Spania

**Spania** (Spanian: *Spañola*), officially the **Kingdom of Spania** (Spanian: *Rinada de Spañola*), is a sovereign state in Southern Eurea, bordered by Marone to the north, Catoria and Vasalonia to the southeast, and Escaria to the south and west. Its capital and most-populous city is Alzitava, located on the center of the country. Spania has a population of approximately 44.2 million people.

Organized settlement in the territory of modern-day Spania first began in the fourth century CE, with the establishment of several independent kingdoms, which ruled independently for centuries. The unification of Spania occurred in the 12th century, when María Fernanda of Vatilla and Oscar III of Vasalonia married, unifying the Kingdom of Vatilla and Kingdom of Vasalonia into the Kingdom of Spania, with the two ruling as joint-monarchs. Spania emerged as one of the dominant powers in the region and a global superpower. Within the ensuing centuries, Spania was continuously in contention to be the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. Beginning in the 15th century, Spania began westward overseas exploration, founding several colonies in Espanola. With their newfound overseas colonies, Spania's wealth increased into the 16th and 17th centuries, as they began exporting a number of crops grown in their colonies abroad for substantial wealth. The Spano-Escarian War (1704–1713) later led to the region of Gipulia being ceded from Escaria to Spania. The late-19th and early-20th centuries saw a period of economic decline for Spania, with the newfound independence of all of its overseas colonies. In 1940, the the monarchy was overthrown by the military under the leadership of José Manuel Ferrero, later resulting in the Spanian Civil War (1940–1944), which led to Ferrero ruling Spania under a fascist military dictatorship from 1940 until 1973. Following the death of Fernandes in 1973, the monarchy returned to power.

Since 1974, Spania has functioned as a federal constitutional monarchy. Its head of state is the Monarch, who maintains certain ceremonial functions while wielding little actual power. The Monarch's main duties are to sign all passed legislation, with a *de jure* veto power that is not actually used, formally appointing the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, and ambassadors to office, and serving as a representative of the nation. The Prime Minister is the head of government, and yields most *de facto* power. They are tasked with leading a council of ministers, implementing their national policy agenda, and overseeing the day-to-day functions of the country. The Prime Minister is typically the leader of the governing coalition in parliament. The parliament of Spania is the 456-seat Chamber of Deputies, a unicameral legislature. Members of the legislature are elected directly by Escarian voters in electoral constituencies corresponding to the regions of Spania, using proportional representation. The nation is further divided into seven ethnic communities, which each maintain their own community legislatures and wield a degree of autonomy from the federal government.

Spania has a population of 44.2 million residents, although it does not track the ethnicity of its residents. Despite this, the Spanian government does take record of citizenship and place of birth; approximately 86.4% of the Spanian population are classified as Spanian-born, including both those born in Spania and those born abroad with Spanian citizenship at birth, regardless of ethnicity. The remaining 13.6% of the population are classified as foreign-born, consisting of those born outside of Spania without Spanian citizenship at birth. The majority of the foreign-born population in Spania come from Spania's former colonies in Helonesia. The sole national and official language of Spania is Spanian, a Pescan language. Spanian is spoken natively by approximately 66.0% of the population. There are additionally six languages with official minority language recognition, including Chasque, Gipulian, Vallarosian, Vasalonian, Vitoncian, and Xalusian. The majority of the remaining 34.0% of the population which do not speak Spanian natively speak one of Spania's official minority languages, although other languages are also spoken. Despite only being spoken natively by about two-thirds of the population, approximately 98.8% of the population can communicate in Spanian fluently. Approximately 68.5% of the Spanian population adheres to Eurean Catholicism, while 28.4% identifies as atheist, agnostic, or irreligious, and the remaining 3.1% adheres to other religions. Despite the high levels of Catholicism, Spania is not a particularly religious nation, with only 9.1% of the population stating that they attend religious services "at least weekly," and only 52.5% agreeing with the statement "there is a God."

## Politics

### Administrative divisions

Spania is subdivided into two sets of administrative subdivisions, the seven ethnic communities for political reasons and 16 regions for statistical reasons. As Spania is a federal state, the ethnic communities are delegated significant powers and autonomy from the federal government, each with their own legislatures and governments, while the regions possess little autonomy.