Spain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Spain (disambiguation).
Espaa redirects here. For other uses, see Espaa (disambiguation).
Espanya redirects here. For the Barcelona Metro station, see Plaa d'Espanya
station.
Coordinates 40N 4W

Kingdom of Spain
Reino de Espaa (Spanish)[a][b]
Flag of Spain
Flag
Coat of arms of Spain
Coat of arms
Motto Plus Ultra (Latin)
Further Beyond
Anthem Marcha Real (Spanish)[2]
Royal March
MENU000
Location of Spain (dark green) in Europe (green & dark grey) in the European
Union (green)
Location of Spain (dark green)
in Europe (green & dark grey)
in the European Union (green)
Location of Spain
Capital
and largest city Madrid
4026'N 342'W
Official language
and national language Spanish[c]
Co-official languages
in bilingual autonomus
communities Catalan
Galician
Basque
Occitan
Ethnic groups (2015 regional historical nationalities such as Basques, Catalans and
Gallegos as specified in the 1978 Constitution of Spain)
89.9% Spanish,
10.1% others
Religion
68% Roman Catholic
27% Irreligious
2% other religion[4]
Demonym
Spanish Spaniard
Government Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
King
Felipe VI
Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy
Deputy Prime Minister
Soraya Sanz
President of the Senate
Po Garca-Escudero
President of the Congress of Deputies
Ana Pastor Julin
President of the Supreme Court
Carlos Lesmes Serrano
Legislature Cortes Generales
Upper house
Senate
Lower house
Congress of Deputies
Formation
Dynastic
20 January 1479
De facto
23 January 1516
De jure
9 June 1715
First constitution
19 March 1812
Current democracy
29 December 1978
EEC accession[d]
1 January 1986
Area
Total
505,990[5] km2 (195,360 sq mi) (51st)
Water (%)
1.04
Population
2016 census
46,468,102 Increase[e] (30th)
Density
92km2 (238.3sq mi) (112nd)
GDP (PPP) 2017 estimate
Total
$1.769 trillion[7] (16th)
Per capita
$38,239[7] (31st)
GDP (nominal) 2017 estimate
Total
$1.232 trillion[7] (12nd)
Per capita
$26,643[7] (30th)
Gini (2016) 34.5[8]
medium
HDI (2015) Increase 0.884[9]
very high 27th
Currency Euro[f] () (EUR)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
WET (UTC)
Summer (DST)
CEST (UTC+2)
WEST (UTC+1)
Note Spain observes CETCEST, except the Canary Islands which observe WETWEST
Date format ddmmyyyy (CE)
Drives on the right
Calling code +34
ISO 3166 code ES
Internet TLD .es[g]
Spain (Spanish Espaa [es'pa?a] (About this sound listen)), officially the Kingdom
of Spain (Spanish Reino de Espaa),[a][b] is a sovereign state located on the
Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, with two large archipelagoes, the
Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands off the North
African Atlantic coast, two cities, Ceuta and Melilla, in the North African
mainland and several small islands in the Alboran Sea near the Moroccan coast. The
country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea
except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by
France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal
and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only European country to have a border with an
African country (Morocco)[h] and its African territory accounts for nearly 5% of
its population, mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla.

With an area of 505,990 km2 (195,360 sq mi), Spain is the largest country in
Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European
Union, and the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population,
Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spain's
capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona,
Valencia, Seville, Bilbao and Mlaga.

Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago.
Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements
developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after
which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Span or
Spania.[10] In the early Middle Ages, the Iberian Peninsula was granted to the
Visigoths by Rome under the condition that the other germanic tribes would be
exiled. Then after the Roman Empire fell the Visigoths forged their own kingdom.
After the Visigothic kingdom fell, the Iberian Peninsula was taken by the Moors
except in the north where shortly after started a process known as Reconquista.[11]
Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs,
who completed the eight centuries-long Reconquista in 1492. In the early modern
period, Spain became one of history's first global empires, leaving a vast cultural
and linguistic legacy that includes over 500 million Spanish speakers, making
Spanish the world's second most spoken first language, after Mandarin Chinese.

