1.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
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Latin America
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Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Americas where Romance languages are predominant. It is therefore broader than the terms Ibero-America or Hispanic America—though it usually excludes French Canada and it has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km2, almost 13% of the Earths land surface area. As of 2015, its population was estimated at more than 626 million and in 2014, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of 5,573,397 million USD and a GDP PPP of 7,531,585 million USD. The term Latin America was first used in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a further investigation of the concept of Latin America is by Michel Gobat in the American Historical Review. The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao and this term was also used in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish. By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero-America and this definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase Latin America, the distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and it may be subdivided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America, Portuguese America and French America. *, Not a sovereign state The concept of Latin America has been criticized by a number of intellectuals, the earliest known settlement was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents, by the first millennium CE, South Americas vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibcha and the Tairona groups and these groups are in the circum Caribbean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia, the region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Inca. The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, with the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion. Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elites power with the help of local groups who had favored the Aztec elite, epidemics of diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion of the indigenous population. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations, intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry formed majorities in several colonies
3.
Cantons of Costa Rica
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Costa Rica is administratively divided into seven provinces which are subdivided into 81 cantons, and these are further subdivided into districts. Cantons are the administrative division in Costa Rica that possess local government in the form of municipalities. Each municipality has its own mayor and several representatives, all of them chosen via municipal elections four years. The original 14 cantons were established in 1848, and the number has risen gradually by the division of existing cantons, the last new canton, Garabito, was created on September 25,1980. The largest canton by population is the capital San José with a population of 288,054, the smallest canton by population is Turrubares with 5,512 residents. The largest canton by land area is San Carlos, which spans 3,347.98 km2, each canton is controlled by a government unit called Municipalidad. The term reflects the fact that the cantons in Costa Rica have approximately the same function as municipios in many other Spanish-speaking countries. This administrative unit consists of two bodies, a executive and an executive body which only consists of a mayor. The number of members of the municipal council varies from one canton to another, the head of the council is titled the municipal president. The councils main task is to manage the canton at the local level, more specifically, the responsibilities include urban and agricultural planning and organizing cultural affairs, health care, education and industry. Each municipal president appoints a number of working commissions that deal with issues specific to the municipality, largest Cantons of Costa Rica by population Provinces of Costa Rica Districts of Costa Rica
4.
Cabildo (council)
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A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a Spanish colonial, and early post-colonial, administrative council which governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but they were considered to be representative of all land-owning heads of household, the colonial cabildo was essentially the same as the one developed in medieval Castile. For example, Hernán Cortés established La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to free himself from the authority of the Governor of Cuba. The word cabildo has the same Latin root as the English word chapter, historically the term ayuntamiento was often preceded by the word excelentísimo as a style of office, when referring to the council. This phrase is often abbreviated Exc. mo Ay, with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the establishment of the Visigothic Kingdom, the ancient municipal government vanished. In areas where the old territoria survived, the Visigothic kings appointed a single officer, after the Muslim conquest, the new rulers also appointed various judicial officers to manage the affairs of the cities. Qadis heard any cases that fell under the purview of Sharia law and sahibs oversaw the administration of the other areas of urban life, such as the markets. The cabildo proper began its evolution in the process of the Reconquista. These new bodies took their permanent form by the end of the 14th century, as part of the same process, a municipal council with different attributes and composition also evolved in the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon during this period. In theory, every municipality in the Spanish colonies in the Americas, municipalities were not just the cities but included the surrounding lands. All lands were assigned to a municipality. Usually the cabildo made local laws and reported to the presidente of the audiencia, the cabildo had judicial, legislative and administrative duties. For this reason it was addressed with the formula, Consejo. The cabildo consisted of types of officials. There were four to twelve regidores, depending on the size, regidores, were not just deliberative officers, but all shared in the administration of the territory, dividing tasks among themselves. Initially the regidores were elected by all the heads of household, in the late Middle Ages, these elections often turned violent, with citizens forming bands to control elections and even resorting to murder. To minimize this kings began to appoint a number of, or even all of. By the modern era different cabildos had different mixes of elected and appointed regidores both on the Peninsula and overseas, finally, to add another layer of control, the kings introduced corregidores to represent them directly and preside over the cabildos
5.
