SPAIN
Population: 40,217,413
Area: 504,782 sq. km.
Economy: In 2002, Spain ranked 21st in the UN's Human Development Index survey and 14th in total GDP, with a per capita GDP of $20,660. Debt service and poverty statistics unavailable.
Main Language: Spanish, with significant Catalan, Galician and Euskadi-speaking populations
Monkey's Name: El Mono (El Moh-noh),
Fun Fact: The Spanish maintain a dispute over British control of Gibraltar, which they contend is an extension of the Spanish territory. And yet the Spanish remain unwilling to cede two similar territories across the Straits of Gibraltar, Ceuta and Melilla, to the Moroccans. Old Empires die hard.
Spain takes up most of the Iberian peninsula, sharing it with Portugal and the British enclave at Gibraltar. Its Celtic, Basque, and other native tribes were conquered by the Romans in 2nd Century BCE. Roman rule left an indelible mark on Spain, with Roman structures and a Latin-based language key among them. In the 7th Century, the North African Moors swept up from the south and conquered the fading Roman and Visigothic rulers, spreading Islam across the Iberian peninsula and as far as what is today south-central France, only being stopped by the Franks at Poitiers. For over five centuries, the Moors dominated the Iberian peninsula, building a civilization that would have a profound effect on the language, architecture, and overall culture of the region. But the Christians of the North launched continuous campaigns of reconquest, and by the 15th Century, the Moors were losing ground. Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors, fell in 1492 to the combined forces of the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, under the dual monarchs of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
Triumphant and filled with Christian zeal, Ferdinand and Isabella made a number of historically critical decisions that year. In conjunction with the ongoing Spanish Inquisition, they began expelling Jews (many of whom fled to the Balkans) and Muslims, as well as other "heretics." And they took a chance on the idea of a Genoan (or possibly Catalan) mariner, Christopher Columbus, who thought he might find another route to the riches of the Indian subcontinent by sailing west across the Atlantic. What he ended up running into were the already populated Caribbean islands. The gold and human slaves he brought back to show to his patrons set off the Spanish imperialist charge into the Americas, which would result in inconceivable material wealth for the Crown, both from the mines of Potosí and Guanajuato and from the ruthless enslavement of the indigenous populations (many of whom already lived in advanced civilizations). Additionally, the "discovery" of the "New World" led to drastic geopolitical changes: Spain gained the largest Empire of the day and spread the Latin and Spanish languages and Catholicism deep into the Americas, at the expense of indigenous religions and cultures, many of which were lost forever.
After losing its imperial edge to the British and the newcomer United States in the 19th Century, Spain receded to being a minor player in Europe, where once, under its Hapsburg dynasty in the 16th and 17th Centuries, it had also ruled the Low Countries and swathes of the Italian peninsula. The wealth its imperial apparatus had sapped from the Americas (and the Philippines) had been squandered by the Crown and the Church. Additionally, despite some 19th Century industrialization in Catalunya, the country lagged far behind the other European powers economically. Spain stayed neutral in World War I, and descended into a brutal civil war from 1936 to 1939. The Franco regime that emerged victorious from the civil war displayed fascist tendencies and reigned with utter impunity until 1975, when Franco died. Since then, Spain has functioned as a parliamentary monarchy. It joined the European Economic Community, which became the European Union, in 1986, and has enjoyed an economic and cultural boom of sorts since then. Spain once again yields influence on a global stage, and has rekindled relations with its former colonies in the Americas. Today, Spain's unique history and culture attract millions of visitors annually, and the Monkey has twice been pleased to be one of them.
Holed up in his hotel room in out-of-the-way Barbastro, the Monkey displays a 10,000 peseta bill. This was 1996. Spain, like much of Western Europe, now has a new currency: the Euro. The Monkey was in Spain on New Year's Day 2002 when the Euro was introduced as a physical currency. In all likelihood, that day he became the first non-human primate in world history to spend Euros!
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