Spain is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy[12] headed by King

Felipe VI, who ascended in 2013. It is a middle power and a major developed
country[13] with the world's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and
sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations
(UN), the European Union (EU), the Eurozone, the Council of Europe (CoE), the
Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the
Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and many other international
organisations. Spain has a permanent invitation to the G20 summits that occur
generally once a year.

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistory and pre-Roman peoples
2.2 Roman Empire and the Gothic Kingdom
2.3 Middle Ages Muslim era and Reconquista
2.4 Imperial Spain
2.5 Liberalism, Labour movement and nation state
2.6 Spanish Civil War, Franco era and fascism
2.7 Restoration of democracy
2.8 Catalan constitutional crisis
3 Geography
3.1 Islands
3.2 Mountains and rivers
3.3 Climate
3.4 Fauna and flora
4 Politics
4.1 Government
4.2 Human rights
4.3 Administrative divisions
4.3.1 Autonomous communities
4.3.2 Provinces and municipalities
4.4 Foreign relations
4.5 Military
5 Economy
5.1 Agriculture
5.2 Tourism
5.3 Energy
5.4 Transport
5.5 Science and technology
5.6 Water supply and sanitation
6 Demographics
6.1 Urbanisation
6.2 Peoples
6.3 Minority groups
6.4 Immigration
6.5 Languages
6.6 Education
6.7 Health
6.8 Religion
7 Culture
7.1 World Heritage Sites
7.2 Literature
7.3 Art
7.4 Sculpture
7.5 Cinema
7.6 Architecture
7.7 Music and dance
7.8 Cuisine
7.9 Sport
7.10 Public holidays and festivals
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Etymology
The origins of the Roman name Hispania, from which the modern name Espaa was
derived, are uncertain due to inadequate evidence, although it is documented that
the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as Spania, therefore the
most widely accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one.[10][14] Down the
centuries there have been a number of accounts and hypotheses

Lady of Elche
The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania evolved
from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning city of the western world.

Jess Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term span is the Phoenician word
spy, meaning to forge metals. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals
are forged.[15] It may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning island
of rabbits, land of rabbits 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 rabbit at her feet,[16] and Strabo called it the land of the
rabbits.[17]

Hispania may derive from the poetic use of the term Hesperia, reflecting the Greek
perception of Italy as a western land or land of the setting sun (Hesperia, ?spe??a
in Greek) and Spain, being still further west, as Hesperia ultima.[18]

There is the claim that Hispania derives from the Basque word Ezpanna meaning edge
or border, another reference to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula constitutes the
southwest corner of the European continent.[18]

Two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn
Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two
different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship
by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to
Jerusalem. Phiros was a Grecian by birth, but who had been given a kingdom in
Spain. Phiros became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, who
also ruled over a kingdom in Spain. Heracles later renounced his throne in
preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from
whom the country of Espaa (Spain) took its name. Based upon their testimonies,
this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c. 350 BCE.[19]

History
Main article History of Spain

Reproduction of Altamira Cave paintings,[20] in Cantabria.

Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques
and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded
Western Europe's most ancient cities Cadiz and Malaga. Phoenician influence
expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian
Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman
Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule.
During the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was
conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process that took centuries,
the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the
peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the
Americas. A global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in
Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas
empire for three centuries.

Continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. The
Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that
tore apart most of the empire and left the country politically unstable. Prior to
the Second World War, Spain suffered a devastating civil war and came under the
rule of an authoritarian government, which oversaw a period of stagnation that was
followed by a surge in the growth of the economy. Eventually democracy was
peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain
joined the European Union, experiencing a cultural renaissance and steady economic
growth until the beginning of the 21st century, that started a new globalized world
with economic and ecological challenges.