1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra. The capital and most populous city is San Juan and its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The islands population is approximately 3.4 million, Puerto Ricos rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African captives, and Canarian. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States appropriated Puerto Rico together with most former Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States, however, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U. S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the level and may not vote for president. However, Congress approved a constitution, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. A fifth referendum will be held in June 2017, with only Statehood, in early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with 12. 4% unemployment, the debt had been increasing during a decade long recession. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is also known in Spanish as la isla del encanto. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city. The islands name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the anglicized name was used by the US government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931, the ancient history of the archipelago known today as Puerto Rico is not well known. The scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish scholarly accounts from the colonial era constitute the basis of knowledge about them. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland
3.
White people
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White people is a racial classification specifier, used for people of Europid ancestry, with the exact implications dependent on context. The contemporary usage of people or a white race as a large group of populations contrasting with black, American Indian. It is today used as a racial classifier in multiracial societies, such as North Africa, United States. The term white race or white people entered the major European languages in the later 17th century, in the context of racialized slavery, description of populations as white in reference to their skin color predates this notion and is found in Greco-Roman ethnography and other ancient sources. Scholarship on race generally distinguishes the concept from pre-modern descriptions of collective difference. In the literature of the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity and we know that Egyptians were not oblivious to skin color, however, because artists paid attention to it in works of art, to the extent the pigments at the time permitted. Classicist James Dee states the Greeks do not describe themselves as white people—or as anything else because they had no word in their color vocabulary for themselves. Peoples skin color did not carry meaning, what mattered is where they lived. Religious conversion was sometimes described figuratively as a change in skin color, similarly, the Rigveda uses krsna tvac black skin as a metaphor for irreligiosity. The Ancient Egyptian funerary text known as the Book of Gates distinguishes four groups in a procession and these are the Egyptians, the Levantine/Canaanite peoples or Asiatics, the Nubians and the fair-skinned Libyans. The Egyptians are depicted as a reddish brown, the Nubians as black skinned, the Semites from the Levant and Canaan as light skinned. Herodotus described the Scythian Budini as having blue eyes and bright red hair. And the Egyptians – quite like the Colchians – as melánchroes and he also gives the possibly first reference to the common Greek name of the tribes living south of Egypt, otherwise known as Nubians, which was Aithíopes. Later Xenophon described the Aethiopians as black and the Persian troops as white compared to the skin of Greek troops. These color adjectives are found in contrast to the standard set by the own group. According to historian Irene Silverblatt, Race thinking … made social categories into racial truths, Alastair Bonnett argues that white identity, as it is presently conceived, is an American project, reflecting American interpretations of race and history. According to Gregory Jay, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Before the age of exploration, group differences were based on language, religion. … the European had always reacted a bit hysterically to the differences of skin color, in the 16th and 17th centuries, East Asian peoples were almost uniformly described as white, never as yellow
4.
Black people
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As such, the meaning of the expression varies widely both between and within societies, and depends significantly on context. For many other individuals, communities and countries, black is also perceived as a derogatory, outdated, reductive or otherwise unrepresentative label, different societies apply differing criteria regarding who is classified as black, and these social constructs have also changed over time. In a number of countries, societal variables affect classification as much as skin color, in the United Kingdom, black was historically equivalent with person of color, a general term for non-European peoples. In South Africa and Latin America, mixed-race people are not classified as black. In other regions such as Australasia, settlers applied the term black or it was used by local populations with different histories and ancestral backgrounds. The Romans interacted with and later conquered parts of Mauretania, a state that covered modern Morocco, western Algeria. The people of the region were noted in Classical literature as Mauri, numerous communities of dark-skinned peoples are present in North Africa, some dating from prehistoric communities. In the 18th century, the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard and he claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had a mother who was a dark-skinned Nubian Sudanese woman, in response to an advertisement for an acting position, as a young man he said, I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish, due to the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men, including during the slave trade in North Africa, enslaved more black women than men. They used more black female slaves in domestic service and agriculture than males, the men interpreted the Quran to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage, leading to many mixed-race children. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab masters child, she was considered as umm walad or mother of a child, the child was given rights of inheritance to the fathers property, so mixed-race children could share in any wealth of the father. Because the society was patrilineal, the children took their fathers social status at birth and were born free, some succeeded their fathers as rulers, such as Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. He was not technically considered as a child of a slave, his mother was Fulani. Such tolerance for black persons, even when technically free, was not so common in Morocco, the long association of sub-Saharan peoples as slaves is shown in the term abd, it is still frequently used in the Arabic-speaking world as a term for black people. In early 1991, non-Arabs of the Zaghawa tribe of Sudan attested that they were victims of an intensifying Arab apartheid campaign, Sudanese Arabs, who controlled the government, were widely referred to as practicing apartheid against Sudans non-Arab citizens. The government was accused of deftly manipulat Arab solidarity to carry out policies of apartheid, American University economist George Ayittey accused the Arab government of Sudan of practicing acts of racism against black citizens. The Arabs monopolized power and excluded blacks – Arab apartheid, many African commentators joined Ayittey in accusing Sudan of practising Arab apartheid
5.
