Spain travel
The following vacation reports on Spain were written by different people.Barcelona
Tenerife Summer Holiday
Spain is situated on the European continent. The word Spain comes from the antique Roman word that means Iberia namely Hispania. After France Spain is with its area of 504,030 km² the second biggest country in the European Union and Western Europe. It is located in the southwest on the Iberian Peninsula. The south and east of its mainland are delimited by the Mediterranean Sea. The west side borders on Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. France and Andorra are the neighbouring countries in the north.
The Balearic Islands situated in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands located in the Atlantic Ocean also belong to the Spanish territory as well as two self-governing cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. Spain has in total 46.661.950 inhabitants. That are 91 inhabitants per km² (status: January 2009).
Spanish is the only official language and is spoken nationwide. Some regional languages have been confirmed along with Spanish co-official. To these languages belong Basque (2%) Catalan (17%) and Galician (7%) and they are spoken in their particular regions. About 76% of Spanish people are Catholics, about 4% are members of another religious belief, and about 19% name themselves non-religious.
Spain has a constitutional monarchy but it is a democratic country that is ordered in the structure of a parliamentary government. Since the 22nd of November 1975 Juan Carlos I has been the head of state. The head of government and president is José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, elected on the 14th of March 2004.
The Spanish nation is governmentally assembled in a very autonomic and decentralized structure, which goes along with Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. Each autonomous community has its own governments, budgets, public administrations, resources and elected parliaments. That is the reason why for example education and health systems are governed regionally. Navarre and the Basque Country also control their own civic finances.
The country is very developed and has got the ninth biggest economy by nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Also the living standards are high. Spain is ranked on the 16th place in the Human Development Index (HDI). It is part of the European Union, the United Nations, NATO and also belongs toWTO and OECD.
The history of Spain is very long. Since ancient times the area of Spain was the focus to several external influences. Its location at the seaside made it interesting for many different conquerors. Contrary the country also made a huge impact on other regions and peoples. Mainly during its development to a worldwide empire Spain has left a heritage of more than 400 million people that speak Spanish as their mother tongue. Today with a total of 40 sites, Spain counts many UNESCO World Heritage Sites all over the world. So it has the second place after Italy in this ranking.
The first conquerors were the Romans that brought after a hard and long-lasting capture the Iberian Peninsula under their control and made it part of the Roman Empire. They called the country Hispania. Spain was also confronted with a Germanic leadership in the early Middle Ages but later it was occupied by Muslim invaders. In 1492, the same year Columbus arrived at America, the Christians repressed the Muslim rule and in the end they also liquidated its last relic in Granada. In the 16th and first part of the 17th century Spain became the most important world power and the leading kingdom of Europe. Nevertheless continued wars eventually caused a reduced status in the world.
In the early 19th century Spain was faced with chaos because of the French invasion. The Spanish empire was torn apart by different independence movements and brought the country political instability. After a disturbing civil war in the 20th century, an authoritarian government led the country first to stagnation but later to remarkable economic rise. In 1978 democracy was reconstructed formed by a constitutional parliamentary monarchy. Since that time Spain was undergoing a solid economic expansion as well as a cultural rebirth. It joined the European Union in 1986 and established the euro in 2002. The peseta as currency is no longer valid.
