SPAIN
Introduction
The European Development Agency identifies Spain as a developed country that has a low infant mortality rate, strong per capita gross domestic product (GDP), and a long life expectancy. As of 2016, $34,526 was Spain’s per capita GDP. Several elements based on its history, demographics, geography, industries, and economy have highly facilitated its development. Historically, Spain’s journey to development dates back in the Middle Ages with Habsburg in 1516, unifying a number of kingdoms and bringing it to the modern development in conjunction with the constitutional monarchy in 1813 (Navarro, Andrés, 93). Even with the current democratic constitution that dates back in 1978, events in Spain’s success are fixed to wealth received from the United States, Switzerland, Federal Republic of Germany, and France with an approximation of 40%, 17%, 6%, and 4% respectively. Also, some of Spain’s strongest sectors aiding to its development include Aeroscope and Defense, Tourism, Automotive, Life Sciences, ICT, and Chemical sectors. Hence, the rest of the essay discusses some of the notable elements contributing to the development of Spain.
Geography of Spain
Spain is a country in Europe specifically on Southern Europe of the Iberian Peninsula and borders Portugal, France, Andorra, Morocco, and Gibraltar. Its highest point is based in the Canary Islands; Teide, with 3,718m equivalent to 12, 198ft. On the other hand, its lowest point lies in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea. Longest river lowest lake associated with it includes the Tagus and Lago de Sanabria respectively. Its exclusive economic zone is 1,039,233 kilometer square. Its island territories add to 505,370 kilometer square of which 5,240-kilometer square and 499,542-kilometer square is water. Among external boundaries and landform regions includes Mar Mediterraneo, Bay of Biscay, North Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and the Balearic Sea among others.
As most of its boundaries are water bodies, the Strait Balearic Sea for instance is divided into the northern stretch; the Balearic Sea and Southern sector; Alboran Sea. Some of the mainlands claimed by Morocco are located around the Alboran Sea with Melilla closer to Algeria. As part of the African Continent, the Canary Islands are washed by the Atlantic Ocean. And, even as it’s about to the Pyrenees along with Andorra and France, Spain’s Peninsular Region consists of Meseta Central which is dissected by mountain ranges and highland plateau. The inner Plateau on the other hand and, the associated mountains, form the vast heart of Spain Peninsular (Navarro, Andrés, 91). The associated mountain on Meseta Central rim is associated with Sistema Iberico, Sierra Morena, and Cordillera Cantabrica. Spain’s Lowland Regions are the coastal plains, Andalusian Plain; Southwest_wide river valley in which Rio Guadalquivir flows, and The Ebro Basin. As a result of several water bodies, it is characterized by the Mediterranean, Semiarid, and Oceanic climates.
Based on resources and land use, some of its natural resources include coal, hydropower, sepiolite, mercury, uranium, fluorspar, copper, iron ore, tungsten, kaolin, zinc, potash, and lead. Its irrigated land as of 2003 falls into an approximation of 38,000-kilometer squares and that leaves aside the land use to 27.18%, 9.85%, and the rest as 62.97% of arable land, permanent crops, and others respectively. Its total renewable water sources as of 2005 fall to 111.1 cubic meter with freshwater withdrawal on agricultural, domestic, and industrial factors as of 2002 to denote as 68%, 13%, and 19% respectively. With such resources and land use, several environmental concerns have occurred such as issuers dealing with international agreements and natural hazards. Natural hazards for example are picked from occasional flooding and periodic droughts and that its environment current issues come from Mediterranean Sea Pollution resulting from raw sewage. Raw sewage leakages come from produced oil and gas from offshore. Additional environmental issues in Spain are associated with deforestation, air pollution, and desertification.
History of Spain
The history of Spain is linked back to 1516; the Middle Ages which after Reconquista completion, exploration of Atlantic Ocean was facilitated with Crown of Castle in 1492. It later expanded in the New World facilitating the formation of the Spanish Empire’s Golden Age. In the process of full realization of its success and development, Spain has engaged in several wars such as Italian Wars, The Franco-Spanish War, The Eighty Years’ War, and the Thirty Years’ War. The incidences resulted in various outcomes linked to the death of their prominent ruler, Habsburg. It led to reduced European affairs for them with the renewal of state institutions incorporating other features such as The Peninsular War and the French Revolution (Vallejo-Pousada, 120). In 1814, Spain later generated a new political party to represent moderate groups and liberal reactionary. Even throughout the development of the remainder century, a tenuous balance existed between the consecutive and liberal forces.
