1.
Municipalities of Catalonia
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Catalonia is divided into 948 municipalities. Each municipality typically represents one significant urban settlement, of any size from village to city and this is not always the case, though. Many municipalities have merged as a result of rural depopulation or simply for greater efficiency, some large urban areas, for example Barcelona, consist of more than one municipality, each of which previously held a separate settlement. Each municipality is run by an elected by the residents at periodic nationwide local elections. The council consists of a number of depending on population. The town hall is located in the settlement, and deals with provision of local services. The main settlement is not always the biggest settlement, as new developments such as tourist resorts can become very big very quickly without achieving any political recognition. Boundaries between municipalities have their origins in ancient landholdings and transfers, and may appear quite arbitrary and illogical. Catalonias municipalities are grouped into 42 comarques and four provinces, occasional revisions of the boundaries of comarcas have resulted in municipalities moving from one comarca to another, see the list at Comarques of Catalonia
Municipalities of Catalonia
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Catalonia, with its municipalities, comarques, and provinces
2.
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
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
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
Spain
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Lady of Elche
Spain
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Flag
Spain
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Altamira Cave paintings, in
Cantabria.
Spain
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Celtic castro in
A Guarda,
Galicia.
4.
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
Autonomous communities of Spain
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A map of
Iberia in 1757
Autonomous communities of Spain
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Galicia
Autonomous communities of Spain
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The Spanish Parliament, Congress of Deputies
Autonomous communities of Spain
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Pro-Catalan independence and pro-Spanish pertenence demonstrations in
Barcelona.
5.
Catalonia
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Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, located on the northeastern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula. It is designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy, Catalonia consists of four provinces, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain, Catalonia comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is bordered by France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, the official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. The eastern counties of these marches were united under the rule of the Frankish vassal the Count of Barcelona, in the later Middle Ages Catalan literature flourished. Between 1469 and 1516, the King of Aragon and the Queen of Castile married and ruled their kingdoms together, retaining all their distinct institutions, Courts, and constitutions. During the Franco-Spanish War, Catalonia revolted against a large and burdensome presence of the Royal army in its territory, within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia, at a high economic cost for Catalonia, until it was largely reconquered by the Spanish army. In the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the Napoleonic, in the second half of the century Catalonia experienced industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, Catalonia saw a cultural renaissance coupled with incipient nationalism while several workers movements appeared. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a Commonwealth, and with the return of democracy during the Second Spanish Republic, after the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan institutions and banning the official use of the Catalan language again. Since the Spanish transition to democracy, Catalonia has regained some political and cultural autonomy and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain, the origin of the name Catalunya is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence. During the Middle Ages, Byzantine chroniclers claimed that Catalania derives from the medley of Goths with Alans. Other less plausible theories suggest, Catalunya derives from the land of castles, having evolved from the term castlà or castlan. This theory therefore suggests that the names Catalunya and Castile have a common root, the source is of Celtic origin, meaning chiefs of battle. Although the area is not known to have been occupied by Celts, the Lacetani, an Iberian tribe that lived in the area and whose name, due to the Roman influence, could have evolved by metathesis to Katelans and then Catalans. In English, Catalonia is pronounced /kætəˈloʊniə/, the native name, Catalunya, is pronounced in Central Catalan, the most widely spoken variety whose pronunciation is considered standard. The Spanish name is Cataluña, and the Aranese name is Catalonha, the first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic. From the next era, the Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic, important remains survive
Catalonia
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A
Roman aqueduct in
Tarragona.
Catalonia
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Flag
Catalonia
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The Medieval church of
Sant Climent in
Taüll, located at the foothills of the
Pyrenees.
Catalonia
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La Seu Vella, Lleida
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
Provinces of Spain
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Provinces of Spain
7.
Barcelona Province (Spain)
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Barcelona is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, the capital of the province is the city of Barcelona, and the provincial council is based in the Casa Serra on the Rambla de Catalunya in that city. See also List of municipalities in Barcelona, since the division by provinces in Spain and the division by comarques in Catalonia do not completely agree, the term comarques of the province of Barcelona would not be entirely correct
Barcelona Province (Spain)
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Flag
8.
