CityReads│Spain: What You Need to Know
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Spain: What You Need to Know
Spain is much more than bullfighting and flamenco. It is an international economic power, and its future will significantly shape that of the European Union. What happens in Spain matters.
Source:William Chislett,2013. Spain: what everyone needs to know,Oxford University Press.
Picture source: A painting of a young woman taking a siesta, The hammock, by Gustave Courbet (1844)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Die_H%C3%A4ngematte.jpg
Spain has undergone significant transformations over the past three decades, from a dictatorship to a democracy and from a mostly local and agriculture-based economy to one of the biggest financial systems in the EU and internationally. Until 2008, it enjoyed a major influx of foreign investment and the most rapid economic growth of any of the countries in the EU, resulting in half of the new jobs created during the early days of the Union. Yet, it now faces the highest rate of unemployment in Europe and slow growth for the foreseeable future. Additionally, the country faces internal strife from the separatist Catalan region and stringent austerity measures.
In Spain: What Everyone Needs to Know, veteran journalist William Chislett recounts the country's fascinating and often turbulent history, beginning with the Muslim conquest in 711 and ending with the nation's deep economic crisis, sparked by the spectacular collapse of its real estate and construction sectors. He explains how some of the ghosts of the 1936-39 Civil War were laid to rest and the country moved to democracy, and covers issues such as the devolution of power to the country's 17 regions, the creation of a welfare state, the influx of several million immigrants over a very short time span, the religious cleavage, the strengths and weaknesses of the economy and how the country can create a more sustainable economic model.
What happens in Spain matters. As Chislett shows, the country is much more than bullfighting and flamenco. It is an international economic power, and its future will significantly shape that of the European Union.
This book progresses chronologically, beginning in 711 with the arrival of Moors from North Africa, who ushered in Muslim rule in parts of Spain until 1492, and ending with the recent economic crisis. This book is divided into 7 chapters. Except for the last one, each chapter is organized around scores of questions and answers. In total, there are 83 questions and answers. The following is a sample of them.
Spain Today
Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, and the world’s 13th, was mired in uncharted territory. The PP had to tackle a crisis on five fronts: economic (collapse of an unsustainable economic model excessively based on the labor-intensive construction sector), financial (high budget deficit and public debt burden), institutional (a major loss of confidence in the political elite), social (more than 1.7 million households with no members working), and constitutional (the push in Catalonia for independence).
Spain has laid to rest many but not all the ghosts of its recent authoritarian past. Its democracy is vibrant, although the political class has lost the sheen it enjoyed during the 1975–1978 transition when consensus was the watchword and the guiding spirit. The widespread discontent with all parties, particularly the two largest ones, the conservative Popular Party and the Socialists, which between them have ruled Spain since the end of 1982, and with many of the state’s institutions, stems to a large extent from the five-year recession. This recession was sparked by the bursting of an immense property bubble in 2008 after a more than decade-long economic boom. The spectacular collapse of the real estate and construction sectors was the main cause of Spain’s rocketing unemployment rate to 26 percent in 2013, more than double the European average, and shook the country’s economic, political, institutional, and social foundations.
The depth of Spain’s crisis is such that the country, with 11 percent of the euro zone’s GDP and a population of 47 million, accounted at the end of 2012 for 31 percent of the zone’s 18.7 million total jobless (5.9 million), whereas Germany (population 82 million and 30 percent of the GDP) accounted for only 15 percent of the unemployed (2.9 million). Spain’s jobless rate was the countrys highest ever. The “real” unemployment rate for those aged 16-24 was high, at more than 22 percent.
Table Basic Socioeconomic Statistics,1975–2012
Table Spain in the world
What Was the Legacy of the Muslim Presence between 711 And 1492?
Moors (Berber tribes) crossed over from North Africa in 711 and landed at a limestone mass they called jabal-tariq (Tariq’s rock), or Gibraltar as it is known today. In just a few years they subdued the Visigoths, who had replaced the Romans (218 BC–AD 400) as the rulers of Hispania (the Roman name for the Iberian peninsula), and controlled most of what is today Spain and Portugal. The Moors called the territory they occupied al-Andalus, and it was part of the caliphate of Damascus.
Córdoba’s Great Mosque, built on the site of St. Vincent’s Church, which, in turn, rests upon the foundations of a Roman temple, became the second most important place of Muslim worship after Mecca. Today, it is one of the most visited sites in Spain. The other imposing Moorish building is the Alhambra palace in Granada.
