Spain: Still Is The Subject Of Many External Influences
Spain, is a country in Southeastern Europe and the West which occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula
. The country has 46 million inhabitants, making it the 29th country in the world in terms of population. Second oldest European colonial power after Portugal, the country has enriched the fifteenth century to the sixteenth century, but declined with the loss of its colonies throughout the nineteenth century.
Spain is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east, with the exception of the British territory of Gibraltar and the Strait of the same name which separates the continent of Africa. To the north, the Pyrenees form a natural border with France, Andorra and the Bay of Biscay. Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean bordering the west and northwest. 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, bordering Morocco. With an area of 504,030 km, Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France.
Because of its location, Spain has been the subject of many external influences, often simultaneously, since prehistoric times until the birth of Spain as a country. Conversely, the country itself has been an important source of inspiration to other regions, mainly in the modern era, when it became a colonial empire that has left a legacy of more than 400 million speakers to date .
Spain is a democracy formed a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the ninth largest world economy by nominal GDP (twelfth to purchasing power parity), and a high standard of living (15th in the HDI ranking in 2007). It is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, Latin Union, NATO, OECD and WTO.
The indigenous peoples of the Iberian peninsula were called Iberians. But Celtic populations, called Celtiberian, then there will be aggregated. From the ninth century BC. BC, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians settled counters on the Mediterranean coast.
The Romans conquered the peninsula in the second century BC. AD The main language, religion and laws are derived largely from the Roman period.
In the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Germanic barbarians, the Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths invaded Spain. The Vandals, temporarily installed in the south of the peninsula passed quickly in Tunisia, and the Visigoths imposed their law until the Muslim conquest.
Arab-Berbers led by Tariq ibn Ziyad conquered the country in 711. In 756, Muslim Spain became independent, under the reign of the Umayyads of Cordoba. In 929, the country turns into a caliphate. In the eleventh century, the caliphate collapses and fragments into micro-states, Taifa .
Christians, refugees in the north within the Kingdom of Asturias, took advantage of this weakening Muslim and began the Reconquista - movement to expel the Muslims - which ended in 1492 with the elimination of the last Muslim stronghold, the Kingdom of Granada in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. At the end of that year 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered, or rediscovered, America. The unification of Spain today formally took shape in 1512. At the same time, the Conquistadors took possession for Spain a vast colonial empire.
Caught in the religious exaltation of the Reconquista, the Spanish rulers decided in 1492 to compel the Jews of Spain to choose between conversion and exile. Most of them have found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Muslims remained in Spain after the Reconquista, or Moors, will be forcibly converted early in the fifteenth century, and will eventually expelled in 1609. In 1801, Spain seized the district Olivenza south of Badajoz, territory still claimed by Portugal and the subject of contention between the two countries.
In the sixteenth century, the Hapsburg Empire, of which Spain was a key element becomes the first European power. Indeed, in addition to its European possessions a colonial empire after the discovery of the New World. The Spanish empire stretches from 1516 to 1898 and is one of the greatest empires that Europe has ever known, and one of the first global empires. This is due to possession by Spain, Europe, territories Aragon in the Mediterranean (including a large part of Italy today), and most of present-day Germany and Franche-Comte d ' much of South America, Central America and North America today, and the Philippines. For over a century, Spain was the first European power.
However, the power of Spain declined gradually because of costly wars and revolts that led to burst, and also because it tended to fall asleep on the riches from the New World gold and easily extracted South American mines, which then gave him an artificial prosperity and unrelated to the real economy. This decline was also due to a reversal of wealth used to educate and convert to Catholicism, the indigenous peoples of colonized territories, where the Catholic majority now in South America.
by: Laura Steinfield
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