About Spain

     Spain (Spanish: España (help·info), IPA: [es'paɲa]), is a Western European country. The country consists of Peninsular Spain which is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, two archipelagos, one in each sea, and two autonomous cities in North Africa.

     The Spanish mainland is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east, by the Cantabric Sea that includes the Bay of Biscay to the north, and by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal to the west. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands off the African coast. It shares land borders with Portugal, France, Andorra, the British colony of Gibraltar, and Morocco. It is the largest of the three sovereign states that make up the Iberian Peninsula — the others being Portugal and Andorra. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe (behind France).

     Spain is a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, and has been a member of the European Union since 1986. It is a developed country with the ninth largest economy in the world and fifth largest in the EU.

     Spain has a very ancient and complex prehistory. Under the Roman empire Hispania flourished and became one of the empire's most important regions. During the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule. Later, nearly the entire peninsula came under Muslim rulers. Through a long process Christian kingdoms in the north gradually rolled back Muslim rule, which was finally extinguished in 1492. That year Columbus reached the Americas, the beginnings of the first global empire. Spain became the strongest kingdom in Europe in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries but continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. In the middle decades of the twentieth century it came under a dictatorship, under which it went through many years of stagnation and then a spectacular economic revival. In 1986 it joined the European Union and has experienced an economic and cultural renaissance.

About Cartagena

     Cartagena (37°36′N 0°59′WCoordinates: 37°36′N 0°59′W) is a Spanish Mediterranean city and naval station in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula in the autonomous community of Region of Murcia. Cartagena has been the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the Mediterranean since the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the eighteenth century. As far back as the sixteenth century it was one of the most important naval ports in Spain, together with Ferrol in the North.

     It is a walled town and has a fine harbour defended by forts. In the time of Philip II of Spain, it was a major naval seaport of Spain. It is still an important naval seaport, the main military haven of Spain, and there is a big naval shipyard.

     Next to the Arsenal (Menéndez Pelayo), there is a Naval Museum. On the opposite side of the harbour to the city is the National Museum for Underwater Archeology, containing a reconstructed Roman galley and exhibits from shipwrecks.

    Cartagena was founded about 230 BC by Carthaginian general Hasdrubal as Qart Hadast, Punic for "new city". Hasdrubal extended the newly acquired Carthaginian empire in Iberia by skillful diplomacy, and consolidated it by the foundation of Qart Hadast in an excellent haven as the capital of a new province. Hannibal got silver from the mines there to carry on the war against Rome.

     When it was taken by the Roman general Scipio Africanus Major in 209 BC it was renamed as Carthago Nova, Latin for "New Carthage". At the time Carthago Nova was said to be one of the richest cities in the world. The city gave its name (without the 'new') to the youngest province in the Hispaniae diocese, in the form of an adjective: Carthaginiensis.

     In 1873, the garrison arose against the First Spanish Republic and formed the independent Cartagena Canton. Since they had the best part of the Spanish Navy, they cruised the Spanish Mediterranean trying to bring them to Cantonalism. The Federalist Spanish government declared them a pirate fleet, encouraging foreign countries to chase and sink them.