Municipalities of Mexico
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Municipalities are the second-level administrative division in Mexico, where the first-level administrative division is the state. There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico, with an average population 45,616, the internal political organization and their responsibilities are outlined in the 115th article of the 1917 Constitution and further expanded in the constitutions of the states to which they belong. All Mexican states are divided into municipalities and this concept, which originated after the Mexican Revolution, is known as a municipio libre. A municipal president heads the ayuntamiento, the municipal president is elected by plurality and cannot be reelected for the next immediate term. The municipal council consists of a cabildo with a síndico and several regidores, in that sense, a municipality in Mexico is roughly equivalent to the counties of the United States, whereas the auxiliary presidency is equivalent to a township. Nonetheless, auxiliary presidencies are not considered an administrative division since they depend fiscally on the municipalities in which they are located. Although an urban area might cover an entire municipality, auxiliary councils might still be used for administrative purposes, municipalities are responsible for public services, street lighting, public safety, traffic, supervision of slaughterhouses and the cleaning and maintenance of public parks, gardens and cemeteries. They may also assist the state and federal governments in education, emergency fire and medical services, environmental protection and maintenance of monuments and historical landmarks. Since 1983, they can collect property taxes and user fees, although more funds are obtained from the state, since the Conquest and colonization of Mexico, the municipality became the basic entity of the administrative organization of New Spain and the Spanish Empire. Settlements located in strategic locations received the status of city and were entitled to form an ayuntamiento or municipality, as such, every state set its own requirements for a settlement to become a municipality. However, in 1983 the 115th article was modified to expand the authority to raise revenue. Data from the 2015 Intercensal Survey by INEGI and it is administered through the Government of the Federal District and it has its own unicameral Legislative Assembly. For administrative purposes, the Federal District is subdivided into delegaciones or boroughs, while not fully equivalent to a municipality, since 2000, they enjoy a certain degree of political autonomy since residents within a borough directly elect a local borough head of government. However, boroughs do not form local councils and they are not constituted by a group of trustees. They do not have powers, which are mostly centralized in the Federal District government. Most of the public services are organized by the Federal District even if part of the administration responsibilities are carried out by the boroughs. Still, at the level, the delegaciones of the Federal District are considered a second-level territorial division in statistical data collection. Other municipalities in Mexico have chosen to use a similar administrative internal organization, all municipalities of Baja California are subdivided into boroughs or delegaciones
6.
Municipality
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It is to be distinguished from the county, which may encompass rural territory and/or numerous small communities such as towns, villages and hamlets. The term municipality may also mean the governing or ruling body of a given municipality, a municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district. The term is derived from French municipalité and Latin municipalis, a municipality can be any political jurisdiction from a sovereign state, such as the Principality of Monaco, or a small village, such as West Hampton Dunes, New York. The power of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state, municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, and corporate income tax, but may also receive substantial funding from the state. Similar terms include Spanish ayuntamiento, also called municipalidad, Polish gmina, Dutch/Flemish Gemeente, in Australia, the term local government area is used in place of the generic municipality. Here, the LGA Structure covers only incorporated areas of Australia, incorporated areas are legally designated parts of states and territories over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility. In Canada, municipalities are local governments established through provincial and territorial legislation, the Province of Ontario has different tiers of municipalities, including lower, upper, and single tiers. Types of upper tier municipalities in Ontario include counties and regional municipalities, nova Scotia also has regional municipalities, which include cities, counties, districts, or towns as municipal units. In India, a Nagar Palika or Municipality is a local body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. Under the Panchayati Raj system, it directly with the state government. Generally, smaller cities and bigger towns have a Nagar Palika. Nagar Palikas are also a form of local self-government entrusted with duties and responsibilities. Such a corporation in Great Britain consists of a head as a mayor or provost, since local government reorganisation, the unit in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is known as a district, and in Scotland as a council area. A district may be awarded borough or city status, or can retain its district title, in Jersey, a municipality refers to the honorary officials elected to run each of the 12 parishes into which it is subdivided. This is the highest level of government in this jurisdiction. In the United States, municipality is usually understood as a city, town, village, or other local government unit, in the Peoples Republic of China, a direct-controlled municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. In Taiwan, a municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei. In Portuguese language usage, there are two words to distinguish the territory and the administrative organ, when referring to the territory, the word concelho is used, when referring to the organ of State, the word município is used
7.