Comarques of Catalonia
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This is a list of the 42 comarques into which Catalonia is divided. A comarca is a group of municipalities, roughly equivalent to a US county or a UK district. However, in the context of Catalonia, the county can be a bit misleading, because in medieval Catalonia. Comarques have no relation to the counties that were ruled by counts. In some cases, comarques consist of areas and many small villages centering on an important town. This is the case of such as the Pla dEstany, centered on the town of Banyoles, or the Ripollès. In other cases, comarques are larger areas with many important population centers that have traditionally considered part of the same region. The current official division of Catalonia into comarques originates in an order of the semi-autonomous Catalan government under the Spanish Republic in 1936 and it was superseded after the 1939 victory of Francisco Francos forces in the Spanish Civil War, but restored in 1987 by the re-established Generalitat of Catalonia. As a result, some revisions to the division have been made periodically. The comarca exists as a local government area, and has a representative comarcal council, aran, which is included here, is officially not a comarca but a unique territorial entity with additional powers, but unofficially it is generally referred to as a comarca. Its current status was formalised in February 2015, comarcal revisions have taken place in 1988,1990, and May 2015. The other proposed new comarcas are, Vall de Camprodon, Selva Marítima, Alta Segarra, Segre Mitjà, in a non-binding referendum in July 2015, a majority of municipalities of the Lluçanès region of Osona voted to join a proposed new comarca of that name. The partial approval was seen as insufficient and the plan had not been put to parliament by the end of 2015 and it is also our source for which municipalities are in which comarca. Parts of the site are in English and Spanish, although most of it is in Catalan, Catalonia, La Franja and Northern Catalonia
Comarques of Catalonia
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Present-day division of Catalonia in comarques
9.
Convergence and Union
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Convergence and Union was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia and its counterpart, the Democratic Union of Catalonia. It was dissolved on June 17,2015, CiU was a Catalan nationalist coalition. There is some debate as to whether the coalition was conservative or centrist, liberal tendencies dominate the larger CDC, while the smaller UDC is a Christian democratic party. In general, the CDC tends to be supportive of Catalan sovereignty, while the UDC is considered closer to traditional Catalan autonomism. In the most recent regional elections, held on 25 September 2012 and it lost 12 seats in the Catalan Parliament, bringing them to a total of 50 deputies. While they have more than twice as many deputies as any other party, after the election, they entered into coalition with the Republican Left of Catalonia. El Periódico de Catalunya reported in August 2013 that the coalition may break due to fractions within the union about Catalan independence. On June 18,2015, CDC spokespersons declared the CiU federation finished and this occurred after an ultimatum had been issued by President Mas to UDC, due to their diverging positions on the Catalan independence process. CiU used to defend the notion of Catalonia as a nation within Spain, however, it has recently become a pro-secession party. CiU is generally considered a Catalan nationalist party, this is also the term it uses to describe itself, both the Spanish and Catalan media perceive it as a moderate nationalist force. However, its liberal fraction has a strong current which advocates Catalan independence from Spain. Many high ranking exponents of the Democratic Convergence define CiU as an independentist political force, on the other hand, the Christian democratic part of the coalition, the Democratic Union of Catalonia, is less favourable to the idea of an independent Catalonia. Nevertheless, several prominent members of the Democratic Union have also supported independence, however, the supporters of independence within the Democratic Union are a minority with much less influence than their counterparts in the Democratic Convergence. At the Catalan level, CiU ruled the autonomous Catalan government during the 1980s until 2003 for 23 consecutive years led by Jordi Pujol, Pujol was succeeded in the party leadership by Artur Mas, while Uniós leader is Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida. The party won 10 seats in the Congress of Deputies at the March 2008 elections, CiU supported changes to the Catalan Statute of Autonomy to further increase Catalonias autonomy. On Sunday,28 November 2010 CiU regained control of the parliament after seven years in opposition, winning about 38 per cent of the popular vote. Its platform was broadly centrist, and somewhat ambiguous about independence from Spain, in the 2010 elections the turnout was just above 60%, and the Socialists Party of Catalonia were considered the biggest losers, holding only 28 seats of their former 37
Convergence and Union
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Convergència i Unió
10.
Demonym
–
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
Demonym
–
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has not adopted the term "demonyn" for these adjectives and nouns
11.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
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Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
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G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
–
Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
–
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
12.
Central European Summer Time
–
It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
13.
List of postal codes in Spain
–
Postal codes were introduced and standardized in Spain in 1985, when Correos introduced automated mail sorting. The first two digits of the postal code correspond to one of the fifty provinces of Spain, plus the two cities on the African coast. Some codes are reserved for use at the province capital,070 for official use by Correos. 071 to address state agencies at the given province,080 for P. O. boxes and mail lists. Large cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, were divided into postal districts similar to the arrondissement system in Paris, Plaza de España,18 Madrid 8 Travessera de Gràcia,56, 4rt 1a. Barcelona 6 These former postal districts were incorporated into the postal codes, Plaza de España,1828008 Madrid Travessera de Gràcia,56
List of postal codes in Spain
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2-digit postcode areas Spain(defined through the first two postcode digits)
14.
