| ||||||
| Capital | León | |||||
| Largest City | León | |||||
| Other Cities | Salamanca, Zamora, Astorga | |||||
| Language Official |
Leonese | |||||
| Others | Spanish | |||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism, Secularism | |||||
| Ethnic Group | Spanish | |||||
| Demonym | Leonese | |||||
| Legislature | State Legislature | |||||
| Governor | Antonio Silván (PLE) | |||||
| Population | 1,542,136 | |||||
| Admission | December 1899 | |||||
| Currency | Peseta | |||||
| Time Zone | CET (UTC+1) | |||||
| Summer | CEST (UTC+2) | |||||
| Abbreviations | LEO | |||||
Leon is a state located in the Northwestern Region of Spain that shares borders with Cantabria and Castile to the east, Extremadura to the south, Portugal and Galicia to the west and Asturias to the North.
History[]
Until 1833, the formerly independent Kingdom of León, situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula, retained the status of a kingdom although dynastic union had brought it into the Crown of Castile. The Kingdom of León was founded in 910 A.D. when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León. The Atlantic provinces became the Kingdom of Portugal in 1139, and the eastern, inland part of the kingdom was joined dynastically to the Kingdom of Castile first in 1037–1065, again 1077–1109 and 1126–1157, 1230–1296 and from 1301 onward (see Castile and León § Historic union of the Kingdoms of Castile and León). León retained the status of a kingdom until 1833, being replaced by Adelantamientos Mayores, where the Leonese Adelantamiento consisted of the territories between the Picos de Europa and the Duero river.
A decree in November 1833, his secretary of state for Works, Javier de Burgos, created a centralized state, divided into 49 provinces. The provinces were named after their capitals (except four of them, who kept their former names: Navarra, capital Pamplona, Vitoria Álava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya in San Sebastian and Bilbao). The project is almost the same as in 1822, but without the provinces of Calatayud, Játiva Vierzo and in addition, other provinces have changed their name to the change of capital.
The provinces are nominally ascribed to historical regions, which lacked any competition or common bodies grouped provinces, having a qualifier character, without pretensions of administrative operation. In the region of Leon are ascribed the provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora. This reform implemented in 1833 has remained virtually unchanged (at provincial level) to the present.
In some periods of the 19th and 20th centuries, the region is ascribed to the provinces of León Palencia and Valladolid (from the Royal Decree of 30 November 1855). Valladolid and Palencia be ascribed to the region of Leon Franco until the early 1960s that are considered again in Old Castile.
Counties (WIP)[]
Leon is subdivided into - counties, which are listed below in order of population.
| Rank | Name | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mancha County | |
| 2 | Calatrava County | 285,421 |
| 3 | Albacete County | 255,712 |
| 4 | Mancha Alta de Toledo County | 149,700 |
| 5 | La Mancha de Cuenca County | 125,221 |
| 6 | Mancha Júcar-Centro County | 86,223 |
| 7 | Monte Ibérico-Corredor de Almansa County | 77,436 |
| 8 | Campos de Hellín County | 67,320 |
| 9 | Manchuela County | 58,668 |
| 10 | Mesa de Ocaña County | 55,744 |
| 11 | La Manchuela County | 45,528 |
| 12 | Montes County | 44,091 |
| 13 | Montiel County | 41,854 |
| 14 | Sierra de Alcaraz y Campo de Montiel County | 41,074 |
| 15 | Alcudia County | 36,352 |
| 16 | Sierra Morena County | 28,690 |
| 17 | Sierra de Segura County | 28,683 |