Spain: past and present

César Díaz Caviedes

IndexThe three blocks

o The country and the State

General information

o The culture

Things you have to know

o Big issues of our time

Important aspects of actual Spanish society

FIRST BLOCK: the State

o Geography

- 504.645 square kilometres

- Two spaces: atlantic and mediterranean

o Demography

- 46.771.600 population

- Slowly growing older

The form of the State

o Parliamentary Monarchy- King as the head of the State and the Army

o Autonomical State- Statute of Autonomy- 1978 Spanish Constitution

Source: http://lacolumnata.es/images/2012/10/Espa%C3%B1a-y-sus-provincias.jpg

SECOND BLOCK: the cultureo History

o Spanish diversity

o Spain and Europe

o Spain and Latinoamerica

o Spanish dualism?

Historyo First alphabet from East Mediterranean societieso Roman impact and legacy o Muslim impacto Coalition of kingdomso Imperial expansion

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Spanish_Empire_Anachronous_0.PNG

o Building of a liberal state XIX-XX

o Conflicts between backward·modern Spain

o Civil War 1936·9, Francoism 1939·75 and

o Transition 1975·7 and Democracy 1977·now

- Political violence (strikes, demostrations, ETA, GRAPO, GAL…)

- The role of the king in 1981 coup d’ètat- Disintegration of Francoist state

Languages

o Spanish is the official language of the state

o Cooficial languages are Catalan, Basque and Galician. Included in public administration and education

o Valencian and Aranese, controversial forms of the Catalan language, are also cooficial

o Other languages, like Asturianese, have some support from the local authorities but are not official

Spain and Europe

o Actual Spain come from an old during european isolation because Francoism since 1939

o Joined NATO in 1982

o Joined the European Community in 1982 and the Euro in 2003

Spain and Latinoamerica

o Spain has a unique position among the European Community because its special economic and cultural links with Latinamerica

Some of the greatest figures of Spanish letters are actually Americans (Borges, Cortázar, García Márquez, Benedetti…)

Spanish dualism?

o Left·Right (Civil War scars)

o Atlantic North·Mediterranean South

o Religious·anticlerical (World Youth Day 2011)

o Industrial North·rural South

THIRD BLOCK: Big issues of our time

o Crisis

o nationalisms·terrorism

o Inmigration·emigration

o Europe

Crisis

o Financial crisis and debto “Cajas” (saving funds) o Construction bubbleo Cuts in public spendingo High unemployment rateo Political scandals (Gürtel, EREs…) o Royal Family scandals (Nóos scandal)o Police brutalityo Decline in living standards, poverty, evictions…

(Special BBC report: “The Great Spanish Crash”)

Nationalismso The role of language and history

o Basque Country nationalism (PNV), independentism (Bildu) and terrorism (ETA)

o Catalan nationalists, CiU and Esquerra Republicana

o Galician nationalists, BNG

o Spanish nationalism

Inmigration·emigrationo In 2011 came 457.650 inmigrants and 507.740 left the country

o 5,7 m. inmigrants in Spain, 12,1 % of population

-Romania, Morocco, U.K., Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia…

-Chinese growing minorty

o Spaniards leaving the country

- Specially Europe and Latinamerica

Spain and Europe

o Europe as the future

- European isolation

o Europe disenchantment

- Cutbacks in social spending

Bibliography

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/ESP.html

http://www.ine.es/

Maps: www.wikipedia.org