Nation Examination: Spain
Ole!
Spain and Portugal share a lot of the same history. The people who had originally settled Spain spent thousands of years moving from hunting and gathering to farming and keeping livestock. Once they established permanent settlements, their world expanded by contact with the Phoenicians and Greeks. This was primarily along the Mediterranean coasts where a number of city states were set up.
During the same time period, the Celts decided to settle the rest of Spain where they lived a more nomadic life shepherding their sheep between the summer northern highlands and the winter central plateau.
Slowly Spain came under full control of the Roman Empire. They were called "Hesperia" and enjoyed the influence of Rome and its many building innovations such as bridges and aqueducts. When the Western Empire of Rome fell in the 5th century, they didn't enter the "Dark Ages" - rather, they kept the culture they had established during the Roman rule.
Next up were the Visigoths! Those Germanic soldiers with their round shields took over for a few hundred years.
But in 711 the Moors came and conquered Spain. They left behind their architecture and influence.
The Moors were slowly expelled by the Reconquista which was the Crusade-like movement that took over Spain.
El Cid is a national hero in Spain and this is the time frame that he fought his epic battle for Valencia (a city in modern-day Spain). He is a important part of Spanish history:
By 1470, the Kingdoms had joined together by the marriage of Isabelle I of Castille and Ferdinand II of Aargon. They were formally joined together in 1479 where the two kingdoms consented to becoming one.
Video that summarizes the Spanish Inquisition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmcKS47BsAo
The Inquisition lasted until 1834 during which time Spain funded Christopher Columbus, Cortez conquered the Aztecs and Pizarro took over the Incas. As religious persecution continued in Spain, the country participated in a number of wars including: The Thirty Years War, the War of Spanish Succession, and the Peninsula War against France's Napoleon.
Near the end of the Spanish Inquisition, Pablo Picasso was born in Spain! Spain also settled themselves and released a bit of property to the United States including Guam (not highlighted), Puerto Rico, Philippines and Cuba (colored in red in the map below; Spain is in blue).
At this point, Spain is a Republic that stayed neutral during WWI. But WWII is on the horizon and Spain is torn between the Nationalists and the Republicans causing a civil war between them. The Nationalists are supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and they win out in 1939 with Francisco Franco becoming the dictator for the next 36 years.
In 1976, Spain transitions to being a democracy and since then has grown their economy and their participation in the world.
What this means is that Spain has a governing body called a Parliament. The Parliament is split into two parts - the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. The Congress of Deputies uses the "list" method of appointment (the fancy name for this is party list proportional representation). This is when people vote for a party. Then that party has a numbered list of candidates. The number of votes that the party gets determines how many of those candidates get to serve in the Congress of Deputies! Better hope your name is high up on that list to get a position!
Also part of Parliament is the Senate. These officials are elected directly by the citizens in their communities. However, there are about 50 that are not! They are appointed by their local legislature - it's like an "opt-out" of elections that is written in the Spanish Constitution. There are about 260 members of the Senate (the number varies with the population) and they appoint the Prime Minister. All members of Parliament can only serve for 4 years before getting appointed/elected again but the Prime Minister doesn't have a term limit.
The "Constitutional" part is that the government has a Constitution that guides its legislative decisions. It was adopted in 1978.
And the Monarchy part is that there is still a monarchy in title only - but they are SO fun - so here's the pictures:
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| King Felipe VI (he attended boarding school in Ontario Canada) |
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| The Royal Family (youngest daughter is Sophia!) |
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| Home - the Zarzuela Palace |
Spain is broken into what is best understood to us as Provinces or States but they are called Autonomous Communities.
Cubism
A lot of incredible artists were born in Spain but we are going to focus on two of the Modernist Movement fame: Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.
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| Salvador Dali |
He was born in Spain just nine months after his older brother passed away - his parents thought that he was the reincarnation of his older brother and told him that. He shared the same name as his deceased brother.
He was a rebellious and gifted youth who was expelled from the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid shortly before final exams for saying that none of the faculty were competent enough to examine him.
Let's look at his art in chronological form:
Let's look at his art in chronological form:
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| 1924 Pierrot and Guitar |
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| 1928 The Wounded Bird |
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| 1929 The Enigma of Desire: My Mother |
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| 1936 Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War |
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| 1938 Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach |
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| 1952 The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory |
