Catalonia historic territory: Encyclopedia II - Catalonia historic territory - History of Catalonia

Catalonia historic territory - History of Catalonia

Main article: History of Catalonia

Catalonia historic territory - Development of Catalonia as part of the Crown of Aragon into a Mediterranean Power

The territory that is now Catalonia was colonized by Ancient Greeks and Carthaginians. Like the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, it participated in the pre-Roman Iberian culture and was part of the Roman Empire, followed by Visigothic rule. In the eighth century it was part of Moorish (Muslim-ruled) al-Andalus, but the northern part of it was conquered within a century by the expanding Carolingian Empire.

Identifiably Catalan culture begins in the Middle Ages under the rule of the Counts of Barcelona. As part of the Crown of Aragon, Catalonia became a great maritime power, expanding by trade and conquest into Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and even Sardinia, Sicily and as far as Greece.

Catalonia historic territory - Catalan constitutions 1283

Signs of this power are the Catalan constitutions and the Parliament of Catalunya. The first Catalan constitutions are of the ones from the Corts of Barcelona from 1283. The last ones were promulgated by the court of 1702. The compilations of the constitutions and other rights of Catalonia followed the roman tradition of the Codex. The Parliament of Catalonia is probably the oldest in history, and comes from the 11th century.

Catalonia historic territory - Catalonia after the Middle Ages

The marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1469) joined the so called Catholic Crowns; in 1492, the last of al-Andalus was conquered and the Spanish conquest of the Americas began. Political power began to shift away towards Castile.

Catalonia continued to retain part of its own laws, but these gradually eroded (albeit with occasional periods of recovery). Over the next few centuries, it was generally on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to more centralization of power in Castille.

In 1659, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees the comarques (districts) of Rosselló, Conflent, Vallespir and the northern half of Cerdanya were ceded to France. In recent times, this area has come to be known, especially by Catalan nationalists, as Northern Catalonia. Catalonian institutions were suppressed and public use of Catalan language was prohibited. Currently, this region is administratively part of French Départment of Pyrénées-Orientales.

At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (between Bourbons and the Allies), the duc d'Anjou, now Philip V, through the Decretos de Nueva Planta (New Regime Decrees), abolished the Crown of Aragon and all remaining Catalonian institutions, prohibiting the public use of Catalan language after their support to his opponent, the Archduke Charles.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Spanish Catalonia benefited from the beginning of open commerce to America and protectionist policies enacted by the Spanish government, becoming a center of Spain's industrialization; to this day it remains one of the most industrialized parts of Spain, along with Madrid and the Basque Country. On several occasions during the first third of the 20th century, Spanish Catalonia gained and lost varying degrees of autonomy, but as in most regions of Spain, Catalan autonomy and culture were crushed to an unprecedented degree after the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic (founded 1931) in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) brought Francisco Franco to power. Public use of the Catalan language was again banned after a brief period of general recuperation.

Catalonia under Spanish jurisdiction recovered political and cultural autonomy following Franco's death in 1975. It became one of the Autonomous Communities of Spain. In comparison, Northern Catalonia has still a much more limited degree of autonomy.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History of Catalonia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki