Spain is a country in southwestern Europe occupying most of the Iberian Peninsula, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pyrenees mountains that separate it from France. A land of sun-baked plains, green northern coasts, and historic cities, it was once the centre of a global empire, and its language and culture spread across much of the Americas, making Spanish one of the most widely spoken languages on Earth.
Spain's history is layered with the peoples who ruled it: Iberians and Celts, then Romans who made it the heart of Hispania, then Visigoths. For nearly eight centuries much of the peninsula was Al-Andalus, a Muslim domain of great learning and architecture, while Christian kingdoms pushed south in the long Reconquista. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella united the crowns, and in 1492 they completed the reconquest and sponsored Columbus, opening the age of a worldwide Spanish empire.
Spain is dominated by a high central plateau, the Meseta, ringed and crossed by mountain ranges and baked by hot, dry summers. The green, rainy north along the Atlantic contrasts sharply with the arid south and the Mediterranean coast, while the Pyrenees wall off the country to the northeast. Spain also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands off Africa, and it is one of the most mountainous countries in Europe.
The Spanish flag has three horizontal bands, a broad yellow stripe between two narrower red ones, with the national coat of arms set toward the hoist. The red and yellow have been associated with Spain for centuries. The coat of arms gathers the emblems of the historic kingdoms that united to form Spain, along with the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, recalling the country's reach beyond Europe.
Roman Catholicism shaped Spain for more than a thousand years, from the Reconquista fought in its name to the missionaries who carried it across the Americas, and it remains woven into the country's festivals, architecture, and identity. Holy Week processions are famous across the land. In recent decades, however, Spain has become markedly more secular, with regular church attendance falling and a large share of people now identifying as non-practising or non-religious.
Spanish cuisine is regional, social, and built on superb ingredients. Its most famous custom is tapas, small dishes shared over conversation, and its best-known dish is paella, the saffron rice of Valencia. Cured ham, or jamon, olive oil, seafood along the coasts, and dishes like the cold tomato soup gazpacho define the table, all washed down with celebrated wines. Eating is leisurely and communal, often late into the evening.
Spain's warm climate makes it an agricultural powerhouse of southern Europe. It is the world's largest producer of olive oil, the foundation of its cooking, and one of the leading growers of wine, citrus fruits, almonds, and vegetables, much of it exported across Europe. Pork is central to its livestock, and the famous acorn-fed Iberian pigs yield prized ham. Irrigation has turned parts of the dry south into intensive market gardens.
The fall of Granada in 1492 ended Muslim rule and, in the same year, launched Spain's voyages to the Americas, building an empire on which it was said the sun never set. The wealth and reach of that empire shaped the early modern world. In the twentieth century Spain was torn by a brutal civil war from 1936 to 1939, followed by the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco, before a peaceful transition to democracy after his death in 1975.
Spain has a population of around 48 million people, concentrated in Madrid, the central capital, and along the Mediterranean coast and in cities like Barcelona. The country has strong regional identities, some with their own languages, including Catalan, Basque, and Galician, and movements for greater autonomy or independence, especially in Catalonia, are a live feature of its politics. Like much of Europe, Spain has an ageing population and one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
