Tell me all you know about spain?

Question

Tell me all you know about spain?

Answer 1

It's in southern europe and they speak spanish.

Answer 2

It's a great place to live or visit. It has a vibrant culture and the city life is amazing. The people are great, nice and easy-going. The architecture and environment is spectacular. History is well preserved in spain in their traditions and way of life. Oh, and the women are extremely beautiful.

Answer 3

Spain (Spanish: España (help·info), IPA: [es'paɲa]) , is a Western European country. The country consists of Peninsular Spain which is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, two archipelagos, one in each sea, and two autonomous cities in North Africa.

The Spanish mainland is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east, by the Cantabric Sea that includes the Bay of Biscay to the north, and by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal to the west. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands off the African coast. It shares land borders with Portugal, France, Andorra, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, and Morocco. It is the largest of the three sovereign states that make up the Iberian Peninsula — the others being Portugal and Andorra. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe (behind France).

Spain is a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, and has been a member of the European Union since 1986. It is a developed country with the ninth largest economy in the world and fifth largest in the EU, based on nominal GDP.[3]

Spain has a very ancient and complex prehistory. Under the Roman empire Hispania flourished and became one of the empire's most important regions. During the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule. Later, nearly the entire peninsula came under Muslim rulers. Through a long process Christian kingdoms in the north gradually rolled back Muslim rule, which was finally extinguished in 1492. That year Columbus reached the Americas, the beginnings of a global empire. Spain became the strongest kingdom in Europe in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries but continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. In the middle decades of the 20th century it came under a dictatorship, under which it went through many years of stagnation and then a spectacular economic revival. In 1986 it joined the European Union and has experienced an economic and cultural renaissance.

Prehistory and pre-Roman peoples in the Iberian Peninsula



Celtic and iberic tribes in Iberia circa 200 BC.Main article: Prehistoric Iberia

Modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the Iberian Peninsula from 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. New archeological research at Atapuerca indicates that the Iberian Peninsula was peopled more than a million years ago.[4]. Furthermore, archeological evidence in places like Los Millares in Almería and in El Argar in Murcia suggest that developed cultures existed in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula during the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age; these cultures may result from migrations from northern Africa.

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 was present, known as Celtiberian. Different names of places witness their geographical distribution. Celts founded military forts (from the Celt "briga" = fortress) that later evolved into cities such as Coimbra, Braga, and Segovia.[5] The Iberians gave their name to Spain's longest river Ebro (or "Iberian river") and to cities such as Ilici (present-day Elche) and Ilerda (Lérida). In addition, Basques occupied the western area of the Pyrenees mountains, although some geographical names attest their presence as far south as Aranjuez, a name that originates in the Basque words aran zuri ("valley of thorns") and contemporary Basque aranzazu (thorn, thistle). 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 along the Mediterranean coast. These colonies include present-day cities like Empúries (from the Greek word 'emporion') , Malaga (from the Phoenician word 'malaka' for salt, as fish was salted in the harbour) , and the city of Alicante, originally named in Greek Akra Leuka (ie, white bay). Phoenicians from the African city of Carthage (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.[6] Cartaginians created important cities in the Mediterranean litoral, including 'Cartago nova' or 'New Carthage' (present-day Cartagena) and a city in the northeast founded by Hannibal's father Hamilcar Barca. Hamilcar named the city Barcino, after his family; the city is present day Barcelona.

Roman Empire and Germanic invasions



Roman theater in MéridaMain article: Hispania

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.[7] The base Celt and Iberian population remained in various stages of Romanisation,[8] and local leaders were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class.[6]

The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon (Olissis bona or 'good for Ulysses') and Tarragona (Tarraco) , and established Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta) , Mérida (Augusta Emerita) , Valencia (Valentia) , León ("Legio Septima") , Badajoz ("Pax Augusta") , and Palencia (Παλλαντία, "Pallas Ateneia").[9] 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, Hadrian, and Theodosius I, and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania.[10] Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the first century CE and it became popular in the cities in the second century CE.[6] Most of Spain's present languages and religion, and the basis of its laws, originate from this period.[7]