Vieques, Puerto Rico
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Vieques, in full Isla de Vieques, is an island–municipality of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and retains strong influences from 400 years of Spanish presence in the island, Vieques lies about 8 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, and measures about 21 miles long by 4 miles wide. Its most populated barrio Isabel Segunda, the center on the northern side of the island. The population of Vieques was 9,301 at the 2010 Census, the islands name is a Spanish spelling of an American Indian word said to mean small island. It also has the nickname Isla Nena, usually translated from the Spanish as Little Girl Island, during the colonial period, the British name was Crab Island. Today the former navy land is a wildlife refuge, with numerous beaches that still retain the names given by the navy, including Red Beach, Blue Beach. The beaches are listed among the top beaches in the Caribbean for their azure-colored waters. Archaeological evidence suggests that Vieques was first inhabited by ancient American Indian peoples who traveled from continental America perhaps between 3000 BC and 2000 BC, however, estimates of these prehistoric dates of inhabitation vary widely. These tribes had a Stone Age culture and were probably fishermen, excavations at the Puerto Ferro site by Luis Chanlatte and Yvonne Narganes uncovered a fragmented human skeleton in a large hearth area. Radiocarbon dating of shells found in the hearth indicate a date of c.1900 BCE. Linear arrays of smaller stones radiating from the boulders are apparent at the site today. Further waves of settlement by Native Americans followed over many centuries, the Arawak-speaking Saladoid people, thought to have originated in modern-day Venezuela, arrived in the region perhaps around 200 BC. These tribes, noted for their pottery, stone carving, and other artifacts, eventually merged with groups from Hispaniola and Cuba and this culture flourished in the region from around 1000 AD, and survived on Vieques until the arrival of the Europeans in the late 15th century. The European discovery of Vieques is sometimes credited to Christopher Columbus and it does not seem to be certain whether Columbus personally visited Vieques, but in any case the island was soon claimed by the Spanish. During the early 16th century Vieques became a center of Taíno rebellion against the European invaders, the native Taíno population was decimated, and its people either killed, imprisoned or enslaved by the Spanish. The Spanish did not, however, permanently colonise Vieques at this time, as European powers fought for control in the region, a series of attempts by the French, English and Danish to colonise the island in the 17th and 18th centuries were repulsed by the Spanish. Scottish sovereignty of the island proved short-lived however, as a Danish ship arrived shortly afterwards, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish took steps to permanently settle and secure the island. In 1811, Don Salvador Meléndez, then governor of Puerto Rico and he was instrumental in the establishment of large plantations, marking a period of social and economic change for the island
6.
