1.
Autonomous communities of Spain
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Spain is not a federation, but a highly decentralized unitary state. Some scholars have referred to the system as a federal system in all. There are 17 autonomous communities and two cities that are collectively known as autonomies. The two autonomous cities have the right to become autonomous communities, but neither has yet used this right and this unique framework of territorial administration is known as the State of Autonomies. The autonomous communities are governed according to the constitution and their own organic laws known as Statutes of Autonomy, since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical in nature, the scope of competences vary for each community, but all have the same parliamentary structure. Spain is a country made up of different regions with varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages. While the entire Spanish territory was united under one crown by the 16th century, the constituent territories—be it crowns, kingdoms, principalities or dominions—retained much of their former institutional existence, including limited legislative, judicial or fiscal autonomy. These territories also exhibited a variety of customs, laws. From the 18th century onwards, the Bourbon kings and the government tried to establish a more centralized regime, leading figures of the Spanish Enlightenment advocated for the building of a Spanish nation beyond the internal territorial boundaries. This culminated in 1833, when Spain was divided into 49 provinces and these were the Basque Country and Catalonia. This gave rise to peripheral nationalisms along with Spanish nationalism, therefore, economic and social changes that had produced a national cultural unification in France had the opposite effect in Spain. In a response to Catalan demands, limited autonomy was granted to Catalonia in 1913 and it was granted again in 1932 during the Second Spanish Republic, when the Generalitat, Catalonias mediaeval institution of government, was restored. During General Francos dictatorial regime, centralism was most forcefully enforced as a way of preserving the unity of the Spanish nation, peripheral nationalism, along with communism and atheism were regarded by his regime as the main threats. When Franco died in 1975, Spain entered into a phase of transition towards democracy, the then Prime Minister of Spain, Adolfo Suárez, met with Josep Tarradellas, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia in exile. An agreement was made so that the Generalitat would be restored and limited competencies would be transferred while the constitution was still being written. In the end, the constitution, published and ratified in 1979, found a balance in recognizing the existence of nationalities and regions in Spain, within the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation. The starting point in the organization of Spain was the second article of the constitution. In order to exercise this right, the established a open process whereby the nationalities
2.
Flag of Extremadura
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The flag of Extremadura, according to Article 4-1 of the Statute of Autonomy, consists of three horizontal stripes of green, white, and black. The flag first appeared in the middle of the 1970s, after the death of Francisco Franco, in an era when the rights of the regional communities were being reclaimed and re-established across Spain. In official government publications, the colors of the flag are said to honor aspects of the history during the Middle Ages, Green. White, representing the Kingdom of León, which repopulated the region during the Reconquista, black, representing the Aftasid kings of the Taifa of Badajoz. However, in 2008, in the press, a professor of history named Antonio Galache Cortés posited his own theory on the meaning of the flag’s colors. Galache Cortés believed that the color referred to the Muslim era of Spain, in which Extremadura enjoyed its only period of complete independence as an Aftasid taifa. The color white referred to the Kingdom of León and the integration of the region into what would become Spain, while black was the color of the worn by the Lusitanians. Galache Cortés’ theory has been disputed, in a television interview, Luis Ramallo, president of the region before the era of autonomy, attributed the creation of the flag to a lawyer from Oliva de la Frontera, Martín Rodríguez Contreras. Black and white from the colors of Badajoz, javier Marcos Arévalo adds that the flag first appears in the written record on February 27,1977 and made its first public appearance on November 14,1976 at Oliva de la Frontera. Its first official sanction occurred in the city of Cáceres after a motion was passed by the Junta Preautonómica, the widow of Martín Rodríguez Contreras has written articles also attributing the creation of the flag to her husband. However, the two athletic clubs simply took their colors from the colors of their respective cities and provinces, green for Cáceres. Another theory explains the colors as signifying, Green, hope for a new Extremadura, white, purity of the natural environment. Black, sadness of the emigrants who have had to leave their beloved land. Flags of the communities of Spain
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
5.
Capital (political)
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
6.
Provinces of Spain
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Spain and its autonomous communities are divided into fifty provinces. The layout of Spains provinces closely follows the pattern of the division of the country carried out in 1833. The only major change of provincial borders since that time has been the sub-division of the Canary Islands into two rather than one. Historically, the provinces served mainly as transmission belts for policies enacted in Madrid, the importance of the provinces has declined since the adoption of the system of autonomous communities in the period of the Spanish transition to democracy. They nevertheless remain electoral districts for national elections and as references, for instance in postal addresses. A small town would normally be identified as being in, say, Valladolid province rather than the community of Castile. The provinces were the building-blocks from which the communities were created. Consequently, no province is divided more than one of these communities. Only two capitals of autonomous communities—Mérida in Extremadura and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia—are not also the capitals of provinces, seven of the autonomous communities comprise no more than one province each, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, and Navarra. These are sometimes referred to as uniprovincial communities, the table below lists the provinces of Spain. For each, the city is given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered according to the form in which they appear in the main Wikipedia articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their Spanish-language names are the same, locally valid names in Spains other co-official languages are indicated where they differ
7.