Arabic historians at the time called Córdoba the “jewel of the world.” It was the largest city in Western Europe, with a population of up to 500,000 and magnificent palaces, gardens, fountains, and libraries, as well as a center of learning and translation at a time when the rest of medieval Europe was much less enlightened. Muslims were also tolerant of Christians and Jews; this coexistence of the three religions, though not always peaceful and harmonious, was relatively unique during the Middle Ages in Europe. The Muslims allowed the practice of other faiths provided the people holding them submitted to their rule and paid taxes.
The Muslims were also advanced in commerce, agriculture, and urbanization (they created new towns such as Badajoz and Almería). They capitalized on the Roman system of irrigation (Hispania was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire) and introduced new crops such as oranges, lemons, cotton, sugarcane, and rice. The enormous Roman aqueduct at Segovia is today a World Heritage Site, while the Tribunal de las Aguas (Water Court) in Valencia, established during the Muslim rule, still meets once a week to resolve irrigation disputes.
The Arabic influence was also significant on the Spanish language—for example, in words beginning with “al” like alcalde (mayor) and alfombra (carpet). Even the place name Madrid, which did not become the capital of Spain until 1561, is of Arabic origin (it refers to a subterranean water conduit). The Muslim philosopher Averroës (1126–1198) lived in Córdoba and left his mark on European culture; it was mainly through him that the knowledge of Aristotle spread through Europe.
How did the Spanish Empire Arise?
The year 1492 was a transcendental one for Spain and for the world. That year, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain and on October 12, after 32 days at sea, landed on an island in the Caribbean he called San Salvador, which most scholars locate in the Bahamas. Over the next few years Columbus made three more voyages of discovery to America (the New World), opening the European colonial era and ushering in globalization.
Columbus’s first voyage coincided with the publication of Antonio de Nebrija’s Castilian Grammar, the first grammar book of any modern European language. When Queen Isabella asked Nebrija what it was for, he replied: “Language, your majesty, is the companion of empire.” The conquistadors imposed the Spanish language and Christianity on vast territories and populations that far exceeded those of Spain.
Spain was the preeminent and first truly global power during the 16th and most of the 17th centuries. It controlled most of what is today Latin America (with the main exception of Brazil, which was part of the Portuguese empire), parts of the United States, the East Indies (including the Philippines), and various European territories, including the Low Countries (the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), the greater part of Italy, and some parts of modern France and Germany. It also established naval ascendancy in the Atlantic and Pacific and most of the Mediterranean.
Titian and studio, Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto, 1572-75.
Source: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/philip-ii-offering-the-infante-don-fernando-to/d1f2bea9-0d59-495e-9fb5-6efe7762798d
In 1571, Spain was part of the Holy League of Catholic maritime states that defeated the Ottoman Turks at the battle of Lepanto (present-day Nafpaktos) in the Corinthian Gulf, dealing a severe blow to Muslim expansionism, the main threat to Western Christianity.
Spain was at the height of its global power during the 1516-1598. During this time it also experienced a flowering of literature and fine arts, known as the Siglo de Oro (the Golden Century)—although the period lasted more than 100 years. Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), author of Don Quixote, Fernando de Rojas (1465–1541), author of Celestina, the dramatists and poets Lope de Vega (1562–1635) and Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681), the painters El Greco (1541–1614), Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618–1682), among the most well-known artists of the time, brought another kind of glory to Spain. The sharp contrasts between imperial grandeur and gradual decline at home can be read into Don Quixote. Like Cervantes’s hero, Spain’s elite had lost touch with reality.
The Holy Trinity by El Greco
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Greco#/media/File:Trinidad_El_Greco2.jpg
Las Meninas (1656) by Velázquez
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Vel%C3%A1zquez
Why Did Spain Go into Decline in the 17th Century?
The wealth that poured into Spain from trade with the colonies was monopolized by the monarchy.This money encouraged the Habsburg line of monarchs to pursue their imperial ambitions closer to home and become entangled in futile and expensive European wars.
The wealth lulled Spain into a false sense of financial security.Too much of this wealth was spent on building churches, palaces, and monasteries (more than 9,000 of these existed in 1626) and not enough was invested in human capital. Spaniards preferred unproductive professions in the church, the military, and the government, as they looked down on manual labor, industry, and commerce.