Monarchy of Spain
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The Monarchy of Spain, constitutionally referred to as the Crown, is a constitutional institution and historic office of Spain. It used to be called the Hispanic Monarchy. The monarchy comprises the monarch, his or her family. The Spanish monarchy is represented by King Felipe VI, his wife Queen Letizia, and their daughters Leonor, Princess of Asturias, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 reestablished a constitutional monarchy as the form of government for Spain. The 1978 constitution affirmed the role of the King of Spain as the personification and embodiment of the Spanish State, constitutionally, the king is the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armed Forces. According to the constitution, the monarch is also instrumental in promoting relations with the nations of its historical community, the King of Spain serves as the president of the Ibero-American States Organization, purportedly representing over 700,000,000 people in twenty-four member nations worldwide. In 2008, Juan Carlos I was considered the most popular leader in all Ibero-America, a dynastic marriage between Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon united Spain in the 15th century. The last pretender of the Crown of the Byzantine Empire, Andreas Palaiologos, sold his title to Ferdinand II of Aragon. However, there is no evidence that any Spanish monarch has used the Byzantine imperial titles, the Spanish Empire became one of the first global powers as Isabella and Ferdinand funded Christopher Columbuss exploratory voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. This led to the discovery of America, which became the focus of Spanish colonization, in 2010, the budget for the Spanish monarchy was 7.4 million euros, one of the lowest public expenditures for the institution of monarchy in Europe. One of the earliest influential dynasties was the House of Jiménez which united much of Christian Iberia under its leadership in the 11th century. From Sancho III of Navarre until Urraca of León and Castile, the Jiménez rulers sought to bring their kingdoms into the European mainstream and often engaged in cross-Pyrenees alliances and marriages, and became patrons to Cluniac Reforms. Urracas son and heir Alfonso VII of León and Castile, the first of the Spanish branch of the Burgundy Family, was the last to claim the title of Spain. The Castilian Civil War ended with the death of King Peter at the hands of his illegitimate half-brother Henry, Henry II became the first of the House of Trastámara to rule over a Spanish kingdom. King Peters heiress, his granddaughter Catherine of Lancaster, married Henry III, reuniting the dynasties in the person of their son, each kingdom retained its basic structure. In 1492 the Catholic Monarchs conquered the Kingdom of Granada in southern Spain and this date marks the unification of Spain. The territories of the Spanish empire overseas were dependencies of the crown of Castile, in the early 16th century, the Spanish monarchy controlled several territories in Europe under the Habsburg King Charles I, son of Queen Joanna of Castile. His reign ushered in the Spanish Golden Age a period of colonial expansion
7.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
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Charles V was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556, through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four square kilometers and were the first to be described as the empire on which the sun never sets. Charles was the heir of three of Europes leading dynasties, the Houses of Valois-Burgundy, Habsburg, and Trastámara and he inherited the Burgundian Netherlands and the Franche-Comté as heir of the House of Valois-Burgundy. From his own dynasty, the Habsburgs, he inherited Austria and he was also elected to succeed his Habsburg grandfather, Maximilian I, as Holy Roman Emperor, a title held by the Habsburgs since 1440. Charles was the first king to rule Castile and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, the personal union, under Charles, of the Holy Roman Empire with the Spanish Empire resulted in the closest Europe would come to a universal monarchy since the death of Louis the Pious. France recovered and the wars continued for the remainder of Charless reign, enormously expensive, they led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, the Tercios. The struggle with the Ottoman Empire was fought in Hungary and the Mediterranean, after seizing most of eastern and central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans’ advance was halted at their failed Siege of Vienna in 1529. A lengthy war of attrition, conducted on his behalf by his younger brother Ferdinand, in the Mediterranean, although there were some successes, Charles was unable to prevent the Ottomans’ increasing naval dominance and the piratical activity of the Barbary Corsairs. Charles opposed the Reformation and in Germany he was in conflict with the Protestant Princes of the Schmalkaldic League who were motivated by religious and political opposition to him. Once the rebellions were quelled the essential Castilian and Burgundian territories remained mostly loyal to Charles throughout his rule, Charles’s Spanish dominions were the chief source of his power and wealth, and they became increasingly important as his reign progressed. In the Americas, Charles sanctioned the conquest by Castillian conquistadors of the Aztec, Castillian control was extended across much of South and Central America. The resulting vast expansion of territory and the flows of South American silver to Castile had profound long term effects on Spain. Charles was only 56 when he abdicated, but after 34 years of rule he was physically exhausted and sought the peace of a monastery. Upon Charles’s abdications, the Holy Roman Empire was inherited by his younger brother Ferdinand, the Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, was inherited by Charles’s son Philip II. The two empires would remain allies until the 18th century, Charles was born in 1500 as the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile in the Flemish city of Ghent, which was part of the Habsburg Netherlands. The culture and courtly life of the Burgundian Low Countries were an important influence in his early life and he was tutored by William de Croÿ, and also by Adrian of Utrecht. He also gained a decent command of German, though he never spoke it as well as French, a witticism sometimes attributed to Charles is, I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse
8.
