Portal: España

El Portal de España

España ( español : España ,[esˈpaɲa] ( escuchar ) ), formalmente el Reino de España (en español: Reino de España ), es un país en el suroeste de Europa con algunos focos de territorio a través del Estrecho de Gibraltar y el Océano Atlántico . Su territorio de Europa continental está situado en la Península Ibérica . Su territorio también incluye dos archipiélagos : las Islas Canarias frente a la costa del norte de África y las Islas Baleares en el Mar Mediterráneo . Los enclaves africanosde Ceuta ,Melilla y el Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera hacen de España el único país europeo que tiene una frontera física con un país africano ( Marruecos ). Varias pequeñas islas del mar de Alborán también forman parte del territorio español. El continente del país limita al sur y al este con el mar Mediterráneo; al norte y noreste con Francia , Andorra y el golfo de Vizcaya ; y al oeste y noroeste con Portugal y el Océano Atlántico respectivamente.

Con una superficie de 505,990 km ² (195,360 millas cuadradas), España es el país más grande del sur de Europa , el segundo país más grande de Europa Occidental y la Unión Europea , y el cuarto país más grande por área en el continente europeo . Con una población que supera los 47,3 millones, España es el sexto país más poblado de Europa y el cuarto país más poblado de la Unión Europea. La capital y ciudad más grande de España es Madrid ; Otras áreas urbanas importantes incluyen Barcelona , Valencia , Sevilla ,Zaragoza , Málaga , Murcia , Palma , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria y Bilbao .

A través de la migración y el asentamiento de personas, varias culturas se desarrollaron en la región junto con la fenicia , la griega , la celta y la cartaginesa . Los romanos conquistaron la región alrededor del 200 a. C. y la llamaron Hispania , en honor al nombre fenicio anterior, Sp (a) n o Spania . España permaneció bajo el dominio romano hasta el colapso del Imperio Romano Occidental en el siglo IV, que marcó el comienzo de las confederaciones tribales germánicas de Europa Central. Los visigodos emergieron como la facción dominante en el siglo V, con su reino abarcando gran parte de la península. (Artículo completo ... )

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Muhammad I ( túnica roja y escudo ) representado al frente de sus tropas durante la revuelta mudéjar de 1264-1266 en las Cantigas de Santa María

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr (en árabe : أبو عبد الله محمد بن يوسف بن نصر ) (1195 - 22 de enero de 1273), también conocido como Ibn al-Aḥmar (en árabe : ابن الأحمر ) y por su honorífico al-Ghalib billah ("El vencedor por la gracia de Dios"), fue el primer gobernante del Emirato de Granada , el último estado musulmán independiente en la Península Ibérica , y el fundador de su dinastía gobernante nazarí . Vivió en una época en la que los reinos cristianos de Iberia, especialmente Portugal , Castilla y Aragón, se estaban expandiendo.a expensas del territorio islámico en Iberia, llamado Al-Andalus . Muhammad ibn Yusuf tomó el poder en su Arjona natal en 1232 cuando se rebeló contra el líder de facto de Al-Andalus, Ibn Hud . Durante esta rebelión, pudo tomar el control de Córdoba y Sevilla brevemente, antes de perder ambas ciudades ante Ibn Hud. Obligado a reconocer la soberanía de Ibn Hud , Mahoma pudo retener Arjona y Jaén . En 1236, traicionó a Ibn Hud al ayudar a Fernando III de Castilla a tomar Córdoba. En los años que siguieron, Mahoma pudo hacerse con el control de las ciudades del sur, incluida Granada.(1237), Almería (1238) y Málaga (1239). En 1244, perdió Arjona ante Castilla. Dos años después, en 1246, acordó entregar Jaén y aceptar el señorío de Fernando a cambio de una tregua de 20 años.

En los 18 años que siguieron, Mahoma consolidó su dominio manteniendo relaciones relativamente pacíficas con la Corona de Castilla ; en 1248 incluso ayudó al reino cristiano a arrebatar Sevilla a los musulmanes. Pero en 1264, se volvió contra Castilla y ayudó a la infructuosa rebelión de los recién conquistados súbditos musulmanes de Castilla. En 1266 sus aliados en Málaga, los Banu Ashqilula , se rebelaron contra el emirato. Cuando estos antiguos aliados buscaron la ayuda deAlfonso X de Castilla , Mahoma consiguió convencer al líder de las tropas castellanas, Nuño González de Lara , de volverse contra Alfonso. En 1272 Nuño González luchaba activamente contra Castilla. El conflicto del emirato con Castilla y los Banu Ashqilula seguía sin resolverse en 1273 cuando Mahoma murió después de caerse de su caballo. Fue sucedido por su hijo, Muhammad II . ( Artículo completo ... )
Muhammad II (Arabic: محمد الثاني‎) (also known by the epithet al-Faqih, "the canon-lawyer", c. 1235 – 8 April 1302; reigned from 1273 until his death) was the second Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, succeeding his father, Muhammad I. Already experienced in matters of state when he ascended the throne, he continued his father's policy of maintaining independence in the face of Granada's larger neighbours, the Christian kingdom of Castile and the Muslim Marinid state of Morocco, as well as an internal rebellion by his family's former allies, the Banu Ashqilula.

After he took the throne, he negotiated a treaty with Alfonso X of Castile, in which Castile agreed to end support for the Banu Ashqilula in exchange for payments. When Castile took the money but maintained its support for the Banu Ashqilula, Muhammad turned towards Abu Yusuf of the Marinids. The Marinids sent a successful expedition against Castile, but relations soured when the Marinids treated the Banu Ashqilula as Muhammad's equals. In 1279, through diplomatic manoeuvring, Muhammad regained Málaga, formerly the centre of Banu Ashqilula power. In 1280, his diplomacy backfired when Granada faced simultaneous attacks from Castile, the Marinids and the Banu Ashqilula. Attacked by his more powerful neighbours, Muhammad exploited the rift between Alfonso and his son Sancho, as well as receiving help from Volunteers of the Faith, soldiers recruited from North Africa. The threat subsided when Alfonso died in 1284 and Abu Yusuf in 1286; their successors (Sancho and Abu Yaqub, respectively) were preoccupied with domestic matters. In 1288 the Banu Ashqilula emigrated to North Africa at Abu Yaqub's invitation, removing Muhammad's biggest domestic concern. In 1292, Granada helped Castile take Tarifa from the Marinids on the understanding that the town would be traded to Granada, but Sancho reneged on the promise. Muhammad II then switched to the Marinid side, but a Granadan–Marinid attempt to retake Tarifa in 1294 failed. In 1295, Sancho died and was succeeded by Ferdinand IV, a minor. Granada took advantage by conducting a successful campaign against Castile, taking Quesada and Alcaudete. Muhammad also planned a joint offensive with Aragon against Castile, but he died in 1302 before the operation took place. (Full article...)
Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado led the initial efforts to conquer Guatemala.

The Spanish conquest of Guatemala was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, in which Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as "infidels" who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding the achievements of their civilization. The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Santo Domingo was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries.

Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala from the newly conquered Mexico in early 1524, commanding a mixed force of Spanish conquistadors and native allies, mostly from Tlaxcala and Cholula. Geographic features across Guatemala now bear Nahuatl placenames owing to the influence of these Mexican allies, who translated for the Spanish. The Kaqchikel Maya initially allied themselves with the Spanish, but soon rebelled against excessive demands for tribute and did not finally surrender until 1530. In the meantime the other major highland Maya kingdoms had each been defeated in turn by the Spanish and allied warriors from Mexico and already subjugated Maya kingdoms in Guatemala. The Itza Maya and other lowland groups in the Petén Basin were first contacted by Hernán Cortés in 1525, but remained independent and hostile to the encroaching Spanish until 1697, when a concerted Spanish assault led by Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi finally defeated the last independent Maya kingdom. (Full article...)
Rokeby Venus, c. 1647–51. 122 × 177 cm (48in × 49.7in). National Gallery, London.

The Rokeby Venus (/ˈroʊkbi/; also known as The Toilet of Venus, Venus at her Mirror, Venus and Cupid, or La Venus del espejo) is a painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. Completed between 1647 and 1651, and probably painted during the artist's visit to Italy, the work depicts the goddess Venus in a sensual pose, lying on a bed and looking into a mirror held by the Roman god of physical love, her son Cupid. The painting is in the National Gallery, London.

