A map of HĬSPANĬA
Origin of "España"
Madrid in a map
Other information
The spanish national coat of arms with the motto "Plus ultra"
The word "España" comes from the word “HĬSPANĬA”. This term was used by the Romans to refer geographically to the Iberian Peninsula. However, the word “HĬSPANĬA” doesn’t come from Latin. Actually, it comes from Phoenician.
The Romans gave HĬSPANĬA the meaning of “Territories full of rabbits” (i= Coast/Island/territory; spn= Rabbit/ an animal similar to a rabbit; ya= region)
Changing ĬA to ña; losing the initial h and converting the first Ĭ to e, the word “HĬSPANĬA” transformed to “España”
- • Its capital city is Madrid
- • Its motto is Plus Ultra which means far away.
- • Its gentilic is “español/a”
Congress of Deputies
Power division
The Head of State of Spain is the king. He controls the correct work of all the institutions and he represents Spain in international relationships, but he has no executive, legislative, or judicial power.
In Spain, the executive power (the domestic and foreign policy and the civil and military administration) is exercised by the Spanish Government. The Spanish Government is formed by the Cabinet of Spain or Council of Ministers which is led by the Prime Minister, which designs his misters and has the function of Head of Government in a parliamentary system. He is responsible before the Cortes. The president is elected by a democratic process.
The legislative power is exerced by the Cortes Generales, a bicameral parliamentary institution, which is the supreme institution of representation of the Spanish people. It is comprised by a lower camera, the Congress of Deputies and an upper camera, the Senate, which is the camera of territorial representation. Seats in both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate are elected by democratic process and also designed by parliaments of the autonomous communities.
The judicial power of Spain is formed by all the tribunals of Spain, which comprises judges and magistrates that can administrate justice in the name of the King. The most important institutions of the judicial power are the Audiencia Nacional and the Tribunal Supremo.
Territorial organization
Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities and 50 provinces.
Provincies Autonomous communities
Andalucía
Aragón
Asturias
Baleares
Canarias
Cantabria
Castilla-La Mancha
Castilla y León
Cataluña
Comunidad Valenciana
Extremadura
Galicia
Madrid
Murcia
Navarra
País Vasco
La Rioja
C.A. Ceuta
C. A. Melilla
Spain divided into provinces
Leon
Lleida
Lugo
Madrid
Malaga
Murcia
Navarra
Ourense
Palencia
Las Palmas
Pontevedra
La Rioja
Salamanca
Segovia
Sevilla
Soria
Tarragona
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Teruel
Toledo
Valencia
Valladolid
Vizcaya
Zamora
Zaragoza
Alava
Albacete
Alicante
Almería
Asturias
Avila
Badajoz
Barcelona
Burgos
Caceres
Cadiz
Cantabria
Castellon
Ciudad Real
Cordoba
A Coruña
Cuenca
Girona
Granada
Guadalajara
Guipuzcoa
Huelva
Huesca
Illes Balears
Jaen
Languages
OFFICIAL ONES:
- Spanish: Spoken in the whole territory.
Other languages also are spoken, which can be official in their regions if so is established by their estatutes of autonomy.
CO-OFFICIAL ONES:
- Catalan: co-official in Catalonia, the Balears Islands and the Valentian Community, and also in the eastern Aragon.
- Galician: co-official in Galicia.
- Basque: co-official in the Basque Country.
There are also some other co-official languages such as Occitan, Astur-Leonese, Aragonese and Fala.
Map showing the places where the different languages are spoken
Localization
Spain is located to the south of France, to the north of Morocco and to the east of Portugal. It is situated in Western-Europe.
Spain in a map of Europe
Geography
La Pinta, La niña and La Sant María
Spain´s history
escudo
The Spanish empire
The shooting of the 3rd of May
Spain has two of the most important places for the prehistory in Europe and in the world in general: The Atapuerca Range in Burgos (where lots of remains of the Homo Antecessor and Homo Heidelbergensis having been found) and the Altamira Caves in Cantabria (in which Palaeolithic art was first observed). Also we can find Prehistoric art pieces in eastern-Spain (which is called Levantine art). It is believed that the first humans inhabited the Iberian Peninsula 1200000 years ago. During the next millenniums the current Spain was the place of settlements of several peoples: the Iberians, Celts, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks. Approximately in the year 200 A.D., the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by the Roman Empire. In the year 476 A.D., the Western Roman Empire fell and the Visigoths, a tribe from Asia, founded in the Iberian Peninsula the Visigoth Kingdom of Toledo. In the year 711 the Islamic Empire conquers the Iberian Peninsula and they name it Al-Andalus. Al-Andalus went through different types of states: (the Dependent Emirate, the Caliphate of Cordoba, the Taifas...). During Al-Andalus, Visigoth nobles retired to the north of Spain. They started a process called the Reconquest in which they conquered the Muslim territories in the name of Christianity. In the year 1212, after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, the only Muslim territory remaining in the Iberian Peninsula was the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada which was conquered in the year 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs, kings of the two most important Christian states in the Iberian Peninsula, Aragon and Castile. Also in the year 1492, the Catholic Monarchs financed the project of Christopher Columbus, thus discovering America and a lot o territories and money. The discovery of America, its conquest and more factors created the Spanish Empire, the biggest empire in the history. The Spanish Empire was ruled by the Habsburg until the year 1700 in which, after the War of Spanish Succession, the Bourbon dynasty took power. The Spanish Empire weakened step and step (in the XIX century it wasn´t even important). France invaded Spain in 1808 (with general Napoleon Bonaparte). In that year, The War of Spanish independence against the French took place (Spain got independent at the end). IN 1814, a lot of territories in America got independent from Spain. In 1873 and 1874 the first Republic appeared in Spain. In 1898 (“el desastre del 98”) the Spanish-American war took place, and Spain lost all his territories in America. In 1931 the second Republic was proclaimed, although it finished in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which the Nationalist faction (led by Francisco Franco. During the Second World War, Spain remained neutral, just like in the First. After Franco´s death, the Monarchy was proclaimed again with King Juan Carlos I, which signed the Constitution of 1978, making Spain a constitutional parliamentary democratic monarchy, which is our current system
Mountains: Spain's relieve is characterised for being quite high, with an average altitude of 660 meters, and mountainous, if we compare it to the rest of countries in Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, Austria, Andorra and Liechstein.
