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| Reino de España
Kingdom of Spain
|
|
|
Motto: "Plus Ultra" (Latin)
"Further Beyond" |
Anthem: ""Marcha Real" (Spanish)
"Royal March"
|
|
|
Capital
(and largest city) |
Madrid
 40°26′N, 3°42′W |
| Official languages |
Spanish[3] |
| Recognised regional languages |
Aranese, Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician |
| Ethnic groups |
89% Spanish, 11% minority groups |
| Demonym |
Spanish, Spaniard |
| Government |
Parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy |
| - |
Monarch |
King Juan Carlos I |
| - |
President of
the Government |
José L. Rodríguez Zapatero |
| Formation |
15th century |
| - |
Unification |
1469 |
| - |
Dynastic union |
1516 |
| - |
de facto |
1716 |
| - |
de jure |
1812 |
| EU accession |
January 1, 1986 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
504,030 km² (51st)
195,364 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
1.04 |
| Population |
| - |
2007 estimate |
45,200,737[1] (28th) |
| - |
Density |
90 people/km² (106th)
231/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2007[2] estimate |
| - |
Total |
$1.310 trillion (11th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$33,700 (2007) (27th) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2007[3] estimate |
| - |
Total |
$1.439 trillion (8th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$31,471 (2007) (26th) |
| Gini (2005) |
32[4] |
| HDI (2005) |
0.949 (high) (13th) |
| Currency |
Euro (€) ³ (EUR) |
| Time zone |
CET4 (UTC+1) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
CEST (UTC+2) |
| Internet TLD |
.es, .cat5 |
| Calling code |
+34 |
| 1 |
Also serves as the Royal anthem. |
| 2 |
In some autonomous communities, Aranese (Occitan), Basque, Catalan/Valencian, and Galician are co-official languages. |
| 3 |
Prior to 1999 (by law, 2002) : Spanish Peseta. |
| 4 |
Except in the Canary Islands, which are in the WET time zone (UTC, UTC+1 in summer). |
| 5 |
The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states. Also, the .cat domain is used in Catalan-speaking territories. |
Spain [speɪn] (help·info) (Spanish: España?·i, IPA: [es'paɲa]) or the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España),[5] is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish mainland is bordered to the south and east almost entirely by the Mediterranean Sea (except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar); to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the 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. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe (after France) and with an average altitude of 650 m, the second highest country in Europe (after Switzerland).
Spain is a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy and has been a member of the European Union since 1986, and NATO since 1982. It is a developed country with the eighth largest economy in the world and fifth largest in the EU, based on nominal GDP.[6]
History
-
Summary
Spain is a key site when it comes to studying the human prehistory
of Europe. After a long and hard conquest Hispania became one of the
Roman Empire's most important regions. During the early Middle Ages it
came under Germanic rule. Later it 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 Almería in 1492. The
same year Columbus reached the New World, a global empire began. Spain
became the strongest kingdom in Europe and leading world power during
the 16th century and first half of the 17th century, but continued wars
and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. A 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 a dictatorship,
leading to years of stagnation, but finishing in a strong economic
revival. Democracy was restored in 1978 in the form of a constitutional
monarchy. In 1986, Spain joined the European Union; experiencing a
cultural renaissance and steady economic growth.
Prehistory and pre-Roman peoples in the Iberian Peninsula
-
Archeological research at Atapuerca indicates that the Iberian Peninsula was peopled more than a million years ago.[7] Modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the Iberian Peninsula through the Pyrenees some 35,000 years ago. The best known artifacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the famous paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Spain, which were created about 15,000 BCE. Furthermore, archeological evidence in places like Los Millares in Almería and in El Argar in Murcia suggests that developed cultures existed in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula during the late Neolithic and the Bronze 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 (perhaps pre-1100 BC) near the location of present-day Cádiz. 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 Spanish Mediterranean coast. Carthaginians briefly took control of much of the Mediterranean coast in the course of the Punic Wars, until they were eventually defeated and replaced by the Romans.[8]
Roman Empire and Germanic invasions
-
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—a control which lasted over 500
years, bound together by law, language, and the Roman road.[9] The base Celt and Iberian population remained in various stages of Romanisation,[10] and local leaders were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class.[8]
The Romans improved existing cities, such as Tarragona (Tarraco), and established others like Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Mérida (Augusta Emerita), Valencia (Valentia), León ("Legio Septima"), Badajoz ("Pax Augusta"), and Palencia.[11]
The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. 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.[12] Christianity was intro
Classical
from 