Numerous works, from the ancient to the baroque, have been cited as sources of inspiration for Velázquez. The nude Venuses of the Italian painters, such as Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. 1510) and Titian's Venus of Urbino (1538), were the main precedents. In this work, Velázquez combined two established poses for Venus: recumbent on a couch or a bed, and gazing at a mirror. She is often described as looking at herself in the mirror, although this is physically impossible since viewers can see her face reflected in their direction. This phenomenon is known as the Venus effect. In a number of ways the painting represents a pictorial departure, through its central use of a mirror, and because it shows the body of Venus turned away from the observer of the painting. (Full article...)
A Wehrmacht Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf. A light tank on display at the Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster in Munster, Germany.

The Panzer I was a light tank produced in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The name is short for the German Panzerkampfwagen I ("armored fighting vehicle mark I"), abbreviated PzKpfw I. The tank's official German ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 101 ("special purpose vehicle 101").

Design of the Panzer I began in 1932 and mass production began in 1934. Intended only as a training tank to introduce the concept of armored warfare to the German Army, the Panzer I saw combat in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, in Poland, France, the Soviet Union and North Africa during the Second World War, and in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Experiences with the Panzer I during the Spanish Civil War helped shape the German Panzerwaffe's invasion of Poland in 1939 and France in 1940. By 1941, the Panzer I chassis design was used as the basis of tank destroyers and assault guns. There were attempts to upgrade the Panzer I throughout its service history, including by foreign nations, to extend the design's lifespan. It continued to serve in the Spanish Armed Forces until 1954. (Full article...)
Andalusian horse

The Andalusian, also known as the Pure Spanish Horse or PRE (pura raza española), is a horse breed from the Iberian Peninsula, where its ancestors have lived for thousands of years. The Andalusian has been recognized as a distinct breed since the 15th century, and its conformation has changed very little over the centuries. Throughout its history, it has been known for its prowess as a war horse, and was prized by the nobility. The breed was used as a tool of diplomacy by the Spanish government, and kings across Europe rode and owned Spanish horses. During the 19th century, warfare, disease and crossbreeding reduced herd numbers dramatically, and despite some recovery in the late 19th century, the trend continued into the early 20th century. Exports of Andalusians from Spain were restricted until the 1960s, but the breed has since spread throughout the world, despite their low population. In 2010, there were more than 185,000 registered Andalusians worldwide.

Strongly built, and compact yet elegant, Andalusians have long, thick manes and tails. Their most common coat color is gray, although they can be found in many other colors. They are known for their intelligence, sensitivity and docility. A sub-strain within the breed known as the Carthusian, is considered by breeders to be the purest strain of Andalusian, though there is no genetic evidence for this claim. The strain is still considered separate from the main breed however, and is preferred by breeders because buyers pay more for horses of Carthusian bloodlines. There are several competing registries keeping records of horses designated as Andalusian or PRE, but they differ on their definition of the Andalusian and PRE, the purity of various strains of the breed, and the legalities of stud book ownership. At least one lawsuit is in progress , to determine the ownership of the Spanish PRE stud book. (Full article...)
North View of Gibraltar from Spanish Lines by John Mace (1782)

The history of Gibraltar, a small peninsula on the southern Iberian coast near the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, spans over 2,900 years. The peninsula has evolved from a place of reverence in ancient times into "one of the most densely fortified and fought-over places in Europe", as one historian has put it. Gibraltar's location has given it an outsized significance in the history of Europe and its fortified town, established in medieval times, has hosted garrisons that sustained numerous sieges and battles over the centuries.

Gibraltar was first inhabited over 50,000 years ago by Neanderthals and may have been one of their last places of habitation before they died out around 24,000 years ago. Gibraltar's recorded history began around 950 BC with the Phoenicians, who lived nearby. The Carthaginians and Romans later worshipped Hercules in shrines said to have been built on the Rock of Gibraltar, which they called Mons Calpe, the "Hollow Mountain", and which they regarded as one of the twin Pillars of Hercules. (Full article...)
Verdeja 75 mm self-propelled howitzer, based on the Verdeja 1 prototype chassis

Verdeja was the name of a series of light tanks developed in Spain between 1938 and 1954 in an attempt to replace German Panzer I and Soviet T-26 tanks in Spanish service.

The program was headed by major Félix Verdeja Bardales and led to the development of four prototype vehicles, including a self-propelled howitzer armed with a 75 millimeter (3 in) gun. It was designed as an advanced light tank and was one of the first development programs which took into account survivability of the crew as opposed to the protection of the tank itself. The tank was influenced by several of the light tanks which it was intended to replace, including the Panzer I and T-26, both of which were originally used during the Spanish Civil War. The Verdeja was considered a superior tank to the T-26 after a lengthy testing period, yet was never put into mass production. (Full article...)
The ruins of Santa María de Óvila in Spain, shown more than 75 years after the most striking architectural features were removed by agents of William Randolph Hearst

Santa María de Óvila is a former Cistercian monastery built in Spain beginning in 1181 on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Madrid. During prosperous times over the next four centuries, construction projects expanded and improved the small monastery. Its fortunes declined significantly in the 18th century, and in 1835 it was confiscated by the Spanish government and sold to private owners who used its buildings to shelter farm animals.

American publisher William Randolph Hearst bought parts of the monastery in 1931 with the intention of using its stones in the construction of a grand and fanciful castle at Wyntoon, California, but after some 10,000 stones were removed and shipped, they were abandoned in San Francisco for decades. These stones are now in various locations around California: the old church portal was erected at the University of San Francisco, and the chapter house was reassembled by Trappist monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California. Other stones are serving as simple decorative elements in Golden Gate Park's botanical garden. To support the chapter house project, a line of Belgian-style beers was produced by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company under the Ovila Abbey brand. (Full article...)
The Spanish conquest of Petén was the last stage of the conquest of Guatemala, a prolonged conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas. A wide lowland plain covered with dense rainforest, Petén contains a central drainage basin with a series of lakes and areas of savannah. It is crossed by several ranges of low karstic hills and rises to the south as it nears the Guatemalan Highlands. The conquest of Petén, a region now incorporated into the modern republic of Guatemala, climaxed in 1697 with the capture of Nojpetén, the island capital of the Itza kingdom, by Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi. With the defeat of the Itza, the last independent and unconquered native kingdom in the Americas fell to European colonisers.

Sizeable Maya populations existed in Petén before the conquest, particularly around the central lakes and along the rivers. Petén was divided into different Maya polities engaged in a complex web of alliances and enmities. The most important groups around the central lakes were the Itza, the Yalain and the Kowoj. Other groups with territories in Petén included the Kejache, the Acala, the Lakandon Chʼol, the Xocmo, the Chinamita, the Icaiche and the Manche Chʼol. (Full article...)
Battle of Chiclana, 5 March 1811, Louis-François Lejeune

The Battle of Barrosa (Chiclana, 5 March 1811, also known as the Battle of Chiclana or Battle of Cerro del Puerco) was part of an unsuccessful manoeuvre by an Anglo-Iberian force to break the French siege of Cádiz during the Peninsular War. During the battle, a single British division defeated two French divisions and captured a regimental eagle.

Cádiz had been invested by the French in early 1810, leaving it accessible from the sea, but in March of the following year a reduction in the besieging army gave its garrison of British and Spanish troops an opportunity to lift the siege. A large Allied strike force was shipped south from Cádiz to Tarifa, and moved to engage the siege lines from the rear. The French, under the command of Marshal Victor, were aware of the Allied movement and redeployed to prepare a trap. Victor placed one division on the road to Cádiz, blocking the Allied line of march, while his two remaining divisions fell on the single Anglo-Portuguese rearguard division under the command of Sir Thomas Graham. (Full article...)
The Lince (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈlinθe], meaning "Lynx") was a Spanish development programme for a proposed main battle tank that unfolded during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The intention was to replace the M47 and M48 Patton tanks that the Spanish Army had received under the U.S. Mutual Defense Assistance Act between 1954 and 1975, and to complement the AMX-30E tanks manufactured for the army during the 1970s. Companies from several nations, such as German Krauss-Maffei, Spanish Santa Bárbara, and French GIAT, made bids for the development contract. The main priorities were mobility and firepower, with secondary priority placed on protection; the Lince tank was to have been lighter and faster than its competitors. The vehicle's size would also have been restricted by the Spanish rail and highway network. To achieve a sufficient level of firepower and protection, given the size requirements, the Lince was to use Rheinmetall's 120 mm L/44 tank-gun and German composite armour from the Leopard 2A4.