Province of Badajoz
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The province of Badajoz is a province of western Spain located in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It is bordered by the provinces of Cáceres in the north, Toledo, Ciudad Real in the east, Córdoba in the south-east, Seville, with its area of 21,766 km², it is the largest province in Spain. The other province of Extremadura, Cáceres, is the second largest with 19,868 km² area, the province has a relatively lower population density in comparison to other provinces in Spain. As of 2010, the province has a population of 692,137 and its capital is the city of Badajoz. The province enjoyed great prominence during the Roman empire when Mérida was made one of the capital cities, when the Visigoth period ended and the Moors had invaded Spain, the Ibn-al-Aftas dynasty established a great cultural and scientific centre in the province. Many of the explorers who set out to conquer the New World under Alfonso IX were from this province, although in many districts there are low ranges of hills, the surface is more often a desolate and monotonous plain, flat or slightly undulating. The climate is continental with extremes of heat in summer and of cold in winter. Mountains, pastures and Mediterranean forests are important geographical features of this province, the Province of Badajoz is divided into 165 municipalities. After Badajoz, the capital, the towns are Almendralejo, Azuaga, Don Benito, Jerez de los Caballeros, Mérida, Zafra, Montijo. There are also traditional comarcas in the province, including La Siberia, the capital city of Badajoz is the most important commercial centers of the province. The Council of Badazos has its seat in this city, the economy of the province is based on tourism and agriculture. Some of the popular tourist destinations of the province include Badajoz, Fregenal de la Sierra, Jerez de los Caballeros, Llerena, Mérida, Olivenza, Alange, Alburquerque, the popular dishes include hare, patridge and various pork products. In 1980 architect José Rafael Moneo Vallés made his plans for the National Museum of Roman Art, the architect designed the museum to have a Roman feel and look. Romans used to control present-day Spain, also known as the Iberian Peninsula, today, Mérida has the greatest number of noteworthy Roman buildings still surviving. It is also famous on an archaeological basis, the museum exhibits remnants of Roman infrastructure and dwellings, including those showing Christian influences like a basilica, and tombs. Inspiration for the National Museum of Roman Art dates back to 1838, when the city located the museum in a church, Santa Clara
8.
Devolution
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Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization, devolved territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority may be temporary and are reversible. Thus, the state de jure unitary. Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the way as any statute. In federal systems, by contrast, sub-unit government is guaranteed in the constitution, the sub-units therefore have a lower degree of protection under devolution than under federalism. It has six states and two territories with power than states. The Northern Territory of Australia refused statehood in a 1998 referendum, the rejection was a surprise to both the Australian and Northern Territory governments. Territory legislation can be disallowed by the Commonwealth Parliament in Canberra, although Canada is a federal state, a large portion of its land mass in the north is under the legislative jurisdiction of the federal government. This has been the case since 1870, since the 1970s, the federal government has been transferring its decision-making powers to northern governments. This means greater local control and accountability by northerners for decisions central to the future of the territories, Yukon was carved from the Northwest Territories in 1898 but it remained a federal territory. Subsequently, in 1905, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created from the Northwest Territories, other portions of Ruperts Land were added to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, extending the provinces northward from their previous narrow band around the St. Lawrence and lower Great Lakes. The District of Ungava was an administrative district of Canadas Northwest Territories from 1895 to 1912. The continental areas of district were transferred by the Parliament of Canada with the adoption of the Quebec Boundary Extension Act,1898. The status of the interior of Labrador which was believed part of Ungava was settled in 1927 by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which ruled in favour of Newfoundland. In 1999, the government created Nunavut pursuant to a land claim agreement reached with Inuit. The offshore islands to the west and north of Quebec remained part of the Northwest Territories until the creation of Nunavut in 1999, since that time, the federal government has slowly devolved legislative jurisdiction to the territories. Enabling the territories to become more self-sufficient and prosperous and to play a role in the Canadian federation is considered a key component to development in Canada’s North
9.
Constitutional monarchy
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A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign exercises their authorities in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution. A constitutional monarchy may refer to a system in which the acts as a non-party political head of state under the constitution. Political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, paraphrasing Thomas Macaulay, has defined a constitutional monarch as a sovereign who reigns, in addition to acting as a visible symbol of national unity, a constitutional monarch may hold formal powers such as dissolving parliament or giving royal assent to legislation. Many constitutional monarchies still retain significant authorities or political influence however, such as through certain reserve powers, the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms are all constitutional monarchies in the Westminster tradition of constitutional governance. Three states – Malaysia, Cambodia and the Holy See – are elective monarchies, the oldest constitutional monarchy dating back to ancient times was that of the Hittites. These were scattered noble families that worked as representatives of their subjects in an adjutant or subaltern federal-type landscape, the most recent country to move from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy was Bhutan, between 2007 and 2008. At the same time, in Scotland the Convention of Estates enacted the Claim of Right Act 1689, although Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when in 1707 she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill, Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies. For instance George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation, eventually precipitating the resignation of William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister in 1801, Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power but this diminished over the course of her reign. In 1839 she became the last sovereign to keep a Prime Minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbournes administration, today, the role of the British monarch is by convention effectively ceremonial. No person may accept significant public office without swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen, with few exceptions, the monarch is bound by constitutional convention to act on the advice of the Government. Constitutional monarchy also occurred briefly in the years of the French Revolution. As originally conceived, a monarch was head of the executive branch and quite a powerful figure even though his or her power was limited by the constitution. In many cases the monarchs, while still at the top of the political and social hierarchy, were given the status of servants of the people to reflect the new. In the course of Frances July Monarchy, Louis-Philippe I was styled King of the French rather than King of France, following the Unification of Germany, Otto von Bismarck rejected the British model. However this model of constitutional monarchy was discredited and abolished following Germanys defeat in the First World War. Later, Fascist Italy could also be considered as a constitutional monarchy and this eventually discredited the Italian monarchy and led to its abolition in 1946. After the Second World War, surviving European monarchies almost invariably adopted some variant of the constitutional monarchy model originally developed in Britain, nowadays a parliamentary democracy that is a constitutional monarchy is considered to differ from one that is a republic only in detail rather than in substance. However, three important factors distinguish monarchies such as the United Kingdom from systems where greater power might otherwise rest with Parliament, other privileges may be nominal or ceremonial
10.