Encomienda
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The encomienda was a labor system, rewarding conquerors with the labor of particular groups of people. It was first established in Spain during the Roman period, and it was applied on a much larger scale during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Philippines. Conquered peoples were considered vassals of the Spanish monarch and the award of an encomienda was a grant from the crown to a particular individual. In the encomienda, the Spanish crown granted a person a specified number of natives from a community, with the indigenous leaders in charge of mobilizing the assessed tribute. In return, the natives would provide tributes in the form of metals, maize, wheat, in the first decade of Spanish presence in the Caribbean, Spaniards divided up the natives, who in some cases were worked relentlessly. With the ouster of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish crown sent a governor, Fray Nicolás de Ovando. In many cases natives were forced to do hard labor and subjected to extreme punishment, however, Queen Isabella of Castile had forbidden Indian slavery and deemed the indigenous free vassals of the crown, allowing many natives and Spaniards to appeal to the Real Audiencias. In the former Inca Empire, for example, the system continued the Incaic traditions of extracting tribute in the form of labor, the heart of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, to entrust. The encomienda was based on the Reconquista institution in which adelantados were given the right to extract tribute from Muslims or other peasants in areas that they had conquered and resettled. The encomienda system in Spanish America differed from the Peninsular institution in that encomenderos did not own the land on which the natives lived, the system did not entail any direct land tenure by the encomendero, Indian lands were to remain in the possession of their communities. This right was protected by the crown of Castile because the rights of administration in the New World belonged to this crown. The first grantees of the encomienda or encomenderos were usually conquerors who received grants of labor by virtue of participation in a successful conquest. Later, some receiving encomiendas in New Spain were not conquerors themselves but were well connected that they received grants. He designated as pobladores antiguos, a group of undetermined number of encomenderos in New Spain, holders of encomiendas also included women and indigenous notables. The daughter of Doña Marina and conqueror Juan Jaramillo, Doña Maria Jaramillo, two of Moctezumas daughters, Doña Isabel Moctezuma and her younger sister, Doña Leonor Moctezuma, were granted extensive encomiendas in perpetuity by Hernan Cortes. Doña Leonor Moctezuma married in succession two Spaniards, and left the encomiendas to her daughter by her second husband, vassal Inca rulers established after the conquest also sought and were granted encomiendas. Indeed, the settler-conquistadors knew the fury of the aroused Indian lords, voyagers, explorers, initially, the encomienda system was devised to meet the needs of the early agricultural economies in the Caribbean. Later it was adopted to the economy of Peru and Upper Peru
8.
Municipalities of Puerto Rico
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The municipalities of Puerto Rico number seventy-eight and they make up the smallest electoral division in Puerto Rico. Each municipality is led by a mayor and divided into barrios, geographically, a municipality has an urban core that consists of either a town or a city. Urban cores with a population of 50,000 or above are considered cities, for U. S. Census purposes, the municipalities are considered county-equivalents. The municipalities are grouped into eight districts, but these do not possess administrative functions. Every municipality is composed of several barrios, except for Florida which has only one barrio, the municipality of Ponce has the largest number of barrios,31. Every municipality also has an area made up of one or more barrios. When the urban area is made up of only one barrio, some urban areas are made up of multiple barrios, Ponces urban area, for example, is made up of 12 barrios. All of San Juans barrios are urban barrios, and the municipality of San Juan is composed of urban barrios only - thus, every municipalitys urban zone is named by the same name as the municipality. For example, the municipality of Caguas has a zone called Caguas - just like the municipality. Some municipalities urban zones are termed pueblo while others are termed ciudad, the difference resides in the population of the municipality, if the municipality has an urban zone below 50,000 inhabitants, then its urban zone is called a pueblo. If a municipality has a population above 50,000 inhabitants in its urban zone, the municipalities elect a Mayor and a Municipal Legislature in the general elections every four years. The following is an alphabetical list of the municipalities in Puerto Rico, and their foundation year, population. The following is an alphabetical list of the municipalities and their population together with a breakdown of their racial composition,36 of the 78 municipalities currently experience a budget deficit, putting 46% of the municipalities in financial stress. In total, the combined debt carried by the stands at about $590 million USD. In October 2009, a Puerto Rican legislator proposed a bill that would reduce the current 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico down to 20, the bill called for a referendum to take place on June 13,2010, which would let the people decide on the matter. However, the bill never made into law and it was not the first time that an attempt to consolidate municipalities had failed. In 1902 the Puerto Rico legislature, under pressure from the US. -appointed governor of Puerto Rico, the law was repealed three years later. diariodepuertorico. com
