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King David Hotel

King David Hotel

The King David Hotel, built in Jerusalem with locally quarried pink sandstone, was opened in 1931. It once hosted three monarchs who fled their countries: King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1931), Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1936) and King George II of Greece (1942). The King David Hotel is Israel's best known 5-star hotel. The King David Hotel is best remembered as a former administration headquarters of the British Mandate of Palestine, and particularly as the site of the King David Hotel bombing (July 22, 1946). After the bombing this hotel became a British fortress until May 4, 1948, when the Union Jack was lowered upon the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. It then became an Israeli fortress; however at the end of the War of Independence, the hotel found itself on the border that separated Israel and Jordan. The hotel was re-opened in 1967, after the Six-Day War, when Israel annexed East Jerusalem.

External link

- [http://www.kingdavidhotel.co.il/danSite/eng/hotelHomepage.asp?hotelNo=4&top=8 The King David Hotel website] Category:Jerusalem Category:Hotels in Israel

King David

:This page is about the Biblical king David. For other uses see: David (disambiguation) David (disambiguation) David (דָּוִד "Beloved", Standard Hebrew Davíd, Tiberian Hebrew Dāwiḏ; Arabic داود Dāʾūd "Beloved"), as referred to as King David, was the second and one of the most well-known kings of ancient Israel, as well as the most mentioned man in the Hebrew Bible. The successor to King Saul, who was the first official king of a united Kingdom of Israel, David's forty-year reign lasted from roughly 1005 BC to 965 BC. The account of his life and rule are recorded in the Old Testament Books of Samuel and the first of the two Books of Chronicles. Despite the fact that he displeased God on a few occasions, he is regarded by the Bible - and most Jews and Christians - as having been the most righteous of all the ancient kings of Israel. He is also unusual in that he was an acclaimed warrior, monarch, musician and poet; David is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the psalms recorded in the Old Testament book of Psalms. The Bible states that God was ultimately so pleased with David, that He promised that the Davidic line would endure forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Judaism believes that the Jewish Messiah will be a direct descendant of King David, and Christianity traces the lineage of Jesus back to him. Jesus

David's life

David's early life

Jesus] David was the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man of humble life. His mother's name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Samuel 17:25. As to his personal appearance, he is described as being ruddy and handsome (1 Samuel 16:12; 17:42). His early occupation was that of tending his father's sheep on the uplands of Judah. From what we know of his later story, doubtless he frequently spent his time, when watching sheep, with his shepherd's musical instruments (flute and harp), while he drank in the many lessons taught him by the varied scenes spread around him. His first recorded exploits were his encounters with the wild beasts. He mentions that with his own unaided hand he slew a lion and also a bear, when they came out against his flock, beating them to death, in open conflict, with his club (1 Samuel 17:34,35). While David was thus engaged with his flocks, Samuel paid an unexpected visit to Bethlehem. There he offered up sacrifice, and called the elders of Israel and Jesse's family to the sacrificial meal. Among all who appeared before him he failed to discover the one he sought. David was sent for, and the prophet immediately recognized him as the chosen of God, chosen to succeed King Saul, who was now departing from the ways of God, on the throne of the kingdom. He accordingly poured on his head the anointing oil. David went back again to his shepherd life, but "the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward," and "the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul" (1 Sam. 16:13, 14). anointing oil] Not long after this David was sent for to soothe with his harp the troubled spirit of King Saul, who suffered from a strange melancholy dejection. He played his harp before the king so skillfully that Saul was greatly cheered, and began to entertain great affection for the young shepherd. After this he went home to Bethlehem. But he soon again came into prominence. The armies of the Philistines and of Israel were in battle array in the valley of Elah, some 16 miles south-west of Bethlehem; and David was sent by his father with provisions for his three brothers, who were then fighting on the side of the king. On his arrival in the camp of Israel, David, now a youth (1 Sam. 17:42), was made aware of the state of matters when the champion of the Philistines, Goliath of Gath, came forth to defy Israel. David swore to fight the Philistine champion, and Saul offered David his own kingly armor to do so, but David refused to wear it, as he was unused to armor and felt it restricted him. David took only his sling, and with a well-trained aim threw a stone "out of the brook," which struck the giant's forehead, so that he fell senseless to the ground. David then ran to cut off Goliath's head with Goliath's own sword (1 Sam. 17). The result was a great victory for the Israelites, who pursued the Philistines to the gates of Gath and Ekron. 2 Samuel credits Elhanan with Goliath's brothers death. See Goliath. David's popularity following this heroic exploit awakened Saul's jealousy (1 Sam. 18:6-16), which he showed in various ways. He conceived a bitter hatred toward him, and by various stratagems sought his death (1 Sam. 18:29). The deep-laid plots of the enraged king, who could not fail to observe that David "prospered exceedingly," all proved futile, and only endeared the young hero the more to the people, and very specially to Jonathan, Saul's son, who shared a deep, lifelong friendship with David. During the period of his persecution by Saul, David lived as an exile and accepted the city of Ziklag as a fief from the Philistine king Achish of Gath (1 Sam 27:2-6). Until Saul's death at Gilboa, David worked as a mercenary general for the Philistines, and may have adopted iron technology (as opposed to bronze) from them at this time.

Reign as King of Judah

David returned to Israel at God's command (2 Sam. 2) after Saul and Jonathan's deaths and the mourning period. He went to Hebron, where the people of his native tribe, the tribe of Judah, anointed him as king over the tribe. The northern tribes, however, did not recognize David, and instead followed Saul's son, Ish-Bosheth. There followed a bitter civil war between Judah (supporting David) and the northern tribes (supporting Ish-Bosheth). Eventually, Abner, Saul's army commander and advisor, grew dissatisfied with Ish-Bosheth and went over to David's side. The war was ended when Ish-Bosheth was assassinated.

