Andalusia

[an-dl-oo-zhuh, -shee-uh]

Andalusia, Span. Andalucía, autonomous region (1990 pop. 7,100,060), 33,675 sq mi (87,218 sq km), S Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain's largest and most populous region, it covers most of S Spain, comprising the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, and Seville (Sevilla), all named for their chief cities. Andalusia is crossed in the north by the Sierra Morena and in the south by mountain ranges that rise in the snowcapped Sierra Nevada to the highest peak in mainland Spain, Mulhacén (11,417 ft/3,480 m); between the ranges lies the fertile basin of the Guadalquivir River.

Economy and People

Despite the natural wealth of the region, poverty is widespread; Andalusian farm laborers are among the poorest in Europe, and many unemployed Andalusians have migrated to more industrialized regions of Spain. With its subtropical climate, Andalusia has many affinities with Africa, which it faces. Barren lands contrast with richly fertile regions where cereals, grapes, olives, sugarcane, and citrus and other fruits are produced. Industries, based generally on local agricultural produce, include wine making, flour milling, and olive-oil extracting. Much farming has become mechanized. Cattle, bulls for the ring, and fine horses are bred. The rich mineral resources, exploited since Phoenician and Roman times, include copper, iron, zinc, and lead.

Moorish influence is still strong in the character, language, and customs of the people. One of Europe's most strikingly colorful regions, Andalusia, with its tradition of bull fights, Gypsy flamenco music and dance, and Moorish architecture, provides the strongest external image of Spain, especially to North Americans. Increasing tourism has made the service industry the fastest growing economic sector.

History

In the 11th cent. B.C., the Phoenicians settled there and founded several coastal colonies, notably Gadir (now Cádiz and, supposedly, the inland town of Tartessus, which became the capital of a flourishing kingdom (sometimes identified with the biblical Tarshish). Greeks and Carthaginians came in the 6th cent. B.C.; the Carthaginians were expelled (3d cent. B.C.) by the Romans, who included S Spain in the province of Baetica. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius were born in the region.

Visigoths ended Roman rule in the 5th cent. A.D., and in 711 the Moors, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, established there the center of their western emirate (see Córdoba). Andalusia remained under Moorish rule until most of it was conquered in the 13th cent. by the kings of Castile; the Moorish kingdom of Granada survived; it, too, fell to the Catholic kings in 1492. The Moorish period was the golden age of Andalusia. Agriculture, mining, trade, and industries (textiles, pottery, and leather working) were fostered and brought tremendous prosperity; the Andalusian cities of Córdoba, Seville, and Granada, embellished by the greatest Moorish monuments in Spain, were celebrated as centers of culture, science, and the arts.

From the 16th cent. Andalusia generally suffered as Spain declined, although the ports of Seville and Cádiz flourished as centers of trade with the New World. Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, and in 1833 Andalusia was divided into the present eight provinces. With Catalonia, Andalusia was a stronghold of anarchism during the Spanish republic (est. 1931); however, it fell early to the Insurgents in the Spanish civil war of 1936-39. The region later saw recurrent demonstrations against the national government of Francisco Franco. In 1981 it became an autonomous region and in 1982 it elected its first parliament.

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Andalusia

Andalusia, city (1990 pop. 9,269), seat of Covington co., S Ala., in a farming and forestry area; inc. 1844. Its manufactures include processed peanuts and pecans, meat products, textiles, lumber, and plywood.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Andalusia

Spanish Andalucía

Autonomous community (pop., 2001: 7,357,558) and historic region, southern Spain. It occupies an area of 33,821 sq mi (87,597 sq km); the capital is Sevilla. It is traversed by mountain ranges, including the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada; its main river is the Guadalquivir. Andalusia has a long history of inhabitation: by the Phoenicians (9th century BC), the Carthaginians (5th century BC), and the Romans (3rd century BC). The Arabic name Al-Andalus was originally applied by the Moors to the whole Iberian Peninsula. When the Umayyad dynasty established its court at Córdoba, this area became the peninsula's intellectual and political centre. It returned to Spanish Christian rule in 1492 and remained a province until divided in 1833 into the eight modern provinces. A mining and agricultural region, Andalusia also features beaches along the Costa del Sol that attract the tourist trade.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Andalusia

Andalusia (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

Tartessians and Phoenicians

Tartessos, home of the once-powerful Tartessian civilization, was founded in Andalusia in pre-Roman times. The Phoenicians colonized several areas on the Andalusian coast during the latter part of the second millennium BC. The most important settlement was Cadiz (Gdr or Gdz in Hebrew) around 1100 BC.

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

The Umayyad Caliphate conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711-718 marked the collapse of Visigothic rule. 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.

It should be noted that 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.

Since 1492

With the fall of Seville in 1248 most of Andalusia came under Castilian control, leaving only the emirate of Granada under Muslim rule until it too was conquered by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The largest Arabic-speaking population was in Andalusia, which also received Moors from other regions who were driven south by the Reconquista, and although many either converted or left later, they gave the region its distinctive character till this day.

Andalusia is known for its Moorish and Moorish influenced architecture. Notable examples include the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Córdoba, the Torre del Oro and Giralda towers. Other architectural styles include Mozarabic, such as the Reales Alcázares in Seville, and the Alcazaba in Málaga. Archaeological ruins include Medina Azahara, near Córdoba, and the Roman city of Itálica, near Seville, and at Palos de la Frontera, in the province of Huelva, the Andalusian port from which Columbus's expedition of discovery was launched.

The Spanish language spoken in the Americas is largely descended from the Andalusian dialect of Spanish, although the Spanish spoken at the Canary Islands resembles more the Spanish spoken in the Caribbean. This is due to the role played by Seville as the gateway to Spain's American territories during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The provinces of New Andalusia in the Rio de la Plata and Guyana were named for this region.

Andalusia Day (in Spanish, "Día de Andalucía") is celebrated on February 28, to commemorate the date of the successful referendum vote on autonomy.

Administrative divisions

Province	Capital	Population	Density	Municipalities
Almería	Almería	635,850	72.5 hab./km²	Municipalities
Cádiz	Cádiz	1,180,817	158.8 hab./km²	Municipalities
Córdoba	Córdoba	788,287	72.4 hab./km²	Municipalities
Granada	Granada	882,184	68.7 hab./km²	Municipalities
Huelva	Huelva	483,792	47.7 hab./km²	Municipalities
Jaén	Jaén	662,751	49.1 hab./km²	Municipalities
Málaga	Málaga	1,491,287	204.1 hab./km²	Municipalities
Seville	Seville	1,813,908	129.2 hab./km²	Municipalities

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.

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.

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.