How did Spanish become the third largest language in the world? Thanks to an Italian.

In terms of geography and population, Spain is not a big country.

Its land area is 506,000 square kilometers, slightly larger than that of China and Sichuan. The population is 46 million, slightly less than that of China.

Spain's economic strength is not too strong. In 20 19, its GDP was $65,438 +0.426 trillion, equivalent to China's Guangdong.

▲ Map of Spain

However, Spanish can definitely earn back face for itself.

At present, the Spanish-speaking population in the world is close to 600 million, equivalent to the combined population of French, German and Italian.

Spanish is the third largest language in the world after Chinese and English.

▲ Spanish-speaking countries

At present, 23 countries and regions in the world use Spanish as their official language. The United Nations, the European Union and the African Union also regard it as one of the official languages. Spanish has achieved so much thanks to an Italian: Columbus.

The country with the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world is not Spain, but Mexico, with more than 654.38 billion people.

1492 is a very important year for the Spanish.

Before this year, Spain was ruled by Arabs for a long time.

The Umayyad dynasty of the Arab Empire was powerful, invaded Spain from North Africa and soon conquered the Iberian Peninsula.

Because they like to wear white, they are called "free food" in our ancient books.

▲ Mexico

Later, after some struggle, the Spaniards were finally unified in 1492, and the Arabs and Jews were completely expelled. However, today many Spaniards are descendants of Arabs and Jews.

This year, something happened that didn't seem too big at that time, but had a great influence on later generations: with the support of the Spanish royal family, the Italian adventurer Columbus began his adventure.

Columbus loved sailing and exploring since he was a child. When he grows up, he wants to go out to sea to do some trade and prove that the earth is round. However, there is a problem, no money. ...

So Columbus began his lobbying career. He has been to England, France, Italy and Portugal, but they all think he is a liar.

▲ Columbus route

Later, the Queen of Spain finally accepted him and asked him to take his credentials to China, the Indian monarch and emperor, and led three sailboats of several hundred tons to sail from Barros, Spain. Then Columbus successfully arrived in the New World of America. ...

This also opened the history of Spanish colonization of America. After three centuries of continuous expansion, Spain controlled a large area of Latin America, and at the same time made Spanish the local lingua franca.

Although Latin American countries have become countries one after another, their language habits still exist.

Therefore, in today's Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba and many other countries, Spanish is used.

▲ Mexico Day of the Dead

Interestingly, the country that uses Spanish the second most is still not Spain, nor Latin American countries, but the United States.

The Spanish-speaking population in the United States has exceeded 50 million. Spanish is the second language in many states in the United States, and has even become the first language.

For example, in Miami, you can't speak Spanish and it may be difficult to buy food; A similar situation may happen in East Los Angeles.

▲ Puerto Rico

The Spanish-speaking population in the United States can be divided into two categories. The first category is Latin American immigrants, and the second category is Puerto Ricans.

Puerto Rico is a complex issue, and its proportion is not too large, so it will not be shown for the time being.

There are many immigrants from Latin America, not only because of the American economy, but because a large part of the territory of the United States was originally Latin America, to be precise, Mexico.

▲ Los Angeles

You can know a thing or two by looking at the place names in many parts of the southwestern United States, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. These cities that start with Los and San are in Spanish.

They were originally Mexican territory, but later the ownership of these lands changed because of a country's strong military strength and unreasonable attitude, but their names remained.

▲ Historical map of American land

Now these places are full of immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries. They hit it off as soon as they met. They are all fellow villagers. Why should they use English? It is convenient to speak Spanish directly.

Later, many States gradually compromised and listed Spanish as the official language, such as California, New Mexico and Texas. And most local infrastructures will be marked in Spanish.

▲ Barcelona

Spanish has developed well in Latin America and other places, but it is not popular in Spain, where nearly a quarter of the population does not speak Spanish.

For example, Barcelona, which we are familiar with, speaks Catalan and they always want to go it alone from Spain.

Therefore, the match between Madrid and Barcelona is not only football, but probably they want to play the other player more.

Above.