Ranch
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A ranch is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in Mexico, the Western United States and Canada, people who own or operate a ranch are called ranchers, cattlemen, or stockgrowers. Ranching is also a used to raise less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu. Ranches generally consist of areas, but may be of nearly any size. In the western United States, many ranches are a combination of owned land supplemented by grazing leases on land under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management. If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land, the ranch may also engage in an amount of farming, raising crops for feeding the animals, such as hay. Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists are called guest ranches or, colloquially, most working ranches do not cater to guests, though they may allow private hunters or outfitters onto their property to hunt native wildlife. Ranching is part of the iconography of the Wild West as seen in Western movies, the person who owns and manages the operation of a ranch is usually called a rancher, but the terms cattleman, stockgrower, or stockman are also sometimes used. If this individual in charge of management is an employee of the actual owner. A rancher who primarily raises young stock sometimes is called an operator or a cow-calf man. This person is usually the owner, though in cases, particularly where there is absentee ownership. The people who are employees of the rancher and involved in handling livestock are called a number of terms, including cowhand, ranch hand, people exclusively involved with handling horses are sometimes called wranglers. Ranching and the tradition originated in Spain, out of the necessity to handle large herds of grazing animals on dry land from horseback. During the Reconquista, members of the Spanish nobility and various military orders received large land grants that the Kingdom of Castile had conquered from the Moors and these landowners were to defend the lands put into their control and could use them for earning revenue. When the Conquistadors came to the Americas in the 16th century, followed by settlers, they brought their cattle, huge land grants by the Spanish government, part of the hacienda system, allowed large numbers of animals to roam freely over vast areas. A number of different traditions developed, often related to the location in Spain from which a settlement originated. For example, many of the traditions of the Jalisco charros in central Mexico come from the Salamanca charros of Castile, however, there were cattle on the eastern seaboard. Deep Hollow Ranch,110 miles east of New York City in Montauk, New York, claims to be the first ranch in the United States, the prairie and desert lands of what today is Mexico and the western United States were well-suited to open range grazing
9.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
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San Juan is the capital and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricos capital is the second oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, today, San Juan is Puerto Ricos most important seaport, and is the islands manufacturing, financial, cultural, and tourism center. San Juan is also a city of the San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the settlement which he called Caparra. In 1521, the settlement was given its formal name. On the other hand, the name for the island became the name for the city only after the occupation of the island by the United States. San Juan, as a settlement of the Spanish Empire, was used by merchant, because of its prominence in the Caribbean, a network of fortifications was built to protect the transports of gold and silver from the New World to Europe. Because of the cargoes, San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time. The city was witness to attacks from the English led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and by George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, artillery from San Juans fort, El Morro, repelled Drake, however, Clifford managed to land troops and lay siege to the city. After a few months of English occupation, Clifford was forced to abandon the siege when his troops began to suffer from exhaustion, in 1625 the city was sacked by Dutch forces led by Captain Balduino Enrico, but El Morro withstood the assault and was not taken. The Dutch were counterattacked by Captain Juan de Amezquita and 50 members of the militia on land. The land battle left 60 Dutch soldiers dead and Enrico with a wound to his neck which he received from the hands of Amezquita. The Dutch ships at sea were boarded by Puerto Ricans who defeated those aboard, after a long battle, the Spanish soldiers and volunteers of the citys militia were able to defend the city from the attack and save the island from an invasion. On October 21, Enrico set La Fortaleza and the city ablaze, captains Amezquita and Andre Botello decided to put a stop to the destruction and led 200 men in an attack against the enemys front and rear guard. They drove Enrico and his men from their trenches and into the ocean in their haste to reach their ships, the British attack in 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, led by Sir Ralph Abercromby. His army laid siege to the city but was forced to withdraw in defeat as the Puerto Rican defenses proved more resilient than those of Trinidad. The USS Yale captured a Spanish freighter, the Rita in San Juan Bay, on May 9, Yale fought a brief battle with an auxiliary cruiser of Spain, name unknown, resulting in a Spanish victory
10.
