Principality of Catalonia
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Catalonia IPA: [ˈkætəˌloʊ̯nɪə], or the Principality of Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya IPA: [kətəˈluɲə] or IPA: [kataˈluɲa] or Principat de Catalunya ; Spanish: Cataluña or Principado de Cataluña; Aranese: Catalonha or Principautat de Catalonha ; French: Catalogne or Principauté de Catalogne), is a historic territory in the northeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly situated in the north-east of Spain with an adjoining portion in southern France.
The historic territory of Catalonia corresponds to the present-day Autonomous Community of Catalonia (also named Southern or Spanish Catalonia with respect to French or Northern one), plus other territories including Northern Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya Nord), a part of France since the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees.
The term Catalonia is now commonly used to refer to the Spanish Autonomous Community of Catalonia.
Catalan nationalism regards Catalonia as a stateless nation. In September 2005, the Catalan Parliament approved (with the support of both Catalan nationalist and non nationalist parties) the definition of Catalonia as a nation in the preamble of the new Catalan Statute of Autonomy. In opinion of the Spanish Government, which supported the amendment, this does have declaratory, but not legal value, since the Spanish Constitution of 1978 declares "the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation". This said, Spain can now be argued to have a federal structure in practice.
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[edit] History of Catalonia
Main article: History of Catalonia
[edit] Development of Catalonia as part of the Crown of Aragon into a Mediterranean Power
The Roses area was settled by Ancient Greeks and then, most of the territory was briefly subjected to Carthaginian rule. During all this time, like other areas in the Iberian Peninsula, the native population was the Iberian culture, which, in turn, became a part of the Roman Empire, which was followed by a brief 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, which established there the Marca Hispanica.
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.
[edit] Catalan constitutions (1283)
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, dating from the 11th century, is one of the first parliaments in continental Europe.
[edit] Catalonia after the Middle Ages
Since the marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1469), the conquest of Kingdom of Granada (1492, and the annexation of most of the Kingdom of Navarre to Castile, all the Iberian territories, apart from Portugal became a part of the Kingdom of Spain. As a consequence, political power began to shift away from Catalonia to the imperial Spanish throne.
Catalonia (as part of the Crown of Aragon) continued to retain most its own laws and usages, 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 the Spanish throne.
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, specially by Catalan nationalists, as Northern Catalonia. Catalan institutions were suppressed in this part of the territory and public use of Catalan language was prohibitted. 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 Catalan institutions, prohibitting the public use of Catalan language following their support to his opponent in the Spanish Succession War, the Archduke Charles of Austria.
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) which brought Francisco Franco to power. Public use of the Catalan language was again banned after a brief period of general recuperation.
The Franco era ended with Franco's death in 1975; in the subsequent Spanish transition to democracy, Catalonia recovered political and cultural autonomy. It became one of the Autonomous Communities of Spain. In comparison, "Northern Catalonia" has a much more limited degree of autonomy.
[edit] The Principality
The Principality of Catalonia (Catalan: el Principat de Catalunya), or simply the Principality (Catalan: el Principat), is one of the traditional names of Catalonia.
The origin of this name has been argued to come from the union of the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer IV with Princess Petronila, daughter of Ramiro II, King of Aragon. The agreement of the wedding was done in 1137, but because she was only two years old, this was postponed. The marriage was finally celebrated in 1151, and Ramon Berenguer became prince consort and from this, the denomination of Principality later extended to Catalonia. We must take into account that Catalonia was not a county, but several counties, where the County of Barcelona only comprised part of that territory.
The oldest formal reference dates back to 1350, during the Corts in Perpinyà presided by the king Peter IV of Aragon. However, there seems to be an older reference, in a more informal context, in Ramon Muntaner's chronicles.[citation needed]
The Principality denomination was even used during Bourbonic administration, after the Decretos de Nueva Planta, until the 19th century. Afterwards, Republican movements favoured its abandonment because it is historically related to the monarchy.
Current Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, or Spanish Constitution, do not mention this denomination, but it is presently quite popular among Catalan nationalists and independentists.
[edit] Language
Main article: Catalan language
Catalonia constitutes the original nucleus where Catalan is spoken. Catalan is regarded by most linguists as being an Ibero-Romance language (the group that includes Spanish), but it has many features of Gallo-Romance languages.
Catalan is one of the two official languages of Autonomous Community of Catalonia, as stated in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy; the other is Spanish. Catalan is not an official language neither in "Northern Catalonia".
Occitan, in its Aranese variety, is official and subject to special protection in the Val d'Aran (Aran Valley), which makes this small region of 7,000 the only place where Occitan has full official recognition.
[edit] Culture
[edit] See also
- Catalan constitutions, from 1283
- Catalan Countries
- Cuisine of Catalonia
- Famous Catalan People
- Catalan nationalism
- Generalitat de Catalunya
[edit] External links
- Catalonia in Hiperenciclopedia
- Miguel Angel Hidalgo, Príncipe y Principado ("Prince and Principality") originally published in La Vanguardia, November 18, 1998, on the site of the Confederación de Empresarios de Aragón (CREA). Discusses the denomination of "principality" for Catalonia. (Spanish)