The Spanish government decided to upgrade its fleet of AMX-30Es in the late 1980s. The focus on upgrading Spain's AMX-30E's distracted attention from the Lince plan, which was eventually shelved in 1990 after Spain acquired many M60 Patton tanks, which were no longer required by the U.S., in accordance with the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. These tanks replaced the M47s and M48s, and fulfilled Spain's need to modernize its tank forces in the short term. No prototype of the planned Lince tank was manufactured, and no announcements were made on who would receive the contract. Four years later the Spanish government procured and locally manufactured the Leopard 2, fulfilling the long-term modernisation goal established in the Lince programme. (Full article...)
The Colossus of Rhodes is a 1954 oil painting by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. It is one of a series of seven paintings created for the 1956 film Seven Wonders of the World, each depicting one of the eponymous wonders. The painting shows the Colossus of Rhodes, the ancient statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios. It was ultimately not used for the movie, and in 1981 was donated to the Kunstmuseum Bern, its present location.

Painted two decades after Dalí's heyday with the surrealist movement, The Colossus of Rhodes is emblematic of his shift from the avant-garde to the mainstream. After financial pressures imposed by his move to the United States in 1940, and influenced by his fascination with Hollywood, Dalí shifted focus away from his earlier exploration of the subconscious and perception, and towards historical and scientific themes. (Full article...)
Witches' Sabbath, 1821–1823. Oil on plaster wall, transferred to canvas; 140.5 × 435.7 cm (56 × 172 in). Museo del Prado, Madrid

Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat (Spanish: Aquelarre or El gran cabrón) are names given to an oil mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed sometime between 1821 and 1823. It explores themes of violence, intimidation, aging and death. Satan hulks, in the form of a goat, in moonlit silhouette over a coven of terrified witches. Goya was then around 75 years old, living alone and suffering from acute mental and physical distress.

It is one of the fourteen Black Paintings that Goya applied in oil on the plaster walls of his house, the Quinta del Sordo. The paintings were completed in secret: he did not title any of the works or leave a record of his intentions in creating them. Absent of fact, Witches' Sabbath is generally seen by some art historians as a satire on the credulity of the age, a condemnation of superstition and the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition. As with the other works in the group, Witches' Sabbath reflects its painter's disillusionment and can be linked thematically to his earlier etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters as well as the Disasters of War print series, another bold political statement published only posthumously. (Full article...)
Map of the Greek and Latin states in southern Greece c. 1278

The Battle of Halmyros, known by earlier scholars as the Battle of the Cephissus or Battle of Orchomenos, was fought on 15 March 1311, between the forces of the Frankish Duchy of Athens and its vassals under Walter of Brienne against the mercenaries of the Catalan Company, resulting in a decisive victory for the mercenaries.

Engaged in conflict with their original employers, the Byzantine Empire, the Catalan Company had traversed the southern Balkans and arrived in southern Greece in 1309. The new Duke of Athens, Walter of Brienne, hired them to attack the Greek ruler of neighbouring Thessaly. Although the Catalans conquered much of the region for him, Walter refused to pay them and prepared to forcibly expel them from their gains. The two armies met at Halmyros in southern Thessaly (or at the Boeotic Cephissus, near Orchomenos, according to an earlier interpretation). The Catalans were considerably outnumbered and weakened by the reluctance of their Turkish auxiliaries to fight. The Company did have the advantage of selecting the battleground, positioning themselves behind marshy terrain, which they further inundated. On the Athenian side, many of the most important lords of Frankish Greece were present and Walter, a prideful man and confident in the prowess of his heavy cavalry, proceeded to charge headlong against the Catalan line. The marsh impeded the Frankish attack and the Catalan infantry stood firm. The Turks re-joined the Company and the Frankish army was routed; Walter and almost the entire knighthood of his realm fell in the field. As a result of the battle, the Catalans took over the leaderless Duchy of Athens; they ruled that part of Greece until the 1380s. (Full article...)
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد الرابع‎), known as Muhammad IV, (14 April 1315 – 25 August 1333) was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula from 1325 to 1333. He was the sixth sultan of the Nasrid dynasty, succeeding to the throne at ten years old when his father, Ismail I (r. 1314–1325), was assassinated.

The initial years of his reign were marked by conflict among his ministers, who vied for control of the young sultan's government. This escalated into a civil war between the party of the vizier Muhammad ibn al-Mahruq and that of the powerful commander of the Volunteers of the Faith, Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula. Uthman declared Muhammad's uncle, Muhammad ibn Faraj, as a rival sultan and secured support from Alfonso XI of Castile (r. 1312–1350), Granada's Christian neighbour to the north. Muhammad IV requested help from Abu Said Uthman II (r. 1310–1331) of the Marinid Sultanate in Morocco and gave him territories in the Iberian Peninsula, including Ronda, Marbella, and Algeciras, probably in exchange for Marinid troops. The civil war ended in 1328 when Muhammad, who despite his youth had begun taking a more active role in government, reconciled with Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula, and ordered Ibn al-Mahruq assassinated; the pretender Muhammad ibn Faraj was sent to North Africa. In 1329 he appointed his childhood tutor Abu Nuaym Ridwan as the hajib (chamberlain), outranking his other ministers; this was the first time the title appeared in the Emirate of Granada. (Full article...)
Lombardy in 1522. The location of the battle is marked.

The Battle of Bicocca or La Bicocca (Italian: Battaglia della Bicocca) was fought on 27 April 1522, during the Italian War of 1521–26. A combined French and Venetian force under Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, was decisively defeated by an Imperial–Spanish and Papal army under the overall command of Prospero Colonna. Lautrec then withdrew from Lombardy, leaving the Duchy of Milan in Imperial hands.

Having been driven from Milan by an Imperial advance in late 1521, Lautrec had regrouped, attempting to strike at Colonna's lines of communication. When the Swiss mercenaries in French service did not receive their pay, however, they demanded an immediate battle, and Lautrec was forced to attack Colonna's fortified position in the park of the Arcimboldi Villa Bicocca, north of Milan. The Swiss pikemen advanced over open fields under heavy artillery fire to assault the Imperial positions, but were halted at a sunken road backed by earthworks. Having suffered massive casualties from the fire of Spanish arquebusiers, the Swiss retreated. Meanwhile, an attempt by French cavalry to flank Colonna's position proved equally ineffective. The Swiss, unwilling to fight further, marched off to their cantons a few days later, and Lautrec retreated into Venetian territory with the remnants of his army. (Full article...)
Abu'l-Walid Ismail I ibn Faraj (Arabic: أبو الوليد إسماعيل الأول بن فرج‎, 3 March 1279 – 8 July 1325) was the fifth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula from 1314 to 1325. A grandson of Muhammad II on the side of his mother Fatima, he was the first of the lineage of sultans now known as the al-dawla al-isma'iliyya al-nasriyya (the Nasrid dynasty of Ismail). Historians characterise him as an effective ruler who improved the emirate's position with military victories during his reign.

He claimed the throne during the reign of his maternal uncle, Sultan Nasr, after a rebellion started by his father Abu Said Faraj. Their forces defeated the unpopular Nasr and Ismail was proclaimed sultan in the Alhambra in February 1314. He spent the early years of his reign fighting Nasr, who attempted to regain the throne from his base in Guadix, where he was initially allowed to rule as governor. Nasr enlisted the help of Castile, which then secured a papal authorisation for a crusade against Ismail. The war continued with intermittent truces and reached its climax in the Battle of the Vega on 25 June 1319, which resulted in a complete victory for Ismail's forces, led by Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula, over Castile. The deaths in the battle of Infante Peter and Infante John, the two regents for the infant King Alfonso XI, left Castile leaderless and forced it to end support for Nasr. (Full article...)
The Oran fatwa was a responsum fatwa, or an Islamic legal opinion, issued in 1504 to address the crisis that occurred when Muslims in the Crown of Castile (in Spain) were forced to convert to Christianity in 1500–1502. The fatwa sets out detailed relaxations of the sharia (Islamic law) requirements, allowing the Muslims to conform outwardly to Christianity and perform acts that are ordinarily forbidden in Islamic law, when necessary to survive. It includes relaxed instructions for fulfilling the ritual prayers, the ritual charity, and the ritual ablution, and recommendations when obliged to violate Islamic law, such as worshipping as Christians, committing blasphemy, and consuming pork and wine.

