Does Spain Control the Spanish Language?

No. Spain does not control or regulate the Spanish language globally. Key facts:

• No official language academy for all of Spain – The Real Academia Española (RAE) is based in Madrid but collaborates with 22 other national academies (in Latin America, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, USA) as the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE).
• Decentralized standard – Spanish is a pluricentric language; norms emerge from consensus across all Spanish-speaking countries.
• Spain’s internal policy – Spain’s constitution recognizes Castilian (Spanish) as the official state language, but co-official languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician) have equal status in their regions.

Spanish belongs to its 500+ million speakers worldwide, not to any single nation.