Sauce
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not consumed by themselves. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsa, meaning salted; the oldest recorded European sauce is garum, the fish sauce used by the Ancient Greeks. Sauces need a liquid component. Sauces are an essential element in cuisines all over the world. Sauces may be used for savory dishes, they may be prepared and served cold, like mayonnaise, prepared cold but served lukewarm like pesto and served warm like bechamel or cooked and served cold like apple sauce. They may be freshly prepared by the cook in restaurants, but today many sauces are sold premade and packaged like Worcestershire sauce, HP Sauce, soy sauce or ketchup. Sauces for salad are called salad dressing. Sauces made by deglazing a pan are called pan sauces. A chef who specializes in making sauces is called a saucier. Sauces used in traditional Japanese cuisine are based on shōyu, miso or dashi.
Ponzu, citrus-flavored soy sauce, yakitori no tare, sweetened rich soy sauce, are examples of shōyu-based sauces. Miso-based sauces include gomamiso, miso with ground sesame, amamiso, sweetened miso. In modern Japanese cuisine, the word "sauce" refers to Worcestershire sauce, introduced in the 19th century and modified to suit Japanese tastes. Tonkatsu and yakisoba sauces are based on this sauce. Japanese sauce or wasabi sauce is used on sushi and sashimi or mixed with soy sauce to make wasabi-joyu; some sauces in Chinese cuisine are soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sweet bean sauce, chili sauces, oyster sauce, sweet and sour sauce. Korean cuisine uses sauces such as doenjang, samjang and soy sauce. Southeast Asian cuisines, such as Thai and Vietnamese cuisine use fish sauce, made from fermented fish. Indian cuisines use sauces such as tomato-based sauces with varying spice combinations, tamarind sauce, coconut milk-/paste-based sauces, chutneys. There are substantial regional variations in Indian cuisine, but many sauces use a seasoned mix of onion and garlic paste as the base of various gravies and sauces.
Various cooking oils, ghee and/or cream are regular ingredients in Indian sauces. Filipino cuisine uses "toyomansi" as well as different varieties of suka, patis and banana ketchup, among others. Indonesian cuisine uses typical sauces such as kecap manis, bumbu kacang and tauco, while popular hot and spicy sauces are sambal, dabu-dabu and rica-rica. In traditional British cuisine, gravy is a sauce used on roast dinner; the sole survivor of the medieval bread-thickened sauces, bread sauce is one of the oldest sauces in British cooking. Apple sauce, mint sauce and horseradish sauce are used on meat. Redcurrant jelly, mint jelly, white sauce may be used. Salad cream is sometimes used on salads. Ketchup and brown sauce are used on fast-food type dishes. Strong English mustard is used on various foods, as is Worcestershire sauce. Custard is a popular dessert sauce. Other popular sauces include mushroom sauce, marie rose sauce, whisky sauce, Albert sauce and cheddar sauce. In contemporary British cuisine, owing to the wide diversity of British society today, there are many sauces that are of British origin but based upon the cuisine of other countries former colonies such as India.
Sauces in French cuisine date back to the Middle Ages. There were many hundreds of sauces in the culinary repertoire. In cuisine classique, sauces were a major defining characteristic of French cuisine. In the early 19th century, the chef Marie-Antoine Carême created an extensive list of sauces, many of which were original recipes, it is unknown how many sauces Carême is responsible for. The cream sauce, in its most popular form around the world, was concurrently created by another chef, Dennis Leblanc, working in the same kitchen as Carême. Carême considered the four grandes sauces to be espagnole, velouté, béchamel, from which a large variety of petites sauces could be composed. In the early 20th century, the chef Auguste Escoffier refined Carême's list of basic sauces in the four editions of his classic Le Guide Culinaire and its abridged English translation A Guide to Modern Cookery, he dropped allemande as he considered it a variation of velouté, added hollandaise and sauce tomate, defining the five fundamental "mother sauces" still used today: Sauce béchamel, milk-based sauce, thickened with a white roux Sauce espagnole, a fortified brown veal stock sauce, thickened with a brown roux Sauce velouté, light stock-based sauce, thickened with a roux or a liaison, a mixture of egg yolks and cream Sauce hollandaise, an emulsion of egg yolk and lemon Sauce tomate, tomato-basedA sauce, derived from one of the mother sauces by augmenting with additional ingredients is sometimes called a "daughter sauce" or "secondary sauce".