Spain’s development has come up from different stages associated with its historical events on its prehistory inhabited by anatomically modern humans. Additionally, the early history of the Iberian Peninsula that took place before the conquest of the Roman conquest, major cultures that facilitate the growth of Spain took place. It was facilitated by the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians. An additional period of the event to its current development is connected to Roman Hispania (2nd Century BCE to 5th Century CE). Here, the roman improved the existing cities facilitating employment. The Celts, Lusitanians, and Iberians are among the group that benefitted to its employment. The Gothic Hispania (5th-8th Centuries), which provides further information that took place in Spania, Visigothic Kingdom, and the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia are among the groups that existed on the mountain range and necessitated interactions to the imperial empires resulting to Spain’s cultural preservation. Historically, Spain’s official name is The Kingdom of Spain with Madrid as the Capital. Official languages known since time-immemorial include Spanish nationwide; Galician, Aranese (regionally), Basque, and Catalan. Its currency is Euro and that the current form of government is called the Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy with climate variations which include; Temperate and coastal. As of 16th Century exploration in North and South America has contributed to wealth.
Demographics in Spain
The statistical study of the human population with a focus on composition, population density, and population size is referred to as demography. In Spain, life expectancy as of 2018 was 83.19yrs. Its net migration was 334k with a population growth of 0.28% as of 2018. In relation to the key figures, Spain’s population expected median age as of 2020 is 44.9yrs with Andalusia being the most populated region. The total number of the foreign population in Spain is 5.02 million; 2019. In 2018, the number of births, deaths, and male mean age was 369.3k, 474.5k, and 38.14 respectively. In the same year, the largest immigrant group was Moroccan with regions gaining most population being Madrid. In 2019, the number of Spaniards leaving the nation was 79.3k which was connected to search for greener pastures and education.
By gender, as of 2017, 24 million women lived in Spain which outnumbers men by 900 thousand, And, as per the report presented by Population Reference Bureau Forecasts by 2050, the population of inhabitants will decline by 8% amounting to a total of 39.8 million. In 2018, Spain was recorded as the first populated country in the European Union after Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. By autonomous community, the population of Spain in 2019 was 8.44 million with Madrid and Catalonia following closely (Dunn, Jonathan, and Ben Adams, 37). They amounted to 6.7 million and 7.6 million respectively. The range follows other autonomous communities such as Region of Valencia; 4,998,711, Galicia; 2,698,764, Castile and Leon; 2,402,877, Basque Country; 2,181,919, Canary Islands; 2,220,270, Castile-La Mancha;2,038,440, Murcia; 1,494,442, Aragon; 1,324,397, Balearic Islands; 1,198,576 and Extremadura;1,062,797.
The total Spain 2024 population rate will be affected by fertility rate with projections received from 2010-2018 which, the total population ranged to 46.45 million people. In the past decade, the Spain population has rapidly taken place with noticeable plugs witnessed in 2008-09. Additional factors contributing to its population are relative to the gross domestic product; admirable shape prior and unemployment rate picking to 25% by 2013. By 2024, inhabitants’ rates will have gone to 47.66 as opposed to 46.87 in 2020.
Spain’s Strongest Industries
As of 2020 report provided by World Atlas, the top five strongest industries include Aeroscope and Defense which, is ranked 5th in Europe and 8th in the world. Aeroscope employment growth has gone to 65% from 2017 with total revenue of $USD 11.18 billion with more than 10% of their turnover fixed to R&D. Tourism follows which from the 2018 report, it has had over 82.6million Visits bringing in €89,678 million. It has recently surpassed Construction Sectors as it employees 13.7% of the total population. The tourism industry has produced big names like Amadeus; Traveling Technology Company turning out to be among the top 10 of Forbes global companies dealing with software.
Automotive Industry is ranked 2nd in Europe and 8th globally. Between 2012-16, it has grown to 46% with current revenue of €100 billion Modernization and expansion of auto-parts in Spain adds to a total of €1.5 billion. The second last industries include Life Sciences and ICT sectors. Based on scientific capability, Spain takes the 10th position globally and that is considered home for private hospitals and 800 pubic ones (Goñi, Iñaki Iriarte, and Vicente Pinilla, 59). Biotechnology growth in Spain is promising which has helped the Spanish government to gain incentives such as low-interest rates in the life sciences business. ICT on the other hand is one of the main important sectors in Europe. Spain houses more than 34,000 ICT industries adding to a GDP of 4.3%. Indeed, it has proven to be a leader in Latin American markets as it turns out to desirable locations for investment.
