Empire Rising: Spain

Looking further south, the region of Murcia, with a population of only 660,000, was directly merged into Valencia State. Valencia State also received a part of the protruding land of La Mancha, which brought the population of the new Valencia State infinitely close to the threshold of 3 million, surpassing both Catalonia, which lost Barcelona, and Galicia, which remained unchanged, thus becoming the third most populous state in Spain.

The reason why Valencia acquired so much land is actually due to Carlo’s emphasis on this area.

The states in Spain with larger populations are mostly coastal states. Apart from the second-ranking Castilla y León, which is an inland area, the most populous Andalusia, currently third place Valencia, fourth place Catalonia, and fifth place Galicia are all coastal regions.

Valencia can be said to be Spain’s most important port on the Mediterranean coast, second only to Barcelona.

After merging the relatively insignificant Murcia into Valencia, this newly formed region becoming the third most populous area in Spain could unleash greater vitality, and the pace of development should also become much faster.

Along with the announcement of specific administrative reform were the new administrative maps of Spain following the reform.

If we talk about the main difference between Spain’s original administrative map and the new one, it is that a few of the previously larger states have somewhat shrunk.

The new administrative map shows at a glance that the sizes of the various states in Spain are more balanced, without any exceptionally small states appearing, and most populations maintain over a million.

Of course, areas like the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, as well as Madrid and Barcelona, are relatively special administrative divisions.

The first two, being islands, cannot increase in size. The latter two are established as independent administrative divisions due to a variety of reasons, and their sizes are surely smaller compared to those states.

But apart from these special cases, the remaining states, whether by population or size, are quite reasonable, naturally avoiding waste of political resources.

Aside from the two archipelagoes and special cities, all of Spain’s state-level administrative divisions have populations above a million, with many states reaching the level of 2 million.

Because the Andalusia State underwent no changes, Andalusia remains the region with the largest population in Spain. With Andalusia’s population as high as 3.97 million, no state currently poses a chasing threat to Andalusia.

The only hopeful contender, Castilla y León, having lost a portion of its territory and population, has seen its population fall below 3 million.

Then there is the newly established Valencia State and Catalonia, which lost Barcelona, both states having populations just over 2.5 million.

Although a population of 2.5 million is indeed quite substantial, compared to Andalusia’s near 4 million population, it’s clear that these two states have lost hope of catching up.

It is worth noting that while Andalusia is the most populous region in Spain with a dramatic lead,

the top two most populous cities in Spain are not in Andalusia. The capital of Andalusia, Seville, has a population of just over 200,000, roughly only one-third that of Barcelona, and slightly over a quarter that of Madrid.

The reason why Andalusia ranks first in population across Spain is that it is far from Spain’s Meseta Plateau, featuring expansive plains and hills which very much benefit population development.

However, given Andalusia’s large size, this somewhat disperses the density of the population.

Additionally, as it was the last region unified in Spain, this has also led to the absence of large cities developing in Seville.