Most sauces used in classical cuisine are daughter sauces. For example, béchamel can be made into Mornay by the addition of grated cheese, espag
Sautéing
Sautéing or sauteing is a method of cooking that uses a small amount of oil or fat in a shallow pan over high heat. Various sauté methods exist, sauté pans are a specific type of pan designed for sautéing. Ingredients for sautéing are cut into pieces or thinly sliced to facilitate fast cooking; the primary mode of heat transfer during sautéing is conduction between the pan and the food being cooked. Food, sautéed is browned while preserving its texture and flavor. If meat, chicken, or fish is sautéed, the sauté is finished by deglazing the pan's residue to make a sauce. Sautéing may be compared with pan frying, in which larger pieces of food are cooked in oil or fat, flipped onto both sides; some cooks make a distinction between the two based on the depth of the oil used, while others use the terms interchangeably. Sautéing differs from searing in that searing only browns the surface of the food. Certain oils should not be used to sauté due to their low smoke point. Clarified butter, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil are used for sautéing.
For example, though regular butter would produce more flavor, it would burn at a lower temperature and more than other fats due to the presence of milk solids. Clarified butter is more fit for this use. In a sauté, all the ingredients are heated at once, cooked quickly. To facilitate this, the ingredients are moved around in the pan, either by the use of a utensil, or by jerking the pan itself. A sauté pan must be large enough to hold all of the food in one layer, so steam can escape, which keeps the ingredients from stewing and promotes the development of fond. Most pans sold as sauté pans have a wide flat base and low sides, to maximize the surface area available for heating; the low sides allow quick escape of steam. While skillets have flared or rounded sides, sauté pans have straight, vertical sides; this stirred. Only enough fat to coat the bottom of the pan is needed for sautéing; the food is spread across the hot fat in the pan, left to brown, turning or tossing for cooking. The sauté technique involves gripping the handle of the sauté pan and using a sharp elbow motion to jerk the pan back toward the cook, repeating as necessary to ensure the ingredients have been jumped.
Tossing or stirring the items in the pan by shaking the pan too however, can cause the pan to cool faster and make the sauté take longer. Sautéing Media related to Sautéing at Wikimedia Commons Sautéing at Wikibook Cookbooks
Franciscans
The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Saint Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis, they adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Elizabeth of Hungary, among many others. Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from Pope Innocent III in 1209 to form a new religious order; the original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, requiring members of the order to beg for food while preaching. The austerity was meant to emulate the ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties. Saint Clare, under Francis's guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans; the extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in the final revision of the Rule in 1223.
The degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor known as the "Observant" branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the "Conventuals" and "Capuchins"; the Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of several smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases. Conventual Franciscans are sometimes referred to as greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, although the term elsewhere refers to Cistercians instead; the name of the original order, Ordo Fratrum Minorum stems from Francis of Assisi's rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully.
He had cut all ties that remained with his family, pursued a life living in solidarity with his fellow brothers in Christ. Francis adopted the simple tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order, had others who wished to join him do the same; those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor. The modern organization of the Friars Minor comprises three separate families or groups, each considered a religious order in its own right under its own minister General and particular type of governance, they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First OrderThe First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are called the Franciscans; this order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum. St. Francis thus referred to his followers as "Fraticelli", meaning "Little Brothers". Franciscan brothers are informally called the Minorites; the modern organization of the Friars Minor comprises three separate families or groups, each considered a religious order in its own right under its own minister General and particular type of governance.
They all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor known as the Observants, are most simply called Franciscan friars, official name: Friars Minor; the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or Capuchins, official name: Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name: Friars Minor Conventual". Second OrderThe Second Order, most called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters; the order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the thirteenth century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as "The Poor Ladies", "The Poor Enclosed Nuns", "The Order of San Damiano". Third OrderThe Franciscan third order, known as the Third Order of Saint Francis, has many men and women members, separated into two main branches: The Secular Franciscan Order, OFS known as the Brothers and Sisters of Penance or Third Order of Penance, try to live the ideals of the movement in their daily lives outside of religious institutes.
