this: the country

Spain ( , ) or the Kingdom of Spain ( ), is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España (Spain), Estado español (Spanish State) and Nación española (Spanish Nation) are used interchangeably. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an Ordinance published in 1984, declared that "''denominations "Spain" and "Kingdom of Spain" are equally valid to designate the Spanish State in international treaties..."

The Spanish mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe after France.

Because of its location, Spain has been subject to many external influences, often simultaneously, since prehistoric times. At times the country itself has been an important source of influence to other regions. Archaeological and genetic evidence strongly suggests that the Iberian Peninsula acted as one of three major refugia from which northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last ice age. It has also played an important part in Europe and even the world at certain historic times; in the latter case when it was the seat of a global empire that has left a legacy of 400 million Spanish speakers today. The combination of external influences with the interactions of the culturally and politically differentiated regions of the rugged peninsula has produced a dramatic history, typified by alternating periods of unity and disunity under very different regimes.

Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the eighth largest economy in the world based on nominal GDP.Rank by nominal GDP: 8 (2007) ; List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita: 28 (2007) ; Economy of the European Union: 13 (2006).

Geography

main: Geography of Spain

On the west, Spain borders Portugal, on the south, it borders Gibraltar (a British overseas territory) and Morocco, through its cities in North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla). On the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. Spain also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the strait of Gibraltar, known as lang: Plazas de soberanía, such as the Chafarine islands, the isle of Alborán, the "rocks" (lang: peñones) of Vélez and Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla Perejil. Along the Pyrenees in Catalonia, a small exclave town called Llívia is surrounded by France. The little Pheasant Island in the River Bidasoa is a Spanish-French condominium.