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
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The Spanish Socialist Workers Party, is a social-democratic political party in Spain. PSOE formed the government in democratic Spain between 1982 and 1996, and between 2004 and 2011 and it is the currently the oldest political party in Spanish history. The party, under Felipe González, formed a majority government after its victory in the 1982 general election, the party then formed a minority government until 1996. PSOE has had ties with the General Union of Workers. For decades, UGT membership was a requirement for PSOE membership, however, since the 1980s, UGT has frequently criticized the economic policies of PSOE, even calling for a general strike on 14 December 1988. PSOE was last in power between 2004 and 2011 general elections, with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero serving as leader of the government, the PSOE is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and the Socialist International. In the European Parliament, PSOEs 14 Members of the European Parliament sit in the Socialists and Democrats European parliamentary group, PSOE was founded with the purpose of representing and defending the interests of the working class formed during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. The ideology of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party has evolved throughout the 20th Century according to relevant historical events and this allowed for the consolidation of the leftist forces in PSOE. Currently, PSOE defines itself as democratic, center-left and progressive. Concerning the territorial model of the realm, PSOE supports asymmetric federalism and it is grouped with other self-styled socialists, social democrats and labour parties in the Party of European Socialists. PSOE was founded on the 2nd of May,1879 in the Casa Labra Pub by the historical Spanish workers leader Pablo Iglesias, the first program of the new political party was passed in an assembly of 40 people, on 20 July of that same year. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940, PSOE formed part of the Spanish Government during the Second Spanish Republic and as part of the Spanish Popular Front, elected to government in February 1936. The dictator Francisco Franco banned PSOE in 1939, and the party was legalized again in 1977, during Francos rule members of PSOE were persecuted, with many leaders, members and supporters being imprisoned or exiled and even executed. Its 25th Congress was held in Toulouse in August 1972, in 1974 at its 26th Congress in Suresnes, Felipe González was elected Secretary General, replacing Rodolfo Llopis Ferrándiz. González was from the wing of the party, and his victory signaled a defeat for the historic. The direction of the party shifted from the exiles to the people in Spain who hadnt fought the war. Their standing was further boosted in 1978 when the 6 deputies of the Popular Socialist Party agreed to merge with the party, in their 27th congress in May 1979, González resigned because the party would not abandon its Marxist character. In September of that year, the extraordinary 28th congress was called in which González was re-elected when the party agreed to move away from Marxism, European social-democratic parties supported Gonzálezs stand, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany granted them money
11.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
12.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
13.
Congress of Deputies (Spain)
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The Congress of Deputies of Spain, commonly referred to as simply the Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spains legislative branch. It is located in the Palace of the Parliament and it has 350 members elected by constituencies by proportional representation using the DHondt method. The President of the Congress of Deputies is the analogue to a speaker, in the Congress, members of the Parliament from the political parties, or groups of parties, form parliamentary groups. The MPs belonging to parties who cannot create their own parliamentary group form the Mixed Group, the Spanish Constitution establishes in the Article 68.1 that the Congress of Deputies must be composed of among 300 deputies at least and 400 deputies at most. At present, the chamber has 350 deputies which is determinated by the General Electoral Regim Organic Law, the Spanish Constitution establishes that the deputies are chosen by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage. The Election is held four years or before in case of snap election. The members of the Congress are elected by proportional representation with closed lists in each constituency, there are 52 polynominal constituencies for the Congress of Deputies which belong to the 50 provinces of Spain and the two autonomous cities. According to the Spanish Electoral Law, each province must elect two deputies at least, the two autonomous cities can only elect one each. In this way, there are 102 deputies already elected, the other 248 deputies are allocated proportionally to the citizenships. This distribution can change a bit in each election and it is specified in the Royal Decree Calling Elections, after the General Election, seats are assigned to the electoral lists in each constituency. For this distribution it is used the DHondt method in each constituency separately and this system guarantees that any elected candidate has got less votes than a non-elected candidate in that constituency. Moreover, there is a threshold of 3% that is to say that a political party needs the 3% of the valid votes emitted in its constituency at least to aim for the seats distribution. The last item is only applied in the provinces which elect 24 deputies at least, at present, this condition is only fulfilled by Madrid and Barcelona. 0. 1% of signatures of the register in each constituency are needed. Each citizen can only sign once for each candidacy, the Electoral Board will establish the details of the collection of signatures. Likewise, the most populated provinces are underrepresented and this system tends to favour the biggest political parties. In spite of using a representation system, the electoral system of the Congress of Deputies favours the creation of a two-party system. It is due to different reasons such as, The large disparity of population between the provinces, despite the smaller provinces are overrepresented, the number of deputies assigned to each one is small and tends to go to the two main parties
14.
