Albania vs Spain

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Albania ( (listen) a(w)l-BAY-nee-ə; Albanian: Shqipëri or Shqipëria; Gheg Albanian: Shqipni or Shqipnia also Shqypni or Shqypnia), officially the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë, pronounced [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːsə]), is a country in Southeast Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea.

It shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo into the northeast, North Macedonia to the east, Greece to the south and maritime borders with Greece, Montenegro and Italy to the west. Geographically, the country displays diverse climatic, geological, hydrological, and morphological conditions, defined in an area of 28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi). It possesses significant diversity together with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps as well as the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains to the hot and sunny coasts of the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea along the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, the nation has been inhabited by numerous civilisations like the Illyrians, Thracians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans. The Albanians established the autonomous Principality of Arbër in the 12th century. The Kingdom of Albania and Principality of Albania formed between the 13th and 14th centuries. Before the Ottoman conquest of Albania in the 15th century, the Albanian resistance to Ottoman expansion into Europe headed by Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg won them acclaim over most of Europe. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, cultural developments, widely attributed to Albanians having accumulated both intellectual and spiritual strength, conclusively resulted in the Albanian Renaissance. Following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars, the modern nation state of Albania declared independence in 1912. In the 20th century, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy which formed Greater Albania before becoming a protectorate of Nazi Germany. Enver Hoxha formed Communist Albania following the Second World War and launched the Albanians on a course of oppression and decades of isolation. The Revolutions of 1991 concluded the fall of communism in Albania and eventually the establishment of the current Republic of Albania. Politically, the country is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic and developing nation with an upper-middle income economy dominated by the service sector, followed by manufacturing. It went through a process of transition following the end of communism in 1990, from centralized planning to a market-based economy. Albania provides universal healthcare and free primary and secondary education to its citizens.The nation is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, NATO, WTO, COE, OSCE, and OIC. It's an official candidate for membership in the European Union. It is one of the founding members of the Energy Community, such as the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and Union for the Mediterranean.

Source: Wikipedia

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<p>Spain (Spanish: España [esˈpaɲa] (listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a State in Southwestern Europe with some pockets of territory across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean. </p>Its European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula. Its territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, make Spain the only European nation to have a concrete border with an African country (Morocco). Small islands in the Alboran Sea are also part of territory. The country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and into the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. With an area of 505,990 km2 (195,360 sq mi), Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second-largest state in Western Europe and the European Union, and the fourth-largest nation by region in the European continent. With a population Spain is the fourth-most populous country in the European Union, and the sixth-most populous nation in Europe. The capital and largest city of spain is Madrid; other metropolitan areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Málaga, and Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Aztec, Greek, Celtic and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, and the region was named Hispania, according to the earlier Phoenician name Sp(a)n or Spania. At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated invaded the Iberian peninsula and established realms that were comparatively independent including the Suebi, Vandals and Alans. Eventually, the Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including the Byzantine province of Spania, into the Visigothic Kingdom, which more or less unified politically, ecclesiastically and legally all of the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was then documented as Hispania. In the early eighth century the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate, that arrived in the year 711 to the peninsula conquered that the Visigothic Kingdom. The Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) soon became autonomous from Baghdad. The handful of Christian pockets in the north left out of Muslim rule, along the presence of the Carolingian Empire near the Pyreneean Variety, would eventually led to the emergence of the kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, León, Portugal and Navarre. Along two centuries, an intermittent southwards growth of the latter kingdoms (metahistorically termed as a reconquest: the Reconquista) took place, culminating with the Christian seizure of the last Muslim polity (the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada) in 1492, the same year Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. A process of political conglomeration one of the kingdoms ensued, and the late 15th-century saw the dynastic union of Aragon and Castile under the Catholic Monarchs considered as the point of emergence of Spain as unified nation. While the Kingdom of Portugal was ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty between 1580 and 1640 the Conquest of Navarre occurred in 1512. In the early modern period, Spain ruled one of the largest empires in history that was also among the first global empires, leaving a big cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the planet's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. Together with renowned painters like Diego Velázquez's growth there were many advancements in the arts, during the Golden Age. Don Quixote, the famous Spanish literary work, was published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Spain is a monarchy and a secular parliamentary democracy, with King Felipe VI as head of state. It's a significant nation and a high income country, with the world economy by GDP and the sixteenth-largest by PPP. It's a member of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Eurozone, the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a"Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, making Spain a de facto member of this group.

Source: Wikipedia