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History of Spain

Spain has a history dating back centuries. For five centuries from 218 BC, Spain was under the rule of the Romans and it was a key country for the Roman Empire. After the Romans left the Muslim religion took hold of the country until the middle ages when Christianity gradually took over once again after several wars.

During the 16th and 17th centuries Spain along with Portugal, France and mainly England were fighting for control of the seas, which all countries listed above were proud safaring countries. Spain was the first country to give us the ‘New World’ under Christopher Columbus and it has had a major impact on the world as we know it. At its height it ruled over most of Central and South America taking all the riches and leaving a unique culture in these areas of the world in its place.

In 1931 King Alfonso XIII brought in a left-wing republic, but it was short lived as it was crushed by General Franco in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. His fascist regime was neutral during World War II, but gave assistance to the Nazis on many occasions. The regime lasted until his death in 1975, when the monarchy was restored. By March 1978, a democratic constitutional monarchy had been put in place. Unfortunately, it was because of this ruthless dictator that it took the country a bit longer to catch up to the rest of Europe economically, but they are doing it fast. Also, he created a united Spain, but doing so created areas like the Basque and the Catalonian areas of the country wanting to break away from Spain.

When Spain joined the European Union and NATO in the 80s it saw a huge increase to GDP and its biggest industry is the tourism industry as it’s one of the most popular destinations in all of Europe. The economic crisis hit Spain extremely hard and it saw its unemployment sky rocket. Today, things are starting to get better, but things are moving slowly to the boom they saw during the 90s.



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