Spain

Spain is a nation in southwestern Europe. It is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentarian system.

The country was politically unified under King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella in 1479. Before that, the region was under the domination of the Roman Empire, Germanic tribes, and the Moors in that order. After unification, Spain became one of the first European powers to fully explore, colonize and exploit the New World. For a time, Spain was Europe's leading power. However, by the 18th century, Spain's power had diminished. It endured defeats at the hands of Britain in colonial wars, costing it territory. Throughout the 19th century, Spain endured the loss of its New World possessions as its various colonies followed the United States' lead and gained independence. Spains defeat at the hands of the U.S. in 1898 confirmed that Spain's glory days were done.

The 20th century saw the Spanish Civil War, and the rise of Francisco Franco as its fascist leader. It pursued an isolationist policy until Franco's death, when a new democratic constitution was adopted.

Spain in ''A Different Flesh
Spain was the first country to explore the New World, establishing some colonies in South America. By the end of the 17th century, only two of those colonies were successful: Argentina and New Granada. The Spanish settlers had a difficult time maintaining long-term colonies, as the climate of South America was not conducive to the agricultural practices of Europe. Moreover, the creatures known as sims were a constant threat to the safety and well-being of the the settlers.

Spanish explorers brought sims back to Europe for study and slavery. It was believed by many in England that Spaniards copulated with female sims, and that they baptized the sims, converting them to Catholicism

Spain in Atlantis
Spain, much like France, came by its Atlantean holdings in a roundabout way. After Edward Radcliffe of England established New Hastings in northern Atlantis, a settlement called Gernika was established by Basques further south. Spain itself was still divided between two kingdoms, and the Basques saw Atlantis as an opportunity to flee the chaos of the Iberian Peninsula.

In the 1460s, Basque sailors made the first voyages to South Terranova, bringing back the indigenous peoples as slaves.

In the meantime, Spain had unified under one kingdom. It began to take a more active hand in running the Basque holdings in Atlantis and southern Terranova. By the early 16th century, Spain had a substantial empire in Terranova, subduing the gold rich indigenous Terranovan empires. Its Atlantean holdings, however, were now an afterthought.

After peaking in the mid 16th century, Spain's power in the region began to wain. In the 17th century, Spain's ships fell prey to Atlantean pirates based in Avalon. However, Spain did not contribute to the fleet that destroyed the pirates.

In the mid-18th century, Spain and France were at war with England. Spain's Atlantean possessions were attacked by English Atlanteans under the command of Major Victor Radcliff, demonstrating their vulnerability. Spain's ally France was completely defeated. France lost its Atlantean possessions, and Spain lost its buffer against England. Worse still, Radcliff's attack began an insurrection among the slaves which raged on even after the war in Atlantis had ended, although it was ultimately put down.

Spain and Spanish Atlantis did not participate in the Atlantean War of Independence; fighting stayed within English-controlled Atlantis, and Spain did not join France in declaring war on Britain.

Spain in In High Places
Spain had been pushing Muslim forces out of the country when the Great Black Deaths swept the country in the 14th century. The population of Spain was spectacularly decimated by the plague, leaving the country ripe for Muslim reconquest.

Under Muslim rule, Madrid became one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities.

Spain in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Spain was one of the independent nations that was allied with the Greater German Reich which owned colonies on Africa. As of 2010, its head of state was still the Caudillo.

The fact that the Spanish Inquisition had once tried to eliminate the Jews from Spain's borders loomed large in the minds of those Jews hiding in plain sight within Germany's borders.

Spain in The Man With the Iron Heart
Spain had remained neutral throughout World War II despite the close relationship between Francisco Franco's fascist regime and Nazi Germany. After the war, Spain proved a welcoming safe harbor for many renegade Nazi fugitives, including the German Freedom Front hijackers of a commercial flight which was landed in Madrid and held hostage. Spanish authorities arrested the hijackers but refused to extradite them to the Allies, encouraging Reichsprotektor Joachim Peiper to attempt such hijackings again in the future.

Spain in "Report of the Special Committee on the Quality of Life"
Spain in 1492 had an extensive bureaucracy led by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella. In considering the possibility of an excursion to China via the Atlantic Ocean, Spain's Special Committee on the Quality of Life, led by Jaime Nosénada prepared a report about Christopher Columbus's proposed voyage, which suggested that such a voyage was not in the country's best interests.

Spain in Ruled Britannia
Under King Philip II, Spain became the most powerful Catholic nation in Europe reaching the height of its power when it successfully contended with France for European hegemony, absorbed Portugal and its colonies into the empire, defeated the Ottoman Turks in the Mediterranean, occupied the Netherlands, and, finally, invaded and conquered England in 1588.

Following the invasion and conquest of England, Philip's daughter Isabella replaced Elizabeth as Queen of England. Throughout her ten-year reign, a large Anglo-Hiberno-Spanish military presence was maintained in England to support Isabella's rule. These forces, along with Isabella and her husband, King Albert, were expelled by an English uprising led by Sir Robert Cecil in 1598. Several weeks earlier, Philip II had died and been succeeded by his son, the far less capable Philip III.

Spain in The Two Georges
Spain and France were partners in the Holy Alliance. As such, Spain controlled Central and South America and the Philippines, although she lost Louisiana, Baja California (renamed Lower California) and the territories north of the Rio Grande to Britain.

Spain in Southern Victory
Spain sold the island of Cuba to the Confederate States in the 1870s. In the 1900s, it was defeated by Japan in a war in the Pacific and was forced to concede its colonies in Guam and the Philippines to the Japanese - and became the first European nation to be defeated by an Asian nation in the age of Imperialism.

Spain was neutral in the Great War; the Spanish Red Cross handled some prisoner exchanges between belligerents and returned George Enos to the United States aboard one of their ships from his imprisonment in North Carolina.

In the interwar years, civil war erupted in Spain between the Monarchists, who were supported by Germany, and the Nationalists, who were supported by Britain and France. Though Germany had defeated the other two nations in the Great War and was assumed to be the most powerful nation in Europe militarily, the Nationalists won and Spain became a de facto Entente nation.

Spain in Worldwar
Spain was easily conquered by the Race, providing the Race with one of only two colonies on the European continent; the other was Poland.

During the Race-German War of 1965, the Race invaded German-occupied France across the Pyrenese Mountains using Spain as a launching point. The invasion was easily defeated by German forces, the only front of the war on which they decisively won.