David's reign over the United Monarchy

The leaders of all the tribes came to David and declared him king by popular assent. He reigned over Israel for a while longer in Hebron, but eventually decided on conquering the Jebusite fortress of Jerusalem as his capital. One of the strongest cities in Israel, the Israelites had been unable to capture the fortress despite having lived around it for centuries. Nevertheless, we are told in the Bible, David captured the city. David made Jerusalem the capital, and bought Mount Moriah. He then brought the Ark of the Covenant to Mount Moriah and intended to build a temple, but God did not allow him to do so. One reason cited was that the Temple is supposed to be a peaceful and reverent place, but David had fought too many wars, becoming, according to the Biblical text, a "man of blood."

David's family

David's father

Jesse (ישי "Gift", Standard Hebrew Yíšay, Tiberian Hebrew Yíšay / Yēšay), King David's father, was the son of Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth the Moabite whose story is told at length in the Book of Ruth. They were of the tribe of Judah, David's lineage is fully documented in Ruth 4:18-22. (The "Pharez" that heads the line is Judah's son, Genesis 38:29).

David's wives

David had eight wives, although he appears to have had children from other women as well. # The first one was Michal, a daughter of King Saul. # The second was Ahinoam of Jezreel. # The third was Abigail, previously wife of the evil Nabal. # The fourth was Maachah. # The fifth was Haggith. # The sixth was Avital. # The seventh was Eglah. # The eighth was Bathsheba.

Bathsheba

In the Old Testament, Bathsheba ("the seventh daughter" or the "daughter of the oath"), the daughter of Ammiel, is the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of King David. She is the mother of King Solomon. In 1 Chronicles 3:5 she is called Bath-shua. 2 Samuel 11:1 to 12:25 tells the story of David's adultery with Bathsheba, and his subsequent murder of Uriah in order to conceal his guilt. His plan comes unstuck when God sends the prophet Nathan to denounce David by means of a parable. David is completely taken in, declaring at the end of it, "The man who did this deserves to die!" only to be told by Nathan, "You are that man". Although both David and Bathsheba are spared death for this crime, their first child dies after only 7 days. Furthermore, the Bible claims that the subsequent string of intrigues, murders and infighting including civil war that plagues David's later life is part of a curse imposed as additional punishment. In the Gospel of Matthew (1:6) she is listed as an ancestor of Jesus.

David's sons

As given in 1 Chronicles, chapter 3 (KJV). David had sons by wives and concubines; their names are not given in Chronicles.

Born in Hebron

- "Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess" (the firstborn)
- "Daniel, of Abigail the Carmelitess", also called Chileab (2 Sam. 3:3).
- "Absalom the son of Maachah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur"
- "Adonijah the son of Haggith"
- "Shephatiah of Abital"
- "Ithream by Eglah his wife"

Born in Jerusalem

"of Bath-shua [ Bathsheba ] the daughter of Ammiel:"
- Shimea
- Shobab
- Nathan
- Solomon of other women:
- Ibhar
- Elishama
- Eliphelet
- Nogah
- Nepheg
- Japhia
- Elishama (again)
- Eliada
- Eliphelet (again) David also had at least one daughter, Tamar, who was the full sister of Absalom.

David as a religious figure

David in Judaism

In Judaism, David's reign represents the formation of a coherent Jewish state with its political and religious capital in Jerusalem and the institution of a royal lineage that culminates in the Messianic era. David's descent from a convert (Ruth) is taken as proof of the importance of converts within Judaism. That he was not allowed to build a permanent temple is taken as proof of the imperative of peace in affairs of state. David is also viewed as a tragic figure; his inexcusable acquisition of Bathsheba, and the loss of his son are viewed as central tragedies in Judaism.

David in Christianity

In Christianity, David is important as the ancestor of the Messiah. Several Old Testament prophecies state that the Messiah will come from David's line; the Gospels of Matthew and Luke trace Jesus' lineage to David to fulfill this requirement. David is also figurative of Christ, the slaying of Goliath being compared to the way that Jesus defeated Satan when Jesus died on the cross. More often, David is figurative of a Christian believer. The Psalms that he wrote show a Christian how to depend upon God during times of adversity, how to praise, how to repent.

David (Dawud) in Islam

In the Qur'an, David is known as Dawud (داود), and considered one of the prophets of Islam, to whom the Zabur (Psalms) were revealed by Allah. As in Judaism, he is said to have killed Goliath (Jalut) with a rock from his sling. In his reign, he is generally believed to have laid the foundations of the Dome of the Rock. See Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an. Muslims reject the Biblical portrayal of David as an adulterer and murderer. This is based on the Islamic belief in the infallibility and superiority of the moral character of prophets.

Historicity of David

See The Bible and history for a more complete description of the general issues surrounding the Bible as a historical source. Biblical minimalists hold that David and his united kingdom never existed, and that the stories told about his life were made up much later by Jewish nationalists. Others feel that he was a historical figure and that the Biblical account on his person is generally accurate. An intermediate position, taken by a large proportion of scholars, consider him a real historical figure but, as with King Arthur, consider most of the traditions relating to him to have more myth than substance. Archaeologist William G. Dever, in his book, What Did the Biblical Authors Know and When Did They Know It?, comes to the conclusion that David and his united monarchy did indeed exist, but that he did not rule "from the Euphrates to the River of Egypt" as the Bible claims, and more probably ruled approximately from Tel Dan in northern Israel to the area south of Beer-Sheba in Judah. The details of David's life given in this article come from the Hebrew Bible and are not corroborated by, or even mentioned in, other historical documents. However, an ancient inscription called the Tel Dan Stele is controversially considered to refer to a king of the "House of David", providing indirect evidence that someone called David did exist as a historical king (although a minority interpret the vowel-less text as saying the "House of Duad", the "House of Thoth", or various other readings). It has recently been claimed that this inscription is a modern forgery, but this claim is rejected by the majority of researchers. There have been many attempts at considering David as a quasi-historical figure, a composite mostly taken from the details of someone or something else, whether being a deliberate satire or commentary, or simply an attempt at accurate portrayal which became corrupted (in the sense that it appears now that he is someone distinct from who/what he was intended to portray). In 2005, an Israeli archaeologist working in East Jerusalem uncovered a large public building dating back to the period of David's reign, which may allow the issue to be addressed more definitively.

