ABSTRACT
A brief look at the map (Figure 4.1) reveals that Galicia should be considered an accident. Due to a variety of historical events and accidents, this territory in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula was incorporated into Spain and not into Portugal. This incorporation - which gradually consolidated during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries - turned Galicia into a peripheral, isolated, backward region, remarkably rural, compared to the State it now officially belongs to (Beiras, 1972; Garcia Fernandez, 1975). Furthermore, Galicia, together with a few other northern Spanish territories such as Asturias, Cantabria and the Pais Vasco, constitutes the Atlantic world in an over whelmingly Mediterranean context. Its lush vegetation and plentiful water resources distinguish Galicia from a larger area where these are scanty. Be sides, the supremacy of small agricultural property sets Galicia apart from an area in Southern Europe where large property predominates, or where at least there are some contrasts (Mendez and Molinero, 1993).
