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Contemporary history
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The history of Spain dates to the Antiquity when the pre-Roman peoples of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula made contact with the Greeks and Phoenicians and the first writing systems known as Paleohispanic scripts were developed. In 1479, the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, unified Spain as a dynastic union of disparate predecessor kingdoms (the Crown of Castile, the Crown of Aragon and smaller realms); its modern form of a constitutional monarchy was introduced in 1813, and the current democratic constitution dates to 1978. After the completion of the Reconquista, the Crown of Castile began to explore across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, expanding into the New World and marking the beginning of the Golden Age under the Spanish Empire. The kingdoms of Spain were brought in personal union under Habsburg rule in 1516. Until the 1650s, Habsburg Spain was the one of most powerful states in Europe and the world. The era of Bourbon Spain began in 1700. Spain continued to control a vast empire until the early 19th century.

During this period, Spain was involved in all major European wars, including the Italian Wars, the Eighty Years' War, and the Thirty Years' War. Spanish power declined in the latter part of the 17th century.

In the early part of the 19th century, most of the former Spanish Empire overseas disintegrated with the Spanish American wars of independence. Only Cuba and the Philippines and a number of small islands left; they revolted near the end of what had been a century of great instability for Spain, and the United States acquired ownership (or control, in the case of Cuba) after the Spanish–American War of 1898. A tenuous balance between liberal and conservative forces was struck in the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Spain during the Borbonic restoration; this period began in 1874 and ended in 1931. The Liberal Party (Práxedes Mateo Sagasta) and Conservative Party (Antonio Cánovas del Castillo) fought for and won short-lived control without any being sufficiently strong to bring about lasting stability. They were alternately in power. The Restoration began with Alfonso XII and the Regency of Maria Christina (1874–1898). Alfonso XII died aged 27 in 1885, and was succeeded by his unborn son, who became Alfonso XIII (1902-1923). Then came the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera (1923-1930). Opposition to his regime was so great that Alfonso XIII stopped supporting him and forced him to resign in January 1930.[1] In 1931, following a victory by the republicans, in municipal elections, Alfonso XIII left Spain and the democratic republic was proclaimed in Spain. The Conservative Party disappeared shortly after the proclamation of the Republic in 1931.[2] Five years later the country descended into the Spanish Civil War between the Republican and the Nationalist factions.

The nationalist victory in the conflict installed a dictatorship, led by Francisco Franco, that lasted until 1975. The country experienced rapid economic growth in the 1960s and early 1970s. With the death of Franco in November 1975 Spain returned to the monarchy, this time headed by Juan Carlos I, and to democracy. With a fresh Constitution voted in 1978, Spain entered the European Economic Community in 1986 (transformed into the European Union with the Maastricht Treaty of 1992), and the Eurozone in 1998.

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Charles Lindbergh and the First Solo Transatlantic Flight. As Charles Lindbergh piloted the Spirit of St. Louis down the dirt runway of Roosevelt Field in New York on May 20, 1927, many doubted he would successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean.

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Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833 and as a city in 1837, when its population reached 4,000. In 1848 Chicago got its first telegraph and railroad. Two innovations—grain elevators and the Board of Trade's wheat grading standards—quickly transformed the way crops were sold.

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Originally a Spanish (later Mexican) mission and pueblo, it was conquered by the United States in 1846 and by an invading army of prospectors following the 1848 discovery of gold in its hinterland. The Gold Rush made San Francisco a cosmopolitan metropolis with a frontier edge.

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The Dutch first settled along the Hudson River in 1624; two years later they established the colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. In 1664, the English took control of the area and renamed it New York. One of the original 13 colonies, New York played a crucial political and strategic role during the American Revolution. Between 1892 and 1954, millions of immigrants arrived in New York Harbor and passed through Ellis Island on their journey to becoming U.S citizens. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of Americans can trace at least one ancestor to that port of entry. New York City, the largest city in the state, is home to the New York Stock Exchange and is a major international economic center.

Date of Statehood: July 26, 1788

Capital: Albany

Population: 19,378,102 (2010)

Size: 54,555 square miles

Nickname(s): Empire State

Motto: Excelsior (“Ever Upward”)

Tree: Sugar Maple

Flower: Rose

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Boston has transformed itself countless times over four centuries since the Puritans arrived in 1630 and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Early figures such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and Anne Hutchinson endeavored to create a “City upon a Hill” where Puritan values would flourish in the New World.