Representation in art and literature

Art

Famous sculptures of David include (in chronological order) those by:
- Donatello (ca. 1430 - 1440) (see Donatello's David)
- Andrea del Verrocchio (1476)
- Michelangelo Buonarroti (1504) (see Michelangelo's David)
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1624)
- Antonin Mercié (1873)

Literature

Elmer Davis's 1928 novel Giant Killer retells and embellishes the Biblical story of David, casting David as primarily a poet who managed always to find others to do the "dirty work" of heroism and kingship. In the novel, Elhanan in fact killed Goliath but David claimed the credit; and Joab, David's cousin and general, took it upon himself to make many of the difficult decisions of war and statecraft when David vacillated or wrote poetry instead. In Thomas Burnett Swann's Biblical fantasy novel How are the Mighty Fallen (1974) David and Jonathan are explicitly stated to be lovers. Moreover, Jonathan is a member of a winged semi-human race (possibly nephilim), one of several such races co-existing with humanity but often persecuted by it.

Film

King David was portrayed by actor Richard Gere in the 1985 film King David directed by Bruce Beresford.

References

- Kirsch, Jonathan (2000) "King David: the real life of the man who ruled Israel". Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-43275-4.
- See also the entry for David in [http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/EastonBibleDictionary/ Easton's Bible Dictionary]. Category:Jerusalem Category:Kings of ancient Israel Category:Shepherds Category:Nine Worthies ko:다윗 왕 ja:ダビデ

1931

1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January-March

- January 4 - Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa
- January 6 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
- January 22 - Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
- January 25 - Mohandas Gandhi released again
- January 27 - Pierre Laval forms a government in France
- February 10 - New Delhi becomes the capital of India
- February 16 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud elected president of Finland
- February 20 - California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
- February 21 - Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Tri-motor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima
- March 1 - Henry Pu Yi, former Emperor of China, is proclaimed King of the puppet state of Manchukuo by Japan.
- March 1 - USS Arizona (BB-39) placed back in full commission after a refit
- March 3 - The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States National anthem.
- March 4 - British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi negotiate
- March 7 - New House of Representatives opened in Helsinki, Finland
- March 17 - Nevada legalizes gambling
- March 25 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
- March 27 - British writer Arnold Bennet dies in Paris when he drinks local water to prove it safe to drink - but is poisoned
- March 31 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua killing 2,000.

April-August

- April 1 - Earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua - over 2000 dead
- April 6 - Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of an attempted military takeover in Funchal
- April 9 - Execution of Argentinean anarchist Severino Digiovanni
- April 14 - 2nd Spanish Republic proclaimed in Spain
- April 22 - Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and USA recognize the Spanish Republic
- May 1 - Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City
- May 4 - Kemal Atatürk re-elected president of Turkey
- May 13 - Paul Doumer elected president of France
- June 12 - Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
- June 14 - Yacht St Philiebert sinks in river Loire in France - over 500 drown
- June 23 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane. [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm]
- July 1 - Official opening of Milan Central Station
- July 16 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia
- Huang He floods kill between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people - the most deadly historic natural disaster.
- August 24 - Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain - replaced by National Government of people drawn from all parties also under MacDonald.
- August 31 - Yangtze River floods - 23 million made homeless

September-December

- September 5 - John Thomson, soccer player, dies in an accident during a Celtic - Rangers match
- September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes in Royal Navy due to decreased salaries
- September 18 - Mukden Incident. After that, Japan uses it to occupy Manchuria.
- September 18 - Geli Raubal is found shot dead in Hitler's apartment
- November 7 - Chinese People's Republic proclaimed by Mao Tse Tung.
- November 8 - French gendarmes launch a large scale raid against Corsican bandits
- November 8 - Panama Canal closed for couple of weeks due to damage caused by a number of earthquakes
- December 10 - Niceto Alcalá-Zamora elected president of Spanish republic

Undated

- Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
- The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti capi, "boss of all bosses" and undisputed ruler of the American mafia. Maranzano is himself assassinated less than 6 months later, leading to the establishment of the Five Families
- Ust-Abakanskoye becomes Abakan.
- National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act formed to work for repeal of prohibition in United States.

Births

January

- January 5 - Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
- January 5 - Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
- January 5 - Robert Duvall, American actor and director
- January 6 - E. L. Doctorow, American author
- January 8 - Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
- January 10 - Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- January 13 - Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor
- January 14 - Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
- January 16 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany
- January 17 - James Earl Jones, American actor
- January 19 - Tippi Hedren, American actress
- January 19 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
- January 20 - David Lee, American physicist, Nobe Prize laureate
- January 22 - Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
- January 27 - Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
- January 30 - Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author
- January 31 - Ernie Banks, baseball player

February-April

- February 1 - Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia
- February 2 - Dries van Agt, Dutch politician
- February 6 - Rip Torn, American actor and director
- February 8 - James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
- February 10 - Thomas Bernhard, Dutch author (d. 1989)
- February 11 - Larry Merchant, author and boxing commentator
- February 18 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
- February 18 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 18 - Bob St. Clair, American football star
- February 24 - Brian Close, British cricket player
- February 26 - Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
- February 28 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach
- March 2 - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- March 2 - Tom Wolfe, American author
- March 11 - Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
- March 22 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 22 - William Shatner, Canadian actor
- March 26 - Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
- March 29 - Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut
- April 1 - Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
- April 27 - Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
- April 29 - Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
- April 29 - Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)

