Information about Spain
Spain is a kingdom with a total surface of over 500.000 square kilometers. This makes it 12 times the size of The Netherlands. The number of inhabitants is at almost 45 million.
Spain is divided into 17 independent regions, which are divided into 52 provinces. The most of the regions are governed from Madrid, but there are three that have special rights. Those three are Catalonia, Bask Country and Galicia. Catalonia and Bask Country for example, are able to decide for theselves how many tax money they send to Madrid, unlike the other regions where all tax money goes to Madrid. Madrid then decides how many will be sent back to the regional governments.
Spain has an impressive history. Especially the last century, the regions that have a strong local culture were suppressed by the centralist government from Madrid. Dictator Franco was notorious for his way of ruling over Spain and dominating over the regions, not allowing them to speak their own languages or display any local cultural habits. This is one of the reasons the local cultural differences in Spain are so strong.
After his death, king Carlos I started governing Spain. He brought democracy. The country recovered slowly, and started opening it’s eyes to the rest of the world. Since then, Spain has started to do business abroad. This is oe of the reason Spain is a quite new market, in comparison to other European countries.
