The Undefeated Bilbao

Bilbao, located in the north of Spain, is the largest city in the Basque Country and the capital of the province of Biscay.

The city was founded in 1300 as a small village. During 1300 to 1600, the city experienced slow expansion, disruption and reconstruction. When the time of the Spanish Empire era came, the city finally became the most important commercial and financial hub along the north coastline in Spain.

The city has been the capital of the province of Biscay for over 400 years which started from the year of 1602. Then, the city was busy with accumulating its wealth especially through the discovery of the vast amount of iron resource in the nearby hills. Due to this iron mine discovery and the frequent commerce with England and Netherland, Bilbao successfully got through the Spanish economy recession. The next century saw a fast and constant growth of the city and by contrast the small size of the city land had become one of the constraints of the citys expansion.

In 19th century, the industrial revolution helped the city to achieve another peak in its history when the strong mining, steel and shipbuilding industry flourished in the city and brought a lot of wealth to the city. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Bilbao was the richest city throughout Spain, outstanding Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. In response, the highly developed economy gave birth to banking group Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and insurance companies.

The development of the city was not that smooth. From 1833 to 1876, the city was attacked by the Carlists who intended to claim to a throne during the Carlist Wars which were the last major European civil wars. However, thanks to the persistent defense by the regular Spanish army and local Liberal volunteers, Bilbao had never been occupied. It won the city the title of undefeated.

The next two decades saw the expansion of the city under the Alzola, Achcarro and Hoffmeyer "Ensanche" project by annexing the village such as Abando. As a result, the total area of the city was doubled.

During the Spanish Civil War, Bilbao supported the Republican Government against the Nationalist. The city tried best to defend via establishing a defending ring with hardened shelters and heavy artillery. However, the betrayal of the engineer Goicoechea who is the designer of this ring resulted in Bilbaos defeat. Then the city was under Franco's dictatorship during which a lot of immigrants flooding into the city because of the citys heavy industry.

In the 21st century, the city of Bilbao is under through unban renewal so as to abandon its old role of being a boring industrialized city and devote to its tourism industry and services to adapt to the new world. Whats more exciting is that the city is going to bid the title of World Design Capital in 2014.

Car hiring companies in Bilbao such as CarHire3000, EconomyCarHire, Opodo, Hertz, Holiday Autos, carhiremarket, Avis, ebookers, Expedia, Sixt, easyCar, Budget, arguscarhire.com and Netflights.com will make the most of your journey.

by: johnalbert21

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