Spain Is Not A Federation: Autonomous Communities of Spain Explained

Spain is divided into autonomous communities, but don't call Spain a federation or else the Spanish Constitution will get mad at you!

The Autonomous Communities of Spain in the Iberian Peninsula are Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and Leon, Extremadura, Castile - La Mancha, Madrid, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia.

Spain also controls the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. One of the balearic islands is called Ibiza, which is a renown part destination.

Spain also controls the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Morocco and the cities of Ceuta and Mellia in North Africa.

The Autonomous communities of Spain can sometimes have powers that even exceed states in federations, such as collecting the taxes instead of the central government doing it. As well some of the communities have distinct nationalities and languages such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque.

This situation arose because before the reconquista of the iberian peninsula, the northern christian kingdoms were separated and this allowed different languages to develop.

However, Spain is extremely careful to make sure its communities cannot federalize because it wants to remain an indivisible single state, and being a federation means its easier to separate it apart.

After spain transition to democracy the consitution said that autonomous communities could form with the choice of some powers in a list. This is similar to a federation, but important distinctions is that the communities have no say in reforming the constitution, the consitution itself does not establish or give these powers to the communities and is instead done by a statute of autonomy which is legislation from the central Spanish government.

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