The fatwa enjoyed wide currency among Muslims and Moriscos (Muslims nominally converted to Christianity and their descendants) in Spain, and one of the surviving aljamiado translations was dated at 1564, 60 years after the original fatwa. The fatwa has been described as the "key theological document" to understand the practice of Spanish Muslims following the Reconquista up to the expulsion of the Moriscos. The author of the fatwa (mufti) was Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah, a North African scholar of Islamic law of the Maliki school. The fatwa was termed the "Oran fatwa" by modern scholars, due to the word "Al-Wahrani" ("of Oran") that appears in the text as part of the author's name. (Full article...)
The Western Mediterranean in 264 BC: Rome is shown in red, Carthage in purple, and Syracuse in green

The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and greatest naval war of antiquity, the two powers struggled for supremacy. The wars were fought primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. After immense material and human losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were defeated.

The war began in 264 BC with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina). The Romans then pressed Syracuse, the only significant independent power on the island, into allying with them and laid siege to Carthage's main base at Akragas. A large Carthaginian army attempted to lift the siege in 262 BC, but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Akragas. The Romans then built a navy to challenge the Carthaginians', and using novel tactics inflicted several defeats. A Carthaginian base on Corsica was seized, but an attack on Sardinia was repulsed; the base on Corsica was then lost. Taking advantage of their naval victories the Romans launched an invasion of North Africa, which the Carthaginians intercepted. At the Battle of Cape Ecnomus the Carthaginians were again beaten; this was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved. The invasion initially went well and in 255 BC the Carthaginians sued for peace; the proposed terms were so harsh they fought on, defeating the invaders. The Romans sent a fleet to evacuate their survivors and the Carthaginians opposed it at the Battle of Cape Hermaeum off Africa; the Carthaginians were heavily defeated. The Roman fleet, in turn, was devastated by a storm while returning to Italy, losing most of its ships and over 100,000 men. (Full article...)
Spanish Leopard 2E in Zaragoza, June 2008

The Leopardo 2E or Leopard 2A6E (E stands for España, Spanish for Spain) is a variant of the German Leopard 2 main battle tank, tailored to the requirements of the Spanish army, which acquired it as part of an armament modernization program named Programa Coraza, or Program Cuirass. The acquisition program for the Leopard 2E began in 1994, five years after the cancellation of the Lince tank program that culminated in an agreement to transfer 108 Leopard 2A4s to the Spanish army in 1998 and started the local production of the Leopard 2E in December 2003. Despite postponement of production owing to the 2003 merger between Santa Bárbara Sistemas and General Dynamics, and continued fabrication issues between 2006 and 2007, 219 Leopard 2Es have been delivered to the Spanish army.

The Leopard 2E is a major improvement over the M60 Patton tank, which it replaced in Spain's mechanized and armored units. Its development represented a total of 2.6 million man-hours' worth of work, 9,600 of them in Germany, at a total cost of 2.4 billion euros. This makes it one of the most expensive Leopard 2s built. Indigenous production amounted to 60% and the vehicles were assembled locally at Sevilla by Santa Bárbara Sistemas. It has thicker armor on the turret and glacis plate than the German Leopard 2A6, and uses a Spanish-designed tank command and control system, similar to the one fitted in German Leopard 2s. The Leopard 2E is expected to remain in service until 2025. (Full article...)
Las Meninas (pronounced [laz meˈninas]; Spanish for 'The Ladies-in-waiting') is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. Its complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting.

The painting is believed by F. J. Sánchez Cantón to depict the main chamber in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured, according to some commentators, in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. Some look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. The 5-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Just behind them, Velázquez portrays himself working at a large canvas. Velázquez looks outwards, beyond the pictorial space to where a viewer of the painting would stand. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and queen. They appear to be placed outside the picture space in a position similar to that of the viewer, although some scholars have speculated that their image is a reflection from the painting Velázquez is shown working on. (Full article...)
An M48 Patton tank of the Spanish Army on display at the El Goloso Museum of Armored Vehicles in October 2007.

Tanks in the Spanish Army have over 90 years of history, from the French Renault FTs first delivered in 1919 to the Leopard 2 and B1 Centauro models of the early 21st century. The FT took part in combat during the Rif War and participated in the first amphibious landing with tanks in history, at Alhucemas. In 1925, the Spanish Army began to undertake a program to develop and produce a Spanish tank, heavily based on the Renault FT, called the Trubia A4. Although the prototype performed well during testing, the tank was never put into mass production. Spain also experimented with the Italian Fiat 3000, acquiring one tank in 1925, and with another indigenous tank program called the Landesa. However, none of these evolved into a major armor program, and as a result the FT remained the most important tank, in numbers, in the Spanish Army until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

Between July 1936 and April 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, the two opposing armies received large quantities of tanks from foreign powers. Spain's Second Republic received tanks from the Soviet Union, many of which were captured by the Nationalists and pressed into service against their former masters, while the Nationalists were aided by the Germans and Italians. The Spanish Civil War, although the testing grounds for the nations which would ultimately take part in World War II, proved inconclusive with regard to the proof of mechanized warfare. Despite attempts by Soviet, German and Italian advisers and soldiers to use newly devised mechanized theories, the lack of quality crews and the tanks, and the insufficient number of tanks provided bad impressions on the usefulness of tanks on their own. (Full article...)
Plate 3: Lo mismo (The same). A man about to cut off the head of a soldier with an axe.

The Disasters of War (Spanish: Los desastres de la guerra) is a series of 82 prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya (1746–1828). Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates, art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War of 1808–1814 and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. During the conflicts between Napoleon's French Empire and Spain, Goya retained his position as first court painter to the Spanish crown and continued to produce portraits of the Spanish and French rulers. Although deeply affected by the war, he kept private his thoughts on the art he produced in response to the conflict and its aftermath.

He was in poor health and almost deaf when, at 62, he began work on the prints. They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons. In total over a thousand sets have been printed, though later ones are of lower quality, and most print room collections have at least some of the set. (Full article...)
Portrait of a Man (presumed self-portrait of El Greco, c. 1595–1600) in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Greek: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος [ðoˈminikos θeotoˈkopulos]; 1 October 1541 – 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, often adding the word Κρής Krēs, Cretan.

El Greco was born in the Kingdom of Candia (modern Crete), which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570, he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance taken from a number of great artists of the time, notably Tintoretto. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings, such as View of Toledo and Opening of the Fifth Seal. (Full article...)

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Joan Lluís Vives (6 de marzo de 1492 - 6 de mayo de 1540) fue un erudito y humanista español . Vives nació en Valencia . Cuando era niño, vio a su padre, abuela y bisabuelo, así como a miembros de su familia más amplia, ejecutados como judaizantes a instancias de la Inquisición española ; su madre fue absuelta pero murió de peste cuando él tenía 15 años. [1] Poco después, dejó España para no volver jamás.

Estudió en París de 1509 a 1512, y en 1519 fue nombrado profesor de humanidades en la Universidad de Lovaina . Ante la insistencia de su amigo Erasmo , se preparó un elaborado comentario de Agustín 's De Civitate Dei , que fue publicado en 1522 con una dedicación a Enrique VIII de Inglaterra . Poco después, fue invitado a Inglaterra y actuó como tutor de la princesa María, para cuyo uso escribió De ratione studii puerilis epistolae duae (1523) y, aparentemente, De Institutione Feminae Christianae , sobre la educación de las niñas.