Telephone numbers in Spain
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The Spanish telephone numbering plan is the allocation of telephone numbers in Spain. It is regulated by Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones, Spain changed to a closed telephone numbering plan in 1998. Previously, the prefix was 9x, but this was incorporated into the subscribers number, so that a nine-digit number was used for all calls. Mobile phone numbers begin with 6 or 7, followed by 8 digits, note, numbers starting with 70 are personal numbers which can be re-directed to any other number by the personal owner. Since the blocks of mobile phone numbers are allocated according to demand from the service providers, personal numbers are used as redirection IDs. The owner of a number may request, for example. Personal numbers begin with 5, followed by 8 digits, Numbers starting with 2,3,4,5, and 99 are reserved. Numbers starting with 0 and 1 are used to compose short numbers or for prefixes, Numbers starting with 80 and 90 are used for premium rates, toll free, and internet access numbers. 803,806, and 807 prefixes are used for premium rate calls,905 numbers are supposed to be used for voting systems. Calls have a duration, and are charged a fixed rate per call. They are usually available from landlines but not from mobiles,901 and 902 numbers are Non Geographic Numbers. These have been introduced by the call centres of large multinational European businesses. Unlike other normal Spanish phone numbers beginning 910 onwards,901 and 902 numbers are always excluded from inclusive call bundles on Spanish landlines and mobiles,902 numbers are also extremely expensive to call from Spanish mobiles. 901 and 902 numbers are also premium rated if calling Spain from overseas and low cost international call carriers to Spain normally refuse to connect calls to 901 and 902 numbers
Telephone numbers in Spain
–
Spain telephone numbers
15.
Languages of Spain
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The languages of Spain, or Spanish languages, are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain. Romance languages are the most widely spoken in Spain, of which Spanish, various other languages have co-official or recognised status in specific territories, and a number of unofficial languages and dialects are spoken in certain localities. In terms of the number of speakers and dominance, the most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish, Catalan is spoken by 17%, Galician by 7%, and Basque by 2% of the population. Distribution of the regional languages in Spain, Aranese, co-official in Catalonia. It is spoken mainly in the Pyrenean comarca of the Aran Valley and it is a variety of Gascon, which in turn is a variety of the Occitan language. Basque, co-official in the Basque Country and northern Navarre, Basque is the only non-Romance language with an official status in mainland Spain. Catalan, co-official in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and, as a distinct variant Valencian and it is recognised—but not official—in Aragon. Furthermore, it is spoken without official recognition in the municipality of Carche. It is also spoken without official recognition in the adjacent western parts of the Principality of Asturias and Castile, in the cases of Catalan and Galician, they are the main languages used by the Catalan and Galician regional governments and local administrations. A number of citizens in these areas consider their language as their primary language. In addition to these, there are a number of endangered and recognised minority languages, Aragonese. Leonese, recognised—but not official—in Castile and León, spoken in the provinces of León and Zamora. Asturian and Leonese are closely related to the local Mirandese which is spoken on an adjacent territory, Mirandese is recognised and has some local official status. With the exception of Basque, which appears to be an isolate, all of the languages present in mainland Spain are Indo-European languages. Afro-Asiatic languages, such as Arabic or Berber, are spoken by the Muslim population of Ceuta and Melilla and by recent immigrants elsewhere. Others, such as Pilar Vázquez Cuesta, argue that they have become separate languages due to differences in phonetics and vocabulary usage. The official and widespread position is that Galician and Portuguese should be considered independent languages, Portuguese proper is still spoken by local people in three border areas, The town of La Alamedilla, in Salamanca province. The so-called Cedillo-horn, including Cedillo and Herrera de Alcántara, the town of Olivenza, in Badajoz province, and its surrounding territory, which used to be Portuguese until the 19th century and is still claimed by Portugal
Languages of Spain
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Spanish official; spoken all over the country
16.
