A Pyrenean nationality that once powered the Crown of Aragon
Catalonia, the autonomous community in Spain's north-east beneath the Pyrenees, is legally designated a nationality. From 1137 it was the engine of the Crown of Aragon's Mediterranean trade, and in 2017 its parliament declared independence after a referendum ruled unconstitutional, prompting Madrid to impose direct rule.
France and Andorra lie north of the region, with Aragon westward and Valencia southward, with about 580 kilometres of Mediterranean coast. It is split into four provinces and 43 comarques. Barcelona, the capital, is Spain's second-largest municipality and the fifth-largest urban area in the EU. The northern part of the old Principality of Catalonia now lies in France, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales.
A jawbone found at Banyoles may be around 200,000 years old, though some estimates make it far younger. Iberian tribes such as the Ilergetes and Indigetes lived here before Rome, and Greeks set up trading posts at Emporion and Roses. The north-east was the first part of Iberia to fall to Rome, and Tarraco, modern Tarragona, became a provincial capital. Visigoths ruled for nearly two and a half centuries, Muslims took over in 718, and the Franks captured Barcelona in 801.
In 988 Count Borrell II of Barcelona refused to recognise Hugh Capet as king, marking the counties' break from Frankish rule. The dynastic union of 1137 between Barcelona and Aragon created the Crown of Aragon, inside which the Catalan counties formed a principality with its own courts, Generalitat and constitutions. Theories on the name include land of the Goths, land of castles, and even an Arabic word for raiders later adopted with pride.
In the nineteenth century Catalonia industrialised and saw a cultural revival and rising nationalism despite the Napoleonic and Carlist wars. The Second Republic restored the Generalitat, but Franco abolished self-government and banned official use of Catalan after the civil war. Following the 2017 declaration, seven former ministers were jailed for rebellion and misuse of funds while Carles Puigdemont fled abroad; the prisoners were pardoned in 2021.
Source: Catalonia
