spain has an area of 504 thousand square kilometers, the second in the area after france, in western europe, and the largest country, perhaps in the world, in terms of the number of foreigners who own homes there, and consider it their second home, as it spreads along its sunny coasts throughout the year, its mountains, plateaus, and islands, with thousands of huge residential complexes.
spain was unified only in the fifteenth century, with the expulsion of muslims and jews, and the unification of its catholic kingdoms in 1492.
on the other hand, spain was an important source of influence in other regions during modern times, when it became a global empire that left a legacy of more than 500 million spanish speakers, making it the second most widely used mother tongue. it is a wealthy country and ranks tenth in terms of quality of life in the world.
the romans controlled peninsular spain for six centuries, left a lot of monuments (210 bc), and brought with them many things of civilization.
the majority of the spanish peninsula fell into the hands of the muslim armies, in the period 711-718, and christians and jews were treated as dhimmis -- historically, dhimmi status was originally applied to jews, christians, and sabians, who are considered to be ‘people of the book’ in islamic theology. this status later also came to be applied to zoroastrians, sikhs, hindus, jains, and buddhists. the first and strongest of these was among the berbers, who “always” formed the backbone of the invading armies and the umayyad leadership.
cordoba became the capital of the islamic caliphate, and with time it became the largest, richest, and most developed city in western europe. muslim and jewish scholars played a role in this development, and in reviving and expanding the knowledge of greek civilization. in the 11th century, andalusia entered the era of the kings of the warring sects, which allowed the christian states to expand their influence.
the return of andalusia to its people took several centuries, and it began with the battle of covadonga in 772, followed by the strategic fall of toledo in 1085, which constituted a shift in the balance of power, then cordoba followed in 1236, and seville, leaving only the emirate of granada in the south.
and with the unification of the crowns of the kingdoms of castile and aragon in 1469 with the marriage of isabella to king ferdinand ii of aragon, in 1492 they were able to seize granada and end 781 years of islamic rule. this was followed by the arrival of the spanish in the new world, after which spain became unified and the first world power.
this caused several losses, the last of which was the rif war in morocco to undermine the monarchy, and a period of authoritarian rule of the “primo de rivera” dictatorship (1923-1931) ended with the establishment of the second spanish republic, which granted autonomy to the basque regions, catalonia and galicia, and then the civil war broke out (1936-1939) in which franco won, supported by the nazis and fascists, in which half a million spaniards perished, and the like fled abroad.
the monarchy returned with franco’s death in 1975, and much of the state’s powers were gradually transferred to the autonomous regions.
the number of visitors to spain has finally crossed the threshold of 71 million tourists, and this did not happen in vain, as it has everything a tourist is looking for in terms of beauty, food, weather, sports, sea, mountains, music, museums, art, picasso, ronda, cordoba, valencia, seville, barcelona, basque country, rioja, and ribera del duero!
for many reasons i have always liked the idea of living in spain, but i recently discovered that the most important reason, apart from the ease of life in it, is due to the lack of strictness of its people, the ease of solving any problem, and they are welcome to the stranger, compared to switzerland, britain or france, where people of my age, status, and background feel culturally easier in dealing with the spaniard. they are also the sista and minana groups!