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About Spain:
By today’s standards, Spain is just an ordinary country in Southwestern Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and Pyrenees Mountains near France. Its fortune, or lack of it, is swayed by uncontrollable global forces, which determine the wealth and health of nations.
At one time in history, however, between the 16th and 17th Century, Spain, now merely a minor player in geopolitics, was such a powerful global empire that even a royal hiccup could have had chilling repercussions on its subjects in Mexico in North America and the Philippines in Southeast Asia.
The once mighty Spanish Armada lorded the seas around the world until it was challenged and defeated by the United States Navy in the “Battle of Manila Bay” on May 1, 1898. The battle signaled the rise of the US as a naval power and the pitiful fall of Spain from the global stage of power.
Historical observers believe Spain’s inability to effectively enforce and embrace the industrial revolution in the 18th Century resulted in its lagging behind Great Britain, France and Germany in the race for economic and political power. Spain did not take sides in World Wars I and II, but suffered through a devastating civil war in 1936-1939, which installed Dictator General Franco into power.
After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain underwent a peaceful transition from dictatorship to a liberal democratic state under a Constitutional Monarchy facilitated by Spanish King Don Juan Carlos de Bourbon, who was appointed by Franco to succeed him as head of state.
The transition marked Spain’s rapid economic growth, largely through the able leadership of King Carlos and President Adolfo Suarez, who turned Spain into a mixed capitalist economy and an active member of the European Union. Another major initiative taken by the new leadership was the Moncloa Pacts, which turned Spain into a free market system by easing up wages and breaking up special favors for certain businesses from the government.
These reforms, including the creation of a new Constitution in 1978, which guaranteed the operation of democratic institutions, placed Spain on equal footing with other Western European capitalist states by 1980. Despite the rise of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in 1982, Spain continued to pursue an end to monopolies and encouraged privatization.
Spain’s new liberal economic policies were welcome developments for the European Union, which it joined in 1986, when the EU was still known as the European Community. Spain’s earlier economic reforms made it easier to adjust to the EU’s stringent regulations needed to ensure standardization with the EU’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
These demands translated into new problem areas in meeting the EU’s rigorous regulations, but were well worth it for Spain in terms of the new economic opportunities opened by a bigger, richer and friendlier European market.
Until 2008, Spain had the most dynamic economy in the region and was a favored investment haven for many industries within and outside the region, creating more than 50% of new jobs in the EU from 2001 to 2005. It was fancied to overtake countries like Germany and Great Britain in terms of per capita income by 2011. Such economic forecast was anchored on the global real estate boom, with construction contributing a whopping 16% of Spain’s GDP and 12% of employment.
Unfortunately, the real estate boom proved to be short-lived and raised the levels of personal debts for many homeowners. As with the United States and the rest of the Western World, Spain entered into its deepest recession in 50 years in the last quarter of 2009 after a deep plunge in late 2008 and all throughout 2009.
In one fell swoop, unemployment skyrocketed to over 15% in 2009, with analysts fearing that further spikes in unemployment could cause social tensions. Already, opposition groups are blaming Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero for his inability to resolve the crisis, even as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the Spanish economy could enter an extended period of economic stagnation unless new economic reforms are carried out.