Spain

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to talk to you about Spain, a country in the south-west of Europe.

First of all, I'm going to start with its history. Spain was pretty important in the age of the Roman Empire, due to Mérida or Emerita Augusta. With the Muslims' Invasion, Spain or Al-Andalus went into a period of time when the three cultures (jewish, muslims and christians) coexisted in a fake peace. There weren't wars, but neither they used to walk hand in hand.

So in 1492, the Catholic Monarchs took muslims and jews out of Spain. Thereafter, Colon discovered America, the New World. In the XIX century, Spain was invaded by Napoleon, but Spanish fought and beat him. In the end of the century Spain lost America. In 1931, the Republic was established. Five years later, the Civil War broke out. It took three long years. With Franco, a 40 years-dictatorship started, 40 years of hunger, poverty, repression until 1975. When Franco died, King Juan Carlos put a democracy and Spain started to introduce itself between the most important countries, more or less. It went into the EU (1986) and in 2002, the Euro became our official currency.

Our weather depends on the place where you are: in the north usually is cold; in the centre it's freezing in winter and boiling in summer; and on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts it's intermediate temperatures, cool in winter and hot in summer. The showers are focused on the north coasts. The special area is Canary Islands, its weather is enviable with temperatures around 22 degrees all the year.

The more important cities are Madrid (the capital), Seville, Barcelonne, Valencia and Bilbao. These are the cities where the economy is focused, which is focused on the service sector. Spain is known above all for its bars and 'tapas'. It's also known for its agriculture (wine and olives) and its livestock (cured ham, cheeses, bulls...). Thank you for having listened to me.
(Picture: xornalcerto on flickr)