Talk:Spain

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El Escorial

In the picture of El Escorial is written that this building is the historical residence of the King, in that is a mistake. Only Felipe II used it like a residence. Actually, the true function is to be the royal pantheon and a monastery where some kings went to there to have a rest. I know it beacause i'm spanish, i'm able to translate some information about this if you want it. good bye! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.32.77.197 (talk) 02:39, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is a Mexican/Spanish Film and not won the Academy Award. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.0.54.10 (talk) 12:43, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Prehistory

I'm in the process of writing a book about European prehistory, and have compiled a rather extensive bibliography for the movement of early Homo sapiens through the continent, and I can't find any sources places Homo sapiens in Spain proper at 35,000BP. One would need an actual archaeological article, of course, not merely a guess by a historian. The Altamira caves, at 18,000BP are well-dated and there are scant artifacts sometime before that (22,000BP), but as the ice age ended, there were still very few people living in Spain - only towards the northern part. THe cave itself was inhabited only intermittently, perhaps by hunter-gatherers passing through (passing through an area does not, in my mind, constitute settlement - you need signs of settlement to say settlement). These cave painters are clearly part of a larger tribal grouping that had its own territorial notions, and they came and went, staying only briefly, for thousands of years. Anyway, if someone does have a citation for artifacts (I'm fairly certain there are no bones at 35,000 in Spain), I would like to see those citations very much. I'd also like to know what the actual artifacts are, as Spain was Neanderthal territory at 35,000BP. At any rate, one would need a citation to show that these artifacts were indeed Homo sapiens. In my view, there's no clear evidence of Homo sapiens in Spain until Altamira. Of course, they didn't just arrive one morning and paint the caves - they had to have had some lead time - but how much to give is another issue that only an expert can provide. So, I'd like to know who the expert was who gave the 35,000BP date. Certainly, France has modern Homo sapiens by that date - but in only a few isolated areas. To have them instantaneously cross the Pyrenées and be found in Spain at the same time requires methods of movement unknown to contemporary prehistorians.--LeValley 19:17, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

The Pyrenees is an imposing mountain range but unless there is a strong organized military force it is easy to get around in coastal areas at its eastern and western ends where there would have been rich forests and fisheries to exploit. The tough hunter gatherers of prehistoric times would have spread around the Pyrenees into northern Iberia in a matter of years, decades at most. As for the small populations in France of the time - hunter gatherer populations had very low densities, as I'm sure you know, but they ranged widely. Provocateur (talk) 06:42, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Mistake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-Life_Index

The article states it has the seventeenth place in the quality of life index. In fact it is the 10th. Someone correct it please. Koon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.124.181.51 (talk) 13:20, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

P.I.G.S.

Does anybody have an idea why Spain is included in the unsavory PIGS (Portugal, Italy/Ireland, Greece, and Spain) category in the English language media? Listed below are recent BBC, of all sources, report of the following national standings with regard to deficits and national debts:

   Nation   Debt as % of GDP      Budget Deficit as a % of GDP
     UK       68.6                         13
 Greece       112.6                        12.5
  Spain       54.3                         11.25
Ireland       65.8                         10.75
  Italy       114.6                        5.3
Germany       73.1                         3.5

       Source: European Commission/ Economic Forecast 2009

It seems to me that, Spain's numbers are not that bad compared other countries. Just today, Moodys investor services threatened to downgrade the SA and the UK. --Scipio-62 05:30, 16 March 2010 (UTC)