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History of spain past economic, social and political
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Country Paper
The country I chose to write my paper on is Spain. The capital of Spain is Madrid, and is located right in the center of Spain. Other major cities include Barcelona, Bilbao, Malagá, Sevilla, Valencià, and Zaragoza. Spain is part of the European Union, so the citizens of Spain can travel to other countries in the European Union with less documentation. The Spanish currency is the Euro, and some of their natural resources include copper, coal, iron rod, and uranium. Spain is a democratic state that follows a Constitutional Monarchy, which means that the written constitution limits the power of the monarchy, and power is shared between the monarchy and a elected branch of government. An interesting fact about Spain is that not only do they have a Parliamentary Government they have Royal Monarch as well. The current Prime Minister of Spain is Mariano Rajoy, and the King of Spain is Juan Carlos I.
Spain was not always a democratic state, up until 1939 Spain was a Monarch Regime. Many people wanted to move away from the Royal Monarch and move towards a form of democracy. But the King, Alfonso XIII, had enough power to prevent a fair election. In 1936, civil war broke out in Spain, there was a lot of violence and corruption during this time. The civil war ended in 1939 when General Franco is crowned king. He lead Spain through a 40 year dictatorship. While in office, Franco repressed the culture and language of Spain, censured the media and had complete power over the state. General Franco was also known for practising facism and having the support of many fascist groups including the Nazi party.
General Franco died in the year 1975, Juan Carlos I takes the throne and became the new king of Spain. Carlos pushed a...
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...nt will not be able to provide this support, then what will the people of Spain do? Another challenge Spain is facing is the illegal immigration of immigrants to Spain. To deal with the illegal immigration problem Spain has set up stricter border control as well establishing at least 15 legalization programs, legalizing about 600,000 African, Eastern European, and Latin American immigrants into Spain.
All in all, Spain has had its ups and downs and then ups again throughout the years. Spain went from an absolute monarchy, to dictatorship, to constitutional monarchy.The future of Spain is in the hands of it’s citizens and only they can prevent a major debt crisis, by saving for the future on their own. Fingers crossed that the people of Spain have learned from their past and realize that fair elections and democracy is the way to keep the state of Spain successful.
The difference between the two monarchies’ plan for a centralized state was the method in which both were carried out. In the time of the New Monarchies, religion was integral to unifying the state. Monarchs such as Isabella of Castile tried to unify their countries as a result of religious purification. Isabella believed firmly that a stable Spain would only stem from a Catholic Spain. As a result, the reconquista was initiated and unification took place around the church. The monarchs insisted on religious conformity. In addition, parliamentary institutions were ignored or even sometimes abolished in order to centralize and bring peace to the state. Townspeople, the target of monarchs for support, were willing to let parliaments be dominated by the king, for parliaments p...
The passage from Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a clear example of a narrative source. Díaz is presenting his personal account of Hernan Cortes’s expedition into Tenochtitlan. An interesting aspect of this narrative is that it was written almost 50 years after the events described occurred . Bernal Díaz del Castillo was only 24 years old when on November 8, 1519 he and the rest of Hernán Cortés’s expedition first entered the city of Tenochtitlán . He did not finish his account, titled The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, which many suspect was intended as a slight to Francisco López de Gómara’s accounts of the expeditions , until 1567 . This was not his first travel to the New World, in fact, it was his fourth . Díaz del Castillo was 19 years old the first time he traveled to the Americas, this time was to Panama . Díaz later became a governor in Guatemala, mostly as a reward for his actions as a conquistador . The event that is commonly seen as spurring the not-well-educated Bernal Díaz del Castillo to write of his experiences with Cortés was the publication of Francisco López de Gómara’s Coleccion de historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, which Díaz saw as seriously flawed and underappreciating the work of the conquistadors . The book this passage comes from languished on shelves until it was published in 1632, posthumously .
Francisco Franco (1892-1975) was a lifelong military leader. He rose through the ranks until the early 1930s, when he found himself, a right-wing monarchist, in the middle of a left-wing republic. He was demoted, but later rose up again, and by 1935 he had been named chief of staff of the Spanish Army, a position he used to get rid of left-wing figures and their military institutions. When the left- wing social and economic structure of Spain began to fall, Franco joined the rebellion. He soon led an uprising and took control of Spain after the Spanish Civil War (1939). From then unti...