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Metro de Madrid
Mapa: Javitomad
El Metro de Madrid es un sistema de tránsito rápido que sirve a la capital española, Madrid . Fue inaugurado en 1919 por el rey Alfonso , con una única línea que recorría 3,48 km entre la Puerta del Sol y Cuatro Caminos , con ocho paradas. El sistema actual tiene 301 estaciones en 13 líneas más un ramal, totalizando 294 km (183 mi).
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Charles IV of Spain and His Family
Painting credit: Francisco Goya
Charles IV of Spain and His Family is a portrait of the royal family of Spain painted by Francisco Goya in 1800 and 1801. King Charles IV, his wife Maria Luisa of Parma, and his children and relatives are dressed in the height of contemporary fashion, lavishly adorned with jewelry and the sashes of the order of Charles III. The artist does not attempt to flatter the family; instead the group portrait is unflinchingly realist, both in detail and tone. The artist, seated at his easel, is visible in the background. The painting is in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
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Credit: Seville Tourism Bureau
The Cathedral of Seville, formally Catedral de Santa María de la Sede (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See) was begun in 1402, with construction continuing into the 16th century. It is the largest of all Roman Catholic cathedrals (Saint Peter's Basilica not being a cathedral) and also the largest Medieval Gothic religious building, in terms of both area and volume.
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Giralda
Photo: David Iliff
The Giralda is a 104.5 m (343 ft) tall bell tower for the Seville Cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was originally constructed as a minaret in 1198, when Seville was ruled by the Almohad Caliphate. After the city was taken by the Christians in the Reconquista, the city's mosque was converted to a church. The upper third of the structure was completed during the Spanish Renaissance.
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Tagus River
Photo credit: David Iliff
The Tagus River, seen here passing through the World Heritage listed city of Toledo, Spain. It is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula at 1,038 kilometres (645 mi). It begins its journey in the Albarracín mountains in Spain, and follows a very constricted course for much of its length before reaching the Atlantic Ocean in Portugal.
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Ana Santos Aramburo
Photograph credit: Biblioteca Nacional de España
Ana Santos Aramburo (born 1957) has been the director of the National Library of Spain since February 2013. Having received a degree in geography and history from the University of Zaragoza in Spain, she has spent much of her career working at the Complutense University of Madrid, first at the library of the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, and later serving as deputy director of the university library. Later she served as Director of the Historical Library Marquis of Valdecilla, General Director of Libraries and Archives of the City of Madrid, and Director of Cultural Action at the National Library. This photograph of Santos shows her at the headquarters of the National Library of Spain in Madrid.
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Credit:
The Roman bridge of Alcántara, located in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura.
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Credit: Lofor
The Barcelona Free Port or Zona franca de Barcelona is a tariff-free industrial park that has developed within the Port of Barcelona, across the flat land of the Llobregat delta between the city of Barcelona and Barcelona International Airport to the south.
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Temple of Debod
Credit: OsvaldoGago
The Temple of Debod is an ancient Egyptian temple which has been rebuilt in Madrid, Spain. The temple was built in southern Egypt, very close to the first cataract of the Nile and to the great religious center dedicated to the goddess Isis, in Philae.
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Spanish peseta
Banknote: Bank of Spain
The Spanish peseta is a former currency of Spain and, alongside the French franc, a former de facto currency in Andorra. It was introduced in 1868, replacing the peso, at a time when Spain was considering joining the Latin Monetary Union. Spain joined the euro in 1999, and the peseta was replaced by euro notes and coins in 2002.

This picture shows a 1000 peseta banknote from 1957. The obverse depicts the Catholic Monarchs while the reverse shows the coat of arms of Spain.
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Casa Milà
Photo credit: David Iliff
The Casa Milà, a 1912 work by Catalán architect Antoni Gaudi, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Spain. Gaudí's fascination with trencadís-influenced decoration and curves (predating biomorphism by almost 20 years) can be seen here.
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Picos de Europa
Photo: Mick Stephenson
The peaks of the Central Massif overlook the village of Sotres in Cabrales, located in the Picos de Europa, a mountain range in northern Spain forming part of the Cantabrian Mountains. The name (literally: "Peaks of Europe") is believed to derive from being the first European landforms visible to mariners arriving from the Americas.
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The Third of May 1808
Painting: Francisco Goya
The Third of May 1808 is a painting completed in 1814 by the Spanish master Francisco Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Along with its companion piece of the same size, The Second of May 1808 (or The Charge of the Mamelukes), it was commissioned by the provisional government of Spain at Goya's suggestion. Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the Peninsular War.
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Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares
Painting: Diego Velázquez
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1587–1645) was a Spanish royal favourite of Philip IV and minister. As prime minister from 1621 to 1643, he over-exerted Spain in foreign affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policies of committing Spain to recapture the Dutch Republic led to his major involvement in the Thirty Years War. This portrait was completed in 1634, with its composition referring to Olivares' military leadership in the service of King Philip.
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Moros, Zaragoza
Photograph: Diego Delso
Moros is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, Spain. Located in the Sistema Ibérico mountain range, the village lies on a hill, with the church and former town hall at the top, the residences in the middle, and the sheep pens at the bottom. The population of Moros has been steadily decreasing in recent decades, and was 478 in 2006.
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Spanish painted frog
Photograph: Benny Trapp
The Spanish painted frog (Discoglossus jeanneae) is a species of frog in the family Alytidae. Endemic to Spain, it mostly lives in open areas, pine groves and shrublands. It feeds mostly on insects and worms.
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Puente Nuevo
Credit: Sucrine
The Puente Nuevo, whose name means "new bridge" in Spanish, is the newer and larger of two bridges that span the 120m-deep chasm that divides the city of Ronda in southern Spain.
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Credit: BrugesFR
Aneto is a mountain located in Benasque municipality, Aragon, area of the Pyreenes. The mountain is the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, and Spain's third-highest mountain.
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Credit: Lourdes Cardenal
Active windmills shown turning in La Mancha. The area is now famous for its windmills and scenic views.
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Amalia de Llano
Painting credit: Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz
Amalia de Llano (April 29, 1822 – July 6, 1874) was a Spanish countess and writer.
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Spanish heraldry
Image: Royal Household of Spain; Restoration: Lise Broer
A Grant of Arms by Philip II of Spain to Alonso de Mesa and Hernando de Mesa, signed 25 November 1566. In Spanish heraldry, coats of arms were granted based almost entirely on military service, which made it possible for commoners to join the ranks of the Spanish nobility. Also unique to Spain was that titles could be inherited through females and via illegitimacy.
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Torre Agbar
Photo credit: Diliff
The Torre Agbar is a landmark skyscraper and the third tallest building in Barcelona, Spain. It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, who stated that the shape of the Torre Agbar was inspired by the mountains of Montserrat that surround Barcelona, and by the shape of a geyser of water rising into the air. Its design combines a number of different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, and over 4,500 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.
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Sabías...

... que a diferencia de las tribus vecinas, la gente Pastia del sur de Texas escapó a la detección de los exploradores españoles hasta principios del siglo XVIII?
... que el gobierno español bloqueó la venta de una participación en la concesionaria de televisión digital Sociedad Gestora de Televisión Net TV a Viacom ?
... que el Convento de Santo Domingo en Valencia , fundado en 1239 como iglesia, se utiliza ahora como cuartel general del Ejército español ?
... que el Castillo de Santa Catalina en Santa Cruz de La Palma es el único castillo de los Habsburgo que se conserva en las Islas Canarias?
... que Sabine Lake inicialmente marcó la frontera entre la Luisiana francesa y la Texas española , luego los Estados Unidos y la República de Texas , y ahora los estados estadounidenses de Luisiana y Texas?

Buen artículo - muestra otro

Este es un buen artículo , un artículo que cumple con un conjunto básico de altos estándares editoriales.

La clase Reina Victoria Eugenia fue una clase de tres acorazados de la Armada española autorizados como Plan de la Segunda Escuadra bajo la Ley de Marina de 1913. La clase, así como el buque líder, fueron nombrados en honor a la reina inglesa del Rey Alfonso XIII . consorte , Victoria Eugenie de Battenberg . Los otros dos barcos se clasificaron como "B" y "C". Se suponía que iba a ser diseñado por Vickers-Armstrongs y construido por John Brown . Los barcos nunca se construyeron debido a la participación de Gran Bretaña en la Primera Guerra Mundial , que detuvo todos los proyectos extranjeros que se estaban construyendo en astilleros británicos. (Artículo completo ... )
Domínguez playing for Atlético Madrid in 2009

Álvaro Domínguez Soto (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈalβaɾo ðoˈmiŋɡeθ ˈsoto]; born 16 May 1989) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a centre back and left back during the course of his career.

