rians) 72.8 percent of the population, Catalans 16.4 percent, Galacians 8.2 percent, Basques 2.3 percent, and Navarrese, Aragonese, and Gypsies, which together constitute 0.3 percent of the population. Castillian Spanish is the official language; however, one quarter of the population has a different first language. The Spanish constitution permits other languages to be designated as co official within autonomous communities (Catalans, Galacians, Valencians, Basques (who speak the Euskera language), and the Baleric Islands (most of whose inhabitants speak the Majorcan language). Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, with 90 percent of the Spanish population identifying themselves as Roman Catholics.
Primary education (ages six to 14) is free and compulsory. Attendance at secondary school is optional. Those students opting not to attend secondary school, however, are required to attend vocational school until age 16 (Solsten and Meditz, 1990, p. xvi).
Spain has a long, glorious, and tumultuous history. The country was settled by Iberians, Basques, and Celts, and was later invaded by Carthaginians, and then conquered by Romans (Solsten and Meditz, 1990, pp. 3 8). The Visigoths subsequently gained power, and adopted Christianity in the fifth century. In the seventh century, however, the Moorish invasion brought Islam to Spain.
Following several tumultuous centuries, Spanish nationalism began to develop in the fifteenth century, when the kingdoms of Aragon and Castille were united (Solsten and Meditz, 1990, pp. 15 16). Following the development of Spanish nationalism, the country became a bulwark of Roman Catholic Christianity, and became a world maritime, political, and economic power.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Spain entered into a period of political decline (Solsten and Meditz, 1990, pp. 29 31). The worldwide economic depression in the first half of the twentieth century brought a soci...