Spain (Spanish: España), officially known as the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a Southern European country inhabited by more than 40 million people, home of the Conquistadores and the birthplace of the first language of over 400 million people (including its former empire in the Americas). Including the Canary Islands, it is the southernmost country in Europe. It is a member of NATO and The European Union.
The modern day Spanish trace their descent from many peoples, including but not limited to Celts, Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Visigoths, Suebians, Jews, and Muslimsnote and the modern nation-state was formed with the union of the Kingdom of Castille and the Kingdom of Aragon in 1469 by the marriage of their respective monarchs, Queen Isabella and King Fernando and the siege of Granada in 1492, which would complete the Reconquista and end 700 years of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. Through the discovery and later conquest of the Western Hemisphere that same year, an empire grew and soon became the one of the most powerful on the planet until its eventual decline over the course of the 1800s, culminating in a war with the United States at the very end of the century.note This, along with the failure of the conquest of Morocco and the feuds between political factions led to the last and bloodiest of five Civil Wars. The winner of the war, Francisco Franco, ruled the country as a dictator for no less than 36 years until his death in 1975note , after which the current Constitutional Monarchy was installed, first led by Juan Carlos I before Felipe VI took over after his abdication in 2014. Spain thus became one of the few examples in the modern day in which a monarchy is restored after being overthrown for quite some time, the other being Cambodia (although to be fair, the Spanish monarchy never actually renounced their rights for their country when the Republicans took over in 1931).
Spain is bordered by France and the tiny Andorra in the north-east, Portugal in the west, and the British territory of Gibraltar in the south. It is bathed by the Mediterranean Sea at its east, the North Atlantic Ocean at the west and north and the Straits of Gibraltar at the south, where the Mediterranean joins the Atlantic. Most of Spain is located in the Iberian Peninsula, but the country also has a few overseas territories, the biggest being the Canary Islands off the western coast of Africa, followed by the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which border Morocco.
Spain's Government consists of a Prime Minister (Presidente del Gobierno or president of the government) elected democratically by Parliament upon nomination by the King, who is the Head of the Cabinet (Consejo de Ministros or council of ministers). He resides in the Moncloa Palace, Madrid.
Geography
History of Spain
- Punic Wars
- Lusitanian Wars
- Celtiberian Wars
- Roman Hispania
- Visigothic Spain
- Moorish Spain
- Spanish Reconquista
- Battle of Clavijo
- The Kingdom of Spain
- Italian Wars
- The Spanish Inquisition
- Spanish Age of Discovery
- Spanish Conquest of America
- Habsburg Spain
- Ottoman-Habsburg Wars
- The Eighty Years' War
- The War of the Spanish Armada
- War of the Spanish Succession
- War of Jenkins' Ear
- Bourbon Spain
- Spanish-American War
- Spanish Civil War
- The Franco Regime
General Spain
- New Spanish Armada
- Culture of Spain - Politics and TV
- Spanish Language
- Spanish Media
- Spanish Naming Conventions
Tropes pertaining to Spain in fiction
- Toros y Flamenco, the stereotypical Spain.
- Spaghetti Western, film genre made in Italy but very often filmed in Spain as a stand-in for the American Southwest or Mexico.
- Spexico, ambiguously Spain (and Mexico).
Spain in non-Spanish media
- The Adventures of Christopher Columbus: Christopher Columbus convinces The Catholic Monarchs to fund the expedition that will (unwittingly) lead him to The Americas.
- Asterix in Spain takes place in Roman-dominated Hispania around 50 BC.
- Suske en Wiske: The album "De Stierentemmer" takes place in Spain.
- Ferdinand, adaptation of The Story of Ferdinand.
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus convinces The Catholic Monarchs to fund the expedition that will (unwittingly) lead him to The Americas.
- Assassin's Creed (2016) mostly takes place in Madrid in Present Day and in Seville and Granada in the 1491-1492 scenes. The present-day American protagonist explores the past through the eyes of his late 15th century Spanish ancestor via Genetic Memory.
- Barcelona
- Das Boot: The World War II German submarine U-96 secretly refuels and resupplies at the harbour of Vigo in Galicia thanks to a German merchant ship.
- Le Bossu: In 1701, the hero and his sidekick hide in Spain with the baby girl they saved from a certain death, plotting revenge for her father for over a decade before coming back to France. They first hide near a village in the Spanish Pyrenees, then in the household of a nobleman friend in Toledo.
- Carlota Joaquina, Princesa do Brasil: Brazilian film that revolves around the historical Spanish princess of the same name during her stay in Brazil. Spain itself is featured briefly at the start of the movie.
- Carry On Columbus, a comedic take on the story of Christopher Columbus including the involvement of The Catholic Monarchs.
- El Cid (1961)
- Daaaaaalí!, a French surrealist comedy around painter Salvador Dalí and taking place at his home in Portlligat, Cadaqués, Catalonia.
- Delusions of Grandeur, a comedic adaptation of Ruy Blas. Stars mostly French people as Spaniards, though both parents of main star Louis de Funès were Spanish (his father from Seville, his mother from Ortigueira).
- The Devil's Backbone by Guillermo del Toro is set during the Spanish Civil War.