Senate of Spain
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The Senate is the upper house of Spains parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is made up of 265 members,208 elected by popular vote, all senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time. The Spanish senate was instituted by the constitution of 1837 under the regency of Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies and it remained under the regimes of the constitutions of 1845,1856,1869 and 1876. It was composed, at that time, of three main categories, senators by their own right, senators for life and senators elected. This chamber was suppressed after the coup of General Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923, only after the Spanish transition to democracy in 1978 was it re-instituted. Senators form groups along party lines, parties with fewer than ten senators form the Mixed Group. If the membership of an existing group falls below six during a session, for example, Coalición Canaria lost its senate caucus in 2008 after electoral losses reduced its group from six to two. The PNV group is again under threshold after returning the borrowed Socialists, legally,133 seats are required for an absolute majority, vacant seats notwithstanding. Most members of the senate are elected by the people. Each province elects four senators without regard to population and this allocation is heavily weighted in favor of small provinces, Madrid, with roughly 6 million people, and Soria, with 100,000 inhabitants, are each represented by four senators. In non-insular constituencies, each party nominates three candidates, candidates names are organized in columns by party on a large ochre-colored ballot called a sábana or bedsheet. Each voter may mark up to three names, from any party. This is the occasion when Spanish voters vote for individuals rather than a party list. Panachage is allowed, but typically voters cast all three votes for candidates of a single party, as a result, the four Senators are usually the three candidates from the most popular party and the first placed candidate from the next most popular. Before 2011, a party could not choose the order of its candidates on the ballot paper, when a party did not get all three of its candidates elected, this arrangement favored candidates with surnames early in the alphabet. This was the case for 2nd placed parties in every province, demographic growth increased the combined size of the regional delegations from 51 to 56 in 2008 for the 9th term. Conventionally, the proportions of the regional delegations mimic their legislative assemblies, however, Autonomous Communities have considerable leeway, and a motion to appoint the delegation often requires no more than a plurality. This arrangement was part of a five-party coalition agreement and this anomaly was resolved in 2008, when the Balearic Islands gained a second senate seat which was filled by the PP
15.
Portuguese language
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Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
16.
Iberian Peninsula
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The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabos Iberia was delineated from Keltikē by the Pyrenees and included the land mass southwest of there. The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from the Phoenicians, hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with. According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country side of the Ἶβηρος as far north as the river Rhône in France. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, elsewhere he says that Saguntum is on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia. Strabo refers to the Carretanians as people of the Iberian stock living in the Pyrenees, according to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political, the Latin word Hiberia, similar to the Greek Iberia, literally translates to land of the Hiberians. This word was derived from the river Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus, hiber was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos in his Georgics, the Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania. As they became interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces, Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania, Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, the Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the Ebro, Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. The association was so known it was hardly necessary to state, for example. Pliny goes so far as to assert that the Greeks had called the whole of Spain Hiberia because of the Hiberus River, the river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian, uses Ibērus, with reference to this border, Polybius states that the native name is Ibēr, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination
17.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
18.
Province of Salamanca
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Salamanca is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Zamora, Valladolid, Ávila and it has an area of 12,349 km ² and in 2014 had a population of 342,459 people. It is divided into 362 municipalities,11 comarcas,32 mancomunidades, of the 362 municipalities, more than half are villages with fewer than 300 people. The Vettones occupied the areas of the current Spanish provinces of Salamanca and Ávila, as well as parts of Cáceres, Toledo and they were a pre-Roman people of Celtic culture. Their numerous archaeological sites exist throughout the province, and several locality names have Vettone origin and this is the case of Salamanca, Ledesma and Ciudad Rodrigo. Vettone villages were established on the banks of rivers or on mountains. The area between La Armuña and Salamanca marked the border between Vettones and Vaccaei, the other people of the province. They were situated in the northeast area of the province, Salamanca Province is situated in western Spain, in the western part of Castile and León. Also of note is the Sierra de Francia mountain range, the Salamanca hydrographic network is mainly formed by the Duero basin. The most important rivers are the Duero, Tormes, Águeda, Huebra, of particular note is the Almendra Dam, five kilometres from the village of Almendra. Constructed between 1964 and 1970, the dam forms part of the system known as the Duero Drops, along with the Castro, Ricobayo, Saucelle. It is one of the largest reservoirs in Spain with an area of 86.5 square kilometres and 2.5 billion cubic metres of water. The dam itself is more than half a wide and, at a height of 202 metres. There are Roman Catholic cathedrals at Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo, the Old Cathedral of Salamanca was founded by Bishop Jerome of Périgord, in the 12th century and completed in Romanesque/Gothic style in the 14th century. It is dedicated to Santa Maria de la Sede, the New Cathedral of Salamanca was constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries in the Late Gothic and Baroque styles. Building began in 1513 and the cathedral was consecrated in 1733 and it was commissioned by Ferdinand V of Castile of Spain. It was declared a monument by royal decree in 1887. List of municipalities in Salamanca Kingdom of León Media related to Province of Salamanca at Wikimedia Commons
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Province of Huelva