The members of the Third Order Regular live in religious communities under the traditional religious vows. They grew out of the Secular Franciscan Order; the 2013 Annuario Pontificio gave the following figures for the membership of the principal male Franciscan orders:. Order of Friars Minor: 2,212 communities. A sermon Francis heard in 1209 on Mt 10:9 made such an impression on him that he decided to devote himself wholly to a life of apostolic poverty. Clad in a rough garment, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance, he was soon joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernard of Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work, by other companions, who are said to have reached the number of eleven within a yea
Roux
Roux is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight; the flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, cooked to the desired level of brownness. Butter, vegetable oils, bacon drippings or lard are used fats. Roux is used as a thickening agent for gravy, sauces and stews, it provides the base for a dish, other ingredients are added after the roux is complete. The fat is most butter in French cuisine, but may be lard or vegetable oil in other cuisines; the roux is used in three of the five mother sauces of classical French cooking: béchamel sauce, velouté sauce, espagnole sauce. In Cajun cuisine, roux is made with bacon fat or oil instead of butter and cooked to a medium or dark brown color, which lends much richness of flavor, albeit less thickening power. Central European cuisine uses lard or more vegetable oil instead of butter for the preparation of roux, called zápražka in Slovak, jíška in Czech, zasmażka in Polish, zaprška in Bosnian, Croatian and Macedonian, zaprazhka in Bulgarian, rántás in Hungarian and Mehlschwitze in German.
Japanese curry, or karē, is made from a roux made by frying yellow curry powder, butter or oil, flour together. The French term roux has become a loanword in Japanese, rū, or more karērū. Roux has been used in Turkish cuisine since at least the 15th century; the fat is heated in pan, melting it if necessary. The flour is added; the mixture is heated and stirred until the flour is incorporated, cooked until at least the point where a raw flour taste is no longer apparent and the desired colour has been reached. The final colour can range from nearly white to nearly black, depending on the length of time it is heated and its intended use; the end result is a flavoring agent. Roux is most made with butter as the fat base, but it may be made with any edible fat. For meat gravies, fat rendered from meat is used. In regional American cuisine, bacon is sometimes rendered to produce fat to use in the roux. If clarified butter is not available, vegetable oil is used when producing dark roux, since it does not burn at high temperatures, as whole butter would.
Light roux provides little flavor other than a characteristic richness to a dish, is used in French cooking and some gravies or pastries throughout the world. Darker roux is made by browning the flour in oil for a longer time and add a distinct nutty flavor to a dish, they may be called "peanut-butter", "brown", or "chocolate" roux depending on their color. The darker the color, the richer the flavor. Swabian cooking uses a darker roux for its "brown broth", which, in its simplest form, consists of nothing more than lard and water, with a bay leaf and salt for seasoning. Dark roux is made with vegetable oils, which have a higher smoke point than butter, are used in Cajun and Creole cuisine for gumbos and stews; the darker the roux, the less thickening power it has. A dark roux, just shy of burning and turning black, has a distinctly reddish color and is sometimes referred to as "brick" roux. Staka is a type of roux particular to Cretan cuisine, it is prepared by cooking sheep milk cream over a low flame with wheat flour or starch: the protein-rich part of the butterfat coagulates with the flour or starch and forms the staka proper, served hot.
It is eaten by dipping bread in it served over French fries. The fatty part separates to form stakovoutyro, staka butter, kept for use and has a faint cheesy flavor. Staka butter is used in Cretan pilaf served at weddings. Cooks can substitute for roux by adding a mixture of cold water and wheat flour to a dish that needs thickening, since the heat of boiling water will release the starch from the flour. A mixture of water and flour used in this way is colloquially known as “cowboy roux”, in modern cuisine it is called a white wash, it is used infrequently in restaurant cooking, since it imparts a flavor to the finished dish that a traditional haute cuisine chef would consider unacceptable. Cornflour can be used instead of wheat flour. Since less is needed to thicken, it imparts less of the raw flour taste, it makes the final sauce shinier; as an alternative to roux, high in fat and energy-dense, some Creole chefs have experimented with toasting flour without oil in a hot pan as an addition to gumbo.
Cornstarch mixed with water and other agents can be used in place of roux as well. These items do not contribute to the flavor of a dish, are used for thickening liquids. More many chefs have turned to a group of occurring chemicals known as hydrocolloids. In addition to being flavorless and possessing the ability to act as a thickening agent, the resulting texture is thought by some to be superior, only a small amount is required for the desired effect. Folse, John D.. The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine. Gonzales, LA: Chef John Folse & Co. Pub. ISBN 0-9704457-1-7. Troubleshooting roux Oil-based roux, Butter roux: the classical and Creole roux. Includes color illustrations and recipes. Wuerthner, Terri Pischoff. "First You Make a Roux". Gastronomica. 6: 64–68. Doi:10.1525/gfc.2006.6.4.64. JSTOR 10.1525/gfc.20
Mexico City
Mexico City, or the City of Mexico, is the capital of Mexico and the most populous city in North America. Mexico City is one of the most important financial centres in the Americas, it is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus in the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters. The city has 16 boroughs; the 2009 population for the city proper was 8.84 million people, with a land area of 1,485 square kilometers. According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the population of Greater Mexico City is 21.3 million, which makes it the largest metropolitan area of the Western Hemisphere, the eleventh-largest agglomeration, the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world. Greater Mexico City has a GDP of $411 billion in 2011, making Greater Mexico City one of the most productive urban areas in the world; the city was responsible for generating 15.8% of Mexico's GDP, the metropolitan area accounted for about 22% of total national GDP.
If it were an independent country, in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America, five times as large as Costa Rica and about the same size as Peru. Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Native Americans, the other being Quito, Ecuador; the city was built on an island of Lake Texcoco by the Aztecs in 1325 as Tenochtitlan, completely destroyed in the 1521 siege of Tenochtitlan and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, as of 1585, it was known as Ciudad de México. Mexico City was the political and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the federal district was created in 1824. After years of demanding greater political autonomy, residents were given the right to elect both a Head of Government and the representatives of the unicameral Legislative Assembly by election in 1997.
Since, the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution has controlled both of them. The city has several progressive policies, such as abortion on request, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, same-sex marriage. On January 29, 2016, it ceased to be the Federal District, is now known as Ciudad de México, with a greater degree of autonomy. A clause in the Constitution of Mexico, prevents it from becoming a state, as it is the seat of power in the country, unless the capital of the country were relocated elsewhere; the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was founded by the Mexica people in 1325. The old Mexica city, now referred to as Tenochtitlan was built on an island in the center of the inland lake system of the Valley of Mexico, which it shared with a smaller city-state called Tlatelolco. According to legend, the Mexicas' principal god, indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting a golden eagle perched on a prickly pear devouring a rattlesnake. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco and in the Valley of Mexico.
When the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of many of the other native peoples, arriving there on November 8, 1519. Cortés and his men marched along the causeway leading into the city from Iztapalapa, the city's ruler, Moctezuma II, greeted the Spaniards. Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest. Tensions increased until, on the night of June 30, 1520 – during a struggle known as "La Noche Triste" – the Aztecs rose up against the Spanish intrusion and managed to capture or drive out the Europeans and their Tlaxcalan allies. Cortés regrouped at Tlaxcala; the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone, they elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, but he soon died. Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521. For three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans.
Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island and fought their way through the city. Cuauhtémoc surrendered in August 1521; the Spaniards razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest. Cortés first settled in Coyoacán, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order, he did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown. The first Spanish viceroy arrived in Mexico City fourteen years later. By that time, the city had again become a city-state, having power that extended far beyond its borders. Although the Spanish preserved Tenochtitlan's basic layout, they built Catholic churches over the old Aztec temples and claimed the imperial palaces for themselves. Tenochtitlan was renamed "Mexico"; the city had been the capital of the Aztec empire and in the colonial era, Mexico City became the capital of New Spain. The viceroy of Mexico or vice-king lived in the viceregal palace on Zócalo; the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishopric of New Spain, was const
Garlic
Garlic is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, leek and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran, has long been a common seasoning worldwide, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use, it was known to ancient Egyptians, has been used both as a food flavoring and as a traditional medicine. In Ancient Rome, it was "much used for food among the poor". China produces some 80% of the world supply of garlic; the word garlic derives from Old English, meaning gar and leek, as a'spear-shaped leek'. Allium sativum is a bulbous plant, its hardiness is USDA Zone 8. It produces hermaphrodite flowers, it is pollinated by bees, butterflies and other insects. Allium sativum grows in the wild in areas naturalized; the "wild garlic", "crow garlic", "field garlic" of Britain are members of the species Allium ursinum, Allium vineale, Allium oleraceum, respectively. Identification of the wild progenitor of common garlic is difficult, due to the sterility of its many cultivars which may all be descended from the species Allium longicuspis, which grows wild in central and southwestern Asia.
There are at least 120 cultivars originating from Central Asia, making it the main center of garlic biodiversity. In North America, Allium vineale and Allium canadense, known as "meadow garlic" or "wild garlic" and "wild onion", are common weeds in fields. So-called elephant garlic is a wild leek, not a true garlic. Single clove garlic originated in the Yunnan province of China; some garlics have protected status in Europe, including: There are two subspecies of A. sativum, ten major groups of varieties, hundreds of varieties or cultivars. A. sativum var. ophioscorodon Döll, called Ophioscorodon, or hard-necked garlic, includes porcelain garlics, rocambole garlic, purple stripe garlics. It is sometimes considered to be a separate species, Allium ophioscorodon G. Don. A. sativum var. sativum, or soft-necked garlic, includes artichoke garlic, silverskin garlic, creole garlic. Garlic can be grown year-round in mild climates. While sexual propagation of garlic is possible, nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually, by planting individual cloves in the ground.
