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The Spain Portal (Bienvenido al portal español)

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Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most populous European Union (EU) member state. Spanning the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, its territory also includes the Canary Islands, in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean; the Balearic Islands, in the Western Mediterranean Sea; and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in mainland Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea, Gibraltar and Morocco (the latter being through its exclaves in North Africa); and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville, Bilbao, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca and Las Palmas.

In early antiquity, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Iberians, Celts, and other pre-Roman peoples. The Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula created the province of Hispania, which became deeply Romanised and later Christianised. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the peninsula was conquered by tribes from Central Europe, among them the Visigoths, who established the Visigothic Kingdom centred on Toledo. In the early 8th century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, with Al-Andalus centred on Córdoba. The northern Christian kingdoms of Iberia launched the so-called Reconquista , gradually repelling and ultimately expelling Islamic rule from the peninsula, culminating with the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. The dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479 under the Catholic Monarchs is often seen as the de facto unification of Spain as a nation state. (Full article... )

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An artists portrait of Hernán Cortés
An artists portrait of Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés (also known as Hernán(do) Cortés Pizarro, 1st Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca; born 1485–December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who initiated the conquest of the Aztec Empire on behalf of Charles V, king of Castile and Holy Roman Emperor, in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.[1]

Born in Medellín, Extremadura, in Castile, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda and, for a short time, became alcalde (mayor) of a small town. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the latter recalling the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous peoples against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as interpreter; she would later bear Cortés a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca , while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. Cortés returned to Spain in 1541 where he died peacefully but embittered.

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Did you know...

  • ... that when the COVID-19 pandemic began, Masyita Crystallin was instructed by the Indonesian finance minister to study the Spanish flu to help formulate unconventional economic policies?
  • ... that Manuel García de Sena 's 1811 translation of U.S. founding documents into Spanish influenced the first constitutions of Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela?
  • ... that Mimoun Ben Ali , a left-handed Spanish boxer of Moroccan descent, was a three-time European champion?
  • ... that the 12th-century murals of Sant Quirze de Pedret were featured on Spanish Tourism Board posters in 1930?
  • ... that France beat Spain 2–1 in 1955 , after which a British journalist nicknamed Raymond Kopa the "Napoleon of football"?
  • ... that the 12th-century murals of Sant Quirze de Pedret were featured on Spanish Tourism Board posters in 1930?

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In the news

1 August 2026 – Morocco–Spain relations
2026 Morocco–Spain border incident
Moroccan security forces clash with hundreds of migrants as they attempt to storm the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Several Moroccan security personnel are reportedly injured while more than 50 migrants are detained. (Yeni Safak)
31 July 2026 – Morocco–Spain relations
2026 Morocco–Spain border incident
Ceutan mayor-president Juan Jesús Vivas says that around 60,000 undocumented migrants have entered the Spanish exclave in North Africa in the last 24 hours, as the death toll rises to 57. (The Guardian) (BBC News)

24 July 2026 – Wildfires in 2026
Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska declares a national emergency over wildfires in the Community of Madrid and the Province of Ávila, placing the Military Emergencies Unit in command. Authorities evacuate more than 10,000 people as three major fires remain uncontrolled. (AA)

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