Madeira was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Infante D. Henrique (Henry the Navigator) in 1419, and settled after 1420. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of thePortuguese Age of Discovery.
Today, it is a popular year-roundresort, being visited every year by about one million tourists,noted for itsMadeira wine, flowers, landscapes and embroidery artisans, as well as for its annual New Year celebrations that feature the largestfireworks showin the world, as officially recognised byGuinness World Recordsin 2006.The main harbour inFunchalis the leading Portuguese port in cruise liner dockings,being an important stopover for commercial and trans-Atlantic passenger cruises between Europe, theCaribbeanand North Africa.
Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2011, it has a population of 82,376.Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Arabic and Berber speakers), and small minorities of Jews and IndianHindus. Spanish is the official language. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being ruled by Morocco.A poll conducted byInstituto Opinafound that 87.9% of people from mainland Spain consider the two cities (Ceuta and Melilla) to be Spanish..
The official currency of Ceuta is the euro. It is part of a special low tax zone in Spain. Ceuta is one of two Spanish port cities on the northern shore of Africa, along with Melilla. They are historically military strongholds, free ports, oil ports, and also fishing and smuggling centers. Today the economy of the city depends heavily on its port (now in expansion) and its industrial and retail centres.Ceuta Heliport is now used to connect the city to mainland Spain by air..
The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Island of the Dogs", a name applied originally only to Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian
king Juba II named the island Canariabecause it contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size"
The economy is based primarily on tourism, which makes up 32% of the GDP. The Canaries receive about 12 million tourists per year. Construction makes up nearly 20% of the GDP and tropical agriculture, primarily bananas and tobacco, are grown for export to Europe and the Americas. Ecologists are concerned that the resources, especially in the more arid islands, are being overexploited but there are still many agricultural resources like tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cochineal, sugarcane, grapes, vines, dates, oranges, lemons, figs, wheat, barley, maize, apricots, peaches andalmonds.
The economy is € 25 billion (2001 GDP figures). The islands experienced continuous growth during a 20 year period, up until 2001, at a rate of approximately 5% annually. This growth was fueled mainly by huge amounts of Foreign Direct Investment, mostly to develop tourism real estate (hotels and apartments), and European Funds (near € 11 billion euro in the period from 2000 to 2007), since the Canary Islands are labelled Region Objective 1 (eligible for euro structural funds).[citation needed] Additionally, the EU allows the Canary Islands Government to offer special tax concessions for investors who incorporate under the Zona Especial Canaria (ZEC) regime and create more than 5 jobs.
The Canary Islands have great natural attractions, climate and beaches make the islands a major tourist destination, being visited each year by about 12 million people (11,986,059 in 2007, noting 29% of Britons, 22% of Spanish, not residents of the Canaries, and 21% of Germans). Among the islands, Tenerife has the largest number of tourists received annually, followed by Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.[7][8] The archipelago's principal tourist attraction is the Teide National Park (in Tenerife) where the highest mountain in Spain and third largest volcano in the world (Mount Teide), receives over 2.8 million visitors annually.
The combination of high mountains, proximity to Europe, and clean air has made the Roque de los Muchachos peak (on La Palma island) a leading location for telescopes like the Grantecan.
The islands are outside the European Union customs territory and VAT area, though politically within the EU. Instead of VAT there is a local Sales Tax (IGIC) which has a general rate of 7%, an increased tax rate of 13.5%, a reduced tax rate of 3% and a zero tax rate for certain basic need products and services.
Canarian time isWestern European Time(WET) (orGMT; in summer one hour ahead of GMT). So Canarian time is one hour behind that of mainland Spain and the same as that of the UK, Ireland and Portugal all year round..
The countries in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.
( The rank mentioned in the bracket is from poorest as in 2003 in Africa out of 53, of which first 29 countries are below the poverty line and the last 24 are developing countries.)