Immigration
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As for economic effects, research suggests that migration is beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. Studies show that the elimination of barriers to migration would have effects on world GDP. Development economists argue that reducing barriers to labor mobility between developing countries and developed countries would be one of the most efficient tools of poverty reduction. Research shows that country of origin matters for speed and depth of immigrant assimilation, many animals have migrated across evolutionary history, including pre-humans. Human migration started with the out of Africa into the Middle East, and then to Asia, Australia, Europe, Russia. This is discussed in the article pre-modern human migration, recent history is discussed in the articles history of human migration and human migration. When people cross national borders during their migration, they are called migrants or immigrants from the perspective of the country which they enter, from the perspective of the country which they leave, they are called emigrant or outmigrant. Sociology designates immigration usually as migration, as of 2015, the number of international migrants has reached 244 million worldwide, which reflects a 41% increase since 2000. One third of the worlds international migrants are living in just 20 countries, the largest number of international migrants live in the United States, with 19% of the worlds total. Germany and Russia host 12 million migrants each, taking the second, Saudi Arabia hosts 10 million migrants, followed by the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Between 2000 and 2015, Asia added more international migrants than any major area in the world. Europe added the second largest with about 20 million, in most parts of the world, migration occurs between countries that are located within the same major area. In 2015, the number of international migrants below the age of 20 reached 37 million, while 177 million are between the ages of 20 and 64. International migrants living in Africa were the youngest, with an age of 29, followed by Asia, and Latin America/Caribbean, while migrants were older in Northern America, Europe. Nearly half of all international migrants originate in Asia, and Europe was the birthplace of the second largest number of migrants, india has the largest diaspora in the world, followed by Mexico and Russia. The other top desired destination countries were Canada, France, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Germany, one theory of immigration distinguishes between push and pull factors. Push factors refer primarily to the motive for immigration from the country of origin, in the case of economic migration, differentials in wage rates are common. If the value of wages in the new country surpasses the value of wages in ones country, he or she may choose to migrate
11.
Canary Islands
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The Canary Islands, also known as the Canaries, are an archipelago and autonomous community of Spain located on the Atlantic Ocean,100 kilometres west of Morocco. The Canaries are among the outermost regions of the European Union proper and it is also one of the eight regions with special consideration of historical nationality recognized as such by the Spanish Government. The main islands are Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, the archipelago also includes a number of islands and islets, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este. In ancient times, the chain was often referred to as the Fortunate Isles. The Canary Islands is the most southerly region of Spain and the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region, the islands have a subtropical climate, with long hot summers and moderately warm winters. The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation varies depending on location and elevation, green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have built on the islands. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the largest city in the Canaries since 1768, between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, the third largest city of the Canary Islands is San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife. This city is home to the Consejo Consultivo de Canarias. During the time of the Spanish Empire, the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas, who came south to catch the prevailing northeasterly trade winds. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning Islands of the Dogs, according to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained vast multitudes of dogs of very large size. Another speculation is that the dogs were actually a species of monk seal, critically endangered. The dense population of seals may have been the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with these islands by sea. Alternatively, it is said that the inhabitants of the island, Guanches, used to worship dogs, mummified them. The ancient Greeks also knew about a people, living far to the west, who are the dog-headed ones, who worshipped dogs on an island. Some hypothesize that the Canary Islands dog-worship and the ancient Egyptian cult of the god, Anubis are closely connected
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