Nationalities and Regions of Spain

Nationalities And Regions Of Spain

Spain is a diverse country integrated by different contrasting regions that show varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages and historical, political and cultural traditions. According to the Spanish current constitution, the Spanish nation is the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards, which is integrated by nationalities and regions to which the constitution recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government.

The terms "nationalities" or "historical nationalities" (Spanish and Galician: nacionalidades históricas, Basque: nazionalitate historikoak, Catalan: nacionalitats històriques), though never defined officially, are territories whose inhabitants have a strong historically constituted sense of identity, or more specifically, certain autonomous communities whose Statutes of autonomy—their basic institutional legislation—recognizes their historical and cultural identity.

In Spanish jurisprudence, the term "nationality" appears for the first time in the current constitution, approved in 1978, and after much debate in the Spanish Parliament. Although it was explicitly understood that the term made reference to Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, the constitution does not specify any by name. The term came about as a consensus between the strong centralist position inherited from Franco's regime and the nationalist position mainly from the Basques, Galicians and Catalans.

Once all nationalities and regions acceded to self-government or autonomy and were constituted as autonomous communities, the term was applied, in their respective Statutes of Autonomy, not only to define the three above-mentioned communities, but also Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, and more recently Aragon and the Canary Islands. The rest of the autonomous communities (Asturias, Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Murcia, La Rioja, Cantabria, Extremadura) are simply defined as regions of Spain, oftentimes as historical regions or as having a "historical regional identity" in their respective Statutes of Autonomy. Navarra and the Community of Madrid are special cases. Navarra is defined as a "chartered community", in the reinstitution of its medieval charters, and the Community of Madrid is defined neither as a nationality nor as a region, but as a community created in the nation's interest as the seat of the capital of the nation.