May-August

- May 6 - Willie Mays, baseball player
- May 7 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
- May 13 - Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
- May 14 - Alvin Lucier, American composer
- May 15 - Ken Venturi, American golfer
- May 16 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- May 18 - Robert Morse, American actor
- May 19 - Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
- May 20 - Ken Boyer, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 25 - Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut
- May 31 - John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 31 - Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano
- June 3 - Lindy Remigino, American athlete
- June 7 - Malcolm Morley, English-born painter
- June 9 - Joe Santos, American actor
- June 20 - Martin Landau, American actor
- June 27 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
- July 10 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
- July 26 - Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
- August 12 - William Goldman, American author
- August 19 - Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d. 2003)
- August 23 - Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- August 25 - Regis Philbin, American television personality
- August 28 - John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
- August 31 - Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player

September-December

- September 17 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
- September 22 - Fay Weldon, British author
- September 22 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (d. 2003)
- September 23 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian educator and statesman (d. 2004)
- September 29 - James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 29 - Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
- September 30 - Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer
- October 6 - Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 7 - Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
- October 7 - Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 13 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)
- October 20 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)
- October 23 - Jim Bunning, baseball player and U.S. Senator
- October 23 - Diana Dors, English actress
- November 15 - Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's third president
- November 21 - Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
- November 23 - Dervla Murphy, Irish author
- November 26 - Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- November 28 - Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)
- December 23 - Ronnie Schell, American actor
- December 24 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
- December 30 - Skeeter Davis, Ameircan singer (d. 2004)
- December 31 - Bob Shaw, British author (d. 1996)

Month/day unknown

- Joseph A. Califano, Jr., American politician

Deaths

- January 14 - Hardy Richardson, baseball player (b. 1855)
- January 23 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
- February 11 - Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854)
- February 16 - Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (b. 1856)
- February 26 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
- March 7 - Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
- March 11 - F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
- March 21 - Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1908)
- March 31 - Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
- April 8 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- April 10 - Khalil Gibran Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
- April 30 - Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)
- May 9 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- May 14 - David Belasco, American writer (b. 1853)
- July 4 - Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
- July 12 - Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
- August 6 - Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1903)
- August 27 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
- August 27 - Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
- October 13 - Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (b. 1868)
- October 18 - Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
- November 11 - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
- December 2 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)

Undated

- Joseph Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - not awarded
- Chemistry - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
- Medicine - Otto Heinrich Warburg
- Literature - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
- Peace - Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler Category:1931 ko:1931년 ms:1931 ja:1931年 simple:1931 th:พ.ศ. 2474

Spain

The Kingdom of Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma). To west (and, in Galicia, south), it borders Portugal. To south, it borders Gibraltar and Morocco. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in north Africa, and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the strait of Gibraltar, known as Plazas de soberanía, such as the Chafarine islands, the "rocks" (peñones) of Vélez and Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla Perejil (disputed). In the Northeast along the Pyrenees, a small exclave town called Llívia in Catalonia is surrounded by French territory.

History

Main article: History of Spain

Prehistory

The aboriginal peoples of the Iberian peninsula, consisting of a number of separate tribes, are given the generic name of Iberians. This may have included the Basques, the only pre-Celtic people in Iberia surviving to the present day as a separate ethnic group. The most important culture of this period is that of the city of Tartessos. Beginning in the 9th century BC, Celtic tribes entered the Iberian peninsula through the Pyrenees and settled throughout the peninsula, becoming the Celtiberians. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries. Around 1,100 BC Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 8th century BC the first Greek colonies, such as Emporion (modern Empúries), were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (Ebro in Spanish). In the 6th century BC the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).

Roman Empire

The Romans arrived in the Iberian peninsula during the Second Punic war in the 2nd century BC, and annexed it under Augustus after two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes and the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies becoming the province of Hispania. It was divided in Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic; and, during the Roman Empire, Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the southwest. Hispania supplied the Roman Empire with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca and the poets Martial and Lucan were born in Spain. The Spanish Bishops held the Council at Elvira in 306. Many of Spain's present languages, religion, and laws originate from this period.

