On 2 June 2014, Juan Carlos I announced that he would abdicate in favour of his son, Felipe VI. The date of abdication and handover to Felipe occurred on 19 June 2014. He and his wife kept their titles.
Ancient religions in Spain were mostly pagan. Today, however, at least 68 percent of Spain is Roman Catholic. Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila is an important figure within Catholicism. 27 percent of Spaniards are irreligious. 2 percent are from other religions, this include Baha'i Buddhists, Jain, Muslim,Unitarian Universalism and Zoroastrianism.
The middle of Spain is a high, dry, flat land called La Meseta. In La Meseta it can be very hot in the summer and cold or very cold in the winter. Spain also has many mountain ranges. The Mount Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands), the highest mountain of Spain and the islands of the Atlantic (it is the third largest volcano in the world from its base). In the north there is a range of mountains called "Los Picos de Europa" (The European Peaks). Here it is very cold in winter with a lot of snow but with gentle warm summers.
In the south-east of the country is a range of mountains called "La Sierra Nevada" (The Snowy Mountains). This range of mountains contains the highest mountain in mainland Spain, Mulacen, at 2952 metres. La Sierra Nevada is very popular in winter for winter sports, especially skiing. Snow remains on its peaks throughout the year. The south coast, has a warm and temperate climate, not very hot or very cold. Since Spain is in the south of Europe, it is very sunny. Many people from Northern Europe take their vacations in Spain, enjoying its beaches and cities.
Spain has a border with Portugal in the west and borders with France and Andorra in the North. In the south, it borders Gibraltar, a British territory. The Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla are in North Africa and border onto Morocco.
Spain is divided into Autonomous Communities, which means that they have their own regional governments. They are Andalucía (capital city Seville), Aragon (capital city Zaragoza), Asturias (capital city Oviedo), Balearic Islands (capital city Palma de Mallorca), Basque Country (capital city Vitoria), Canary Islands (capital cities Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas), Cantabria (capital city Santander), Castilla-La Mancha (capital city Toledo), Castile and Leon (capital city Valladolid), Catalonia (capital city Barcelona), Extremadura (capital city Merida), Galicia (capital city Santiago de Compostela), La Rioja (capital city Logrono), Madrid Community (capital city Madrid), Murcia Community (capital city Murcia), Navarra (capital city Pamplona) and the Valencia Community (capital city Valencia).
In Spain, many people live in cities or close to cities. The ten biggest city areas are:
While Spanish is the most spoken language in the country, other languages like Catalan, Basque or Galician are also spoken in a few territories.
World War I
World War I (WWI or WW1), also called the First World War, began on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. The war was a global war that lasted exactly . Most of the fighting was in Europe, but soldiers from many other countries took part, and it changed the colonial empires of the European powers. Before World War II began in 1939, World War I was called the Great War or the World War. 135 countries took part in World War I, and nearly 10 million people died while fighting.
Before the war, European countries had formed alliances with each other to protect themselves. However, by doing this they had divided themselves into two groups. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on 28 June 1914, Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and declared war on them. Serbia's ally Russia then declared war on Austria-Hungary. This set off a chain of events in which the two groups of countries declared war on each other. The two sides were the Allied Powers (mainly Russia, France and the British Empire) and the Central Powers (mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire).
There was fighting in many different areas (fronts). The French and British fought the Germans on the Western Front in France and Belgium. Germany had tried to defeat France quickly, but were stopped in the First Battle of the Marne. After that, most of the fighting here was trench warfare. The Russians fought the Germans and Austro-Hungarians on the Eastern Front in Central and Eastern Europe. Fighting here was not trench warfare but mobile warfare. The other main areas of fighting were in the Middle East, in the Gallipoli region of Turkey and between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Fighting also took place in Africa, China, and at sea as well as in the air. World War I was the first major war where tanks, airplanes, and submarines (or U-boats) were important weapons.
In 1917, the Russians had a revolution, which led to them leaving the war in March 1918. Also in 1917, the United States entered the war, though it took a year for their main army to arrive. In the gap between when the Russians left and the Americans arrived, the Germans launched a huge attack in March 1918 to try to win the war, but it was not enough. In August-November 1918, the Allied Powers won a big victory against the Germans in the Hundred Days Offensive. Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire then agreed to stop fighting. The German government collapsed and a new government agreed to end the war on 11 November.
The war was ended by the signing of many different treaties, the most important being the Treaty of Versailles. It also led to the creation of the League of Nations, which was meant to prevent wars. People were shocked by the size of the war, how many people it killed and how much damage it caused. They hoped it would be the "war to end all wars". Instead, it led to another, larger world war 21 years later.
By 1914, trouble was on the rise in Europe. Many countries feared invasion from the other. For example, Germany was becoming increasingly powerful, and the British saw this as a threat to the British Empire. The countries formed alliances to protect themselves, but this divided them into two groups. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been allies since 1879. They had then formed the Triple Alliance with Italy in 1882. France and Russia became allies in 1894. They then joined with Britain to form the Triple Entente.
In 1908, Austria-Hungary had taken over Bosnia, a region next to Serbia. Some people living in Bosnia were Serbian, and wanted the area to be part of Serbia. One of these was the Black Hand organization. They sent men to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria when he visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. They all failed to kill him with grenades while he passed through a large crowd. But one of them, a Serbian student named Gavrilo Princip, shot him and his pregnant wife with a pistol.
Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination. Germany supported Austria-Hungary and promised full support should it come to war. Austria-Hungary sent a July Ultimatum to Serbia, listing 10 very strict rules they would have to agree to. Many historians think that Austria-Hungary already wanted a war with Serbia. Serbia agreed to most of the ten rules on the list, but not all of them. Austria-Hungary then declared war on Serbia. This quickly led to a full-scale war. Both countries' allies became involved in the war in a matter of days.