Looking back into the history of certain events affords the modern researcher the ability to examine a variety of documents and artifacts. It is important, however, to take into account biases, inaccuracies, errors in translation, and overall misinformation when examining primary sources, particularly historical documents. Examining the history of the conquest of the Aztec empire is no different, and in a scenario as tense as it was it is extremely important to consider the authorship of the text. Bernal Diaz’ The Conquest of New Spain and Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico offer two distinct looks into the same event in history. Both documents offer differing takes of the same events, so when
William of Orange once stated, “Spain committed such horrible excesses that all the barbarities, cruelties, and tyrannies ever perpetrated before are only games in comparison to what happened to the poor Indians.” This statement is an example of an attempt to discredit the Spanish. Attempts such as these are known as the Black Legend. The Black Legend was the name given to the concept of cruelty and brutality spread by the Spanish during the 14th and 15th century. This legend demonizes Spain and specifically the Spanish empire in an effort to harm the reputation of them. It was through this propaganda that made other countries look down upon the Spanish empire. The Black Legend threw discredit upon the rule of the Spanish by building biases and prejudices against Catholicism and the Spanish treatment of the natives of South America. The Black Legend mainly exaggerated the treatment of the native people in the regions of the Spanish Empire and non-Catholic people such as Protestants and Jews in its European territories. The Black Legend was an anti-Spanish movement, which was started due to political and religious reasons by Northern European Protestant countries who were Spain’s enemies in order to discredit them.
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant force in Western civilization. As the Dark Ages came to a close, the monarchies of Europe began to consolidate power; providing an alternative power base. With the Protestant Reformation came another blow to the influence of the Church. Spain, the forerunner in the Age of Discovery, was a fervently Catholic country. During the 16th century, the monarchy combined the forces of "cross and crown" in its imperial policy; much to the dismay and ultimate destruction of the indigenous peoples of the New World. Through an examination of Aztec polytheism and the Catholicism of the conquistadors, comes the central role of religion in the successful conquest of New Spain.
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
“Spanish dictator.” Sunday Mail; Kuala Lumpur. 28 Jul. 2002: 22. eLibrary. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Born in Blood and Fire, is a book that chronically lists the events before and after the Spanish invasion, outcomes, and the many consequences of the arrival of the Spaniards. The relationship between the Indigenous, Spaniards, and African. How culture started to be shaped by religion, power related invasion, geographical and cultural power.
The Basque "nation" --for lack of a better word-- is composed of seven different "provinces" --for the lack of a better word-- four are located within the borders of Spain and three within those of France in the triangle formed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Garonne and Ebro rivers, as shown in the map below.
In order to understand the effects of the Spanish Civil War, the atmosphere of Spain prior to 1936 needs to be understood as well. Spain, unlike major European powers, never experienced a bourgeois revolution and was therefore still dominated by a significant aristocracy. However, Spain had gone through several civil wars and revolutions making violence one of the most common devices for change. It, also, had undergone several cycles of reform, reaction from the opposition, and reversal by military uprising led by a dictator before 1936 (Preston 18).
Evidently, Spain’s loss of its colonies[3] lowered the morale of the Spanish people and reflected Spain’s backward and deteriorating nation,[4] especially in respect to the development of other European countries of that period. It was here that the Spanish realised their desperate need for ‘regeneration.’ However, a disagreement on the type of change needed divided the Spanish nation into two factions, ... ... middle of paper ... ...
La Movida began when Dictator Francisco Franco died in Madrid on November 19th, 1975. Franco’s 36-year reign had been one in which rigid public and church laws preserved the traditional role of family, enforced formal relations between the sexes, and controlled expression in the press and media. Eager to distance themselves from Franco’s repression and censorship, Spain quickly began the move to democracy called the “Transition”. King Juan Carlos I helped the transition by quickly naming Adolfo Suárez Prime Minister. Spain’s first democratic vote in over 40 years took place in 1977, and a new constitution was signed in 1978. That constitution is still in place now. In 1979, Enrique Tierno Galván became the mayor of Madrid, the capital of Spain. In this position he had a lot of power to help or hinder La Movida. His choices helped Spain to move past its repressive past. Then, in 1982, the Socialist PSOE party, headed by Felipe González, was voted in by a landslide and became Spain’s first leftist government since the 1930s.
Fast track to the 1800’s when we see many problems result from important happenings such as the peninsular war, which occurred from 1807-1814, the Spanish American wars of independence where Spain lost a significant amount of its colonies in the Americas in early 19th century. But lastly three Carlist wars that dated from 1832 all the way to 1876 had effect a new interpretation of Spain’...
The Spanish Civil War broke out due to the political consequences of the failed dictatorship of General Primo De Rivera, the weaknesses in the Coalition Government of 1931 and all other following governments and the constant failures of the acting government leading in strikes and resentment from the Spanish people. General Primo De Rivera’s failed dictatorship led to the emergence of extreme political parties and the need for these parties to counteract the failed policies of Rivera. Had Rivera’s dictatorship been successful then there would have been no weak coalition government and therefore less division and resentment among Spaniards and a Civil War may have been prevented or ...