We cannot say that today there are exclusive correlations between a language and a single political territory where it is spoken by a particular community. By this we mean that there are not as many languages as there are countries and it is impossible to govern the development of a language or control its geographical spread across the globe. In fact, many of the languages we understand as being distinct from others, especially for geopolitical reasons, actually have a common origin which means that these languages can be grouped into families and, in turn, these families can be grouped into larger families that share a respective common origin. This process can be repeated several times since studies on the origin of languages have not yet revealed whether each and every language spoken throughout the world comes from a single shared language or whether different linguistic points appeared, each one going through a different evolutionary process. Human history has shown us that languages spread easily and evolve quickly. Although this same history contains questionable and tragic examples like the forced imposition of a language, there are also more passive processes in which a group of speakers shape a new language internally modifying its structure and vocabulary changes or blending it with the arrival of other languages that gain popularity among these speakers.
In the case of Spanish, it reached a turning point in the 15th century. Until this point, Spanish was just another language in the romance language family, together with French, Portuguese, Catalan, Italian, Romanian (and many others with fewer speakers, such as Corsican, Norman and Occitan), all with Latin as a common ancestor. In the so-called “Old World”, which is a term that has fallen into disuse due to its colonialist past, everything appeared stable and that, with regards to language distribution, everything was in its place. However, in 1492 the discovery of a new and previously unknown continent was announced in Europe and gave rise to a single historical period that has been interpreted from different points of view over centuries. In essence, we can surmise that the European sailors of the 15th century that reached these shores decided to claim the land on behalf of the Spanish crown and, faced with the native inhabitants’ clear rejection, forcibly subjugated them. This led to a period of territorial expansion for countries like Spain, Portugal or England through oppression and suffering, which continues to be a chapter in history that causes controversy and differing opinions.
However, looking back over the centuries, we can see that the Spanish language underwent a period of great dissemination, having been brought to the conquered lands. As a result, Spanish was spoken for generations among these native inhabitants until the languages they spoke before these events were lost. Linguistically, this is a real tragedy. Thus, Spanish remained among the American peoples even after their independence from the Spanish empire, as was the case with the American peoples who spoke Portuguese or English. This Spanish empire underwent a period of growth during which its presence in various corners of the world was more than notable. Not only did it have territories on the American continent, but throughout its history during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries (when the seed of independence began to take root), the Spanish crown had annexed territories in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. Its range grew so large that it was said that the sun never set on the Spanish empire. However, it was not the largest since the British empire held this title with a greater expanse of territory covering almost 34 million square kilometers, though they were not contiguous with one another. The second largest in terms of number of annexed territories was Mongolia.
In spite of this, Spanish is widely spread around the world. On the one hand, it is spoken in its country of origin, on the European continent. On the other hand, Spanish is spread far and wide through a large part of South America, as well as Mexico and several regions of the United States, where it coexists with English. In addition, it is the official language in some African countries, such as Equatorial Guinea. However, the majority of countries where the official language is Spanish are in America: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala, Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Salvador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Belize.
In addition, there are other countries where Spanish has a major presence due to the historical circumstances that linked them to the Spanish crown. Some of the countries that could be included in this category are Morocco, Brazil, the Philippines, Israel, Andorra and Gibraltar.
As a result, it is hardly surprising that Spanish currently occupies second place in the list of the languages most spoken in the world, and that it reaches the far-flung corners of the earth. In fact, many speculate that this language could unseat Mandarin from the top spot. As such, Spanish language institutions do excellent work to promote the language, record all its variants and spread its use to allow different cultures connected by the same language to be able to communicate.
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