Andalusia Totally Explained

Everything about Andalusia totally explained

|anthem = La bandera blanca y verde }} Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucía) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of its land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Kingdom of Spain. The capital and largest city is Seville. The region is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Sevilla, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and Almería.
Andalusia is located south of the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha; west of the autonomous community of Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea; east of Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean; and north of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Spain from Morocco, and the Atlantic Ocean. The small British overseas territory of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar.

History

Tartessians and Phoenicians

Tartessos, home of the once-powerful Tartessian civilization, was founded in Andalusia in pre-Roman times. The Phoenicians colonized several areas on the Andalusian coast during the latter part of the second millennium BC. The most important settlement was Cadiz (Gdr or Gdz in Hebrew) around 1100 BC.

Carthaginians and Romans

With the fall of the Phoenician cities, Carthage became the dominant sea power of western Mediterranean and the most important trading partner for the Semitic towns along the Andalusian coast. Between the first and second Carthaginian wars, Carthage extended its control beyond Andalusia to include all of Iberia except the Basquelands. Andalusia was the major staging ground for the war vs Rome led by the Barkid Hannibal. The Romans defeated the Carthaginians and conquered Andalusia, the region being renamed Betica.

Vandals and Visigoths

The Vandals moved briefly through the region during the 5th century AD before settling in North Africa, after which the region fell into the hands of the Kingdom of the Visigoths who had to face the Byzantine interests in the region.

Muslim period

The of the Iberian peninsula in 711-718 marked the collapse of Visigothic rule. Andalucian culture was deeply influenced by half a millennium of Muslim rule during the Middle Ages. Córdoba became the largest and richest city in Western Europe and one of the largest in the world. The Moors established universities in Andalusia, and cultivated scholarship, bringing together the greatest achievements of all of the civilizations they'd encountered. During that period Moorish and Jewish scholars played a major part in reviving and contributing to Western astronomy,
medicine, philosophy and mathematics.
   It should be noted that under the Muslims, the name "Al-Andalus" was applied to a much larger area than the present Spanish province, and at some periods it referred to nearly the entire Iberian peninsula; it survived, however, as the name of the area where Muslim rule and culture persisted the longest.
   With the fall of Seville in 1248 most of Andalucia came under Castilian control, leaving only the emirate of Granada under Muslim rule until it too was conquered by the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The largest Arabic speaking population was in Andalucia, which also received Moors from other regions who were driven south by the Reconquista, and although many either converted or left later, they gave the region its distinctive character till this day.
    Andalucia is known for its Moorish and Moorish influenced architecture. Notable examples include the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Córdoba, the Torre del Oro and Giralda towers. Other architectural styles include Mozarabic, such as the Reales Alcázares in Seville, and the Alcazaba in Málaga. Archaeological ruins include Medina Azahara, near Córdoba, and the Roman city of Itálica, near Seville, and at Palos de la Frontera, in the province of Huelva, the Andalusian port from which Columbus's expedition of discovery was launched.
   The Spanish language spoken in the Americas is largely descended from the Andalusian dialect of Spanish, although the Spanish spoken at the Canary Islands resembles more the Spanish spoken in the Caribbean. This is due to the role played by Seville as the gateway to Spain's American territories during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
   Andalusia Day (in Spanish, "Día de Andalucía") is celebrated on February 28, to commemorate the date of the successful referendum vote on autonomy.

Administrative divisions

Province	Capital	Population	Density	Municipalities
Almería	Almería	635.850	72,47 hab./km²	Municipalities
Cádiz	Cádiz	1.180.817	158,80 hab./km²	Municipalities
Córdoba	Córdoba	788.287	72,47 hab./km²	Municipalities
Granada	Granada	882.184	68,70 hab./km²	Municipalities
Huelva	Huelva	483.792	47,67 hab./km²	Municipalities
Jaén	Jaén	662.751	49,09 hab./km²	Municipalities
Málaga	Málaga	1.491.287	204,06 hab./km²	Municipalities
Seville	Seville	1.813.908	129,23 hab./km²	Municipalities

Other important Andalusian cities are:

El Ejido, and Roquetas de Mar, Almería
La Línea de la Concepción, Algeciras, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Rota, San Fernando, Jerez, and El Puerto, Cádiz
Almuñécar, Guadix, Loja and Motril, Granada
Linares, Úbeda and Baeza, Jaén
Antequera, Ronda, Gaucin and Marbella, Málaga
Dos Hermanas, Lebrija, Osuna and Utrera, Sevilla

Economy

Andalusia is traditionally an agricultural area, but the service sector (particularly tourism, retail sales, and transportation) now predominates. The construction sector, now growing very quickly, also makes an important contribution to the region’s economic fabric. The industrial sector is less developed than in other regions in Spain. As of early 2008, the regional economy is experiencing sustained growth.
According to the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Estadística, the GDP per capita of Andalusia (€17,401, 2006) is still the second lowest in Spain. At the same time, the economic growth rate for the 2000-2006 period was 3.72%, one of the highest in the country.

Transports and commerce

The main road in the region is the European Route E15.

Government and Politics

The Autonomous Community of Andalusia is administrated through the "Junta de Andalucia" and is one of the four historic regions of Spain. It has a local parliament and president.

Monuments

El Torcal, Antequera

Medina Azahara, Cordoba

Mezquita, Cordoba

Alhambra, Granada

Palace of Charles V Granada

Charterhouse, Granada

Albayzín, Granada

Alcazaba, Malaga

El Tajo, Ronda

La Giralda, Sevilla

Torre del Oro, Sevilla

Plaza de España (Seville), Sevilla

Seville Cathedral, Sevilla

Alcázar of Seville, Sevilla

Native or Famous people from Andalusia

Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi

Chiquito de la Calzada

Federico García Lorca

Felipe González

Fernando Hierro

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Hadrian

Lola Flores

Trajan

Vicente Amigo Further Information

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