The first Germanic barbarians to invade Hispania arrived in the 5th century, as the Roman empire decayed.[7] The Visigoths, Suebi, Vandals and Alans arrived in Spain by crossing the Pyrenees mountain range.[11] The romanised Visigoths entered Hispania in 415. After the conversion of their monarchy to Roman Catholicism, the Visigothic Kingdom eventually encompassed a great part of the Iberian Peninsula after conquering the disordered Suebic territories in the northwest and Byzantine territories in the southeast.[6]

Muslim Iberia

Main article: Al-Andalus

In the 8th century, nearly all the Iberian peninsula was quickly conquered (711-718) by mainly Berber Muslims (see Moors) from North Africa. These conquests were part of the expansion of the Islamic Umayyad Empire.[12] Only a number of areas in the mountains to the north of the Iberian Peninsula managed to cling to their independence, occupying the areas roughly corresponding to modern Asturias, Navarra and Aragon.



Interior of the Mezquita in Córdoba, a Muslim mosque until the Reconquest, after which it became a Christian cathedralUnder Islam, Christians and Jews were recognised as "peoples of the book", and were free to practice their religion, but faced a number of mandatory limits and penalties were as dhimmis.[13][14][15] Conversion to Islam proceeded at a steadily increasing pace, with conversions among the aristocracy, commoners and slaves, as it circumvented the limitations of dhimmi status.[16] With the mass conversions in the 10th and 11th centuries Muslims are believed to have come to outnumber Christians in Al-Andalus.[17]

The Muslim community in Spain was itself diverse and beset by social tensions. The Berber people of North Africa, who had provided the bulk of the invading armies, clashed with the Arab leadership from the Middle East.[18] Over time, large Moorish populations became established, especially in the Guadalquivir River valley, the coastal plain of Valencia, and (towards the end of this period) in the mountainous region of Granada.[17]

Córdoba, Muslim Spain's capital, was the largest, richest and most sophisticated city of medieval Europe.[19] Mediterranean trade and cultural exchange flourished. Muslims imported a rich intellectual tradition from the Middle East and North Africa. Muslim and Jewish scholars played a great part in reviving and expanding classical Greek learning in Western Europe. Spain's romanised cultures interacted with Muslim and Jewish cultures in complex ways, thus giving Spain a distinctive culture.[17] Outside the cities, where the vast majority lived, the land ownership system from Roman times remained largely intact as Muslim leaders rarely dispossessed landowners, and the introduction of new crops and techniques led to a remarkable expansion of agriculture.

However, by the 11th century, Muslim holdings had fractured into rival Taifa kingdoms, allowing the small Christian states the opportunity to greatly enlarge their territories and consolidate their positions.[17] The arrival of the North African Muslim ruling sects of the Almoravids and the Almohads restored unity upon Muslim holdings, with a stricter, less tolerant application of Islam, but ultimately, after some successes in invading the north, proved unable to resist the increasing military strength of the Christian states.[6]

Fall of Muslim rule and unification

Main article: Reconquista

See also: Medieval demography



Equal partners: Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic MonarchsThe term Reconquista ("Reconquest") is used to describe the centuries-long period of expansion of Spain's Christian kingdoms; the Reconquista is viewed as beginning after the battle of Covadonga in 722. The Christian army victory over the Muslim forces lead to the creation of the Christian Kingdom of Asturias. Muslim armies had also moved north of the Pyrenees, but they were defeated at the battle of Poitiers in France. Subsequently, they retreated to more secure positions south of the Pyrenees with a frontier marked by the Ebro and Duero rivers in Spain. In the following years Christian armies moved to occupy and colonized the vacant areas. As early as 739, Muslim forces left Galicia, which was to host one of medieval Christianity's holiest sites, Santiago de Compostela. A little later Frankish forces established Christian counties south of the Pyrenees; these areas were to grow into kingdoms, in the north-east and the western part of the Pyrenees. These territories included Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. [20]

The breakup of Al-Andalus into the competing Taifa kingdoms helped the expanding Christian kingdoms, namely Castille that would become the main driving force in the Reconquista. The capture of the central city of Toledo in 1085 largely completed the reconquest of the northern half of Spain. [21] After a Muslim resurgence in the 12th century, the great Moorish strongholds in the south fell to Christian Spain in the 13th century—Córdoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248—leaving only the Muslim enclave of Granada as a tributary state in the south.[22] Also in the 13th century, the kingdom of Aragón,still ruled by the Catalan count of Barcelona, expanded its reach across the Mediterranean to Sicily.[23]

