Spain

(spān,) (anc. Hispania,) a S.W. kingdom of Europe, occupying three-fourths of the surface of the Iberian peninsula, bet. N. Lat. 36°-13° 45′, and W. Lon. 3° 20′-9° 20′, b. N. by the Bay of Biscay and France, E. and S.E. by the Mediterranean, S. by the Straits of Gibraltar, S.W. and W. by Portugal, and N.W. by the Atlantic Ocean. S. has a coast-line extending 1,317 m., of which 712 m. belong to the Mediterranean and 605 to the Atlantic seaboard. Area, 195,607 sq. m. The geographical configuration of this country upon the map presents somewhat the form of a pentagon, with its narrowest apex at the Rock of Gibraltar. The Spanish coast in general is indented with no bays of particular size or importance; the principal being the bays or gulfs of Rosas, Valencia, Cadiz, Pontevedra, Vigo, Betanzas, and Santander. The most prominent headlands are Capes Creux, Bagne, St. Martin, Nao, Palos, de Gata, Trafalgar, Torinano, de Penas, Ortegal, and Finisterre. The major part of S. presents an elevated table-land or plateau, intersected by several great mountain-chains. The N.E. frontier is formed by the Pyrenees, separating the kingdom from France; these mountains throwing off collateral ranges, one of which, under the name of the Cant a brian Mts., pa es in a direction due W., through Navarre, the Basque Provs., and Asturias, nearly as far as Cape Finisterre. Another range takes a S.W. course through Catalonia, and forms for some distance the boundary line bet. Aragon and Valencia. Other great chains are those of the Montes de Castile and de Toledo, and the Sierras de Olbion and de Albaracin, in the Castiles; the Sierra Morena, dividing New Castile from And alus i a; and the Sierra Nevada, culminating in Mt. Mulahacen (11,668 ft.), pa ing S. through And alus i a, after connecting with the Sierras de Albaracin and Morena. The soil of the more central parts is of a tolerably fertile character, being generally an alluvion mixed with sand and gypsum. The coast lands and those of the S. and Estremaduran valleys are more rich and productive and better adapted to agriculture and vine-growing than the first-named. Although watered by many noble rivers, such as the Ebro, Douro, Minho, Tagus, Guadiana, and Guadalquivir, the land is for the most part artificially irrigated; it produces the cereals, rice, hemp and flax, cotton, coffee, sugar, cocoa, together with such fruits as the vine, olive, orange, pomegranate, lemon, ., in high perfection. Cattle-raising is an important branch of rural industry; and the pilchard, tunny, and anchovy fisheries profitably engage a large section of the coast populations. The mineral aspect of S. presents iron, lead, coal, quicksilver, marble, and salt. The kingdom, formerly divided into 14 pro vs., has now 49 (including those formed by the Balearic Islands and the Canaries); and, in addition thereto, po e es the following colonies: in America, the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico; in Asia and Oceanic a, the Philippine, Caroline, and Marianne Islands; and in Africa, the Guinea Islands, Fernando Po, and Tetuan: - embracing a total colonial area of 117,173 sq. m. The chief cities and towns of S. comprise Madrid (the C.), Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, Seville, Granada, Cadiz, Sarago a, Palma (Island of Majorca), Valladolid, Xeres, and Cordova. The govt. is an hereditary monarchy, based upon a democratic constitution established in 1869. The king is a isted by a responsible cabinet of ministers; and the people are represented by a national legislature called the Cortes, which consists of a congre elected for three years, and composed of one deputy for every 40,000 in hab., and of a senate elected for twelve years, consisting of four members sent by each prov. The Roman Catholic faith is the established form of religion, and the priesthood po e considerable wealth and power, although the dominant influence they once po e ed has been much curtailed of late years. The Spanish army proper consisted in 1870 of 216,000 men (with an annual contingent of 30,000), besides 42,800 militia, and a colonial force of 46,200 men; forming a grand total of 295,000 men of all arms. The navy at the same period consisted of 120 steamers of 787 guns, and 3 sailing-ships carrying 32 guns, along with 4 steamers of 67 guns in course of construction. The revenue for 1870-1 was estimated at 535,702,055 pesetas ($104,461,900); expenditure 716,667,443 pesetas ($139,750,151); thus exhibiting a deficit of 180,965,388 pesetas (or $41,215,237). On the 31st Dec. in the year above stated, the public debt stood at (including interest) 2,766,339,475 pesetas ($636,842,548), to which must be added a loan contracted in 1871 of 60,000,000 escudos ($24,800,000). The pp. exports comprise wheat, wines, olive-oil, fruits, quicksilver and other metals, wool, cork, seeds, and salt; and the bulk of foreign trade is carried on with France and Great Britain. The cotton manufacture is making considerable progre , and silk stuffs are largely fabricated. All manu fs. of tobacco, arms, and gunpowder are carried on by the govt. exclusively. The in hab. include 4 distinct races, viz., the Spaniards proper, the Basques, the Moriscoes, and the Gitanos. S., after being partially colonized by the Phœnicians and Cart hag in i ans, became a Roman prov. under August us, and some 400 years afterward was succe ively overrun by the Vandals, Goths, and other northern races. In the 8th cent., the Moors succe fully invaded the country, and remained virtual masters of the entire S. portion of it till the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, when, in 1492, they were finally driven back into Africa. Under Charles V., and his son Philip II., S. became the greatest power in the then world. But with the latter prince began that decay which speedily reduced it to a mere shadow of its past glory and importance. After the death of Charles II., in 1700, began the so-called War of the Spanish Succe ion, in which the rival claims of France and Austria to the throne terminated in favor of Philip V., grandson of the French king Louis XIV. Between 1759 and 1763, an unsucce ful war was waged against England, and in 1778 S. again took up arms against that country, and, at the peace of 1783, received the island of Minorca and the American Florid as. The later chief events in Spanish historical annals have been: the struggle against Napoleon during the so-called Peninsular War; the restoration, by French arms in 1823, of the Bourbon dynasty in the person of Ferdinand VII., whose tyranny had led to a revolution in 1820; the Car list War, 1833-40, ending in the triumph of the Christ i nos (q. v.); the exile of Queen Christina in 1854; a war with Morocco in 1858-9; the annexation of St. Domingo in 1861; a war with Peru and Chili in 1864-5; the downfall of the Bourbon monarchy în 1868; the insurrection in Cuba in 1868-75; the election of A made us of Savoy as king of Spain in 1870; his abdication in 1873; the adoption of a republican form of govt. under Castelar and Serrano, 1873-4; and the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Alfonso XII., son of Isabella, Jan., 1875. S. from 1873 to 1875 was the theatre of a civil war waged against the govt. by the adherents of Don Carlos, who held nearly all the N.E. of the country. Pop. 16,551,647. [s. 842]