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Spain
Nation, SW Europe. One of Europe's largest countries, it is located on the Iberian Peninsula; it also includes the Balearic and Canary islands. Area: 194,898 sq mi (504,783 sq km). Population (1997 est.): 39,323,000. Capital: Madrid. The people are predominantly Spanish, with a minority of Basques and Gypsies. Languages: Castilian Spanish (official), Catalan, Galician, and Basque. Religions: Roman Catholicism (95%), Islam. Currency: peseta. Spain's large central plateau is surrounded by the Ebro River valley, the mountainous Catalonia region, the Mediterranean coastal region of Valencia, the Guadalquivir River valley, and the mountainous region extending from the Pyrenees to the Atlantic coast. It has a developed market economy based on services, light and heavy industries, and agriculture. Mineral resources include iron ore, mercury, and coal; agricultural products include grains and livestock. Spain is one of the world's major producers of wine. Tourism is also a major industry. It is a constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses; its chief of state is the king, and the head of government is the prime minister. Remains of Stone Age populations dating back some 35,000 years have been found throughout Spain. Celtic peoples arrived in the 9th cent. BC, followed by the Romans, who dominated Spain from c.200 BC until the Visigoth invasion. In the early 8th cent. most of the peninsula fell to Muslims (Moors) from N. Africa, and remained under their control until it was gradually reconquered by the Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Spain was reunited in 1479 following the marriage of Ferdinand II (of Aragon) and Isabella (of Castile). The last Muslim kingdom, Granada, was reconquered in 1492, and around this time, Spain was also established as a colonial power in the Americas. In 1516 the throne passed to the Habsburgs, whose rule ended in 1700 when Philip V became the first Bourbon king of Spain. His ascendancy caused the War of the Spanish Succession, which resulted in the loss of numerous European possessions and sparked revolution within most of Spain's Amer. colonies. It lost its remaining overseas possessions to the U.S. in the Spanish-Amer. War (1898) (see Cuba, Guam, Philippines, Puerto Rico). Spain elected to become a republic in 1931. The Spanish Civil War followed in 1936, ending in 1939 with victory for the Nationalists under Gen. F. Franco. He became chief of state and remained in power until his death in 1975. His successor, Juan Carlos, became king and restored the monarchy; a new constitution in 1978 established a parliamentary monarchy. Spain joined the European Community in 1986. For the 1992 quincentennial of C. Columbus' first voyage from Spain to the Americas, it celebrated with a fair in Seville and the Olympic Games in Barcelona. In the 1990s it grew closer in its foreign relations with other European countries, but continued to suffer internally as Basque separatists pressed ...
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