He began playing professional football in 2008 when he made his debut with Atlético Madrid. Domínguez went on to play in 120 competitive games and won three major titles with the club, including two Europa League trophies. In 2012, he signed for Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach, where he made just over 100 appearances. His time in Germany was hampered by injuries, however, which ultimately forced him to retire in 2016, at the age of 27. (Full article...)
The western Mediterranean in 218 BC

The Second Punic War (218–201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For seventeen years, the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Italy and Iberia, but also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and, towards the end of the war, in North Africa. After immense material and human losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were defeated. Macedonia, Syracuse and several Numidian kingdoms were drawn into the fighting; and Iberian and Gallic forces fought on both sides. There were three main military theatres during the war: Italy, where the Carthaginian general Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success until moving into Italy; and Africa, where the war was decided.

In 219 BC Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked the pro-Roman city of Saguntum, prompting a Roman declaration of war on Carthage in spring 218 BC. That year, Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia, through Gaul and over the Alps to Cisalpine Gaul (modern northern Italy). Reinforced by Gallic allies, he obtained crushing victories over the Romans at the battles of Trebia (218) and Lake Trasimene (217). Moving to southern Italy in 216, Hannibal defeated the Romans again at the Battle of Cannae, where he annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever assembled. After the death or capture of more than 120,000 Roman troops in less than three years, many of Rome's Italian allies, notably Capua, defected to Carthage, giving Hannibal control over much of southern Italy. As Syracuse and Macedonia joined the Carthaginian side after Cannae, the conflict spread. Between 215 and 210 BC the Carthaginians attempted to capture Roman-held Sicily and Sardinia, but were unsuccessful. The Romans took drastic steps to raise new legions: enrolling slaves, criminals and those who did not meet the usual property qualification and so vastly increasing the number of men they had under arms. For the next decade the war in southern Italy continued, with Roman armies slowly recapturing most of the Italian cities that had joined Carthage. (Full article...)
Buñuel, 1968

Luis Buñuel Portolés (Spanish: [ˈlwiz βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles]; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish, later naturalized Mexican, filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain.

When Buñuel died at age 83, his obituary in The New York Times called him "an iconoclast, moralist, and revolutionary who was a leader of avant-garde surrealism in his youth and a dominant international movie director half a century later". His first picture, Un Chien Andalou—made in the silent era—is still viewed regularly throughout the world and retains its power to shock the viewer, and his last film, That Obscure Object of Desire—made 48 years later—won him Best Director awards from the National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics. Writer Octavio Paz called Buñuel's work "the marriage of the film image to the poetic image, creating a new reality...scandalous and subversive". (Full article...)
Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado led the initial efforts to conquer Guatemala.

The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas, in which the Spanish conquistadores and their allies gradually incorporated the territory of the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Maya occupied a territory that is now incorporated into the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador; the conquest began in the early 16th century and is generally considered to have ended in 1697.

The conquest of the Maya was hindered by their politically fragmented state. Spanish and native tactics and technology differed greatly. The Spanish engaged in a strategy of concentrating native populations in newly founded colonial towns; they viewed the taking of prisoners as a hindrance to outright victory, whereas the Maya prioritised the capture of live prisoners and of booty. Among the Maya, ambush was a favoured tactic; in response to the use of Spanish cavalry, the highland Maya took to digging pits and lining them with wooden stakes. Native resistance to the new nucleated settlements took the form of the flight into inaccessible regions such as the forest or joining neighbouring Maya groups that had not yet submitted to the European conquerors. Spanish weaponry included broadswords, rapiers, lances, pikes, halberds, crossbows, matchlocks and light artillery. Maya warriors fought with flint-tipped spears, bows and arrows, stones, and wooden swords with inset obsidian blades, and wore padded cotton armour to protect themselves. The Maya lacked key elements of Old World technology such as a functional wheel, horses, iron, steel, and gunpowder; they were also extremely susceptible to Old World diseases, against which they had no resistance. (Full article...)
Outgoing prime minister, Mariano Rajoy (right), congratulating incoming prime minister, Pedro Sánchez (left), upon losing the no confidence vote on 1 June 2018.

A motion of no confidence in the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy was debated and voted in the Congress of Deputies between 31 May and 1 June 2018. It was brought by Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez after the governing People's Party (PP) was found to have profited from the illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme of the Gürtel case in a court ruling made public the previous day. This was the fourth motion of no confidence since the Spanish transition to democracy and the first one to be successful, as well the second to be submitted against Mariano Rajoy after the Unidos Podemos's one the previous year. Coincidentally, it was held 38 years after the first such vote of no confidence in Spain on 30 May 1980.

The motion successfully passed with the support of 180 deputies—those of PSOE, Unidos Podemos, Republican Left of Catalonia, Catalan European Democratic Party, Basque Nationalist Party, Compromís, EH Bildu and New Canaries—and resulted in the downfall of Mariano Rajoy's government and in Pedro Sánchez becoming new Prime Minister of Spain. Public opinion at the time was found to be overwhelmingly in favour of the motion, as revealed by polling conducted in the days previous and during the events leading to the vote. Subsequently on 5 June, Rajoy announced his resignation as PP leader and his withdrawal from politics after having led the party for 14 years, vacating his seat in parliament and returning to his position as property registrar in Santa Pola. Prior to his ouster, Rajoy had hinted at the possibility that he might not seek re-election for a third term in office, with his ultimate farewell sparking a leadership contest that would see Pablo Casado being elected as new party chairman. (Full article...)
Picture by Johann Jakob Wick illustrating his report about the Battle of Zutphen, published on 12 October 1586.

The Battle of Zutphen was fought on 22 September 1586, near the village of Warnsveld and the town of Zutphen, the Netherlands, during the Eighty Years' War. It was fought between the forces of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, aided by the English, against the Spanish. In 1585, England signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the States-General of the Netherlands and formally entered the war against Spain. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was appointed as the Governor-General of the Netherlands and sent there in command of an English army to support the Dutch rebels. When Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and commander of the Spanish Army of Flanders, besieged the town of Rheinberg during the Cologne War, Leicester, in turn, besieged the town of Zutphen, in the province of Gelderland and on the eastern bank of the river IJssel.

Zutphen was strategically important to Farnese, as it allowed his troops to levy war contributions in the rich Veluwe region. Therefore, he left some troops blockading Rheinberg and marched to relieve the town. He personally supplied Zutphen at first, but as the Anglo-Dutch siege continued, he assembled a large convoy whose delivery to the town he entrusted to Alfonso Félix de Ávalos Aquino y Gonzaga, Marquis del Vasto/Guasto. Leicester learned of this when a courier dispatched by Farnese to Francisco Verdugo, the man in charge of Zutphen, was intercepted. The English and Dutch prepared an ambush, in which many English knights and noblemen were involved. In the end, the Spanish succeeded in delivering the convoy safely to Zutphen after a hard-fought battle. The Spanish cavalry, composed mainly of Italians and Albanians, was defeated by the English cavalry under the Earl of Essex. The Spanish infantry, however, held its ground and delivered the convoy to Zutphen. From there, reinforced by Verdugo, the Spanish troops forced the English to retreat. (Full article...)
The 2016 Tour of the Basque Country (Spanish: Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Basque: Euskal Herriko itzulia) was a road cycling stage race that took place in the Basque Country between 4 and 9 April 2016. It was the 56th edition of the Tour of the Basque Country and the ninth event of the 2016 UCI World Tour.

The race took place over mountainous terrain and was suitable for climbers. The first five stages were mountainous; the sixth and final stage was a hilly individual time trial. The defending champion was Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha), with Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) and Sergio Henao (Team Sky) also among the favourites for the overall victory. (Full article...)
The Spanish conquest of Chiapas was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Mexican state of Chiapas. The region is physically diverse, featuring a number of highland areas, including the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Montañas Centrales (Central Highlands), a southern littoral plain known as Soconusco and a central depression formed by the drainage of the Grijalva River.