Another factor was religious intolerance, which stunted intellectual and scientific development.The Jews had been extensively involved in commerce and industry until they were expelled en masse in 1492, as were the Muslims in agriculture until they were forced into exile or to convert to the Christian faith as of 1502. Between 1609 and 1614, some 300,000 moriscos were expelled from Spain, further depriving the agricultural sector.
Inflation was another factor that weakened the economy. The influx of gold and silver pushed up prices.
After growing strongly in the 16th century, Spain’s population declined in the 17th because of outbreaks of plague and the expulsion of the moriscos.
Spain gave up its European possessions after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Latin American countries gradually gained independence during the early part of the 19th century and Spain lost the remnants of the empire—Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines—as a result of the Spanish-American War in 1898.
How Was the System of Regional Autonomy Created?
A constant theme in Spanish history, and one still not resolved, has been the center-periphery tension between Madrid and the more nationalist regions, particularly the Basque Country and Catalonia. The British author Gerald Brenan (1894–1987), who lived most of his life in Spain, observed that a Spaniard’s allegiance was “first of all to his native place, or to his family or social group in it, and only secondly to his country and government.”
The 1978 Constitution sought to defuse antagonism in the politically charged post-Franco years by creating a system of 17 comunidades autónomas (autonomous communities), which turned Spain into a quasi-federal state.
The central government retained control of foreign policy, trade, defense, and macroeconomic policy, while the communities were gradually given responsibility for education, housing, health, and justice. This widespread devolution was known as café para todos (coffee for everyone) and led to the creation of bloated regional bureaucracies and around 5,000 companies owned by regions or town halls, that caused Spain’s budget deficit and public debt to balloon.
The 17 regions vary considerably in size, economic structure, and wealth. Andalusia, with a population of 8.5 million (almost one-fifth of Spain’s), is the largest region and, along with Extremadura, which borders Portugal, the poorest. Unemployment rates in these two regions were more than 30 percent in 2013, compared to a national average of over 25 percent.
The predominant economic activity in Andalusia is tourism, particularly on its Costa del Sol, and in Extremadura it is agriculture. Madrid is the seat of the central government, the headquarters of many Spanish and foreign companies and the nation’s capital; Catalonia in the northeast is an economic powerhouse and accounts for one-quarter of exports (its economy is the size of Portugal’s); La Rioja in the north is famous for its wines; Galicia in the northwest is legendary for its rain; and the Canary Islands are closer to Africa than to the rest of Europe.The Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia have their own languages.
Spaniards in the wealthier northern regions tend to look down on their compatriots in the south for being lazy and too dependent on transfers of funds from Madrid under the so-called solidarity system to level out regional income disparities. This is particularly the case of Catalans, who resent the amount of transfers they must pay to the central government for distribution to the poorer regions.Catalans began to push for the creation of a Catalan state.
What Was the Impact of the Collapse of the Property and Construction Sectors?
Between 1995 and 2007, eight million jobs were created. Investment in residential housing reached 9 percent of the GDP, a much higher proportion than in other parts of Europe. The country accounted for around 30 percent of all new homes built in the European Union between 2000 and 2009, although its economy only generated around 10 percent of the Union’s total GDP.
The construction and property sectors accounted for 18 percent of the GDP and 20 percent of employment at the height of the boom in 2006 and generated 30 percent of economic growth between 1997 and 2007. Such a lopsided economic model was not sustainable.
Spain’s economic boom was built on shaky foundations, which began to crumble after the first signs of a global credit crunch in August 2007, following the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Too much of the Spanish economy was built on bricks and cement and too little on knowledge. Spain’s spending on R&D has traditionally been low (1.3 percent of the GDP in 2011, compared to a European Union average of 2.0 percent and more than 3.0 percent in the Nordic countries), and the country accounted in 2009 for only 0.5 percent of triadic patents (those filed at the European Patent Office, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the Japan Patent Office).
When it did burst in 2008, Spain’s real economic growth plummeted from 3.6 percent in 2007 to 0.9 percent in 2008, and the country was plunged into recession between 2009 and 2013,which left Spain even more heavily reliant on tourism, long a mainstay of the economy (around 12 percent of the GDP and 10 percent of the active labor force), and forced companies to export more. Traditionally an exporter of vegetables, fruit, and wine, Spain today exports a diversified range of products, including information and air traffic control systems, space navigation equipment, and cars.
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