Roman aristocratic
class.^{[note 7][14]}
Hispania served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold, wool, olive oil,
and wine.
Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects,
some of which remain in use. Emperors Trajan, Theodosius
I, and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania.^{[note 8]}

Christianity
was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century CE and it became popular
in the cities in the 2nd century CE.^[14]
Most of Spain's
present languages and religion, and the basis of its laws, originate from this
period.^[15]

Rome's loss of jurisdiction in
Hispania began in 409, when the Germanic
Suevi and Vandals, together
with the Sarmatian
Alans crossed the Rhine and ravaged Gaul until the Visigoths
drove them into Iberia that same year. The Suevi established a kingdom in what
is today modern Galicia and northern Portugal. As
the western empire disintegrated the social and economic base became greatly
simplified: but even in modified form, the successor regimes maintained many of
the institutions and laws of the late empire, including Christianity.

The Alans' allies, the Hasdingi
Vandals, established a kingdom in Gallaecia,
too, occupying largely the same region but extending farther south to the Duero river. The Silingi Vandals
occupied the region that still bears a form of their name –Vandalusia,
modern Andalusia,
in Spain.
The Byzantines
established an enclave, Spania, in the south, with the intention of reviving the Roman
empire throughout Iberia.
Eventually, however, Hispania was reunited under Visigothic rule.




José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, King Juan Carlos I