After the troubled times of the Spanish Civil War, followed by a decade of stagnation in the 1940s, the second half of the twentieth century has witnessed long periods of fairly rapid economic growth south of the Pyrenees. Since the 1950s, Spain has been transformed from a backward agrarian nation to a modern industrial society with a constantly expanding service sector. The false goals of autarky and import substitution were eventually replaced by an unswerving commitment to a more open economy based on trade liberalisation, inward investment and mass tourism. Since 1986, the country has been an active member of the European Economic Community. To the surprise and acclaim of many commentators, Felipe González's Spain joined the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System ahead of Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Something approximating the full benefits of EC membership can be expected to materialise when the single European market comes into operation after 31 December 1992. Yet, even the most optimistic forecasts calculate that it will take at least another twenty years before per capita incomes in Spain attain the average of the European Community as presently constituted.

Five centuries after Christopher Columbus set sail from the tiny Andalusian port of Palos de la Frontera to initiate what is nowadays commonly referred to as Spain's encounter with the New World, the Spanish authorities looked forward to 1992 as possibly constituting another annus mirabilis.