SPANISH
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Spanish people or more properly Spaniards are a nation native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. The Spanish people have varied origins, due to Spaniards long history of invasions and migrations. Substantial populations descended from Spanish colonists and immigrants also exist in other parts of the world, most notably in Latin America.
Spain itself consists of various regional sub-nationalities and ethnicities including the Castilians (a large culturally-dominant minority who most strongly identify with a Spanish identity), the Catalans, Valencians and Balearics (speakers of a distinct yet related Romance language in eastern Spain), the Basques (a distinct people inhabiting the Basque country), and the Galicians, who speak a language which is very close to Portuguese. Regional diversity is important to many Spaniards and some regions (other than the ones associated with the different nationalities) have strong local identities and dialects, such as Asturias, Aragon, the Canary Islands, and Andalusia.
The Paleolithic and Neolithic basis of Modern Iberian Ancestry
Recent development of methodologies for defining population structure using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers has led a 2006 study to conclude that there is clear and consistent division between “northern” and “southern” European population groups. This study, involving 74 Spanish American participants strongly suggested a close genetic relationship between Greeks, Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards, whereas all European populations north of the Alps and the Pyrenees (except for Ashkenazi Jews) fell squarely into a separate "Northern" population group. A similar 2007 European-wide study including 20 Valencian Spaniards, found Iberian populations to cluster the furthest from other continental groups, implying that Iberia holds the most ancient European ancestry. In this study, the most prominent genetic stratification in Europe was found to run from the north to the south-east, while another important axis of differentiation runs east-west across the continent. It also found, despite the differences, that all Europeans are closely related.
Previous Y-chromosome and mtDNA analysis already pointed to Paleolithic ancestry among Iberian populations. Although this methodology does not provide strong inferences on genetic population structure, it is useful in tracing parts of the routes of migration in the populating of Europe. Both Y-chromosome haplogroups R1b and Mtdna haplogroup H, reach frequencies above 60% in most of Iberia, R1b peaking at 90% in the Basque region. This shows an ancestral bond between Iberia and the rest of western Europe, and in particular with Atlantic Europe, which share high frequencies of these haplogroups. Y-chromosome and mtDNA analysis seems to support the theory according to which founder populations in northern Iberia colonized the rest of western Europe at the end of the last glaciation. Y-chromosome and Mtdna analysis also points to pre-historic population movements into Iberia from North Africa, probably during the Capsian diffusion.
Autosomal studies using a small number of classical genetic markers, supported by more recent analysis of Microsatellite data, have not only lent support for a large Neolithic element in the European genome, but have also been the basis for the demic diffusion model from the near east. Broad gradients across Europe, largely on a South East/North West cline using a small number of classical genetic markers would thus link the populations of Western Europe (including Iberia) by a common "paleolithic" ancestry and those of eastern (and particularly south eastern) Europe by a common "neolithic" ancestry. Nevertheless the demic diffusion model remains controversial, to the degree that studies of ancient Mtdna point to the total absence of Neolithic contribution to modern European populations.
The Legacy of Muslim Rule
There exists a number of studies which focus on the genetic impact of the eight centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula (al-Andalus) on the genetic make up of the Iberian population. Recent studies agree that there is a genetic relationship between (particularly southern) Iberia and North Africa as a result of this period of history. Iberia is the only region in Europe with a significant presence of the typically North West African Y-chromosome haplotypes E-M81 and Haplotype Va. A thorough Y-chromosome analysis of the Iberian peninsula reveal that haplotype E-M81 surpasses frequencies of 10% in Southern Iberia.
As for mtDNA analysis, Iberia has much higher frequencies of typically North African Haplogroup U6 than those generally observed in Europe. North African ancestry in Iberia (Algarve and Alentejo, Portugal) is largely on the maternal side where the mtDNA contribution of NW Africa to Iberia (given that the average frequency of U6 is 10% in NW Africa compared with 1.8% in Iberia) can be estimated at 8% (Southern Portugal).
This region also has the highest frequency of haplogroup L of Sub-Saharan origin (especially in southern Portugal and to a lesser extent Andalusia) mostly as a result of Berber colonisation and, to a lesser extent African slavery, both during and after Muslim rule.
