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Castile–La Mancha

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Castile–La Mancha
 
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Autonomous community (pop., 2005 est.: 1,894,667) and historic region, central Spain. Established in 1982, it encompasses the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Albacete and covers an area of 30,681 sq mi (79,463 sq km). Its capital is Toledo. The watershed of the low-lying Toledo Mountains bisects the region; land to the north is drained by the Tagus River, and the plains of La Mancha to the south are drained by the Guadiana. In the 20th century, emigration to Madrid depleted the population. Agriculture dominates the economy. See Castile; Miguel de Cervantes.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Castile–La Mancha
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Castile–La Mancha (kăstēl'–lä män'chə) , autonomous region (1990 pop. 1,695,144), central Spain, encompassing the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Albacete. It was established as an autonomous region in 1982. It is in the historical region of New Castile. Its plains are drained by the Tagus and the Guadiana rivers, and it is bordered by the Iberian range, the Baetic range, and the Morena range. Agriculture fuels the region's economy; dry farming is important, as is animal husbandry. Chief among agricultural products are wheat, grapes, sunflowers, saffron, and cotton. Industry is little developed outside of Ciudad Real, where a petroleum refinery was built. Manufacturing occurs on a small scale and consists chiefly of the processing of primary materials. The region lacks adequate energy resources, although a nuclear reactor was established at Zorita de los Canes. The provincial capitals are the sites of most of the region's commercial activity. Migration to Madrid is common among young men looking for work. The National Museum of Abstract Art (1966) is found in Castile–La Mancha.

 
Wikipedia: Castile-La Mancha
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Coordinates: 39°52′N 4°01′W / 39.87°N 4.02°W / 39.87; -4.02

Comunidad Autónoma de Castilla-La Mancha
Flag of Castilla-La Mancha Coat-of-arms of Castilla-La Mancha
Flag Coat of arms
Map of Castilla-La Mancha
Capital Toledo
Official languages Spanish
Area
 – Total
 – % of Spain		 Ranked 3rd
 79,463 km²
 15.7%
Population
 – Total (2008)
 – % of Spain
 – Density		 Ranked 9th
 2,043,100
 4.3%
 25.66/km²
Demonym
 – English
 – Spanish
 Castilian-Manchego
 Castellano-manchego/a
Statute of Autonomy
 16 August 1982
 – Congress seats
 – Senate seats


 21 [1]
 20 + 2 [2]
President José María Barreda Fontes (PSOE)
ISO 3166-2 CM
www.jccm.es

Castile-La Mancha (Spanish "Castilla-La Mancha") is an autonomous community of Spain.

Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities.

Its capital city is Toledo, and its most populated city is Albacete.

Castile-La Mancha was formerly grouped with the province of Madrid into New Castile ("Castilla la Nueva"), but with the advent of the modern Spanish system of semi-autonomous regions ("las autonomías"), it was separated due to great demographic disparity between the capital and the remaining New-Castilian provinces.

It is mostly in this region where the story of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is situated. Although La Mancha is a windswept, battered plateau, it remains a symbol of the Spanish culture with its sunflowers, mushrooms, oliveyards, windmills, Manchego cheese, and Don Quixote.

Contents

History

The history of Castile-La Mancha has been significant. Its origin lay in the Muslim period between the 8th and 14th century. Castile-La Mancha was the region of many historical battles between Christian crusaders and Muslim forces during the period of 1000 to the 14th centuries (until the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, which aftermath assured the Castilian domination of the region with the decline of the Almohad Dynasty). It was also the region were the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1492 under Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand was created.

Region

Castile-La Mancha is divided into 5 provinces named after their capital cities. The following category includes:

Other important Towns in Castile-La Mancha (with more than 25 000 inhabitants) are:

Other towns in Castile-La Mancha (with less than 25 000 inhabitants) are:

Municipalites of Castile-La Mancha.

References

  1. ^ 4 from province of Albacete, 5 from Ciudad Real, 3 from Cuenca, 3 from Guadalajara and 6 from Toledo.
  2. ^ 20 are directly elected by the people, each province forms a constituency and is granted 4 senators, and 2 regional legislature-appointed senators.

See also

External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Castile-La_Mancha
Wikisource
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
v • d • e
Provinces of Castile-La Mancha
Provinces: Albacete · Ciudad Real · Cuenca · Guadalajara · Toledo
 Flag of Spain
v • d • e
Autonomous communities of Spain
Flag of Spain

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Castile-La Mancha".  Read more

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