Muslim Spain

Main articles: Al-Andalus and Reconquista In the 8th century, nearly all the Iberian peninsula, which had been under Visigothic rule, was quickly conquered (from 711), by Muslims (the Moors), who had crossed over from North Africa, as part of the conquests of the Christian kingdoms there by the religiously inspired Umayyad empire. Only three small counties in the north of Spain kept their independence: Asturias, Navarra and Aragon, which eventually became kingdoms. Very soon the Muslim emirate split into small kingdoms. Christian and Muslim kingdoms fought and allied among themselves, with the Christians driving the Moorish forces out of the northern most parts of the peninsula within a few decades. The Muslim taifa kings competed in patronage of the arts, and the Jewish population of Iberia set the basis of Sephardic culture. Much of Spain's distinctive art originates from this seven-hundred-year period, and many Arabic words made their way into Castilian (Spanish) and Catalan, and from them to other European languages. The Moorish capital was Córdoba, in the southern portion of Spain known as Andalucía. During the time of Arab occupation, large populations of Jews, Christians and Muslims living in close quarters, and at its peak some non-Muslims were appointed to high offices. Though its tolerance has been exaggerated and romanticised by 19th century scholars it did produce some real achievements. At its best it produced great architecture, art, and Muslim and Jewish scholars played a great part in reviving the study of ancient western culture and philosophy, making their own important contributions to it, and becoming one of the most important ways by which these studies were revived in Europe. However there were also restrictions and imposts on non-Muslims, which tended to grow after the death of Al-Hakam II in 976, and worsened after the fall of Al-Andalus in 1031. Later invasions of stricter Muslim groups from north Africa even led to persecutions of non-Muslims, forcing some (including some Muslim scholars) to seek safety in the then still relatively tolerant city of Toledo after its Christian reconquest in 1085. 1085] The long, convoluted period of expansion of the Christian kingdoms, beginning in 722, only eleven years after the Moorish invasion, is called the Reconquista. As early as 739, the northwestern region of Galicia, which became one of the most important centres of western medieval Christian pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela, had been liberated from Moorish occupation by forces from neighbouring Asturias. The 1085 conquest of the central city of Toledo had largely brought to an end the reconquest of the northern half of Iberia. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 heralded the collapse, within a few decades, of the great Moorish strongholds, such as Seville and Córdoba, in the south-west. By the middle of the thirteenth century most of the Iberian peninsula had been reconquered, leaving only Granada as a small tributary state in the south. It ended in 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand captured the southern city of Granada, the last Moorish city in Spain. The Treaty of Granada [http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty1492.html] guaranteed religious toleration toward Muslims while Jews were expelled that year. At Ferdinand's insistance the Spanish Inquisition had been established and Tomás de Torquemada was appointed as its first Inquisitor General in 1482. Behind much of the real religious intolerance was always the ever present fear that the Muslims might assist another Muslim invasion. Furthermore Aragonese labourers were angered by the use of Moorish workers by landlords to undercut them. A 1499 Muslim uprising was crushed and was followed by the first of the expulsions of Muslims, in 1502. The year 1492 was also marked by the discovery of the New World. Isabel I funded the voyages of Columbus. In their contests with the French army, Spanish forces relied more on well trained, highly mobile, regular soldiers and eventually achieved success with the organised tactical use of hand guns against armoured French knights, in the Italian Wars from 1494. Already considerable powers, these wars saw the emergence of the new combined Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon as a European great power.

From the Renaissance to the 19th Century

Until the late of the 15th century, Castile and Léon, Aragon and Navarre were independent states, with independent languages, monarchs, armies and, in the case of Aragon and Castile, two empires: the former with one in the Mediterranean and the latter with a new, rapidly growing, one in the Americas. The process of political unification continued into the early sixteenth century. It was the unification of these separate Iberian empires that became the base of what is in now referred to as the Spanish Empire. By 1512, most of the kingdoms of present-day Spain were politically unified, although not as a modern, centralized state (in contemporary minds, "Spain" was a geographic term meaning Iberian Peninsula, which includes Portugal, not the present-day state called Spain). The grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor but called in Spain Carlos I, extended his crown to other places in Europe and the rest of the world. The unification of Iberia was complete when Charles V's son, Philip II, became King of Portugal in 1580, as well as of the other Iberian Kingdoms (collectively known as "Spain" at that time). During the 16th century, under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe. The Spanish Empire covered most territories of South and Central America, Mexico, some of Eastern Asia (including The Philippines), the Iberian peninsula (including the Portuguese empire from 1580), southern Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire about which it was said that the sun did not set. It was a time of daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginning of European colonization. Not only did this lead to the arrival of ever increasing quantities of precious metals, spices and luxuries, and new agricultural plants, that had a great influence on the development of Europe, but the explorers, soldiers, traders and missionaries also brought back with them a flood of knowledge that radically transformed the European understanding of the world, ending conceptions inherited from medieval times. The treasure fleet across the Atlantic and the Manila galleons across the Pacific made it the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe, but the rapidly rising influx of silver and gold from the colonies in the Americas throughout the 16th century ultimately resulted in economically damaging rampant inflation and led to economic depression by the 17th century. Religious and dynastic wars supported by the Spanish crown, especially in the Netherlands, also greatly burdened the empire's economy. 17th century] In 1640, under Philip IV, the centralist policy of the Count-Duke of Olivares provoked wars in Portugal and Catalonia. Portugal became an independent kingdom again, taking with it its empire, and Catalonia enjoyed some years of French-supported independence but was quickly returned to the Spanish Crown, except Roussillon. A series of long and costly wars and revolts followed in the early 17th century, and began a steady decline of Spanish power in Europe from the 1640s. Controversy over succession to the throne consumed the country and much of Europe during the first years of the 18th century (see War of the Spanish Succession). It was only after this war ended and a new dynasty—the French Bourbons—was installed that a true Spanish state was established when the absolutist first Bourbon king Philip V of Spain in 1707 dissolved the parliamentarist Aragon court and unified the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon into a single, unified Kingdom of Spain, abolishing many of the regional privileges and autonomies (fueros) that had hampered Habsburg rule. The British abandoned the conflict after Utrecht (1713), which led to Barcelona's easy defeat by the absolutists in 1714. The National Day of Catalonia still commemorates this defeat. Of note during the 17th century was the cultural efflorescence now known as the Spanish Golden Age. Historically, the period of the mid 17th century to the mid 20th century was a failure for Spain compared to north western Europe. The extended, lingering decline of the Spanish empire was due in large part, ironically, to its spectacular successes in the 15th and 16th centuries that led to the centuries of the treasure fleets bringing back silver and gold into the country from the American mines. These shipments engendered inflation (a fact noticed by the School of Salamanca) that ate away at Spanish trades and commerce by causing local goods to be uncompetitive, and eventually making the country almost totally dependant upon imports by the mid seventeenth century, which proved disasterous as the silver mines became exhausted. Greatly worsening matters were the constant wars defending the world empire against envious European rivals, internal successions and the European wars (Eighty Years War and Thirty Years War), where Spain's resources were constantly drained defending the Habsburg's dynastic and religious interests, including the Counter Reformation. From the early 17th century the government sought to meet its needs by tampering with the silver content of the currency, leading to severe bouts of inflation and deflation. The terrible burden of taxes on the productive classes of the country, and the financial instability led to the collapse of the Castilian economy to the point where people reverted to bartering in the 1620s. A severe decline in food production ensued. The result was a steep real economic and demographic decline during the 17th century, especially in empire's overburdened lynchpin, Castile, aggravated by failed harvests and plagues. Habsburg policies that entrenched the privileges and exemptions of the nobility (with its roots back in the Castilian War of the Communities) and the Church (as part of support of the Counter Reformation), with a great extension of Church lands, also played a decisive part in the undermining the Spanish economy and in curtailing the spread of modern thought. This was in stark contrast to the diminishing status of both institutions in rivals France, England and the Netherlands. The resentment of ordinary peasants and labourers would find expression in implicating the nobility of Moorish ancestory and the churchmen of hypocrisy. These accusations found their way into the theatre and literature of the time. The beggary that grew rapidly from the late 16th century forced many to live by their wits and inspired the popular picaresque genre of literature. Following the wars of Spanish succession at its commencment, the 18th century saw a long, slow recovery, with an expansion of the iron and steel industries in the Basque country, some increase in trade and a recovery in food production and population. The Bourbons drew on the French system in trying to modernise the administration and economy, in which it was more successful in the former than the latter. However in the last two decades of the century there was a rapid growth (from a relatively low base) in general trade after the opening up of free trade within the empire (ending the south's monopoly), and even the beginnings of an industrialisation of the textile industry in Catalonia. But this promising late eighteenth century surge was shortlived, being totally disrupted by the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, that preceeded the loss of the vast mainland American territories and plunged the country into endemic political instability, which lasted until 1939. The Napoleonic incursion led to a fierce guerilla war (Peninsular War) and saw the first wide spread appearance of Spanish nationalism. In the latter half of the 19th century, Spanish Catalonia became a center of Spain's industrialization. Pockets of relative modernity in Catalonia and the north would appear, but Spain's relative economic and political decline overall mirrored in general the fate of other regions of southern Europe such as Portugal, the Italian states, the Balkans, and much of central and eastern Europe, as much of the rapidly growing global oceanic trade, pioneered by the Iberian countries, was diverted to northwestern Europe. Spain lost all of its remaining old colonies in the Caribbean region and Asia-Pacific region at the end of the 19th century, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and a large number of Pacific islands to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898. However "the Disaster" of 1898, as Spanish-American War was called, led to Spain's cultural revival (Generation of '98) in which there was much critical self examination, and relieved it from the burden of its last major colonies. However political stability in such a dispersed and variegated land, caught between pockets of modernity and large areas of extreme rural backwardness and strongly differentiated regional identities would elude the country for some decades yet, and was ultimately imposed only by a brutal dictatorship in 1939.

