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Big Bang
On the second day of January 1492, Boabdil, the last Moorish ruler in Spain, reluctantly handed over the keys of Granada and the beautiful Alhambra palace to the Christian monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. This was the catalyst for an extraordinary time. By the end of the year, Christopher Columbus had discovered the Americas for Spain and, within thirty years, Spain had unexpectedly exploded, like a meteor, onto the international scene to become the dominant power in Europe. Rich, powerful and newly intolerant, Spain had finally come of age, after a sustained history of disunity and international impotence. In fact, until 1492 Spain had never been united for long, in any meaningful sense, as a single nation. Over a…
All the King’s Men
Politics in Spain, the Transition to democracy BY NICK SNELLING Imagine living in one of the most backward countries in Western Europe – a country ruled by the longest serving fascist dictator of the twentieth century, who had murdered and oppressed countless people after one of the most brutal civil wars in modern Europe. Think what it must be like to be in a country where you are not allowed to speak your provincial dialect and where the police are a fearsome para-military force, the law is arbitrary and the media is controlled by the state. Consider a creaking infrastructure with an uneven economy and much of the population existing at subsistence level, at direct variance to the rest of…
What did the Moors in Spain do for us?
What did the Moors in Spain do for us? BY NICK SNELLING One of the curiosities of Spain is the seeming denial by the Spanish of the past existence of the Moors in their country. Certainly, much is made of the ‘heroic’ Christian Reconquista, but rarely is the Moorish invasion of Spain looked upon as having provided any intrinsic benefit. In fact, apart from a few scintillating buildings, such as the Alhambra and the Cordoba Mezquita, it would be easy to imagine that, during their 780 years presence, the Moors in Spain contributed nothing of consequence to the country. In fact, the Moors had a profound influence not just upon Spain but the whole of Western Europe. Indeed, it has…
The Borgias, either Caesar or nothing!
The Borgias, either Caesar or nothing! Wrapped in a carpet, the horribly bloated and badly decomposing body of Pope Alexander VI was pummelled and pushed unceremoniously into a hastily made and too small coffin. No priests attended his burial nor were there wax tapers, lights, solemn masses or chanting monks. It was August 1503 at the Vatican and the Spanish Borgia’s iron grip on power was unravelling fast. With Alexandar VI dead, the Borgias had, in all senses of the word, lost their ‘Godfather’, Back in the Vatican, Alexander VI’s private chambers had already been pillaged, so that all that remained were a few hangings and cushions. Meanwhile, the Pope’s son, the ruthless and terrifying Cesare Borgia, was desperately trying…
The Big Issue – Immigration in Spain
The Big Issue – Immigration in Spain BY NICK SNELLING Between 1998 and 2007 Spain’s population rose by an astonishing 14%. Furthermore, immigrants, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE), now account for 9.9% of the population as of January 2007. More worrying for the Spanish is the sheer speed in which mass immigration has occurred. In 2000 there were 900,000 registered foreigners in Spain, but by 2007 this had risen to 4.4 million – a threefold increase that places Spain second only to the US in the world league for net immigration. Of course, Spanish government figures on immigration are very conservative, as they are based only upon properly registered foreigners. Accordingly, they do not take into account…
On the rocks, divorce in Spain and domestic violence
On the rocks, divorce in Spain and domestic violence BY NICK SNELLING Spain now has one of the highest rates of divorce in Europe with 1 in 2.3 marriages ending in divorce. This equates to a marital break-up every 3.7 minutes. To make matters worse, Spain has a shocking domestic violence problem, which yet again came to a head when four women were killed by their partners on ‘Black Tuesday’ (26th February 2008). This brought to 17, the number of women murdered by their partners by the end of February 2008 setting that year firmly on target to exceed the horrors of previous years. Clearly, seismic changes are dangerously vibrating through Spanish society. In fact, it is not surprising that…