[Spain] (17,800), a kingdom of South-West Europe, which with Portugal (less than one-fifth the size of Spain) occupies the entire Iberian Peninsula, and is divided from France on the N. by the Pyrenees Mountains, and on the E. and S. is washed by the Mediterranean; the NW. corner fronts the Bay of Biscay (N.) and the Atlantic (W.), while Portugal completes the western boundary; its area, three and one-third times the size of England and Wales, is, along with the Canaries and the Balearic Isles, divided into 49 provinces, although the more familiar names of the 14 old kingdoms, states, and provinces (New and Old Castile, Galicia, Aragon, etc.) are still in use; forms a compact square, with a regular, in parts precipitous, coast-line, which is short compared with its area; is in the main a highland country, a vast plateau (2000 to 3000 ft. high) occupying the centre, buttressed and crossed by ranges (Sierra Nevada in the S., Sierra de Guadarrama, Sierra Morena, etc.), and diversified by the long valleys of the Ebro, Douro, Tagus, Guadalquivir, and other lesser rivers, all of which are rapid, and only a few navigable; climate varies considerably according as one proceeds to the central plains, where extremes of heat and cold are experienced, but over all is the driest in Europe; agriculture, although less than a half of the land is under cultivation, is by far the most important industry, and Valencia and Catalonia the provinces where it is most successfully carried out, wheat and other cereals, the olive and the vine, being the chief products; other important industries are mining, the Peninsula being extremely rich in the useful minerals; Merino sheep farming, anchovy and sardine fisheries, wine-making, and the manufacture of cotton, silk, leather, and paper; chief exports are wine, fruits, mineral ores, oil and cork; Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, and Malaga are the chief towns; the widest variety of character exists among the natives of the various provinces, from the hard-working, thrifty Catalan to the lazy, improvident Murcian, but all possess the southern love "of song, dance, and colour," and have an inherent grace and dignity of manner; Roman Catholicism is the national religion; and although systems of elementary and secondary schools are in vogue, education over all is in a deplorably backward condition; the Government is a hereditary and constitutional monarchy; the Cortes consists of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; universal suffrage and trial by jury are recent innovations. The outstanding fact in the history of Spain, after the downfall of the Roman Empire, of which she had long formed a part, is the national struggle with the Moors, who overran the peninsula in the 8th century, firmly established themselves, and were not finally overthrown till Granada, their last possession, was taken in 1492; sixteen years later the country became a united kingdom, and for a brief period, with its vast American colonies and wide European possessions, became in the 16th century the dominant power of Europe; since then she has lagged more and more in the race of nations, and her once vast colonial empire has gradually crumbled away till now, since the unsuccessful war with America in 1898, only an island or two remains to her.
[Spalato] (15), a historic and flourishing town of Dalmatia, finely situated on a promontory on the E. side of the Adriatic, 160 m. SE. of Fiume; a place of considerable antiquity, and one of the great cities of the Roman world; is chiefly famed for the vast palace built by Diocletian, and which became his residence after his abdication; subsidiary buildings and grounds were enclosed by walls, within which now a considerable part of the town stands; the noblest portions of the palace are still extant; the modern town carries on an active trade in grain, wine, cattle, etc.; is noted for its liqueurs.
[Spalding], a market-town in Lincolnshire, 34 m. SE. of Lincoln, in the heart of the Fens; is a very ancient place; has a trade in agricultural produce, and is a railway centre.
[Spallanzani, Lazaro], a noted Italian scientist, born at Scandiano, in Modena; held chairs of Philosophy and Greek in the Universities of Reggio and Modena, but more attracted to natural science he in 1768 became professor of Natural History at Pavia; wrote elaborate accounts of expeditions to Sicily and elsewhere; overturned Button's theory of spontaneous generation, and in important works made some valuable contributions to physiological science (1729-1799).
[Spandau] (45), an important town and fortress of Prussia, in Brandenburg, at the confluence of the Spree and Havel, 8 m. W. by N. of Berlin; fortifications are of the strongest and most modern kind, and in the "Julius Tower" of the powerful citadel the German war-chest of £6,000,000 is preserved; there is an arsenal and large Government cannon-foundries, powder-factories, etc.
[Spanheim, Friedrich], a theological professor at Geneva (1631), and afterwards at Leyden (1641); author of the work on "Universal Grace" (1600-1648). His son, Ezechiel Spanheim (1629-1710) became professor of Eloquence in his native town, Geneva, and after acting as tutor to the sons of the Elector Palatine was employed on several important diplomatic missions to Italy, England, and France; meanwhile devoted his leisure to ancient law and numismatics, publishing learned works on these subjects. Friedrich Spanheim, brother of preceding, was a learned Calvinistic professor of Theology at Heidelberg (1685), and afterwards at Leyden (1632-1701).
[Spanish Main] (i. e. mainland), a name given at one time to the Central American provinces of Spain bordering on the Caribbean Sea, and also to the Caribbean Sea itself.
[Sparks, James], president of Harvard University, born in Connecticut; bred a carpenter, took to study, attended Harvard, where he graduated, studied theology, and became Unitarian, becoming a minister in that body, but retired from the ministry and settled in Boston; edited the North American Review; wrote and edited biographies of eminent Americans, and edited the writings of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington (1789-1866).
[Sparta] or Lacedemon, the capital of ancient Laconia, in the Peloponnesus, on the right bank of the Eurotas, 20 m. from the sea; was 6 m. in circumference, consisted of several distinct quarters, originally separate villages, never united into a regular town; was never surrounded by walls, its walls being the bravery of its citizens; its mythical founder was Lacedemon, who called the city Sparta from the name of his wife; one of its early kings was Menelaus, the husband of Helen; [Lycurgus] (q. v.) was its law-giver; its policy was aggressive, and its sway gradually extended over the whole Peloponnesus, to the extinction at the end of the Peloponnesian War of the rival power of Athens, which for a time rose to the ascendency, and its unquestioned supremacy thereafter for 30 years, when all Greece was overborne by the Macedonian power.
[Spartacus], leader of the revolt of the slaves at Rome, which broke out about 73 B.C.; was a Thracian by birth, a man of powerful physique, in succession a shepherd, a soldier, and a captain of banditti; was in one of his predatory expeditions taken prisoner and sold to a trainer of gladiators, and became one of his slaves; persuaded his fellow-slaves to attempt their freedom, and became their chief and that of other runaways who joined them; for two years they defied and defeated one Roman army after another sent to crush them, and laid Italy waste, till at the end of that time Licinius Crassus, taking up arms in earnest, overpowered them in a decisive battle at the river Silarus, in which Spartacus was slain.