Spain: People

The Spanish people display great regional diversity. Separatist tendencies remain particularly strong among the Catalans and the Basques. Castilian is the standard Spanish language, but Catalan (akin to Provençal), Galician (akin to Portuguese), and Basque, unrelated to any other language, are still spoken and written extensively in their respective districts. Roman Catholicism was the official religion until 1978, but its role in Spanish public and private life has declined. There is a sizable Muslim minority (about 1 million), largely consisting of North African immigrants.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Contemporary Spain
• From Franco to the PresentSpain under Franco
• Civil War
• Monarchists and Republicans
• The Decline of Spain
• The Golden Age and Decline
• Muslim Spain and the Christian Reconquest
• Spain before the Muslim Conquest
• Government
• Economy
• People
• Land
• Bibliography

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