Concept in Definition ABC

There was a time when even the fish of the Mediterranean Sea wore the quadrilateral banner of Catalonia on their back; or, at least, that's how the chronicles of the time say... the Catalans, of course.

For his struggle for independence that was vividly observed during 2017 that puts political institutions to the test Spanish, Catalonia has, like other old European nations, a rich and varied history, which is also that of the old continent.

Catalonia is a historical nation of the European continent, currently without a state, and with its territories divided between the Spanish and French states.

The territory that today we usually know as Catalonia is the one that is circumscribed to the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, although its historical territory is more extensive, also occupying a small part of southern France (the so-called Northern Catalonia, with its capital in Perpignan) and a strip to the west currently in the autonomous community of Aragón (the so-called, precisely, Franja de Aragón or, simply, "the fringe").

Like so many other European nations and states, the history of Catalonia starts in the Middle Ages, from the so-called “Hispanic Brand”.

This territory was formed from the conquests of the Frankish kingdom to the Peninsular Muslims, and was divided into counties. The cultural fusion and linguistics of the plain Visigoth people, next to the aristocracy of Frankish origin (and elements also Visigoths), gave rise to the identity Catalan, which was developed thanks to an independent de facto, originated in the impossibility of the Frankish king to help the count of Barcelona in the face of a Muslim incursion from the south of the Catalan counties.

It is not known for sure where the name “Catalan", Although one theory suggests that it would have its origin in a very similar way to Castilla ("castle land”), Since the governor of a castle would be called castlà on the language local of the time (a Catalan in the initial state).

Other theories point to a Gothic origin (Gotlandia, "land of goths”, Which is what it would be for the Franks), or even the name of a nobleman. The first documentary references to the name Catalonia date back to the 12th century.

After the political-military unification of the various Catalan counties (until then, semi-independent entities, interdependent by family and political ties) under the control of the county of Barcelona, ​​Catalonia is articulated as nation.

During this period, which coincides with the call middle Ages In Europe, Catalonia is expanding southward at the expense of the Muslim Taifa kingdoms, in the process known globally as Reconquest, and which also leads to the birth and expansion of other peninsular kingdoms such as Castilla, León (which, in the end, will merge), or Portugal.

In 1162, the dynasty of the counts of Barcelona joined, by marriage, that of the kingdom of Aragon, founding the Catalan-Aragonese Crown.

The reason was the death, without male offspring, of Ramiro II of Aragon, who had given his daughter Peronela in marriage to the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer IV.

This fact has been used by Spanish nationalism to justify that Catalonia had never existed as an independent state, but has been an appendix either of the Frankish kingdom, or of the Aragonese, even citing that the Catalan sovereign was of lower rank than the Aragonese, count against king, and ignoring that during the Middle Ages, both counties, as principalities, as kingdoms, as republics, coexisted as sovereign states in the Map.

The union with Aragon was dynastic, but not between states, the two entities coexisting differentiated political-social, each with its currency, its army, and its own interests, in the form of confederation.

Catalan expansion also takes place north of the Pyrenees, through political marriages, with the territories of Occitania. This expansion will be stopped in its tracks by an emerging kingdom of France at the Battle of Muret (1213).

In this, the sovereign Pere I, nicknamed "the Catholic", and father of Jaume I, who will be held hostage by the French crusaders, will lose his life. At his majority, Jaume (Jaime in Spanish) will become the great Catalan count, architect of the conquers, together with the Aragonese, the Kingdom of Valencia, and already as a Catalan company, the Islands Balearics.

This is the great era of Catalan rule in the Mediterranean that the chronicles narrate (and which was referred to at the beginning with the mention of fish), in which Catalonia created a small Empire to which adds the Kingdom of the two Sicilies (the island of Sicily and Naples), Sardinia, and the conquests of the Almogávars in Greece, which they put under the jurisdiction of the Crown Catalan-Aragonese.

In 1410 the last count of Barcelona of the Guifré I dynasty (s. IX), Martí l’Humà, without legitimate male descendants, which leads to the election of a new sovereign, a title that falls to Ferdinand I of the Castilian dynasty of the Trastamara.

Catalonia continues as an entity politics independent confederation with Aragon, the Balearic Islands and Valencia, but each time it is losing more weight and influence in the peninsular policy in favor of Castile, which, little by little, is emerging as the most powerful kingdom among the peninsular.

But the dynastic union of the Castilian and Catalan-Aragonese crowns occurred with the marriage of Isabel I of Castile and Ferran II of Catalonia and Aragon, the famous Catholic kings, in 1479.

This is currently another argument exhibited by Spanish nationalism to justify the unity of Spain, which is dismantled with facts as simple as the functioning socially and militarily as different entities, and the fact that Castilla expanded towards the Atlantic (America) while Catalonia did so in the Mediterranean. Each country, therefore, with its respective areas of influence and with a coordinated foreign policy, although each one for its part (until 1714, Catalonia enjoyed its own ambassadors in the main chancelleries European).

Catalonia is already in a phase of decline as a political and military power, which together with a brilliant stage of the rise and expansion of Castile, with a empire that also splashes Europe, lead to a "castellanzación" of Catalan society (yes, a fact also currently used by nationalism Spanish).

Until the end of the war of succession, in 1714, Catalonia maintained a national character and its corresponding institutions and bureaucracy differentiated from the Castilians.

In saying conflict, started in 1700 by the testament of Carlos II of Castile and Aragon (who bequeathed his crown to the grandson of Louis XIV of France, something that was not interest neither Austria nor England), Catalonia - like Aragon, Valencia and the Balearic Islands - supported the losing candidate, Archduke Carlos de Austria.

When Barcelona was taken on September 11, 1714, Felipe V of Spain eliminated, at the blow of decree, all the institutions of Catalonia, assimilating the territory and its laws to the Castilian.

Since then, Catalonia was absorbed by France for a brief period during the Napoleonic wars, and During the Spanish Civil War it was occupied by Franco's troops, who put an end to their autonomy.

Currently, and putting aside its search to regain political independence lost three centuries ago, Catalonia is one of the richest regions of the Spanish State.

It leads in aspects such as economic or tourism, and its contribution to the GDP of the whole of Spain is estimated at 20%, a fifth for a territory that houses 15% of the population (less than one sixth).

Topics in Catalonia