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Huelva is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz, Seville, and Cádiz, and its population is 483,792, of whom about 30% live in the capital, and its population density is 47. 67/km². The economy is based on agriculture and mining, the famous Rio Tinto mines have been worked since before 1000 BC, and were the major source of copper for the Roman Empire. As an indication of the scope of ancient mining, sixteen million tons of Roman slag have been identified at the Roman mines, british companies resumed large-scale mining in 1873, the district is the namesake of the Rio Tinto Group. The province contains Palos de la Frontera, and Moguer, where Christopher Columbus sailed out of on his first voyage in 1492, the delayed tourist development of the province has allowed better city planning than in other regions on the Spanish coast. The nuclei of Islantilla and Isla Canela are an example of this attempt to plan in a coherent form. Although in a scale in comparison to other regions, urban pressure continues. Previous developments that had little planning until recent time are El Rompido, El Portil, Mazagón, present development would not endure without tourist activity and its vacation housing. Other tourist areas are Nuevo Umbría, Nuevo Portil, Punta del Moral, La Antilla, the marismas de Isla Cristina, next to the towns of Ayamonte and Isla Cristina, are a protected nature reserve. Of note is Huelva‘s recent classification of “rural tourism” for its mountain range. Huelva has 388 MegaWatts of wind power,68 MW biomass power, a 220 kiloVolt transmission line has been constructed to send power to the main grid as well as improving connections between Spain and Portugal. List of municipalities in Huelva Official website Natural Park Doñana Natural Park Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche
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Province of Seville
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The Province of Seville is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north, Seville is the provinces as well as the Andalusian autonomous communitys capital. Located on the bank of the Guadalquivir river, the city of Seville is the largest one in Andalusia. The former province of Andalusia was divided by the Moors into four separate kingdoms—Seville, Cordova, Jaen, Seville has the highest GDP among the provinces of Andalusia. The Provinces of Málaga and Cadiz are 2nd and 3rd respectively, the Port of Seville is of great economic importance to the province. The area of the province is 14,042 km² and its population is 1,914,958, of whom 40% live in the capital, Seville, and its population density is 125. 25/km². The province shares the Parque Nacional de Doñana with Huelva province and it also has the Sierra Norte de Sevilla Natural Park. The 177,484 hectares park is Andalusias largest protected area, the Guadalquivir crosses the province from east to west. Guadiana, Pinta and Xenil are other important rivers, the northern part of the province is mostly mountainous. Seville has a warm Mediterranean climate with an average temperature of 18.5 °C. Winters are generally mild while summers are hot, the maximum temperatures in summer often surpass 40°C. The locality of Écija is popularly known as the “Frying Pan of Andalusia” for its torrid summers, Écija is known for its high value of corn production. The province of Seville generates 1. 92% of the Spanish hotel movement, in terms of tourism the city of Seville is one of the leading cities in Andalusia, situated behind Barcelona and Madrid on a national level. In 208 B. C. the whole population of an outpost in the present town of Estepa burnt their houses, the capital city Seville is the worlds most dense one in terms of Baroque churches. The Socialist Workers Party won the elections in the province from 1982–2000, in comparison to other Spanish provinces, Seville is underdeveloped. List of municipalities in Seville Media related to Province of Seville at Wikimedia Commons
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Andalusia
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Andalusia is an autonomous community in southern Spain. It is the most populated and the second largest in area of the communities in the country. The Andalusian autonomous community is recognised as historical nationality. The territory is divided into eight provinces, Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and its capital is the city of Seville. Andalusia is the only European region with both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines, the small British overseas territory of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar. The main mountain ranges of Andalusia are the Sierra Morena and the Baetic System, consisting of the Subbaetic and Penibaetic Mountains, in the north, the Sierra Morena separates Andalusia from the plains of Extremadura and Castile–La Mancha on Spains Meseta Central. To the south the geographic subregion of Upper Andalusia lies mostly within the Baetic System, the name Andalusia is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus. Including an intense relationship with Naples, Italy, Andalusia has been a traditionally agricultural region, compared to the rest of Spain and the rest of Europe. However, the growth of the community especially in the sectors of industry and services was above average in Spain, the region has, however, a rich culture and a strong cultural identity. Many cultural phenomena that are seen internationally as distinctively Spanish are largely or entirely Andalusian in origin and these include flamenco and, to a lesser extent, bullfighting and Hispano-Moorish architectural styles. Andalusias hinterland is the hottest area of Europe, with cities like Córdoba, Late evening temperatures can sometimes stay around 35 °C until close to midnight, with daytime highs of over 40 °C common. Seville also has the highest average temperature in mainland Spain and mainland Europe. Its present form is derived from the Arabic name for Muslim Iberia. However, the etymology of the name Al-Andalus is disputed, the Spanish place name Andalucía was introduced into the Spanish languages in the 13th century under the form el Andalucía. This was a Castilianization of Al-Andalusiya, the form of the Arabic language al-Andalus. The etymology of al-Andalus is itself somewhat debated, but in fact it entered the Arabic language before this came under Muslim rule. Like the Arabic term al-Andalus, in historical contexts the Spanish term Andalucía or the English term Andalusia do not necessarily refer to the territory designated by these terms today. To designate the territories the Christians had regained by that time in the Guadalquivir valley and in the Kingdoms of Granada, in a document from 1253, Alfonso X styled himself Rey de Castilla, León y de toda Andalucía
22.
Province of Toledo
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Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, of the provinces 711,228 people, only about 1/9 live in the capital, Toledo, which is also capital of the autonomous community. The most populated city in the province is Talavera de la Reina with 88,755 inhabitants, the smallest municipality in Spain, Illán de Vacas, with a population of 8, is in Toledo province. See List of municipalities in Toledo, the province shares the Parque Nacional de Cabañeros with Ciudad Real province. The eagle is flanked by the pillars of Hercules, kingdom of Toledo Toledo, Spain Media related to Province of Toledo at Wikimedia Commons
23.