Catalan language
–
Catalan is a Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain and adjoining parts of France. It is the national and only language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands. It also has status in the commune of Alghero, situated on the northwestern coast of the island of Sardinia. All these territories are often called Catalan Countries. 4% with Catalan and 47. 5% only Spanish, in order to integrate newcomers, the Generalitat de Catalunya spends part of its annual budget on the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories. Catalan evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees, during the Low Middle Ages it saw a golden age as the literary and dominant language of the Crown of Aragon, and was widely used all over the Mediterranean. The union of Aragon with the territories of Spain in 1479 marked the start of the decline of the language. In 1659 Spain ceded Northern Catalonia to France, and Catalan was banned in both states in the early 18th century, 19th-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, which culminated in the 1913 orthographic standardization, and the official status of the language during the Second Spanish Republic. However, the Francoist dictatorship banned the use of Catalan in schools and in the public administration, there is no parallel in Europe for such a large, bilingual, non-state speech community. Catalan dialects are relatively uniform, and are mutually intelligible and they are divided into two blocks, Eastern and Western, differing mostly in pronunciation. The terms Catalan and Valencian are two varieties of the same language, there are two institutions regulating the two standard varieties, the Institute of Catalan Studies in Catalonia and the Valencian Academy of the Language in the Valencian Community. Catalan shares many traits with its neighboring Romance languages, thus, the similarities are naturally most notable with eastern Occitan. Nouns have two genders, and two numbers, pronouns additionally can have a neuter gender, and some are also inflected for case and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, in terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages. The word Catalan derives from the territory of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology, in English, the term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner, followed in the 15th century as Catellain. It is attested a language name since at least 1652, Catalan can be pronounced as /ˈkætəlæn/, /kætəˈlæn/ or /ˈkætələn/. The endonym is pronounced /kə. təˈɫa/ in the Eastern Catalan dialects, in the Valencian Community, the term valencià is frequently used instead. The names Catalan and Valencian are two names for the same language, see also status of Valencian below. By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south
Catalan language
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Homilies d'Organyà (12th century)
Catalan language
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Catalan
Catalan language
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Fragment of the Greuges de Guitard Isarn (ca. 1080–1095), one of the earliest texts written almost completely in Catalan, predating the famous
Homilies d'Organyà by a century
Catalan language
–
Official Decree Prohibiting the Catalan Language in France
17.
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
Spanish language
–
A page of
Cantar de Mio Cid, the oldest preserved Spanish
epic poem, in medieval Spanish.
Spanish language
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Spanish is sole official language at the national level
Spanish language
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Antonio de Nebrija, author of
Gramática de la lengua castellana, the first grammar of modern European languages.
Spanish language
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Miguel de Cervantes author of
Don Quixote, considered the first modern European novel.
18.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343
Barcelona
–
Central business district,
Sagrada Família,
Camp Nou stadium,
The Castle of the Three Dragons,
Palau Nacional,
W Barcelona hotel and beach
Barcelona
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A marble plaque in the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona, dated from around 110-130 AD and dedicated to the Roman colony of Barcino
Barcelona
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Basilica of La Mercè (Mare de Déu de la Mercè)
Barcelona
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Barcelona in 1563
19.
Sitges Film Festival
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The Sitges Film Festival is a Spanish film festival and one of the worlds foremost international festivals specializing in fantasy and horror films. Established in 1968, the festival takes place every year in early October in the coastal resort of Sitges,34 kilometers West-South-West of the city of Barcelona, Catalonia. The main venue of the Sitges Film Festival is the Auditori or Auditorium, also the festival takes place in El Prado, El Retiro and Sala Tramuntana. The Auditori is located inside the Melia Hotel in the Port dAiguadolç area, the director of the festival is Àngel Sala. Since 1971 the festival has given awards to the best films, actors, the Maria Award winners are the main awards of the festival, and are chosen by an international jury
Sitges Film Festival
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Sitges Film Festival in 2009
20.
Carnival
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Carnival is a Western Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide. Carnival typically involves a public celebration and/or parade combining some elements of a circus, masks, people wear masks and costumes during many such celebrations, allowing them to lose their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Excessive consumption of alcohol, meat, and other foods proscribed during Lent is extremely common, the term Carnival is traditionally used in areas with a large Catholic presence. However, the Philippines, a predominantly Roman Catholic country, does not celebrate Carnival anymore since the dissolution of the Manila Carnival after 1939, in Slavic Eastern Orthodox nations, Maslenitsa is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. In German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands, the Carnival season traditionally opens on 11/11 and this dates back to celebrations before the Advent season or with harvest celebrations of St. Martins Day. Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is the biggest in the world, followed jointly by Barranquilla, Colombia, alternative names are used for regional and local celebrations. The origin may be from the Italian word carne or carrus, the former suggests an origin within Christianity, while the alternative links to earlier religions. Folk etymologies state that the word comes from the Late Latin expression carne vale, the word carne may also be translated as flesh, producing a farewell to the flesh, a phrase embraced by certain carnival celebrants to embolden the festivals carefree spirit. However, this interpretation is not supported by philological evidence, the Italian carne levare is one possible origin, meaning to remove meat, since meat is prohibited during Lent. Other scholars argue for the origin from the Roman name for the festival of the Navigium Isidis, the festival consisted of a parade of masks following an adorned wooden boat, possibly source of the floats. From the anthropological point of view, carnival is a ritual, in which social roles are reversed. Winter was thought of as the reign of the winter spirits, Carnival can thus be regarded as a rite of passage from darkness to light, from winter to summer, a fertility celebration, the first spring festival of the new year. Traditionally, a carnival feast was the last opportunity for people to eat well. Until spring produce was available, people were limited to the necessary meals during this period. On what nowadays is called vastenavond, all the winter stores of lard, butter. The selected livestock had already been slaughtered in November and the meat would be no longer preservable, all the food that had survived the winter had to be eaten to assure that everyone was fed enough to survive until the coming spring would provide new food sources. Several Germanic tribes celebrated the returning of the daylight, the winter would be driven out, to make sure that fertility could return in spring
Carnival
–
Masquerade at the
Carnival of Venice.
