History: The first settlers on the Peninsula were the Celts and the Iberians. It is said that Hispania (the name the Romans used to describe the Peninsula) is a word of Semitic origin from Hispalis (Seville).In the 15th century, during the reign of the Catholic King and Queen and under their auspice, Columbus discovered the New Continent (America), new boundary of what would be the largest Western empire. The 16th century represents the zenith of Spanish hegemony in the world, a process that would last until the middle of the 17th century.
The Courts of Cadiz thereby enacted one of the first Constitutions of the world which ratified that sovereignty would reside in the nation. The conflict between liberalists and absolutists, or in other words, between two different ways of perceiving the establishment of the state, would be one of the longest Spanish conflicts throughout the 19th century.
Despite the interruption of the First World War in which Spain remained neutral and following the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the monarchical crisis returns, resulting in the exile of King Alfonso XIII. The ballot box is introduced into Spain and with it the first democratic experience of the 20th century: the second Republic, a brief attempt to introduce the reformations the country needed, frustrated by General Franco's military rising and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936. The military victory of General Franco gave way to a long dictatorial period that would last until 1975; it was an era characterised by an iron control of interior politics and isolation from the international environment, which did not however prevent an incipient economic development in the sixties. Following the death of General Franco, the Spanish people peacefully made the transition from dictatorship to democracy in a process known as 'the Spanish model'. Don Juan Carlos I, as King of the Spanish people, became the chief of a social and democratic state of law, which moulded the Constitution of 1978.
Full Country Name: Kingdom of Spain
Surface Area: 504,784 squared km.
Capital: Madrid
Regions: Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities.
Time zone: GMT/UTC + 1 hour in winter or two in summer (from last Sunday of March to last Saturday of September)
Religion: 94% Catholic
Government: Parliamentary Monarchy
Electricity: 220V, 50 Hz.
Weights and measurements: Metric System.
Telephone dialing: From Spain: 00 + country code + city code + phone number.
Population: 40,448,191 (July 2007 est.)
Age Structure:
- 0-14 years: 14.4%
- 15-64 years: 67.8%
- 65 years and over: 17.8%
Median age:
- total: 40.3 years
- male: 39 years
- female: 41.7 years (2007 est.)
Sex ratio: total population: 0.956 male(s)/female (2007 est.)
Life expectancy:
- total population: 79.78 years
- male: 76.46 years
- female: 83.32 years (2007 est.)
Languages: Castilian Spanish (official) 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%, are official regionally
National holiday: National Day, 12 October (1492); year when Columbus first set foot in the Americas
Constitution: approved by legislature 31 October 1978; passed by referendum 6 December 1978, effective 29 December 1978
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Source: CIA The World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html