Province of Ciudad Real
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The province of Ciudad Real is a province in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete, Jaén, Córdoba, Badajoz and it is partly located in the old natural region of La Mancha. It is the third biggest province of Spain, after Cáceres, the historical comarca Campo de Calatrava is located in the centre of the province. Ciudad Real was one of the 49 provinces in which Spain was divided in the reorganization of 1833, taking its name from its largest city. Its limits corresponded more or less to the province of La Mancha. The autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha came into being on 15 November 1978, initially a pre-autonomous region, the reorganisation proposal finally took effect one week after the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla–La Mancha was approved on 10 August 1982. Under this new arrangement, Castilla-La Mancha was subdivided into five provinces, Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, each named after its largest town and capital city. The province of Ciudad Real was further subdivided into six comarcas, the province of Ciudad Real is located in central Spain and is the third largest province in the country with an area of 19,813 km2. To the northwest of the province is an area, the exclave of Anchuras. The provincial capital is Ciudad Real, the main river, crossing the province from east to west, is the Guadiana, and its right bank tributary, the Cigüela. Most of the province is a plain, cool in summer. The area is agricultural, with wheat, barley, oats, sugar beet, cattle are raised here and there are large flocks of sheep. In the valleys formed by the upper reaches of the Guadiana, the lagoons and marshes have a resident population of wetland birds and are visited by migrating wildfowl in autumn and spring. Other larger municipalities with over ten thousand inhabitants are Manzanares, Daimiel, La Solana, Miguelturra, Campo de Criptana, Socuéllamos, Bolaños de Calatrava, the Tablas de Daimiel National Park is located in the province of Ciudad Real. It is an area on the La Mancha plain, an otherwise mainly arid region. It has an area of about 2,000 hectares and is the smallest of Spains fifteen national parks and it is being expanded to include some of the neighbouring dryland farming areas. The Cabañeros National Park is shared with the neighbouring Province of Toledo and it has an area of 390 square kilometres and lies between the Estena and Bullaque rivers, extending into the Chorito and Miraflores mountain ranges. It contains remnants of the Iberian Mediterranean forest which used to clothe this part of Spain, in the centre of the province is the Campo de Calatrava, the geology of which is volcanic
24.
Castilla-La Mancha
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Castilla-La Mancha is a south-western European region that was part of the Kingdom of Castile. Nowadays it is established as a community of Spain. Castilla-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia and it is one of the most sparsely populated of Spains autonomous communities. Albacete is the largest and most populous city and its capital city is Toledo, and its judicial capital city is Albacete. It is mostly in this region where the story of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is situated, due to which La Mancha is internationally well-known. Although La Mancha is a windswept, battered plateau, it remains a symbol of Spanish culture with its vineyards, sunflowers, mushrooms, olive plantations, windmills, Manchego cheese, the history of Castilla-La Mancha has been significant. Its origin lay in the Muslim period between the 8th and 14th century, Castilla-La Mancha was the region of many historical battles between Christian crusaders and Muslim forces during the period from 1000 to the 13th century. It was also the region where the Crown of Castile and Aragon were unified in 1492 under Queen Isabel, Castilla-La Mancha is the successor to New Castile, which in turn traces back to the Muslim Taifa of Toledo, one of the taifas of Al Andalus. Alfonso VI conquered the region from the Muslims, taking Toledo in 1085, the Reconquista took Cuenca in 1177. That victory assured Castilian domination of the region and hastened the decline of the Almohad Dynasty, from the time of the Reconquista, Castilla-La Mancha formed part of the Kingdom of Castile. Four centuries later, in 1605, Cervantes Don Quixote gave the world a picture of La Mancha. In 1785, the organization by the reformer Floridablanca divided the region into the provinces of Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid, La Mancha. Albacete, Chinchilla, Almansa, Hellín and Yeste, however, Albacete, in turn, also incorporated parts of the territories of the old provinces of Cuenca and Murcia. Albacete was administered as part of the Region of Murcia until the 1978 configuration of autonomous regions, the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha dates from November 15,1978, as one of the many autonomous regions defined by the Spanish central government. The new, hyphenated name constituted an effort to two distinct regionalisms, that of the larger Castilla and that of the smaller onetime province of La Mancha. The Statute of Autonomy of Castilla–La Mancha was approved August 10,1982, Castilla-La Mancha is divided into 5 provinces named after their capital cities. 496 of these have less than 500 inhabitants,231 have between 501 and 2,000 inhabitants,157 between 2,000 and 10,000 inhabitants, and only 35 have more than 10,000 inhabitants. The municipalities in the north are small and numerous, while in the south they are larger and fewer and this reflects different histories of how these sub-regions were repopulated during the Reconquista
25.
Tagus
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The Tagus is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. It is 1,007 km long,716 km in Spain,47 km along the border between Portugal and Spain and 275 km in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon and it drains an area of 80,100 square kilometers. The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course, several dams and diversions supply drinking water to most of central Spain, including Madrid, and Portugal, while dozens of hydroelectric stations create power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after Almourol it enters a vast alluvial valley prone to flooding, at its mouth is a large estuary on which the port city of Lisbon is situated. The source of the Tagus is the Fuente de García, in the Frías de Albarracín municipal term, Montes Universales, Sistema Ibérico, all its major tributaries enter the Tagus from the right bank. The main cities it passes through are Aranjuez, Toledo, Talavera de la Reina and Alcántara in Spain, the first notable city on the Tagus is Sacedón. Below Aranjuez it receives the flow of the Jarama, Henares, Algodor. Below Toledo it receives the Guadarrama River, above Talavera de la Reina it receives the Alberche. There is a canal and aqueduct between the Tagus and the Segura, the estuary is protected by the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve. There is the largest bridge across the river, the Vasco da Gama Bridge, the Port of Lisbon, located at its mouth, is one of Europes busiest. The lower Tagus is on a fault line, slippage along it has caused numerous earthquakes, the major ones being those of 1309,1531 and 1755. The Pepper Wreck, properly the wreck of the Nossa Senhora dos Mártires, is a shipwreck located and excavated at the mouth of the Tagus between 1996 and 2001, the river had strategic value to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, as it guarded the approach to Lisbon. For example, in 1587, Sir Francis Drake briefly approached the river after his raid at Cadiz. A major river, the Tagus is brought to mind in the songs, a popular fado song in Lisbon notes that while people get older, the Tagus remains young. The author, Fernando Pessoa, wrote a poem that begins, but the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river that flows through my village. Richard Crashaws poem Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper refers to the Golden Tagus as wanting Mary Magdalenes silver tears, in classical poetry the Tagus was famous for its gold-bearing sands. List of rivers of Spain List of rivers of Portugal
26.
Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura
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The shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe was the most important Marian shrine in the medieval kingdom of Castile. It is revered in the monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe and our Lady of Guadalupe is one of three Black Madonnas in Spain. The statue was crowned on 12 October 1928 with a crown designed and crafted by Father Felix Granda. It should not be confused with Our Lady of Guadalupe, enshrined in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico, the shrine houses a statue reputed to have been carved by Luke the Evangelist and given to Saint Leander, archbishop of Seville, by Pope Gregory I. According to local legend, when Seville was taken by the Moors in 712, at the beginning of the 14th century, the Virgin appeared one day to a humble cowboy named Gil Cordero who was searching for a missing animal in the mountains. Cordero claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him and ordered him to ask priests to dig at the site of the apparition, excavating priests rediscovered the hidden statue and built a small shrine around it which evolved into the great Guadalupe monastery. The polychromed cedar sculpture is just over two feet in height and it is a Black Madonna, in the style known as Sedes Sapientiae or Throne of Wisdom, with the Christ Child seated on Marys lap. This genre spread from Northern Europe between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, since at least the late 14th century, the wooden figures have been clothed in embroidered vestments, allowing only their faces and hands to appear. Costly robes, suitable for the Queen of Heaven, were often elaborately stitched in gold thread and set with precious gems, the underlying sculpture is rarely seen. By 1386, copies of the statue were venerated in satellite chapels and our Lady of Guadalupe, along with Santiago de Compostela and Nuestra Señora del Pilar became rallying points for the Christian Spaniards in their reconquista of Iberia. It was at the monastery that the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Ferdinand signed documents that authorized the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World in 1492. Due to the prerogatives granted by the Catholic Monarchs and their successors. Upon his return from America, Columbus went to the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe to give thanks to God, the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a declared World Heritage site. Loboc, in the Philippines, has documented many miracles attributed to the intercession of its Virgen de Guadalupe, the most important of these happened on November 26,1876 and is immortalized in a painting on the ceiling of Loboc Church by Cebuano painter Ray Francia. In this miracle narrative, a flood reached Loboc, wreaking havoc on the whole town, miraculously, the waters stopped at the base of the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe and it remained unharmed by the flood. In addition, the citizens of Loboc, despite the extent of the flood, escaped unharmed, many devotees from other places in the Philippines also attend the Maytime festival to honor the Loboc Virgen de Guadalupe and to ask for her miraculous intercession. Childless women go to Loboc in May to dance the bolibongkingking before the Virgins image and those who have had a child following the pilgrimage to Loboc return to her shrine to devote their child, to God through the prayers of the Virgen de Guadalupe, to the Virgin. Some, whose prayers have been answered return to Loboc in thanksgiving and present new vestments and metal ornaments to the Virgen de Guadalupe, the people of Loboc honor the Virgen de Guadalupe every 24 May
27.
Area
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Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional figure or shape, or planar lamina, in the plane. Surface area is its analog on the surface of a three-dimensional object. It is the analog of the length of a curve or the volume of a solid. The area of a shape can be measured by comparing the shape to squares of a fixed size, in the International System of Units, the standard unit of area is the square metre, which is the area of a square whose sides are one metre long. A shape with an area of three square metres would have the area as three such squares. In mathematics, the square is defined to have area one. There are several formulas for the areas of simple shapes such as triangles, rectangles. Using these formulas, the area of any polygon can be found by dividing the polygon into triangles, for shapes with curved boundary, calculus is usually required to compute the area. Indeed, the problem of determining the area of plane figures was a motivation for the historical development of calculus. For a solid such as a sphere, cone, or cylinder. Formulas for the areas of simple shapes were computed by the ancient Greeks. Area plays an important role in modern mathematics, in addition to its obvious importance in geometry and calculus, area is related to the definition of determinants in linear algebra, and is a basic property of surfaces in differential geometry. In analysis, the area of a subset of the plane is defined using Lebesgue measure, in general, area in higher mathematics is seen as a special case of volume for two-dimensional regions. Area can be defined through the use of axioms, defining it as a function of a collection of certain plane figures to the set of real numbers and it can be proved that such a function exists. An approach to defining what is meant by area is through axioms, area can be defined as a function from a collection M of special kind of plane figures to the set of real numbers which satisfies the following properties, For all S in M, a ≥0. If S and T are in M then so are S ∪ T and S ∩ T, if S and T are in M with S ⊆ T then T − S is in M and a = a − a. If a set S is in M and S is congruent to T then T is also in M, every rectangle R is in M. If the rectangle has length h and breadth k then a = hk, let Q be a set enclosed between two step regions S and T
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Sistema Central