Carnival
–
Carnival celebrations in the
Southern Netherlands, 1490
Carnival
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Carnival in Rome circa 1650
Carnival
–
Games during the carnival at
Rio de Janeiro, c. 1822
21.
Garraf Massif
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The Garraf Massif is a mountain range of the Catalan Coastal Range, Catalonia, Spain. Its cliffs reach the Mediterranean waters and its highest point on the coastal side is La Morella,593 metres above sea level and further inland rises the higher, although less conspicuous, Montau. The Garraf Massif gives its name to the Garraf comarca, as well as to the little village of Garraf. It is located south of Barcelona, between the towns of Castelldefels and Sitges. Highways C-31 and C-32, as well as the RENFE Barcelona-Valencia railway line go through the side of the Garraf Massif. The small town of Olivella, Plana Novella with its Buddhist monastery, as well as the village of Jafra are located in the middle of the massif. This coastal calcareous mountain range is sparsely wooded, and has many rocky denuded areas, the main vegetation is maquis shrubland and the Mediterranean Fan Palm is an endemic species of these mountains. It has over 400 karstic shafts and caves, including La Falconera, despite having been declared a Protected Area by the Catalan Government, there are many seriously degraded areas throughout the massif. These include quarries and vast rubbish dumps that are active and keep degrading the mountains and polluting their karstic underground lakes. Over 23 million tons of garbage have accumulated in the Vall den Joan landfill only, urbanization has covered different zones of the range, especially in locations close to Sitges, as well as on the Castelldefels side. There the mountain sides are covered with mostly bungalows or small houses, Garraf Lacció antròpica sobre les Muntanyes de Garraf
Garraf Massif
–
Garraf Massif
Garraf Massif
–
View from
La Morella, the highest peak in the Garraf Massif.
Garraf Massif
–
Massís del Garraf shoreline cliffs near
Sitges
22.
Counterculture
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A counterculture is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores. A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes, John Milton Yinger originated the term contraculture in his 1960 article in American Sociological Review. Some scholars have attributed the counterculture to Theodore Roszak, author of The Making of a Counter Culture and it became prominent in the news media amid the social revolution that swept the Americas, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand during the 1960s. Scholars differ in the characteristics and specificity they attribute to counterculture, mainstream culture is of course also difficult to define, and in some ways becomes identified and understood through contrast with counterculture. Counterculture might oppose mass culture, or middle-class culture and values, Counterculture is sometimes conceptualized in terms of generational conflict and rejection of older or adult values. Counterculture may or may not be explicitly political and it typically involves criticism or rejection of currently powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society. It does not look favorably on party politics or authoritarianism, typically, a fringe culture expands and grows into a counterculture by defining its own values in opposition to mainstream norms. Countercultures tend to peak, then go into decline, leaving an impact on mainstream cultural values. Their life cycles include phases of rejection, growth, partial acceptance, during the late 1960s, hippies became the largest and most visible countercultural group in the United States. The cultural shadows left by the Romantics, Bohemians, Beats, the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s generated its own unique brand of notable literature, including comics and cartoons, and sometimes referred to as the underground press. In the United States, this includes the work of Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, another such hippie/anarchist bookshop was Mushroom Books, tucked away in the Lace Market area of Nottingham. Some genres tend to challenge societies with their content that is meant to question the norms within cultures. More often than not, sources of these controversies can be found in art such as Marcel Duchamp whose piece Fountain was meant to be an attack on the most basic conventions of art in 1917. Instead of being a topic to fear, they have initiated subtle trends that other artists, in order to achieve such liberation, consciousness raising and direct action were employed. At the outset of the 20th century, homosexual acts were punishable offenses in these countries, the prevailing public attitude was that homosexuality was a moral failing that should be punished, as exemplified by Oscar Wildes 1895 trial and imprisonment for gross indecency. But even then, there were dissenting views, according to Charles Kaisers The Gay Metropolis, there were already semi-public gay-themed gatherings by the mid-1930s in the United States. There were also bars and bathhouses that catered to gay clientele, but homosexuality was typically subsumed into bohemian culture, and was not a significant movement in itself
Counterculture
–
Mother Centre Meeting at
Nambassa, 1979
Counterculture
–
As a hippie
Ken Westerfield helped to popularize Frisbee as an alternative sport in the 1960s and 70s
23.