20th century

The 20th century initially brought little peace; colonization of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea was attempted. A period of dictatorial rule (1923 - 1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country and Catalonia and gave voting rights to women. However, in July 1936, against a backdrop of increasing political polarization, anti-clericalism and pressure from all sides, coupled with growing and unchecked political violence, the Republic was faced with an attempted military coup d'etat led by right-wing army generals. Although the coup initially failed, the ensuing Spanish Civil War ended in 1939 with the victory of the nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco and supported by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the United States of America, increasingly concerned about communism. The Republican side received tepid support from European democracies, which left the Soviet Union and idealist voluntary International Brigades as the only supporters of the legitimate democratic Republican rule. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War. After the civil war, General Francisco Franco ruled a nation exhausted politically and economically. During the Second World War Franco, under extreme pressure (Hitler had brought his army to the border of Spain after invading France), opted to remain neutral arguing that Spain could not afford a new war, but, as a concession to his civil war backer, authorised volunteers to go to the Russian front to fight the Soviet Union in an anti-Communist crusade in what came to be known as the Blue Division. The resentment of Franco's brutality towards the more modern pro-Republican regions of Catalonia and the Basque country, whose distinctive languages and identity he suppressed during his long reign, continues to fuel strong separatist movements to this day. The only official party in Spain at the time of Franco´s regime was the Falange party founded by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Primo de Rivera denied his party was fascist, calling fascism fundamentaly false. His political philosophy was based on Catholicism, saying that man "carries eternal values" and carries "a soul that is capable of damning or saving itself". He called for "the greatest respect for...human dignity, for the integrity of man and for his liberty." Primo de Rivera called for what he called "organic democracy". Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera was executed in Alicante in 1936. After World War II, being one of few surviving fascist regimes in Europe, Spain was politically and economically isolated and was kept out of the United Nations until 1955, when it became strategically important for U.S. president Eisenhower to establish a military presence in the Iberian peninsula. This opening to Spain was aided by Franco's opposition to communism. In the 1960s, more than a decade later than other western European countries, Spain began to enjoy economic growth and gradually transformed into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector. Growth continued well into the 1970s, with Franco's government going to great lengths to shield the Spanish people from the effects of the oil crisis. Upon the death of the dictator General Franco in November 1975, his personally-designated heir Prince Juan Carlos assumed the position of king and head of state. With the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the arrival of democracy, some regions — Basque Country, Navarra— were given complete financial autonomy, and many — Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia— were given some political autonomy, which was then soon extended to all Spanish regions, resulting in a quite decentralized territorial organization in Western Europe. Remaining dysfunctionalities, such as unlimited financial strain on contributor regions such as Catalonia make their people aim for a more equilibrated system, such as those enjoyed in Germany, where finantial contribution to the whole can never exceed 4% of a Land's GDP. In the Basque Country pro-peace Basque and Spanish nationalisms coexist with radical nationalism supportive of the terrorist group ETA, which remains one of the biggest problems faced by Spanish citizens. Adolfo Suárez González, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo Bustelo, after an attempted coup d'état in 1981, Felipe González Márquez (when Spain joined NATO and European Union), José María Aznar López and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have been prime ministers of Spain.

