Andalusia

Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Andalucía por sí, para España y la humanidad (English: Andalusia by itself, for Spain and for Humankind)
Anthem: La bandera blanca y verde
Capital	Seville
Official languages	Spanish (Andalusian)
Area  – Total  – % of Spain	Ranked 2nd  87,268 km²  17.2%
Population  – Total (2007)  – % of Spain  – Density	Ranked 1st  8,059,431  17.84  91.39/km²
Demonym  – English  – Spanish	Andalusian  Andaluz, andaluza
Statute of Autonomy	March 20, 2007
Parliamentary representation  – Congress seats  – Senate seats	62  40
President	Manuel Chaves González (PSOE)
ISO 3166-2	AN
www.juntadeandalucia.es

Alamillo Bridge, Seville designed by Santiago Calatrava

Malecón of La Caleta, Cádiz

Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucía) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Kingdom of Spain. Its capital and largest city is Seville. The region is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and Almería.

Andalusia is located south of the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castile-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

Carthaginians and Romans

With the fall of the Phoenician cities, Carthage became the dominant sea power of the 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 versus Rome led by the Barkid Hannibal. The Romans defeated the Carthaginians and conquered Andalusia, the region being renamed Baetica.

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

See also: Al-Andalus

The Umayyad Caliphate conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711-718 marked the collapse of Visigothic rule. Tariq bin Zeyad, known in Spanish history and legend as Tariq el Tuerto (Tariq the one-eyed), was an African Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711 under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I. According to the historian Ibn Khaldoun, Tariq Ibn Ziyad was from a Berber tribe of Algeria. Tariq ibn Ziyad is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Iberian history. He was initially the deputy of Musa ibn Nusair in North Africa, and was sent by his superior to launch the first thrust of a conquest of the kingom of Hispania (comprising modern Spain and Portugal). Some claim that he was invited to intervene by the heirs of the Visigothic King, Wittiza, in the Visigothic civil war.

On April 29, 711, the armies of Tariq landed at Gibraltar (the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq, or the more obvious Gibr al Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq).

The 17th century Muslim historian Al Maggari wrote that upon landing, Tariq burned his ships and then made the following speech, well-known in the Muslim world, to his soldiers:

Oh my warriors, whither would you flee? Behind you is the sea, before you, the enemy. You have left now only the hope of your courage and your constancy. Remember that in this country you are more unfortunate than the orphan seated at the table of the avaricious master. Your enemy is before you, protected by an innumerable army; he has men in abundance, but vou, as your only aid, have your own swords, and, as your only chance for life, such chance as you can snatch from the hands of your enemy. If the absolute want to which you are reduced is prolonged ever so little, if you delay to seize immediate success, your good fortune will vanish, and your enemies, whom your very presence has filled with fear, will take courage. Put far from you the disgrace from which you flee in dreams, and attack this monarch who has left his strongly fortified city to meet you. Here is a splendid opportunity to defeat him, if you will consent to expose yourselves freelv to death. Do not believe that I desire to incite you to face dangers which I shall refuse to share with you. In the attack I myself will be in the fore, where the chance of life is always least.

Remember that if you suffer a few moments in patience, you will afterward enjoy supreme delight. Do not imagine that your fate can be separated from mine, and rest assured that if you fall, I shall perish with you, or avenge you. You have heard that in this country there are a large number of ravishingly beautiful Greek maidens, their graceful forms are draped in sumptuous gowns on which gleam pearls, coral, and purest gold, and they live in the palaces of royal kings. The Commander of True Believers, Alwalid, son of Abdalmelik, has chosen you for this attack from among all his Arab warriors; and he promises that you shall become his comrades and shall hold the rank of kings in this country. Such is his confidence in your intrepidity. The one fruit which he desires to obtain from your bravery is that the word of God shall be exalted in this country, and that the true religion shall be established here. The spoils will belong to yourselves.

Remember that I place myself in the front of this glorious charge which I exhort you to make. At the moment when the two armies meet hand to hand, you will see me, never doubt it, seeking out this Roderick, tyrant of his people, challenging him to combat, if God is willing. If I perish after this, I will have had at least the satisfaction of delivering you, and you will easily find among you an experienced hero, to whom you can confidently give the task of directing you. But should I fall before I reach to Roderick, redouble your ardor, force yourselves to the attack and achieve the conquest of this country, in depriving him of life. With him dead, his soldiers will no longer defy you.

—Tariq bin Zeyad

Andalusian culture was deeply influenced by over 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 had encountered. During that period Moorish and Jewish scholars played a major part in reviving and contributing to Western astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and mathematics.

Under the Muslims, the name "Al-Andalus" was applied to a much larger area than the present Spanish region, 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.

Administrative divisions

Muslim architecture in Mezquita, Córdoba.

A map of the provinces of Andalusia.

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, Gaucín and Marbella, (Málaga)
• Dos Hermanas, Alcalá de Guadaíra, Lebrija, Osuna and Utrera, (Seville)

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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 Andalucía" and is one of the four historic regions of Spain. It has a local parliament and president.

Monuments

Muslim architecture featuring Horseshoe arches in Medina Azahara: Salón Rico.

• El Torcal, Antequera (Málaga)
• Medina Azahara, Córdoba
• Mezquita, Córdoba
• Alhambra, Granada
• Palace of Charles V Granada
• Charterhouse, Granada
• Albayzín, Granada
• Alcazaba, Malaga
• El Tajo, Ronda (Málaga)
• La Giralda, Seville
• Torre del Oro, Seville
• Plaza de España (Seville), Seville
• Seville Cathedral, Seville
• Alcázar of Seville, Seville
• Vázquez de Molina Square, Úbeda (Jaén)
• La Rabida Monastery, Palos de la Frontera (Huelva)

Native or famous people from Andalusia

Main article: List of Andalusians

See also

• Andalusian people
• List of Andalusians
• Andalusian nationalism
• Music of Andalusia
• Andalusian cuisine
• Flamenco
• The Roman Bética Route

References

External links

• Official Tourism Website of Andalusia
• A wide range of information of Andalusia
• History of the Andalusian Flag
• Andalucia Photo and History Pages
• FiestasdeAndalucia.com Fairs and traditional fiestas of Andalusia
• Webcams, virtual weatherman, articles, interviews, reports from the Costa del Sol

Provinces of Andalusia Provinces: Almería · Cádiz · Córdoba · Granada · Huelva · Jaén · Málaga · Sevilla

Autonomous communities of Spain Autonomous communities Andalusia · Aragon · Asturias · Balearic Islands · Basque Country · Canary Islands · Cantabria · Castile-La Mancha · Castile and León · Catalonia · Extremadura · Galicia · Madrid · Murcia · Navarre · La Rioja · Valencian Community Autonomous cities  |  Plazas de soberanía Ceuta · Melilla  |  Isla Perejil · Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera · Peñón de Alhucemas · Islas Chafarinas