Spain under Franco
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It is the opinion of several historians that during the Spanish Civil War, Francos goal was to turn Spain into a totalitarian state based on fascism like Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Franco was also able to take advantage of the resources of the Axis Powers, Francos regime evolved into a more classic autocratic regime. The Spanish Civil War started as a coup by the Spanish military on the peninsula, the coup escalated into a civil war lasting for three years once Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany agreed to support Franco, starting with airlifting of the africanistas onto the mainland. However, the Falange remained the party throughout Francos regime and its ideology, National Syndicalism. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, according to the regimes own figures, there were more than 270,000 men and women held in prisons, large numbers of those captured were returned to Spain or interned in Nazi concentration camps as stateless enemies. Between six and seven thousand exiles from Spain died in Mauthausen and it has been estimated that more than 200,000 Spaniards died in the first years of the dictatorship, from 1940–42, as a result of political repression, hunger, and disease related to the conflict. This changed with the Cold War that soon followed the end of hostilities in 1945, independent political parties and trade unions were banned throughout the duration of the dictatorship. On July 26,1947 Spain was declared a kingdom, Franco was to be succeeded by his Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco as head of government with the intention of continuing the Francoist regime, but those hopes ended with his 1973 assassination. With the death of Franco on 20 November 1975, Juan Carlos became the King of Spain and he initiated the countrys subsequent transition to democracy, ending with Spain becoming a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. After Francos victory in 1939, the Falange was declared the legal party in Spain. The Organic Law made the government ultimately responsible for passing all laws, as all ministers were appointed and dismissed by Franco as the Chief of state and government, he was effectively the only source of legislation. The law of national referendums, passed in 1945 approved for all laws to be approved by a popular referendum. Local municipal councils were appointed similarly by heads of families and local corporations through elections, however, Carrero Blanco was assassinated on the same year and Franco named a civilian, Carlos Arias Navarro as the countrys new Prime Minister. Concerns about the situation, Spains possible entry into World War II. The army maintained a strength of about 400,000 men until the end of the war, Spain attempted to retain control of the last remnants of its colonial empire throughout Francos rule. During the Algerian War, Madrid became the base of the Organisation armée secrète right-wing French Army group which sought to preserve French Algeria, despite this, Franco was forced to make some concessions. Henceforth, when French Morocco became independent in 1956, he surrendered Spanish Morocco to Mohammed V, the year after, Mohammed V invaded Spanish Sahara during the Ifni War. Only in 1975, with the Green March and the military occupation, in 1968, under United Nations pressure, Franco granted Spains colony of Equatorial Guinea its independence, and the next year, ceded the exclave of Ifni to Morocco
Spain under Franco
–
By decision of King Juan Carlos I, Franco is entombed in the monument of
Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos.
Spain under Franco
–
Flag
Spain under Franco
–
Equestrian statue of Generalisimo Franco in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (City Hall Plaza) of
Santander. It was taken down in late 2008.
24.
Ibiza
–
Ibiza is an island in the Mediterranean Sea off the east coast of Spain. It is 150 kilometres from the city of Valencia and it is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. Its largest settlements are Ibiza Town, Santa Eulària des Riu and its highest point, called Sa Talaiassa, is 475 metres above sea level. The islands government and the Spanish Tourist Office have been working to promote more family-oriented tourism, the port in Ibiza Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ibiza and the island of Formentera to its south are called the Pine Islands. The official name of the island is in Catalan Eivissa and its name in Spanish is Ibiza. In British English, the name is pronounced in an approximation of the Spanish /ɪˈbiːθə/, whereas in American English the pronunciation is more anglicized. Phoenician colonists called the island Ibossim and it was later known to Romans as Ebusus. The Greeks called the two islands of Ibiza and Formentera the Pityûssai, in the 18th and 19th centuries the island was known to the British, and especially to the Royal Navy, as Ivica. In 654 BC, Phoenician settlers founded a port on Ibiza, with the decline of Phoenicia after the Assyrian invasions, Ibiza came under the control of Carthage, also a former Phoenician colony. The island produced dye, salt, fish sauce, and wool, a shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Cuieram, and the rest of the Balearic Islands entered Eivissas commercial orbit after 400 BC. Ibiza was a trading post along the Mediterranean routes. During the Second Punic War, the island was assaulted by the two Scipio brothers in 209 BC but remained loyal to Carthage. With the Carthaginian military failing on the Iberian mainland, Ibiza was last used by the fleeing Carthaginian General Mago to gather supplies and men before sailing to Minorca, for this reason, Ibiza today contains excellent examples of late Carthaginian-Punic civilization. During the Roman Empire, the became a quiet imperial outpost. Ibiza together with the islands of Formentera and Minorca were invaded by the Norwegian King Sigurd I of Norway in the spring of 1110 on his crusade to Jerusalem. The king had previously conquered the cities of Sintra, Lisbon, King Sigurd continued to Sicily where he visited King Roger II of Sicily. The island was conquered by Aragonese King James I in 1235, the local Muslim population got deported as was the case with neighboring Majorca and elsewhere, and Christians arrived from Girona
Ibiza
–
View of the port from the ramparts
Ibiza
–
Flag of Ibiza
Ibiza
–
Old city of Ibiza Town.