In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragón were united (even though both kingdoms kept a high degree of political and economical independence) by the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand. In 1478 began the final stage of the conquest of Canary Islands and in 1492, these united kingdoms captured Granada, ending the last remnant of a 781-year presence of Islamic rule on the Iberian Peninsula.[24] The year 1492 also marked the arrival in the New World of Christopher Columbus, during a voyage funded by Isabella. That same year, Spain's Jews were ordered to convert into the Christian religion or face expulsion from Spanish territories; expelled[25] during the Spanish Inquisition.[26]

As Renaissance New Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand centralised royal power at the expense of local nobility, and the word España - whose root is the ancient name "Hispania" - began to be used to designate the whole of the two kingdoms.[26] With their wide-ranging political, legal, religious and military reforms, Spain emerged as a world great power.

Imperial Spain

Main articles: Habsburg Spain and Enlightenment Spain

The unification of the kingdoms of Aragón, Castile, León, and Navarre laid the basis for modern Spain and the Spanish Empire. Spain became Europe's leading power throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position later reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions. Spain reached its apogee during the reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs (Charles I (1516-1556) and Philip II (1556-1598)). Included in this period are the Italian Wars, the Dutch revolt, clashes with the Ottomans, the Anglo-Spanish war and war with France.[27]



The galleon became synonymous with the riches of the Spanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire expanded to include nearly all of South and Central America, Mexico, southern and western portions of today's United States, the Philippines, Guam and the Mariana Islands in Eastern Asia, the Iberian peninsula (including the Portuguese empire (from 1580)) , southern Italy, Sicily, cities in Northern Africa, as well as parts of modern Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire about which it was said that the sun did not set. This was an age of discovery, with daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginning of European colonial exploitation. Along with the arrival of precious metals, spices, luxuries, and new agricultural plants, Spanish explorers and others brought back knowledge, playing a leading part in transforming the European understanding of the world.[28]

Of note was the cultural efflorescence now known as the Spanish Golden Age and the intellectual movement known as the School of Salamanca.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Spain was confronted by unrelenting challenges from all sides. In the early 16th century Barbary pirates under the aegis of the rapidly growing Ottoman empire, disrupted life in many coastal areas through their slave raids and renewed the threat of an Islamic invasion.[29] This at a time when Spain was often at war with France in Italy and elsewhere. Later the Protestant Reformation schism from the Catholic Church dragged the kingdom ever more into the mire of religiously charged wars. The result was a country forced into ever expanding military efforts across Europe and in the Mediterranean.

By the middle decades of a war-ridden mid-17th century Europe, the effects of the strain began to show. The Spanish Habsburgs had enmeshed the country in the continent wide religious-political conflicts. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the European economy generally. Spain managed to hold on to the majority of the scattered Habsburg empire, and help the Imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire reverse a large part of the advances made by Protestant forces, but it was finally forced to recognise the independence of Portugal - with its empire - and the Netherlands, and eventually began to surrender territories to France after the immensely destructive, Europe-wide Thirty Years War.[30] From the 1640s Spain went into a gradual but seemingly irreversible decline for the remainder of the century, however it was able to maintain and enlarge its vast overseas empire which remained intact until the 19th century.

Controversy over succession to the throne consumed the first years of the 18th century. The War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) , a wide ranging international conflict combined with a civil war, cost Spain its European possessions and its position as one of the leading powers on the Continent (although it retained its overseas territories).[31]

During this war, a new dynasty—the French Bourbons—was installed. Long united only by the Crown, a true Spanish state was established when the first Bourbon king Philip V of Spain united Castile and Aragon into a single state, abolishing many of the regional privileges (fueros).[32]

The 18th century saw a gradual recovery and some increase in prosperity through much of the empire. The new Bourbon monarchy drew on the French system of modernising the administration and the economy. Enlightenment ideas began to gain ground among some of the kingdom's elite and monarchy. Towards the end of the century trade finally began growing strongly. Military assistance for the rebellious British colonies in the American War of Independence improved Spain's international standing.[33]

Napoleonic rule and its consequences

In 1793, Spain went to war against the new French Republic, which had overthrown and executed its Bourbon king, Louis XVI. The war polarised the country in an apparent reaction against the gallicised elites. Defeated in the field, Spain made peace with France in 1795 and effectively became a client state of that country; the following year, it declared war against Britain and Portugal. A disastrous economic situation, along with other factors, led to the abdication of the Spanish king in favour of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.



