What Is Spain? About This Country In Southwestern Europe
SPAIN – In this topic, we are about to learn and discuss things to know about the Southwestern European country called Spain.
Known officially as the Kingdom of Spain, it is a country in the Southwestern region of Europe.
Its official language is Spanish and is known locally as Reino de España, Regne d’Espanya in Catalan, Espainiako Erresuma in Basque, Reino de España in Galician, and Reiaume d’Espanha in Occitan.
The mainland is surrounded by the following:
- Gibraltar
- France
- Andorra
- Bay of Biscay
- Portugal
It has a land mass of about 505K square kilometers or 195K square miles.
Its capital city is Madrid and has a population of about 46 million people, as of 2018 making it the 30th most populous country.
Its government is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy currently ruled by King Felipe VI.
The modern term España is possibly derived from the Roman name Hispania, which possibly came from the Punic cognate ī shāpān or the Hebrew term ī shāfān (אׅי שָׁפָן) which means the “island of the hyrax”.
Hispania could possibly emerge from the Iberian word Hispalis which means “city of the western world”, according to Antonio de Nebrija, a scholar from the Renaissance period.
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