Ibiza
–
Ancient Greek
aryballoi found in the necropolis of Puig des Molins. Museo de Puig des Molins, Ibiza.
25.
Bilderberg Group
–
The first conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, from 29 to 31 May 1954. Bernhard in turn contacted Walter Bedell Smith, then head of the CIA, the guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one of each to represent conservative and liberal points of view. Fifty delegates from 11 countries in Western Europe attended the first conference, the success of the meeting led the organizers to arrange an annual conference. A permanent steering committee was established with Retinger appointed as permanent secretary, conferences were held in France, Germany, and Denmark over the following three years. In 1957 the first U. S. conference was held on St. Simons Island, Georgia, the foundation also supplied funding for the 1959 and 1963 conferences. The groups original goal of promoting Atlanticism, of strengthening U. S, in 2001, Denis Healey, a Bilderberg group founder and a steering committee member for 30 years, said, To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldnt go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people, so we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing. Meetings are organized by a committee with two members from each of approximately 18 nations. Official posts include a chairman and an Honorary Secretary General, the groups rules do not contain a membership category but former participants receive the annual conference reports. The only category that exists is member of the steering committee, besides the committee, there is a separate advisory group with overlapping membership. Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel became permanent secretary in 1960, prince Bernhard continued to serve as the meetings chairman until 1976, the year of his involvement in the Lockheed affair. According to James A. Bill, the committee usually met twice a year to plan programs. In 2002, author Jon Ronson wrote that the group has a central office in Holland which each year decides what country will host the forthcoming meeting. The host country then has to book a hotel for four days, plus arrange catering, transport. To fund this, the host solicits donations from corporations such as Barclays, Fiat Automobiles, GlaxoSmithKline, Heinz, Nokia. About two thirds of the come from Europe and the rest from North America, one third from politics and government. Partly because of its methods to ensure strict privacy, the Bilderberg Group has been criticised for its lack of transparency. In 2005, Davignon discussed accusations of the striving for a one-world government with the BBC, It is unavoidable
Bilderberg Group
–
Bilderberg Hotel in the
Netherlands, name-giving location of the first conference in 1954
Bilderberg Group
–
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld in 1942
26.
Saint-Tropez
–
Saint-Tropez is a town,100 kilometres west of Nice, in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region of southeastern France. It is also the town in the canton of Saint-Tropez. Saint-Tropez is located on the French Riviera and it was a military stronghold and an unassuming fishing village until the beginning of the 20th century. It was the first town on this coast to be liberated during World War II, after the war, it became an internationally known seaside resort, renowned principally because of the influx of artists of the French New Wave in cinema and the Yé-yé movement in music. It later became a resort for the European and American jet set and a goal for tourists in search of a little Provençal authenticity, the inhabitants of Saint-Tropez are called Tropéziens, and the town is familiarly called St-Trop. In 599 B. C. the Phocaeans founded Massilia and established other coastal mooring sites in the area, in 31 B. C. the Romans invaded the region. Their citizens built many opulent villas in the area, including one known as the Villa des Platanes, the first name given to the village which became Saint-Tropez was Heraclea-Caccaliera, and the mouth of its gulf was named the Issambres. The town owes its current name to the early, semi-legendary martyr Saint Torpes, the legend tells of his decapitation at Pisa during Neros reign, with his body placed in a rotten boat along with a rooster and a dog. The body landed at the location of the town. Toward the end of the century, long after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, pirates and privateers began a hundred years of attacks. In the tenth century, the village of La Garde-Freinet was founded 15 km to the North of Saint-Tropez. From 890 to 972, Saint-Tropez and its surroundings became an Arab Muslim colony dominated by the nearby Saracenic settlement of Fraxinet. in 940, Saint-Tropez was controlled by Nasr ibn Ahmad. From 961 to 963, Audibert, son of Berenger, the pretender to the throne of Lombardy who was pursued by Otto I, in 972, the Muslims of Saint-Tropez held the abbot of Cluny, Maïeul, for ransom. In 976, William I Count of Provence, lord of Grimaud, began attacking the Muslims, in 1079 and 1218, Papal bulls mentioned the existence of a manor at Saint-Tropez. From 1436, Count René I tried to repopulate the Provence and he created the Barony of Grimaud and