SPAIN IS A EUROPEAN COUNTRY, AT LEAST FROM A GEOGRAPHICAL point of view. Culturally and historically it is part of Western Europe. During most of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century it enjoyed constitutional government in one form or another. The liberal revolution of 1820 was the first outbreak of rebellion against the legitimist order imposed by the Holy Alliance in continental Europe. Men, institutions and parties of the Spanish Republic of 1931–36 were of European stature.