The Second of May, 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes, by Francisco de Goya (1814).This new foreign monarch was regarded with scorn. On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid began a nationalist uprising against the French army, marking the beginning of what is known to the Spanish as the War of Independence, and to the English as the Peninsular War. Napoleon was forced to intervene personally, defeating several badly-coordinated Spanish armies and forcing a British Army to retreat to Corunna. However, further military action by Spanish guerrillas and Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese army, combined with Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, led to the ousting of the French from Spain in 1814, and the return of King Ferdinand VII.

The French invasion proved disastrous for Spain's economy, and left a deeply divided country that was prone to political instability for more than a century. The power struggles of the early 19th century led to the loss of all of Spain's colonies in Latin America, with the exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Further information: Mid-nineteenth century Spain

Spanish-American War

Main article: Spanish–American War

Amid the instability and economic crisis that afflicted Spain in the 19th century there arose nationalist movements in the Philippines and Cuba. Wars of independence ensued in those colonies and eventually the United States became involved. Although Spanish military units won respect from American soldiers they fought, for their bravery and skill, the Spanish-American war of 1898 was so badly mismanaged by the highest levels of command and government that it was soon over. "El Desastre", as the war became known in Spain, helped give impetus to the Generation of 98 who were already conducting much critical analysis concerning the country. It also weakened the stability that had been established during Alfonso XII's reign.

The Twentieth Century

The 20th century brought little peace; Spain played a minor part in the scramble for Africa, with the colonisation of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. The heavy losses suffered during the Rif war in Morocco helped to undermine the monarchy. A period of authoritarian rule under General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia and gave voting rights to women.



Guernica by Pablo Picasso, 1937The bitterly fought Spanish Civil War (1936-39) ensued. Three years later the Nationalist forces, led by General Francisco Franco, emerged victorious with the support of Germany and Italy. The Republican side was supported by the Soviet Union and Mexico, but it was not supported by the Western powers due to the British-led policy of Non-Intervention. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War; under Franco, Spain was neutral in the Second World War though sympathetic to the Axis.[34]

The only legal party under Franco's regime was the Falange española tradicionalista y de las JONS, formed in 1937; the party emphasised anti-Communism, Catholicism and nationalism. Nonetheless, since Franco's anti-democratic ideology was opposed to the idea of political parties, the new party was renamed officially a National Movement Movimiento Nacional in 1949.

After World War II, Spain was politically and economically isolated, and was kept out of the United Nations until 1955, when due to the Cold War it became strategically important for the U.S. to foment a military presence on the Iberian peninsula, next to the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar, in order to protect southern Europe. In the 1960s, Spain registered an unprecedented economic growth in what was called the Spanish miracle, which gradually transformed it into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector and a high degree of human development.

Upon the death of General Franco in November 1975, Prince Juan Carlos assumed the position of king and head of state. With the approval of the new Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the arrival of democracy, political autonomy were established. In the Basque Country, moderate Basque nationalism coexisted with a radical nationalism supportive of the terrorist group ETA.

On February 23, 1981, rebel elements among the security forces seized the Cortes and tried to impose a military-backed government. However, the great majority of the military forces remained loyal to King Juan Carlos, who used his personal authority and addressed the usurpers via national TV as commander in chief to put down the bloodless coup attempt.

In 1982, the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) came to power, which represented the return to power of a leftist party after 43 years. In 1986, Spain joined the European Community (which was to become the European Union). The PSOE was replaced by the PP after the latter won the 1996 General Elections; at that point the PSOE had served almost 14 consecutive years in office.

The Government of Spain has been involved in a long-running campaign against the terrorist organization ETA ("Basque Fatherland and Liberty") , founded in 1959 in opposition to Franco and dedicated to promoting Basque independence through violent means. They consider themselves a guerrilla organisation while they are listed as a terrorist organisation by both the European Union and the United States on their respective watchlists. The current nationalist-led Basque Autonomous government does not endorse ETA's nationalist violence, which has caused over 800 deaths in the past 40 years.