- Elizabeth and its sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict King Philip II (inaccurately) and his Invincible Armada.
- Fast & Furious 6: The third act is set in Spain.
- Gladiator: Maximus Decimus Meridius, nicknamed "the Spaniard", is a Roman born in Hispania. His estate is in Turgalium (nowadays' Trujillo, Province of Cáceres), though the scenes set there were actually filmed in Tuscany, Italy.
- James Bond:
- For Your Eyes Only. The second prologue "near Madrid" which ends with the Citroën 2CV chase (which was actually filmed in Greece).
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Bond briefly goes to Spain, discussing with his future wife and father-in law at a bullfighting arena.
- The World Is Not Enough: The opening scene of the Action Prologue takes place in Bilbao, in the Basque Country.
- The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
- Lost in La Mancha, a documentary that chronicles the hopelessly troubled production of the above film's aborted first iteration.
- Mission: Impossible II: Ethan Hunt gets his orders from his mission commander, Swanbeck, in Seville.
- Mr. Arkadin
- Pan's Labyrinth is set a few years after the Civil War, in which the last vestiges of Republicans are being hunted down by Francisco Franco's regime.
- The Private Life of Don Juan
- The Spanish Apartment
- Suddenly, Last Summer
- Vantage Point is set entirely in Spain, but is less about Spain and more about what Americans think about Spain. It depicts the Spanish police as terribly inept compared to the mighty Yankees who could easily borrow/destroy/steal Spanish properties as if they're their own, and the Spaniards seem to treat the US president as their own (they don't).
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Le Bossu by Paul Féval: In 1699, the hero and the baby girl he protects hide in Spain with the baby girl he saves from a certain death, plotting revenge for her father for over a decade before coming back to France.
- Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. It presents an inaccurate version of Spain, and quite an insulting one at that. Namely, it presents Spain as being a Wretched Hive full of crimes and having an inadequate healthcare system. Spain has one of the best healthcare institutions in Europe (and indeed the world) and its living standards are very high too.
- Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell telling about his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by
- The Golden Bracelet: The protagonist is set to travel to Spain to marry the King of Spain.
- The Story of Ferdinand
- The Sun Also Rises
- The Brave: The sixth episode is set in Seville as the protagonists try to help a Russian defector and his daughter evade capture and find safe passage to America.
- Monty Python's Flying Circus: The sketch "The Spanish Inquisition" features the eponymous clergy body interrupting everything (and nobody expecting it).
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: Season 3 is largely set in a Zombie Apocalypse version of Spain, with episodes set in Madrid, Belchite (Aragon), Galicia, Catalonia and Valencia.
- Zorro (1957): While the stories largely take place in Spanish California, Don Diego de la Vega spent some time studying in Spain before coming back to the pueblo of Los Angeles.
- Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis.
- The Barber of Seville by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.
- Carmen by Georges Bizet.
- Le Cid by Pierre Corneille, loosely based off the life of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar.
- Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo. A tragedy set in late 17th century Spain.
- Age of Empires: Spain appears in both Age of Empires II: The Conquerors and Age of Empires III as a playable civilization.
- Civilization II: The Spanish are a recurring civilization throughout the series, but debuted in this game. Much of their historical depiction is based on the Spanish conquest of The Americas, as their unique unit is the Conquistador. The leaders representing the Spanish are Queen Isabella and King Philip II.
- Cossacks: European Wars has Spain as a playable civilization (but sadly no campaign with it, only as enemies in the campaigns of the French crown, the English pirates in the Caribbean and the Algerian pirates in the Mediterranean Sea).
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Paldea is based on the Iberian Peninsula, but mostly on Spain.
- Resident Evil 4 takes place in Spain, though Capcom keep denying it is Spain and saying that it is a Castilian speaking country of Europe that is not Spain, even though the in-game map places the village in the center of the Iberian Peninsula next to Madrid and the currency in the game is the Peseta, the former currency of Spain before it switched to the Euro. The Ganados all speak Spanish with a Mexican accent and Luis Sera also speaks English with a Mexican accent despite being a former cop from Madrid.
- The Looney Tunes cartoon Bully for Bugs
The Spanish Flag
Coat of arms of Spain
, a pair of promontories guarding the Strait of Gibraltar, surrounded by ribbons which read "Plus Ultra" ("Further Beyond" in Latin) and topped by the crowns of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Kingdom, the former alluding to Emperor Charles V, also titled King Charles I of Spain, under whose reign Spain expanded its territories to South America and the Philippines.
Spanish national anthem
Government
- Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
- Monarch: Felipe VI
- Prime Minister (President of the Government): Pedro Sánchez
- President of the Senate: Pedro Rollán
- President of the Congress of Deputies: Francina Armengol
- President of the Supreme Court: Isabel Perelló
Miscellaneous
- Capital and largest city: Madrid
- Population: 47,450,795
- Area: 505,990 sq km (195,360 sq mi) (51st)
- Currency: Euro (€) (EUR)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: ES
- Country calling code: 34
- Highest point: Teide (3715 m/12,188 ft) (46th)
- Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean (3,646 m/11,962 ft) (-) and Mediterranean Sea (5,267 m/17,280 ft) (-)