Before the Spanish conquest, Chiapas was inhabited by a variety of indigenous peoples, including the Zoques, various Maya peoples, such as the Lakandon Chʼol and the Tzotzil, and an unidentified group referred to as the Chiapanecas. Soconusco had been incorporated into the Aztec Empire, centred in Valley of Mexico, and paid the Aztecs tribute. News of strangers first arrived in the region as the Spanish penetrated and overthrew the Aztec Empire. In the early 1520s, several Spanish expeditions crossed Chiapas by land, and Spanish ships scouted the Pacific coast. The first highland colonial town in Chiapas, San Cristóbal de los Llanos, was established by Pedro de Portocarrero in 1527. Within a year, Spanish dominion extended over the upper drainage basin of the Grijalva River, Comitán, and the Ocosingo valley. Encomienda rights were established, although in the earlier stages of conquest these amounted to little more than slave-raiding rights. (Full article...)
Fatima bint Muhammad bint al-Ahmar (Arabic: فاطمة بنت الأحمر‎) (c. 1260 – 26 February, 1349) was a Nasrid princess of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula. A daughter of Sultan Muhammad II and an expert in the study of barnamaj (biobibliographies of Islamic scholars), she married her father's cousin and trusted ally, Abu Said Faraj. Their son Ismail I became sultan after deposing her half-brother, Nasr. She was involved in the government of her son but was especially politically active during the rule of her grandsons, Muhammad IV and Yusuf I, both of whom ascended the throne at a young age and were placed under her tutelage. Later Granadan historian Ibn al-Khatib wrote an elegy for her death stating that "She was alone, surpassing the women of her time / like the Night of Power surpasses all the other nights". Modern historian María Jesús Rubiera Mata compared her role to that of María de Molina, her contemporary who became regent to Castilian kings. Professor Brian A. Catlos attributed the survival of the dynasty, and eventual success, as being partly due to her "vision and constancy." (Full article...)
The Battle of Lepanto

The Fourth Ottoman–Venetian War, also known as the War of Cyprus (Italian: Guerra di Cipro) was fought between 1570 and 1573. It was waged between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, the latter joined by the Holy League, a coalition of Christian states formed under the auspices of the Pope, which included Spain (with Naples and Sicily), the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Knights Hospitaller, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and other Italian states.

The war, the pre-eminent episode of Sultan Selim II's reign, began with the Ottoman invasion of the Venetian-held island of Cyprus. The capital Nicosia and several other towns fell quickly to the considerably superior Ottoman army, leaving only Famagusta in Venetian hands. Christian reinforcements were delayed, and Famagusta eventually fell in August 1571 after a siege of 11 months. Two months later, at the Battle of Lepanto, the united Christian fleet destroyed the Ottoman fleet, but was unable to take advantage of this victory. The Ottomans quickly rebuilt their naval forces and Venice was forced to negotiate a separate peace, ceding Cyprus to the Ottomans and paying a tribute of 300,000 ducats. (Full article...)
North Korean Embassy in Madrid

The North Korean Embassy in Madrid incident is an event that occurred on 22 February 2019 at the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Spain. The political group Free Joseon, which is opposed to the incumbent Kim Jong-un government of North Korea, is alleged to have attacked and raided the embassy, while the group maintains that they were invited in to facilitate a high-level defection. A group of individuals stole mobile telephones, two pen drives and a hard drive from the embassy and handed them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. The event took place after the Singapore summit between North Korea (DPRK) and the United States and prior to the approach of the Hanoi summit. As of early April 2019, one person had been arrested in connection with the incident and two international arrest warrants had been issued by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional. The suspected perpetrators are citizens of Mexico, the US and South Korea, although the latter two governments denied any connection with the incident.

The incident is alleged to have been violent; the suspected perpetrators purportedly possessed knives and replica guns, and a number of embassy staff were treated for injuries. Another member of the embassy staff injured herself by leaping from an upper window before alerting police. The Spanish authorities' investigations were kept secret for the first month; when they released their findings—including the names of the suspected perpetrators—they were criticised for possibly endangering the named peoples' lives. The Spanish privately briefed the media that they suspected but could not prove Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement because the attack was professional in its precision. One former CIA agent, however, said the timing of the attack and its high-profile nature would have made it impossible for the CIA to have condoned it or taken part. The Government of North Korea described the incident as an act of terrorism and demanded an international investigation; the embassy and its attaché, however, did not report the attack or any injuries sustained by the staff to the Spanish police. (Full article...)
Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 is a non-fiction book by Adam Hochschild that was first published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on March 29, 2016. The book is an account of the American volunteers who participated in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. The story centers around several American volunteer fighters and journalists, tracing their motivations for joining the war and their experiences during the war which left many disillusioned. The book explains the involvement of foreign leaders including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin, and explains why the Republican faction ultimately lost.

Hochschild knew several American volunteers personally, and was partly inspired by them to write the book. Most of Hochschild's archival research on the subject was carried out at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. (Full article...)
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

The 2015 Spanish Grand Prix, formally titled the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2015, was a Formula One motor race held on 10 May 2015 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. The race was the fifth round of the 2015 season and marked the forty-fifth running of the Spanish Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship and the twenty-fifth running at Catalunya. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg took his first win of the season, his first in Spain and the ninth of his career. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished second after a bad start, followed by Sebastian Vettel in third. (Full article...)
Marble bust of Trajan

Trajan (/ˈtreɪdʒən/ TRAY-jən; Latin: Caesar Nerva Trajanus; 18 September 53 – 8 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared by the Senate optimus princeps ("best ruler"), Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the second-greatest military expansion in Roman history, after Augustus, leading the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death. He is also known for his philanthropic rule, overseeing extensive public building programs and implementing social welfare policies, which earned him his enduring reputation as the second of the Five Good Emperors who presided over an era of peace within the Empire and prosperity in the Mediterranean world.

Trajan was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in present-day Spain, an Italic settlement in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. Although misleadingly designated by some later writers as a provincial, his Ulpia gens came from Umbria and he was born a Roman citizen. Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in 89 Trajan supported Domitian against a revolt on the Rhine led by Antonius Saturninus. In September 96, Domitian was succeeded by the old and childless Nerva, who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a brief and tumultuous year in power, culminating in a revolt by members of the Praetorian Guard, he was compelled to adopt the more popular Trajan as his heir and successor. Nerva died in 98 and was succeeded by his adopted son without incident. (Full article...)
Jaime I, c. 1931

Jaime I was a Spanish dreadnought battleship, the third and final member of the España class, which included two other ships: España and Alfonso XIII. Named after King James I of Aragon, Jaime I was built in the early 1910s, though her completion was delayed until 1921 owing to a shortage of materials that resulted from the start of World War I the previous year. The class was ordered as part of a naval construction program to rebuild the fleet after the losses of the Spanish–American War in the context of closer Spanish relations with Britain and France. The ships were armed with a main battery of eight 305 mm (12 in) guns and were intended to support the French Navy in the event of a major European war.

By the time Jaime I was completed, the Rif War had broken out in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco and the ship was used to support Spanish forces fighting in the colony in the early to mid-1920s. She was placed in reserve in 1931 after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, but was reactivated in 1933 to serve as the fleet flagship. Plans to modernize the vessel in the mid-1930s came to nothing after the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936. Jaime I and the bulk of the fleet remained loyal to the republican government, though her sister Alfonso XIII (by then having been renamed España, fell under rebel control). The Spanish Republican Navy nevertheless failed to make effective use of its naval superiority and Jaime I did not see significant action apart from bombarding Nationalist positions in North Africa. She was attacked twice by enemy aircraft during the war, and in June 1937, an accidental fire aboard the ship caused an internal explosion that destroyed the ship. Some of her guns were salvaged and mounted in coastal batteries after the war and remain extant, though no longer in use. (Full article...)
The 2008 Spanish Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Telefónica 2008) was a Formula One motor race held on 27 April 2008 at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. It was the fourth race of the 2008 Formula One season. The 66-lap race was won by Kimi Räikkönen for the Ferrari team after starting from pole position. Felipe Massa finished second in the other Ferrari, and Lewis Hamilton was third in a McLaren.