appealled to the Genoan Raphael de Garezzio, a wealthy gentleman who sent a fleet of caravels carrying sixty Genoese families to the area. In return, Count René promised to exempt the citizens from taxation, the city became a small republic with its own fleet and army and administered by two consuls and twelve elected councillors. In 1558, the Captain of City was empowered to protect the city, in 1577, the daughter of the Marquis Lord of Castellane, Genevieve de Castilla, married Jean-Baptiste de Suffren, Marquis de Saint-Cannet, Baron de La Môle, and advisor to the Parliament of Provence. The lordship of Saint-Tropez became the prerogative of the De Suffren family, in September 1615, Saint-Tropez was visited by a delegation led by the Japanese samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga who were on their way to Rome but obliged by weather to stop in Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez
–
Panoramic view of Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez
–
Aerial view of Saint-Tropez, with Pampelonne beach in background and the citadel and the port in the foreground
Saint-Tropez
–
Citadel of Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez
–
Saint-Tropez "le vieux port" (the old port)
27.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
28.
Barcelona International Airport
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It is the main airport of Catalonia, the second largest and second busiest in Spain behind Madrid-Barajas Airport, and the seventh busiest in Europe. In 2016 Barcelona Airport handled a record 44.1 million passengers and it is a hub for Air Nostrum, EasyJet, Norwegian Air International, Ryanair and Vueling, and a focus city for Air Europa and Iberia. The airport mainly serves domestic European destinations, also having flights to North America, South America, Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The Barcelona–Madrid air shuttle service, known as the Puente Aéreo, or Pont Aeri literally Air Bridge, was the worlds busiest route until 2008, with the highest number of flight operations in 2007. The schedule has been reduced since February 2008, when a Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line was opened, covering the distance in 2 hours 30 minutes, Barcelonas first airfield, located at El Remolar, began operations in 1916. However, it did not have good prospects, so a new airport at El Prat opened in 1918. The first plane was a Latécoère Salmson 300 which arrived from Toulouse with final destination Casablanca, the airport was used as headquarters of the Aeroclub of Catalonia and the base for the Spanish Navys Zeppelin fleet. Scheduled commercial service began in 1927 with an Iberia service to Madrid Cuatro Vientos Airport, during the time of the Second Spanish Republic El Prat was one of the bases of LAPE. In 1948, a runway was built, in the year the first overseas service was operated by Pan American World Airways to New York City. Between 1948 and 1952, a runway was constructed, perpendicular to the previous, also taxiways were constructed. In 1963, the airport reached one million passengers a year, a new control tower was built in 1965. In 1968, a new terminal was opened, which exists and is in use as what is now Terminal 2B. On 3 August 1970, Pan American World Airways inaugurated regular service between Barcelona, Lisbon and New York, operated by a Boeing 747, on 4 November of the same year, Iberia began the Air-shuttle service between Barcelona and Madrid–Barajas. A few years later, in 1976, a terminal was built specifically for Iberias air-shuttle service and a terminal exclusively for cargo, a mail service. In 1977, the airport handled over 5 million passengers annually, from the late seventies to the early nineties, the airport was stalled in traffic and investments until the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona. The development included jetways for direct access to the aircraft and this reform was designed by architect Ricardo Bofill Levi. In 1992, a new tower was inaugurated also designed by Ricardo Bofill Levi. The new Terminal 1 was inaugurated on 16 June 2009, covering 545,000 m2, 70% of todays flights operate from Terminal 1
Barcelona International Airport
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Barcelona–El Prat Airport Aeroport de Barcelona–El Prat
Barcelona International Airport
Barcelona International Airport
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Terminal 2B with artwork by
Miró
Barcelona International Airport
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Barcelona Airport
29.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
Neolithic
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An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. Neolithic stone artifacts are by definition polished and, except for specialty items, not chipped.
Neolithic
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Algerian cave paintings depicting hunting scenes
Neolithic
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Female figure from
Tumba Madžari,
Republic of Macedonia
Neolithic
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Skara Brae, Scotland. Evidence of home furnishings (shelves)
Spain
Catalonia
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