Spain is located on the Iberian peninsula, of which it occupies 80% (the remaining 20% being Portugal), in the southwest of Europe. To the north are France and Andorra with the Pyrenees as a natural border. Also the Balearean islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza) in the Mediterranean, the Canary islands in the Atlantic (near the Maroccan coast), and Ceuta and Melilla (located in Northern Africa) belong to the Spanish territory.
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Spain is the third country in Europa as for it's size and fifth as for population numbers. It has a surface of about 505.955 square kilometers. This includes all the islands above mentioned. Spain counts more than 40 million people, most of them living in the cities or along the Costa's. Spain is divided into 19 autonomous areas, including the areas outside the Iberian peninsula. The most prosperous areas are Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque Country. Extremadura is the poorest area of Spain, adjacent to Portugal, Andalucia, Castilla La Mancha and Castillia y Léon.
There are 5 large mountain ranges which cross the country and about 50% of the land lies considerably higher than sea level.
The sceneries vary from almost desert-like to a fertile and green land and of course there are the long coastal strips, in the east along the Mediterranean (from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar), next in the south and west to Portugal along the Atlantic Ocean.
Spain counts more than 40 million people, most of them living in the cities or along the Costa's. Spanish state encompassed numerous distinct ethnic and cultural minorities. The 1978 Constitution recognizes and guarantees autonomy of nationalities and regions making up Spanish state, and seventeen autonomous communities existed in late 1980s. Major ethnic groups: Castillians, Basques, Catalans, Galicians, Andalusians, Valencians, Asturians, Navarrese, and Aragonese. There is also a small number of Gypsies. Ethnonationalistic sentiment and commitment to the ethnic homeland varies among and within ethnic communities. Nationalist and separatist sentiment run deepest among Basques.
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Spanish is the main language, spoken throughout the whole of Spain. But there are some regions with an additional language. In Cataluña people also speak Catalan, in Galicia Galician, Basque in the Basque Country and finally Valencian in the Valencian society. This can be very confusing at times, because in Cataluña and Basque Country many people consider their dialect the main language. On schools sometimes the regional language is taught as the first language, wih Spanish as a second one. Roadsigns are often first in Basqe or Catalan and only then in the Spanish language in these autonomous regions.
In prehistoric times various people have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, coming from Africa, as show the archeological findings in the caves of Altamira. Ligurians and Iberians originally have African roots. Mycean sailors played an important part in the trade with Spain. Since the 7th century BC. the Greek also participated in the trade. The Phoenicians from Carthage conquered part of Spain at the end of the 5th century BC and met with the Celts in the north of the peninsula who had arrived between 900-600 BC.
But soon all people in Spain were dominated by the Romans. The three provinces Tarraconensis, Baetica and Lusitana became important centres of Roman civilisation and the economy thrived. Spain had become totally romanised. But the prosperity and civilisation waned after the invasions of German tribes in the 3rd century AD. In 411 tribes sign an alliance with Rome, which enables them to establish military colonies within the Empire.
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Spain was a latecomer to economic and industrial modernization. Early in the twentieth century, economic progress was made in fitful starts, but in the 1960s the process of renewal began in earnest. Before then, the Spanish economy was one of the most underdeveloped in Western Europe, and it was sometimes characterized as a Third World economy. A spectacular period of growth and modernization during the 1960s and the early 1970s profoundly transformed the Spanish economy, bringing it much closer to the West European consumer society prototype. A new spectaculair growth is going on the last few years thanks to the Eurpean Union, but as a side effect unemployment has also grown to almost 25%. But the growth of the economy still depends on the banks, rich families, state companies and large landowners and not on the small and medium-sized businesses which would be healthier.
In 2001 the working population of Spain counted 18 million people.
8,3% of the labour force work in agriculture, although it uses more than 50% of the land surface for it. But the production per hectare is less than in other European countries. 29,9% of working population work in the industrial sector and 61,8 % in the service industry, the latte being the biggest contributor to the National Gross Product.
Most important sources of income at the moment are tourism and export.
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