In colder climates, cloves are planted in the autumn, about six weeks before the soil freezes, harvested in late spring or early summer. The cloves must be planted deep enough to prevent freeze/thaw, which causes white rot. Garlic plants can be grown together, leaving enough space for the bulbs to mature, are grown in containers of sufficient depth. Garlic does well in loose, well-drained soils in sunny locations, is hardy throughout USDA climate zones 4–9; when selecting garlic for planting, it is important to pick large bulbs from which to separate cloves. Large cloves, along with proper spacing in the planting bed, will increase bulb size. Garlic plants prefer to grow in a soil with a high organic material content, but are capable of growing in a wide range of soil conditions and pH levels. There are different varieties or subspecies of garlic, most notably hardneck garlic and softneck garlic; the latitude where the garlic is grown affects the choice of type, as garlic can be day-length sensitive.
Hardneck garlic is grown in cooler climates and produces large cloves, whereas softneck garlic is grown closer to the equator and produces small, tightly-packed cloves. Garlic scapes are removed to focus all the garlic's energy into bulb growth; the scapes can be cooked. Garlic plants are hardy and not affected by many pests or diseases. Garlic plants are said to repel moles. However, pathogens that affect garlic are nematodes and wood-decay fungus, which remain in the soil indefinitely after the ground has become infected. Garlic may suffer from pink root, a non-fatal disease that stunts the roots and turns them pink or red; the larvae of the leek moth attack garlic by mining into the bulbs. In 2016, world production of garlic was 26.6 million tonnes, with China alone accounting for 80% of the total. India was the second largest producer with 5% of world production; the United States – ranked 10th in global production of garlic – grows less than 1% of China's production. Much of the garlic production in the United States is centered in Gilroy, which calls itself the "Garlic Capital of the World".
Garlic is used around the world for its pungent flavor as a seasoning or condiment. The garlic plant's bulb is the most used part of the plant. With the exception of the single clove types, garlic bulbs are divided into numerous fleshy sections called cloves. Garlic cloves are used for medicinal purposes, they have a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens with cooking. Other parts of the garlic plant are edible; the leaves and flowers on the head are sometimes eaten. They are milder in flavor than the bulbs, are most consumed while immature and still tender. Immature garlic is sometimes pulled, rather like a scallion, sold as "green garlic"; when green garlic is allowed to grow past the "scallion" stage, but not permitted to mature, it may produce a garlic "round", a bulb like a boiling onion, but not separated into cloves like a mature bulb. It imparts a garlic aroma in food, minus the spiciness. Green garlic is chopped and stir-fried or cooked in soup or hot
Spain
Spain the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula, its territory includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country. Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are part of Spanish territory; the country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar. With an area of 505,990 km2, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population, Spain is the fifth in the European Union. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Spn or Spania.
At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian peninsula and established independent realms in its western provinces, including the Suebi and Vandals. The Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including Byzantine provinces, into the Kingdom of Toledo, which more or less unified politically and all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was documented as Hispania. In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom fell to the Moors of the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate, who arrived to rule most of the peninsula in the year 726, leaving only a handful of small Christian realms in the north and lasting up to seven centuries in the Kingdom of Granada; this led to many wars during a long reconquering period across the Iberian Peninsula, which led to the creation of the Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon and Kingdom of Navarre as the main Christian kingdoms to face the invasion.
Following the Moorish conquest, Europeans began a gradual process of retaking the region known as the Reconquista, which by the late 15th century culminated in the emergence of Spain as a unified country under the Catholic Monarchs. Until Aragon had been an independent kingdom, which had expanded toward the eastern Mediterranean, incorporating Sicily and Naples, had competed with Genoa and Venice. In the early modern period, Spain became the world's first global empire and the most powerful country in the world, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes more than 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were many advancements in the arts, with world-famous painters such as Diego Velázquez; the most famous Spanish literary work, Don Quixote, was published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state.
It is a major developed country and a high income country, with the world's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a "Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, which makes Spain a de facto member of the group; the origins of the Roman name Hispania, from which the modern name España was derived, are uncertain due to inadequate evidence, although it is documented that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as Spania, therefore the most accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one.
Down the centuries there have been a number of accounts and hypotheses: The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning "city of the western world". Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged", it may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean. The word in question means "Hyrax" due to Phoenicians confusing the two animals. Hispania may derive from the poetic use of the term Hesperia, reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (Hesperia