The great Meseta Central occupies the largest part of the center of the Iberian Peninsula and has an altitude of 660 meters.
The principal mountain ranges are: the Pyrenees, the Iberian System, the Cantabric Mountains, the Mounts of Leon, the Central System and the Betic Mountains.
Spanish Peaks with biggest altitude:
1.- Teide (3718)
2.- Mulhacén (3478)
3.- Aneto (3404)
4.- Veleta (3392)
5.- Posets (3375)
6.- La Alcazaba (3366)
7.- Monte Perdido (3355)
The story of the currency
Las Médulas, León
Euro
The history of the money in Spain started with the Romanization when the Roman currency (the denarius). In Al-Andalus, the coin used was the Muslim coin. During the Reconquest, there were several types of currency, each kingdom had its own coin. During the Catholic Monarchs rule, the official coin was the maravedís, reales, excelentes... The type of coin that was maintained more time in Spain was the escudo. There were difference types of coins in the Spain until the IX and XX century. In 1868 the peseta was approved and it was maintained as official currency of Spain until 1999, year in which the Euro, common coin for most of the countries in the European Union, was introduced in Spain.
duro
Spain has a total population of 47129783 inhabitants.This are the different provinces of Spain with their population. They are ordered from the most populated to the less one.
May:
• Labor Day: Thursday, May 1, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• San Isidro: Thursday, May 15, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• Canary Day: Friday, May 30, 2014 (Regional holiday)
June:
• Day of the Region of Murcia: Monday, June 9, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• Feast of Corpus Christi (Corpus Christi): Thursday, June 19, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• San Juan: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 (Regional holiday)
July:
• St. James: Friday, July 25, 2014 (Regional holiday)
August:
• Assumption: Friday, August 15, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
September:
• Day of Asturias: Monday, September 8, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• National Day of Catalonia: Thursday, September 11, 2014 (Regional holiday)
October:
• Day of the Valencia Community: Thursday, October 9, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• National Day of Spain: Sunday, October 12, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
November:
• All Saints' Day: Saturday, November 1, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• Virgen de la Almudena: Sunday, November 9, 2014 (Regional holiday)
December:
• Constitution Day: Saturday, December 6, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• the Immaculate: Monday, December 8, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• Christmas: Thursday, December 25, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
Official holidays
Population
This are the spanish holidays and the day of the year in which they will take place in 2014
February:
• Day of Andalucía: Friday, February 28, 2014 (regional holiday)
March:
• San Jose: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 (Regional holiday)
April:
• Holy Thursday: Thursday, April 17, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• Holy Friday: Friday, April 18, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• Easter Sunday: Sunday, April 20, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• Easter Monday: Monday, April 21, 2014 (Regional holiday)
• San Jorge: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (Regional holiday)
January:
• New Year: Wednesday, January 1, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
• Epiphany: Monday, January 6, 2014 (official holiday in Spain)
Madrid 6.489.680
Barcelona 5.529.099
Valencia 2.578.719
Alicante 1.934.127
Sevilla 1.928.962
Málaga 1.625.827
Murcia 1.470.069
Cádiz 1.243.519
Vizcaya 1.155.772
La Coruña 1.147.124
Islas Baleares 1.113.114
Las Palmas 1.096.980
Asturias 1.081.487
Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1.029.789
Zaragoza 973.325
Pontevedra 963.511
Granada 924.550
Tarragona 811.401
Córdoba 805.857
Gerona 756.810
Guipúzcoa 709.607
Toledo 707.242
Almería 702.819
Badajoz 693.921
Jaén 670.600
Navarra 642.051
Castellón 604.344
Cantabria 593.121
Valladolid 534.874
Ciudad Real 530.175
León 529.799
Huelva 521.968
Lérida 442.308
Cáceres 415.446
Albacete 402.318
Burgos 375.657
Salamanca 352.986
Lugo 351.350
Orense 333.257
La Rioja 322.955
Álava 319.227
Guadalajara 256.461
Huesca 228.361
Cuenca 219.138
Zamora 191.612
Ávila 172.704
Palencia 171.668
Segovia 164.169
Teruel 144.607
Soria 95.223
Ceuta 82.376
Melilla 78.476
SPAIN
Map showing the most populated areas
Spain currently
Spain has a square surface of 504 645 km², with a 1, 04 % of water. It is the 52th biggest country in the world and the 3rd biggest country in Europe (without counting Russia)
Spain is divided in 17 autonomous communities and 52 provinces
SURFACE
The End