Räikkönen began the race from pole position alongside Renault driver Fernando Alonso. Massa began from third, alongside BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica. Hamilton, the eventual Drivers' Champion, began from fifth and passed Kubica into the first corner, as Massa passed Alonso. Räikkönen maintained his lead through most of the race, leading to Ferrari's one-two finish. The safety car was deployed several times throughout the race, including for a serious crash involving McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen, though the Finn escaped with only a minor concussion. (Full article...)
A statue of Daoíz in Seville showing him in the act of refusing his orders from the junta and resolving to fight the French

Luis Daoíz y Torres (10 February 1767 – 2 May 1808) was a Spanish artillery officer and one of the leaders of the Dos de Mayo Uprising that signalled the start of the Spanish War of Independence. Daoíz's surname is derived from the town of Aoiz in Navarre and he was descended from a long line of Spanish gentry with soldiering associations dating to the Reconquista. Daoíz's great grandfather married the daughter of the Count of Miraflores de los Angeles and Daoíz spent much of his early life in palaces owned by the family. He was born in Seville and, after receiving a Catholic education, trained at the Royal School of Artillery in Segovia. Daoíz saw action against the Moors in Spanish North Africa, where he was commended for his bravery and promoted to lieutenant. He also served against the French in the short-lived War of the Roussillon where he was captured. After refusing to serve in the French army, he was imprisoned.

After his release he served on secondment to the Spanish Navy during the Anglo-Spanish War, participating in the Defence of Cadiz and on convoy duty to the Americas, for which he was rewarded with promotion to captain. He tired of the sea and rejoined his artillery regiment. His subsequent duties included assisting in the manufacture of new guns for the horse artillery, attending the signing of the Treaty of Fontainebleau with France and participating in the 1807 invasion of Portugal. He returned to Madrid in 1808 and was a leader of the Dos de Mayo Uprising in which he assisted civilians resisting French efforts to remove the royal family from Spain. His defence of the barracks at Monteleón was the only action that day in which the Spanish army fought the French and, although ultimately unsuccessful, it inspired the Spanish War of Independence. He died in the fighting and has been commemorated as a national hero. (Full article...)
Abel Azcona

Abel Azcona (born 1 April 1988) is a Spanish artist, specializing in performance art. His work includes installations, sculptures, and video art. He is known as the "enfant terrible" of Spanish Contemporary Art. His first works dealt with personal identity, violence and the limits of pain; his later works are of a more critical, political and social nature.

Azcona's works have been exhibited at the Venetian Arsenal, the Contemporary Art Center in Málaga, the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, the Houston Art League, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York and the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. His work has also been exhibited at the Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka and Taipei, the Lyon Biennale, the Miami International Performance Festival and the Bangladesh Live Art Biennale. The Bogotá Museum of Contemporary Art dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him in 2014. (Full article...)
"HMS Ethalion in action with the Spanish frigate Thetis off Cape Finisterre, 16th October 1799", Thomas Whitcombe

The Action of 16 October 1799 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars between a squadron of British Royal Navy frigates and two frigates of the Spanish Navy close to the Spanish naval port of Vigo in Galicia. The Spanish ships were a treasure convoy, carrying silver specie and luxury trade goods across the Atlantic Ocean from the colonies of New Spain to Spain. Sighted by British frigate HMS Naiad enforcing the blockade of Vigo late on the 15 October, the Spanish ships were in the last stages of their journey. Turning to flee from Naiad, the Spanish soon found themselves surrounded as more British frigates closed in.

Although they separated their ships in an effort to split their opponents, the Spanish captains were unable to escape: Thetis was captured after a short engagement with HMS Ethalion on the morning of 16 October, while Santa Brigida almost reached safety, only being caught on the morning of 17 October in the approaches to the safe harbour at Muros. After a short engagement amid the rocks she was also captured by an overwhelming British force. Both captured ships were taken to Britain, where their combined cargoes were transported with great fanfare to the Bank of England. The eventual value of their cargo was assessed as at least £618,040, resulting in one of the largest hauls of prize money ever awarded. (Full article...)
Manuel de Trujillo y Torres (November 1762 – July 15, 1822) was a Spanish American publicist and diplomat. He is best known for being received as the first ambassador of Colombia by U.S. President James Monroe on June 19, 1822. This act represented the first U.S. recognition of a former Spanish colony's independence.

Born in Spain, he lived as a young adult in the colony of New Granada (present-day Colombia). After being implicated in a conspiracy against the monarchy he fled in 1794, arriving in the United States in 1796. From Philadelphia he spent the rest of his life advocating for independence of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Working closely with newspaper editor William Duane he produced English- and Spanish-language articles, pamphlets and books. (Full article...)
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Contigo hasta el final" written by Raquel del Rosario, David Feito and Juan Luis Suárez. The trio performed the song in their rock-pop band El Sueño de Morfeo (ESDM), who were internally selected by the Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) in December 2012. TVE organised Destino Eurovisión, a televised final, to select the song that ESDM would perform. The public were allowed to select one of two songs that would be performed in the show alongside two other songs, with the final song being chosen by a combined public and jury vote.

As a member of the "Big 5", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the nation voted in the second semi-final. Performing during the show in position five, Spain placed 25th out of 26 competing countries with eight points. (Full article...)
Alonso training with Bayern Munich in 2017

Xabier Alonso Olano (Basque: [ˈʃaβi aˈlons̺o oˈlano], Spanish: [ˈ(t)ʃaβj aˈlonso oˈlano]; born 25 November 1981) is a Spanish football manager and former professional player who played as a central midfielder. He is the manager of Segunda División B club Real Sociedad B.

Alonso began his career at Real Sociedad, the main team of his home province Gipuzkoa. After a brief loan period at Eibar, he was appointed as team captain of Real Sociedad by then-manager John Toshack. He succeeded in the role, taking the club to second place in the 2002–03 season. He moved to Liverpool in August 2004 for £10.5 million and won the UEFA Champions League in his first season, under manager Rafael Benítez, scoring the equalising goal in the Final against Milan. The following season, he won the FA Cup and the FA Community Shield. (Full article...)
The Siege of Almería was an unsuccessful attempt by Aragon to capture the city of Almería from the Emirate of Granada in 1309. Almería, a Mediterranean port in the southeast of the emirate, was the initial Aragonese target in a joint Aragonese-Castilian campaign aimed at conquering Granada. The Aragonese troops led by their King James II arrived on 11 August, blockading the city and employing siege engines. The city, led by governor Abu Maydan Shuayb and naval commander Abu al-Hasan al-Randahi, prepared for the siege by strengthening its defenses and stockpiling food. Throughout the siege, both sides exchanged shots from siege engines and engaged in fields battles and skirmishes with varying results. James ordered multiple unsuccessful assaults. A Granadan relief column under Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula arrived nearby in September and harassed the besiegers.

The approach of winter and a shortage of supplies in the besiegers' camp led James II to agree to a truce at the end of December. The siege was lifted and the Aragonese began withdrawing from Granadan territories. As James II did not have sufficient ships to transport his troops at once, some men were left behind. Some of them pillaged Granadan territories and some were ambushed while trying to travel home without authorization, resulting in their temporary capture. The siege was viewed as a decisive victory for Granada and ended Aragonese military involvement in the emirate for the rest of James II's reign. Sultan Nasr of Granada made peace with Aragon and Castile in 1310. (Full article...)
Plácido painted by his son, Ignacio Zuloaga

Plácido Maria Martin Zuloaga y Zuloaga (5 October 1834 – 1 July 1910) was a Spanish sculptor and metalworker. He is known for refining damascening, a technique that involves inlaying gold, silver, and other metals into an iron surface, creating an intricate decorative effect. Zuloaga came from a family of Basque metalworkers. He was the son of damascening pioneer Eusebio Zuloaga, the half-brother of the artist Daniel Zuloaga, and the father of the painter Ignacio Zuloaga. Taking over his father's armaments factory, he adapted it to make art pieces which he exhibited at international fairs, winning multiple awards.

His notable works include the altar for the Sanctuary of St. Ignatius at Loyola, the Fonthill Casket (an iron cassone with intricate decoration inside and out), and a monumental sarcophagus for the Prime Minister of Spain, Juan Prim. For twenty years, Zuloaga made works for the English collector Alfred Morrison. Many of those are now in the private collection of the British-Iranian scholar and philanthropist Nasser D. Khalili. Zuloaga trained many other artisans in his workshop, and Eibar continued as a centre of a damascening after his death. (Full article...)