Spain and Spain's history

Spain (Spanish: España ), 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 colony 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.

History

Spain, originally inhabited by Celts, Iberians, and Basques, became

a part of the Roman Empire in 206 B.C., when it was conquered by
Scipio Africanus. In A.D. 412, the barbarian Visigothic leader Ataulf
crossed the Pyrenees and ruled Spain, first in the name of the
Roman emperor and then independently. In 711, the Muslims under
Tariq entered Spain from Africa and within a few years completed
the subjugation of the country. In 732, the Franks, led by Charles
Martel, defeated the Muslims near Poitiers, thus preventing the
further expansion of Islam in southern Europe. Internal dissension of
Spanish Islam invited a steady Christian conquest from the north.

Aragon and Castile were the most important Spanish states from the
12th to the 15th century, consolidated by the marriage of Ferdinand
II and Isabella I in 1469. In 1478, they established the Inquisition, to
root out heresy and uncover Jews and Muslims who had not
sincerely converted to Christianity. Torquemada, the most notorious
of the grand inquisitors, epitomized the Inquisition's harshness and
cruelty. The last Muslim stronghold, Granada, was captured in 1492.
Roman Catholicism was established as the official state religion and
most Jews (1492) and Muslims (1502) were expelled. In the era of
exploration, discovery, and colonization, Spain amassed tremendous
wealth and a vast colonial empire through the conquest of Mexico
by Cortés (1519–1521) and Peru by Pizarro (1532–1533). The
Spanish Hapsburg monarchy became for a time the most powerful in
the world. In 1588, Philip II sent his invincible Armada to invade
England, but its destruction cost Spain its supremacy on the seas
and paved the way for England's colonization of America. Spain then
sank rapidly to the status of a second-rate power under the rule of
weak Hapsburg kings, and it never again played a major role in
European politics. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)
resulted in Spain's loss of Belgium, Luxembourg, Milan, Sardinia,
and Naples. Its colonial empire in the Americas and the Philippines
vanished in wars and revolutions during the 18th and 19th
centuries.

In World War I, Spain maintained a position of neutrality. In 1923,

Gen. Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator. In 1930, King Alfonso
XIII revoked the dictatorship, but a strong antimonarchist and
republican movement led to his leaving Spain in 1931. The new
constitution declared Spain a workers' republic, broke up the large
estates, separated church and state, and secularized the schools.
The elections held in 1936 returned a strong Popular Front majority,
with Manuel Azaña as president.

On July 18, 1936, a conservative army officer in Morocco, Francisco

Franco Bahamonde, led a mutiny against the government. The civil
war that followed lasted three years and cost the lives of nearly a
million people. Franco was aided by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany,
while Soviet Russia helped the Loyalist side. Several hundred leftist
Americans served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade on the side of the
republic. The war ended when Franco took Madrid on March 28,
1939. Franco became head of the state, national chief of the
Falange Party (the governing party), and prime minister and caudillo
(leader).

In a referendum in 1947, the Spanish people approved a Franco-

drafted succession law declaring Spain a monarchy again. Franco,
however, continued as chief of state. In 1969, Franco and the Cortes
(“states”) designated Prince Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor María de
Borbón (who married Princess Sophia of Greece in 1962) to become
king of Spain when the provisional government headed by Franco
came to an end. Franco died on Nov. 20, 1975, and Juan Carlos was
proclaimed king on Nov. 22.
Under pressure from Catalonian and Basque nationalists, Prime
Minister Adolfo Suárez granted home rule to these regions in 1979.
Basque separatists committed hundreds of terrorist bombings and
kidnappings. With the overwhelming election of Prime Minister
Felipe González Márquez and his Spanish Socialist Workers Party in
the Oct. 20, 1982, parliamentary elections, the Franco past was
finally buried.

Spain entered NATO in 1982. Spain, along with Portugal, joined the
European Economic Community, now the European Union, in 1986.
General elections in March 1996 produced a victory for the
conservative Popular Party, and its leader, José María Aznar, became
prime minister. He and his party easily won reelection in 2000.

In Aug. 2002, Batasuna, the political wing of the Basque terrorist

organization ETA, was banned. The wisdom of driving the party
underground instead of permitting it a legitimate political outlet has
been questioned.

Aznar's backing of the U.S. war in Iraq was highly unpopular—90%

of Spaniards opposed the war. (Spain sent no troops to Iraq during
the war but contributed 1,300 peacekeeping forces during the
reconstruction period.) Yet Aznar's Popular Party did extremely well
in municipal elections in May 2003. The country's relative prosperity
and the prime minister's tough stance against the ETA were thought
to be responsible for the strong showing.

On March 11, 2004, Spain suffered its most horrific terrorist attack:
191 people were killed and 1,400 were injured in bombings at
Madrid's railway station. The government at first blamed ETA, but
soon evidence emerged that al-Qaeda was responsible. When record
numbers of voters went to the polls days later, Aznar's Popular Party
experienced a stinging defeat, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of
the Socialist Party became the new prime minister. Many Spaniards
blamed Aznar's staunch support of the U.S. and the war in Iraq for
making Spain an al-Qaeda target. Others were angered by what
they saw as the government's politically motivated position that ETA
was to blame for the attacks at the same time that links to al-Qaeda
were emerging. By April, a dozen suspects, most of them Moroccan,
were arrested for the bombings. On April 4, several suspects blew
themselves up during a police raid to avoid capture. In May, the new
prime minister made good on his campaign promise, recalling
Spain's 1,300 soldiers from Iraq, much to the displeasure of the
United States, which said Spain was appeasing terrorists.

In June 2005, despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church,

Spain legalized gay marriage. (Three other countries permit same-
sex marriage: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Canada.)

After four decades of violence, the militant Basque separatist group

ETA, responsible for more than 800 deaths and for terrorizing
Spanish society with its bombings and other attacks, announced a
permanent cease-fire on March 24, 2006. In June 2007, however,
ETA renounced the cease-fire and vowed to begin a new offensive.

In a June 2006 referendum, the region of Catalonia voted for greater

autonomy from Spain.

This country got 10th positioned in world and got name

“COUNTRIES AS BRAND”.