![]() ![]() Since the Siglo de Oro, the Spanish art, architecture, music, poetry, painting, literature, and cuisine have been influential worldwide, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas. With the restoration of democracy under the Constitution of Spain and its entry into the European Union, the country experienced an economic boom that profoundly transformed it socially and politically. Political instability reached its peak in the 20th century with the Spanish Civil War, giving rise to the Francoist dictatorship that lasted until 1975. In the 19th century, despite the victory in the Peninsular War, the following political divisions between liberals and absolutists eventually led to the independence of most of its American colonies. The empire's need for financing and the transatlantic trade underpinned the rise of a global trading system fueled primarily by precious metals, and the reforms of the Bourbon in the 18th century centralized mainland Spain. The leading country of the Age of Discovery, Spain began the conquest of the New World in 1492, made the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522, and eventually the Spanish Empire spread to all continents, becoming the first empire, in conjunction with the portuguese, to achieve a global scale and one of the largest empires in history. The Crown of Spain, through the Spanish Inquisition, forced the Jewish and Muslim minorities to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, before most of the converts were also expelled through various royal decrees. The dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479, often considered the formation of Spain as a country, was followed by the conquest of Navarre and the Iberian Union with Portugal. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them Asturias, León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Portugal made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as the Reconquista, repelling Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centred in Córdoba. The fall of the Western Roman Empire ushered in the inward migration of tribes from Central and Northern Europe, including the Visigoths, who formed the Visigothic Kingdom centred on Toledo. With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the province of Hispania and the population Romanized. ![]() In early antiquity, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by a mixture of Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other local pre-Roman peoples. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Bilbao. It is the largest country in Southern Europe and the second-largest and fourth-most populous in the European Union. The country's mainland is bordered to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. The largest part of Spain is situated on the Iberian Peninsula its territory also includes the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla in Africa. Spain (Spanish: España, ( listen)), or the Kingdom of Spain ( Reino de España), is a country located in Southwestern Europe, with parts of its territory in the Atlantic Ocean and across the Mediterranean Sea. Note: most of Spain observes CET/CEST, except the Canary Islands which observe WET/WEST. ![]()
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