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The Central System, Spanish and Portuguese, Sistema Central, is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in the Iberian Peninsula. 2,592 m high Pico Almanzor is its highest summit, the Central System is located just north of the 40th parallel and its ranges divide the drainage basin of the Tagus from the basin of the Douro. The Sistema Central is a feature of the Meseta Central. Unlike the neighboring Sistema Ibérico, the Sistema Central range is a homogeneous system. It consists of ranges that formed 25 million years ago as part of the Alpine orogeny.993 m. Other notably large ranges are Sierra de Gata and Sierra de Ayllón, the Central System links with the Sistema Ibérico at its eastern end through the Sierra de Pela, the Altos de Barahona and Sierra Ministra, the latter already fully part of the Iberian System. Sistema Central is a widely known academic geographical term, local inhabitants, however, generally refer to the Sistema Central by the names of its smaller constituent ranges. The main ranges of the Sistema Central from west to east followed by their highest points are, Serra da Lousã, Serra do Moradal Serra da Estrela, Torre,1,993 m. Sierra de Gata, Jálama,1,492 m, Sierra de la Canchera, Pico Tiendas,1,590 m Sierra de Francia, Pico de la Hastiala,1,735 m. Sierra de Béjar, Canchal de la Ceja,2,430 m, Sierra de Gredos, Pico Almanzor,2,592 m. Sierra de la Horcajada, Risco de la Umbrela,1,562 m, Sierra de Villafranca, Cerro Moros,2,059 m. Sierra de Piedra Aguda, Piedra Aguda,1,817 m, La Serrota, Cerro del Santo,2,294 m. Sierra de Hoyocasero, Navasolana,1,708 m, Sierra de la Paramera, Pico Zapatero,2,160 m. Sierra de Ávila, Cerro de Gorría,1,708 m, Sierra de Ojos Albos, Cruz de Hierro,1,657 m. Sierra de Malagón, Cueva Valiente,1,903 m, Sierra de San Vicente, Cruces,1,373 m. Sierra de Guadarrama, Peñalara,2,428 m, La Mujer Muerta, La Pinareja,2,197 m. Siete Picos, Siete Picos,2,138 m, cuerda Larga, Cabeza de Hierro Mayor,2,383 m. Sierra de la Morcuera, La Najarra,2,122 m, Sierra de Canencia, Mondalindo,1,831 m
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Sierra de Gata
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For the comarca with the same name, see Sierra de Gata, comarca. Sierra de Gata is a range in the Sistema Central. The highest point is Peña Canchera, the Sierra de Gata is located in the northwest of the province of Cáceres, which is in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It borders with Portugal on the west in the area of the Portuguese Serra da Malcata Natural Reserve, Sierra de Gata is also the name of a comarca that includes of 20 municipalities located roughly in the same area as the mountains. The municipality of Moraleja is included in the Sierra de Gata comarca, even though it is geographically not in the mountainous area of the Sierra de Gata itself
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Sierra de las Villuercas
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Sierra de Villuercas or Sierra de las Villuercas, also known as Sierra de Guadalupe after nearby Guadalupe town, is a mountain range in the greater Montes de Toledo range, Spain. It is located in province of Cáceres, autonomous community of Extremadura, rivers Almonte and Ibor, tributaries of the Tagus, and the Ruecas and Guadalupe River, tributaries of the Guadiana, have their sources in this range. The Sierra de Villuercas stretches for about 60 km in a roughly NNW/SSE direction in the southeast of Cáceres Province, from its northern end a lower ridge stretches in an arch further westwards from Deleitosa. Southwards there is a low ridge aligned in a N/S direction connecting with the Sierra de los Golondrinos prolongation further south straddling river Guadiana. The lower Sierra de Montánchez extends further west of the Sierra de Villuercas and this range is parallel to the Sierra de la Palomera and Sierra de Altamira further east of Guadalupe. There is an abundance of fossils of Ammonites, Trilobites, Brachiopods, Graptolites, the highest point of the range is conspicuous La Villuerca, which gives name to Las Villuercas comarca and is the highest point of the greater Montes de Toledo range. Cervales, Carbonero, Ballesteros, Sobacorbas o Risco Redondo, the Sierra de Villuercas geological structure is similar to the geology of the Appalachians. The range is composed of slates and quartzites that are often exposed in its jagged peaks. There are also interesting conglomerate geological formations made up of quartzite boulders and this mountainous area was the scenario of the Battle of the Sierra Guadalupe, a bloody conflict at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Media related to Sierra de Villuercas at Wikimedia Commons Las Villuercas Las Villuercas - Ibores guide Pictures of las Villuercas Nieve en Las Villuercas II
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Sierra de San Pedro
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Sierra de San Pedro is a mountain range in the greater Montes de Toledo range, Spain. It is named after Saint Peter the apostle and rises in the limits of Cáceres and Badajoz Provinces and this range gives its name to the Sierra de San Pedro - Los Baldíos comarca. This mountain range separates the basin of the Tagus to the north from the basin of the Guadiana to the south. The Sierra de San Pedro is a range of low hills that stretches for over 60 km in a NW/SE direction and it is parallel to the Serra de São Mamede to the west in nearby Portugal and is relatively lower than the latter. The Peña del Águila Dam on river Zapatón that supplies water to Alburquerque is located in the range. A projection of the range stretching northwards from its end is known as the Sierra de Carbajo, also named Sierra de Santiago. The Sierra de San Pedro range is not very conspicuous and since the maximum altitudes rarely surpass 700 m, the highest point is 702 m high Torrico de San Pedro, other important summits are Atalaya, Chorlo, Morrón del Cotarro and Manzano. The vegetation of the Sierra de San Pedro range is characteristic Mediterranean scrubland with wooded patches and clarified forests, the shrubland of the range includes flowers such as Asphodelus and common peony. There is a old and large cork oak that has been nicknamed El Abuelo in the range. The Sierra de San Pedro is an important ecological area, the range also harbors an important bat population in its caves. The International Tagus Natural Park is a protected area stretching between Spain and Portugal located at the northern limits of the Sierra de San Pedro range. Paleozoic and Precambrian slates and granite are predominant throughout the Sierra de San Pedro, upper Carboniferous sandstones and conglomerates are also present in the area of the range
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"Estremadura". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 801–802.
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