Nevertheless, the North African element in modern day Iberians' ancestry is evidently small compared to their pre-Islamic ancestral basis.
Finally, bidirectional gene flow across the Strait of Gibraltar has been detected: the genetic contribution of European Y chromosomes to the NW African gene pool is estimated at 4% and NW African populations may have contributed 7% of Iberian Y chromosomes. The Islamic rule of Spain, which began in A.D. 711 and lasted almost 8 centuries, left only a minor contribution to the current Iberian Y-chromosome pool. The high resolution analysis of the Y chromosome allows us to separate successive migratory components and precisely quantify each historical layer
Other Historical Influences
The ancestry of modern Spaniards has been influenced by the many peoples which have passed on its territory throughout history. These peoples include the Iberians, Celts (Celtiberians), Phoenicians (Punics), Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Suebi, Visigoths, Saqaliba (Slavs), Alans Byzantines, Berbers and Arabs (Moors), Jews (Sephardim) or Marranos, and particularly in Andalusia, the Roma people (Gitanos).
Other Related Peoples
Casta is a 17th century term used in Spanish America, and refers to the institutionalized system of racial and social stratification and segregation based on a person's heritage.
Tens of millions of Spanish descendants can be found throughout the Hispanic countries of Latin America in the form of criollos (predominantly Spaniards born in the Americas), mestizos (mixed Spanish/Amerindian), mulatos (mixed Spanish/African) or triracial (Spanish/African/Amerindian). In the United States, the number of Mexican-Americans represent a significant portion of the Spanish descended population, as the majority -over 70% of the population of Mexico- have Spanish ancestry, though most also have Amerindian ancestry.
On a smaller scale, in addition to approximately 17,000 Spanish citizens in the Philippines, there is also a small but important minority of Filipinos of Spanish descents (mixed Spanish / Austronesian ancestry).
Nationalism and Regionalism
Historically, the modern country of Spain was formed by the accretion of several independent Iberian realms (Asturias, León, Galicia, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, Majorca, Valencia, Granada) through dynastic inheritance, conquest and the will of the local elites. These realms had their own personalities and borders. Portugal, an independent country since the 12th century, was the only one of the Iberian realms not to be absorbed into the Spanish kingdom, due to the failure of the Iberian Union in 1640.
Since the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, there has been a process of uniformization by the central authorities. Simultaneously, this uniformization has been repelled by some of the local elites that formed their own national consciences based on traditional historical, linguistical and cultural traits.
The dynamics between centralization and decentralization is one of the forces in the history of the latest centuries. Since the beginning of the transition to democracy in Spain after the Francisco Franco dictatorship there have been many movements towards more autonomy in certain regions of the country in order to achieve full independence in some cases, to get their own autonomous community in others.
Despite uniformization, few Spanish citizens identify only as Spanish. Many Spanish citizens feel no conflict in having several national identities at the same time.
Extremadura (video)
This region was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile, but repopulated by many Leonese people, and their dialect (castúo) is thought to be a variety of the Leonese language. In the South they speak something related to the Andalusian dialect or accent of Spanish. There are some parts where Portuguese is also spoken near Olivenza, over which the Portuguese Republic holds a claim.
Extremadura was the source of many of the most famous Spanish conquerors ("conquistadores") and settlers in America. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Pedro de Alvarado, Pedro de Valdivia, Francisco de Orellana, Pedro Gomez Duran y Chaves and Vasco Nunez de Balboa were all born in Extremadura and many towns and cities in America carry a name from their homeland: Mérida is the name of the administrative capital of Extremadura, and also of important cities in Mexico and Venezuela; Medellín is now a little town in Extremadura, but also the name of the second largest city in Colombia; Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and its name is due to a transcription mistake of Alburquerque, another town in Extremadura. Pedro de Valdivia founded numerous cities in Chile with names from small villages in Extremadura, such as Valdivia and La Serena. The capital Santiago de Chile was founded as "Santiago de Nueva Extremadura" (Santiago of New Extremadura).
Spaniards in Taiwan
The Spanish Experience in Taiwan 1626-1642: The Baroque Ending of a Renaissance Endeavour
How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century
Jo no sóc espanyol (I am not Spanish) by Victor Alexandre 
