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Catalonian History
The region now marked out as Catalonia was formerly a Greek colony in and around the time of 600 BC. It also endured periods of Carthaginian and Phoenician rule before being claimed by the Romans in approximately 200 BC. The culture took on a particularly Roman feel with the introduction of the Latin language for example. After the Roman Empire collapsed there was a brief period of Visigoth domination before the Moors took over the region from 714.
The time of Arab rule was short in comparison to some other areas of the peninsula partly due to the Frankish Empire’s invasion from the north. This saw Gerona captured in 785 and Barcelona follow suit in 801, around which the Hispanica Marca buffer zone was created to put some breathing space between the two kingdoms. However, during the ninth century the area was declared free from Moorish rule while in 989 it made known its independence from Frankish rule too.
By the 12th century the region came to be known as Catalonia, which in some circles is thought to derive from a term meaning Land of Castles. In this century an important link was formed with neighbouring Aragon which became known as the Crown of Aragon after the marriage of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona to Perenella of Aragon. Meanwhile, Catalonia continued on the feudal expansion it had recently embarked upon and added areas such as Tortosa, Lleida and various Mediterranean Islands to its dominion. By the 14th century this had expanded further to include Mallorca, Sardinia and Sicily and in the mean time a political system even began to take shape in Barcelona.
Despite the marriage of Ferdinand to Isabella in 1469 which saw the introduction of a more centralised Spain, Catalonia retained most of its sovereignty, although a period of decline did ensue. Disaster struck Catalonia two centuries later during the Segadors War from 1640-1659 which saw some land annexed by France under the terms of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, as well as a certain amount of centralisation. Further, by 1716 and the War of Succession Catalonia was forced to become part of Spain and so the language and other areas of its culture experienced a distinct suppression.
By the 19th century Catalonia had become Spain’s most industrialised area and this was largely based around the dynamism of the textile sector. This did, however, lead to an increase in social conflict and subsequently an increased drive for more Catalonian autonomy. Indeed, at the turn of the century the Lliga Regionalista political party was formed and by 1914 the region experienced its first attempt at self-government which ended no more than nine years later due to a new dictator at the helm of the country. In 1931 the Second Republic did return autonomy to Catalonia thanks to the Statute of Autonomy, however, what with General Franco’s hyper-nationalist sentiments coming to the fore, after the Spanish Civil War, Catalonians were forced to back down again with their language being banned and their political institutions being stifled.
Later, Catalonia’s industrial reputation brought about a migration towards the area to feed the needs of a labour-based economy. This led to a doubling of the population from three to six million between 1950 and 1980. At the end of this period there was more joy for regionalism as Franco died and a liberal constitution was put in place, establishing a Statute of Autonomy and restoring self-rule to Catalonia and a number of other divisions.