Chris Weaver
Intercultural Communications
March 24, 2019
Located in Southwestern Europe bordering the Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean,
Bay of Biscay, and Pyrenees Mountains and southwest of France lies the 53rd largest country in
the world, Spain. The continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain
also consists of two groups of islands also known as archipelagoes; those islands are the Canary
Islands off the coast of Africa, and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Having only
the African enclaves of Ceueta, Melilla, and Pelñón de Vélez da la Gomera between them and
Morocco, makes Spain the only European country to share a physical border with an African
country. Spain is also neighbor to France and Portugal.
Covering roughly 195,364 square miles, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe,
and the fourth largest country in the continent. To put it into perspective that is about five times
bigger than the state of Kentucky and just slightly more than the state of Oregon.
The origins of Spain can be traced back to the year of 1492 with the seizure of Granada.
Leading up to that the Iberian Peninsula was comprised of a bunch of independent kingdoms. In
the 8th century the Muslims moved into the area and occupied it for nearly seven centuries.
The capital city is Madrid, and one of the top tourist spots in the country and in the world
is Barcelona. There are two very distinct climates in Spain. If In the interior of the country, there
are clear and hot summers. On the coast, there is more moderate and cloudier weather. During
the winter it is cold in the interior and cloudy and cool on the coast.
Weaver 2
At last recording in 2017, the population was estimated to be 49 million people. Eight-eight
percent of that is comprised of native Spaniards. The remaining 12% is made up of immigrants.
The native language is Spanish. There are also four other languages recognized as official
languages of Spain. In Catalonia, they speak Catalan. They speak Gailician in Catalan, Basque in
Basque county and Occitan in Cataonia.
Spain is the second biggest foreign investor in Latin America. (globaledge.msu.edu)
Some of the notable natural resources that Spain has to offer are coal, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc,
uranium, tungsten and mercury.
According to the Observatory of Economic complexity in 2017 Spain ranked 16th out of
221 countries in exports with 296 billion exported. The top exports were cars ($36.4 billion),
refined petroleum ($10.8 billion), vehicle parts ($10.2 billion), packaged medicaments ($8.67