21st century

On March 11, 2004, a series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. These resulted in 191 people dead and 1,460 wounded. It also had a significant effect on the upcoming elections in Spain, due in part to the ruling government's insistence that the ETA was the prime suspect in the bombings, even as the evidence of Muslim extremist terrorism rapidly emerged from the police investigation and the international press. see the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings article for more information :See also: List of Spanish monarchs, Kings of Spain family tree

Politics

Main article: Politics of Spain Politics of Spain.]] Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales or National Assembly. The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers presided over by the President of Government (comparable to a prime minister), proposed by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly following legislative elections. The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate or Senado with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms. Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instance, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some differences within this system, since power has been devolved from the centre to the periphery asymmetrically, with some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) seeking a more federalist—or even confederate—kind of relationship with Spain, now the Central Government is dealing with autonomous governments for the transfer of more autonomy. This novel system of asymmetrical devolution has been described as a coconstitutionalism and has similarities to the devolution process adopted by the United Kingdom since 1997. The terrorist group, ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), is attempting to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and killings of politicians and police. Although the Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the federal and Basque governments. On 17 May 2005, all the parties in the Congress of Deputies, except the PP, passed the Central Government's motion of beginning peace talks with the ETA with no political concessions and only if it gives up all its weapons. PSOE, CiU, ERC, PNV, IU-ICV, CC and the mixed group -BNG, CHA, EA y NB- supported it with a total of 192 votes, while the 147 PP parliamentaris objected. On February 20th 2005, Spain became the first country to allow its people to vote on the European Union constitution that was signed in October 2004. The rules states that if any country rejects the constitution then the constitution will be declared void. The final result was very strongly in affirmation of the constitution, making Spain the first country to approve the constitution via referendum (Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia approved it before Spain, but they did not hold referenda).

Administrative divisions

Administratively, Spain is divided into 50 provinces, grouped into 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities with high degree of autonomy.

Autonomous communities

autonomous communities Main article: Autonomous communities of Spain Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas) and 2 autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas; Ceuta and Melilla).
- Andalusia (Andalucía)
- Aragon (Aragón)
- Principality of Asturias (Principáu d'Asturies in Asturian/Principado de Asturias in Spanish)
- Balearic Islands (Illes Balears in Catalan / Islas Baleares in Spanish)
- Basque Country (Euskadi in Basque/País Vasco in Spanish)
- Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)
- Cantabria
- Castile-La Mancha (Castilla-La Mancha)
- Castile and Leon (Castilla y León in Spanish)
- Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan/Cataluña in Spanish/ Catalunha in Aranese)
- Extremadura
- Galicia (Galicia or Galiza in Galician)
- La Rioja
- Madrid
- Murcia
- Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque/Navarra in Spanish)
- Land of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana in Valencian /Comunidad Valenciana in Spanish, as official denominations).

Provinces

Main article: Provinces of Spain The Spanish kingdom is also divided into 50 provinces (provincias). Autonomous communities group provinces (for instance, Extremadura is made of two provinces: Cáceres and Badajoz). The autonomous communities of Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarre, Murcia, and Madrid (the nation's capital) are each composed of a single province. Traditionally, provinces are usually subdivided into historic regions or comarcas (main article: Comarcas of Spain).

Places of sovereignty

There are also five enclaves (plazas de soberanía) on and off the African coast: the cities of Ceuta and Melilla are administered as autonomous cities, an intermediate status between cities and communities; the islands of the Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera are under direct Spanish administration. The Canary islands, Ceuta and Melilla, although not officially historic communities, enjoy a special status.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Spain Geography of Spain Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tajo, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, in the east there are alluvial plains with medium rivers like Segura, Júcar and Turia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found. Spain's climate can be divided in four areas:
- The Mediterranean: mostly temperate in the eastern and southern part of the country; rainy seasons are spring and autumn. Mild summers with pleasant temperatures. Hot records: Murcia 47.2 °C, Malaga 44.2 °C, Valencia 42.5 °C, Alicante 41.4 °C, Palma of Mallorca 40.6 °C, Barcelona 39.8 °C. Low records: Gerona -13.0 °C, Barcelona -10.0 °C, Valencia -7.2 °C, Murcia -6.0 °C, Alicante -4.6 °C, Malaga -3.8 °C.
- The interior: Very cold winters (frequent snow in the north) and hot summers. Hot records: Sevilla 47.0 °C, Cordoba 46.6 °C, Badajoz 45.0 °C, Albacete and Zaragoza 42.6 °C, Madrid 42.2 °C, Burgos 41.8 °C, Valladolid 40.2 °C. Low records: Albacete -24.0 °C, Burgos -22.0 °C, Salamanca -20.0 °C, Teruel -19.0 °C, Madrid -14.8 °C, Sevilla -5.5 °C.
- Northern Atlantic coast: precipitations mostly in winter, with mild summers (slightly cold). Hot records: Bilbao 42.0 °C, La Coruña 37.6 °C, Gijón 36.4 °C. Low records: Bilbao -8.6 °C, Oviedo -6.0 °C, Gijon and La Coruña -4.8 °C.
- The Canary Islands: subtropical weather, with mild temperatures (18 °C to 24 °C Celsius) throughout the year. Hot records: Santa Cruz de Tenerife 42.6 °C. Low records: Santa Cruz de Tenerife 8.1 °C.

