Spain: About Spain - Part 1

From ExecutivePlanet.com

An introduction - history and government

It is traditionally said that the foundations of modern Spain were laid by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile in the late fifteenth century. Their union brought about the unification of Christian Spain together with the conquest of Moorish Granada as well as the expulsion of the Jews and their sponsorship of Christopher Columbus's first crossing of the Atlantic. In the formation of contemporary Spain, however, the essential date is 20 November 1975 when Generalísimo Francisco Franco died after ruling Spain for nearly forty years. In the intervening years since the death of El Caudillo and the subsequent accession of King Juan Carlos, Spain has been transformed from an insular, restrictive, ultra-Catholic, fascist dictatorship into a modern parliamentary democracy such that many preconceptions and prejudices about the 'old' Spain belong literally to another era.

After the constitution of 1978 confirmed Spain as a constitutional monarchy, the country has continued to evolve despite the occasional hiccup. Spain had already been admitted to the UN in 1955 and joined NATO in 1982 but the great leap forward came in 1986 when Spain joined the [now] European Union. This resulted in a significant economic boom that effectively confirmed Spain's transition to a more or less advanced Western capitalist free-market economy. Spain is a founding member of the eurozone and continues to prosper within the EU where it finds most of its trading partners.

If one were to identify a single feature that symbolises Spain's progress in recent decades, then it would have to be the revision of attitudes towards the traditional siesta. Of course, there are many provincial areas, particularly in the rural south, where the long afternoon break remains the norm, but this is no longer the case in the main centres of commerce. Air-conditioned offices obviously help to reduce the need to avoid the extreme heat of mid-day but Spanish business has also realised that it cannot afford to be at rest in the afternoon when Europe [and indeed the world] might reasonably expect it to be at work. Whilst typical working hours in Spain may still be somewhat different from most of Europe, then, they are no longer completely idiosyncratic.

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