Economy
By nominal GDP, Spain’s economy turns out as thirteenth are largest in the world. It serves also as the world’s largest purchasing power parity and that it’s a member of the European Union, World Trade Organization and, The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development. Minimum wage per month in Spain is 1,050.00 EUR; 2019 and Gross Domestic Product as 1.419 trillion USD; information provided by World Bank in 2018. Its GDP per capita is 30,370.89 (World Bank-2018) with an unemployment rate of 13.6% (Eurostat-2020). The Spain government has a total debt of 97.6% GDP (Eurostat-2018) and a GDP growth rate of 2.4% (World Bank-2018).
Interrelationship in Geography, History, Demographics, Industries and economy and their contribution to the development of Spain
Geography, History, Demographics, economy, and Industries are related especially when it comes to the development of the state. Geography for instance is believed to affect the economy. Climate and location rapidly impact income levels in relation to channels such as agricultural productivity, disease burdens, and transport costs. Geography consecutively affects economic policies that cut across all sections of the world. Geography and economic development also are affected by demographics (Ferreira et al., 1723). The economic sector on the other hand is determined by the growth in several industries such as Construction and Manufacturing industries. As the industry is a sector that produces goods and services related to the country’s economy, it determines the income received. From its sectors such as mining, agricultural, and other natural resources, the country’s level of purchasing power parity and Gross Domestic Products are analyzed.
The relationship between geography and demography exists as one (geography) is connected to human beings’ relationships and their environment. Geography tends to study how people are influenced and cope with environmental changes. Geographers in their study take a keen interest in cultural characteristics of both geography and demography in their evaluation of population distributions in various parts of the world. In the end, they can analyze the qualities of population and population density in total. Knowledge of geography has been used to evaluate essential background information on different demographics and, their distribution in operational processes on soil movement, biotic process, climate, organization evolution, and development of resources.
The above notable elements impact the development of Spain as a country. One of the many factors determining development is geography. Temperate climate has always resulted in fertile land and good rainfall impacting on agricultural services and improving the nation’s economy. The location of natural resources has impacted the capitalization and infrastructure with products such as gold and diamonds resulting in a successful economy. Renewable resources such as fish, forests, and stalks also aid to a country’s development (Goñi, Iñaki Iriarte, and Vicente Pinilla, 53).The natural rubber and timber for instance when sold has impacted a country’s economic stability and Spain for instance as a result of economic development from its geography has improved income levels and income growth and that has affected its transport cost, ability to fight diseases and improve other channels.
Correspondingly, industrial development determines the status of a country. In as much as industrial processes tend to have negative impacts on the environment such as the extinction of species from water pollution, loss of natural resources, and climate change, through effective measures, industries tend to improve a country’s wealth status. Industrialization gives rise to different levels of education for further researches, improves life spans from growing individual and national activities from income received. The overall quality of life is improved even with industrial policies which fit the interest of citizens.
In summary, factors such as geography critically impact on the nation’s development. Geography determines the standards of living and quality of life of humans and via its change, their life is affected which can impact to nation’s economy. Income received from industrial activities from areas such as Tourism has created employment for citizens resulting in better standards of living. Generally, industries improved the economic conditions of nations like Spain from improved GNP, increased government revenue, increased social welfare, investment, improved in the balance of payment. In the long run, expansion of markets and development of other sectors has taken place necessitating the overall position of Spain’s development based on factors such as capital formation, availability of marketable surplus of agriculture, economic system, and conditions presented in trading.
Works Cited
Dunn, Jonathan, and Ben Adams. “Mapping languages and demographics with georeferenced corpora.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.00809 (2020): 23-49.
Ferreira, Inês de Abreu, et al. “A Proposed Index of the Implementation and Maturity of Circular Economy Practices—The Case of the Pulp and Paper Industries of Portugal and Spain.” Sustainability 11.6 (2019): 1722-1724.
Goñi, Iñaki Iriarte, and Vicente Pinilla. The Development of Modern Agricultural History within Economic History in Spain. No. 1910. Asociacion Espa–ola de Historia Economica, (2019): 20-89.
Navarro, Andrés. “Reseña: The Geography of Spain: a Comprehensive Synthesis.” Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles 83 (2019): 78-92.
Vallejo-Pousada, Rafael, Margarita Vilar-Rodríguez, and Elvira Lindoso-Tato. “The tourism economy in Spain, 1900–1939: new sources, new methodologies, and new results.” Journal of Tourism History 10.2 (2018): 105-129.