Most populous metropolitan areas

Celsius Celsius # Madrid 5 603 285 # Barcelona 5 328 395 # Valencia 1 465 423 # Sevilla 1 294 081 # Málaga 1 019 292 For a more complete list, see List of cities in Spain List of cities in Spain

Territorial disputes

Territories claimed by Spain

Spain has called for the return of Gibraltar, a tiny British possession on its southern coast. It changed hands during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704 and was ceded to Britain in perpetuity in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Spanish territories claimed by other countries

Morocco claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the uninhabited Vélez, Alhucemas, Chafarinas, and Perejil islands, all on the Northern coast of Africa. Morocco points out that those territories were obtained when Morocco could not do anything to prevent it and has never signed treaties ceding them. Portugal does not recognize Spain's sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza. Spain and Portugal disagree on the interpretation of the outputs of the Congress of Vienna (1815), which according to Portugal stated the return of the territory to Portugal. Spain claims it is a de jure sovereignty according to International law.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Spain Economy of Spain Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 87% that of the four leading West European economies. The centre-right government of former Prime Minister Aznar successfully worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency, the euro, on 1 January 1999. The Aznar administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the Aznar administration but remains high at 9.8% as of August 2005 - but this (still unacceptable) level must be seen in the light of levels of over 20% at the start of the 1990s. Growth of 2.4% in 2003 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering European economy, and has steadied since at an annualised rate of about 3.3% in mid 2005. The Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero, whose party won the election three days after the Madrid train bombings in March 2004, plans to reduce government intervention in business, combat tax fraud, and support innovation, research and development, but also intends to reintroduce labour market regulations that had been scrapped by the Aznar government. Adjusting to the monetary and other economic policies of an integrated Europe - and reducing unemployment - will pose challenges to Spain over the next few years. According to [http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf World Bank GDP figures]from 2004, Spain has the 8th largest economy in the world. There is general concern that Spain's model of economic growth (based largely on mass tourism, the construction industry, and manufacturing sectors) is faltering and may prove unsustainable over the long term. The first report of the Observatory on Sustainability (Observatorio de Sostenibilidad) - published in 2005 and funded by Spain's Ministry of the Environment and Alcalá University - reveals that the country's per capita GDP grew by 25% over the last ten years, while greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 45% since 1990. Although Spain's population grew by less than 5% between 1990 and 2000, urban areas expanded by no less than 25% over the same period. Meanwhile, Spain's energy consumption has doubled over the last 20 years and is currently rising by 6% per annum. This is particularly worrying for a country whose dependence on imported oil (meeting roughly 80% of Spain's energy needs) is one of the greatest in the EU. Large-scale unsustainable development is clearly visible along Spain's Mediterranean coast in the form of housing and tourist complexes, which are placing severe strain on local land and water resources.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain The Spanish Constitution, although affirming the sovereignty of the Spanish Nation, recognizes historical nationalities. The Castilian-derived Spanish (called both español and castellano in the language itself) is the official language throughout Spain, but other regional languages are also spoken. Without mentioning them by name, the Spanish Constitution recognizes the possibility of regional languages being co-official in their respective autonomous communities. The following languages are co-official with Spanish according to the appropriate Autonomy Statutes.
- Catalan (català) in Catalonia (Catalunya), the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), Valencia (València) and Aragon's eastern strip (Aragó).
- Basque (euskara) in Basque Country (Euskadi), and parts of Navarre (Nafarroa). Basque is not known to be related to any other language.
- Galician (galego) in Galicia (Galicia or Galiza).
- Occitan (the Aranese dialect). Spoken in the Vall d'Aran in Catalonia. Catalan, Galician, Aranese (Occitan) and Spanish (Castilian) are all descended from Latin and have their own dialects, some championed as separate languages by their speakers (the Valencià of València, a dialect of Catalan, is one example). There are also some other surviving Romance minority languages: Asturian / Leonese, in Asturias and parts of Leon, Zamora and Salamanca, and the Extremaduran in Caceres and Salamanca, both descendants of the historical Astur-Leonese dialect; the Aragonese or fabla in part of Aragon; the fala, spoken in three villages of Extremadura; and some Portuguese dialectal towns in Extremadura and Castile-Leon. However, unlike Catalan, Galician, and Basque, these do not have any official status. In the touristic areas of the Mediterranean costas and the islands, German and English are spoken by tourists, foreign residents and tourism workers. Many linguists claim that most of the Spanish language variants spoken in Latin America (Mexican, Argentinian, Colombian, Peruvian, etc. variants) descended from the Spanish spoken in southwestern Spain (Andalusia, Extremadura and Canary Islands).

Identities

The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities," a carefully chosen word in order to avoid "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation. But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different regional identities, some of them even conflicting. Castile is considered by many to be the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros). The opposite is the case of a large part of Catalans, Basques and, in some measure, Galicians, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe. For example, according to the last CIS survey, 44% of Basques identify themselves first as Basques (only 8% first as Spaniards); 40% of Catalans do so with their autonomous community (20% identify firstly with Spain), and 32% Galicians with Galicia (9% with Spain). Even more remarkable, almost all comunities have a majority of people identifying as much with Spain as with the Autonomous Community (except Madrid, where Spain is the primary identity, and Catalonia, Basque Country and Balearics, where people tend to identity more with their Autonomous Community). Even Castille-Leon has 57% of people regarding themselves as much Spaniards as they are Castillians. The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration (rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands. Spain became a unified crown with the union of Castile and Aragon in 1492 and the annexation of Navarre in 1515. Until 1714, Spain was a loose confederation of kingdoms and statelets under one king, until King Philip V (Felipe V) removed the autonomous status of the Aragonese crown. Navarre and the Basque Provinces, however, kept a high degree of autonomy within their legal and financial system (Fueros). Moreover, the creation of a unified state in the 19th and 20th centuries has led to the present situation, which is apparently simple, but sometimes extremely confusing. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1936), Catalonia and the Basque country were given limited