| Catalonia |
Article Index for Catalonia |
Shopping Catalonia |
Articles about Catalonia |
Website Links For Catalonia |
Information AboutCatalonia |
Catalonia (; ; , Girona , Lleida , and Tarragona . Catalonia borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, and Valencia to the south. To the east there is a 580 km coastline which meets the Mediterranean Sea . Its territory corresponds to most of the historic territory of the former Principality Of Catalonia and the capital is Barcelona . The autonomous community of Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km&2 with an official population of 7,134,697 (2006) from which immigrants represent an estimated 12.3% of the total population. LEGAL STATUS WITHIN SPAIN The , Galicia and Andalusia self-ascribed as "nationalities" in the elaborations of their Statutes of Autonomy –the first three acceding to autonomy automatically– and more recently in their new Statues or recent amendments Aragon , the Valencian Community , the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands also did. The 1979 as well as the current Statute of Autonomy, approved in 2006, state that "Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an Autonomous Community in accordance with the Constitution and with the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which is its basic institutional law." First article of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalunya . The descriptive preamble of the 2006 Statute Of Autonomy Of Catalonia states the Parliament Of Catalonia defined Catalonia as a Nation , but that the "Spanish Constitution recognizes Catalonia's national reality as a nationality". While this Statute was approved by and sanctioned by both the Catalan and the Spanish parliaments, and later by referendum in Catalonia, it has been legally contested by the Partido Popular for its alleged constitutional breeches in fiscal and educational matters –Catalonia is an Autonomous Community Of Common Regime with limited fiscal autonomy– pending the resolution of the Constitutional Court Of Spain . HISTORY See Also: History of Catalonia Like some other parts in the rest of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula , Catalonia was colonized by Ancient Greeks , who settled around the Roses area. Both Greeks and Carthaginians (who, in the course of the Second Punic War , briefly ruled the territory) interacted with the main Iberian substratum. After the Carthaginian defeat, it became, along with the rest of Hispania , a part of the Roman Empire , Tarraco being one of the main Roman posts in the Iberian Peninsula It then came under Visigothic rule for 3 centuries after Rome 's collapse. In the Eighth Century , it became under Moorish Al-Andalus control. Still, after the defeat of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqiwas's troops at Tours in 732 , the Franks conquered former Visigoth states which had been captured by the Muslims or had become allied with them in what today is the northernmost part of Catalonia. Charlemagne created in 795 which came to be known as the Marca Hispanica , a Buffer Zone beyond the province of Septimania made up of locally administered separate Petty Kingdom s which served as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad Moors of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom . The Catalan culture started to develop in the Middle Ages stemming from a number of these petty kingdoms organized as small counties throughout the northernmost part of Catalonia. The Counts Of Barcelona were Frankish Vassal s nominated by the emperor then the king of France, to whom they were feudatories (801-987). In 987 the count of Barcelona did not recognise the French king Hugh Capet and his new dynasty which put it effectively out of the Frankish rule. Then, in 1137 Ramon Berenguer IV, Count Of Barcelona married Petronila Of Aragón establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom Of Aragón (which was to create the Crown Of Aragon ). It was not until 1258, by the Treaty Of Corbeil , that the king of France formally relinquished his feudal overlordship over the counties of the Principality Of Catalonia to the king of Aragon James I , descendant of Ramon Berenguer IV. This Treaty turned the De Facto independence into a full De Jure direct transition from French to Aragonese rule. It also solved a historic incongruence. As part of the Crown Of Aragon , Catalonia became a great maritime power, helping to expand the Crown Of Aragon by trade and conquest into Valencia , the Balearic Islands , and even Sardinia or Sicily . The marriage of Isabella Of Castile and Ferdinand II Of Aragon (1469) unified all the Christian kingdoms in Spain (except the Kingdom Of Navarre , which was annexed to the Castilian crown in 1513). This resulted in the dawn of the Kingdom Of Spain , made up by the former Crown of Aragon, Castile and Navarra. In 1492, the last remaining portion of Al-Andalus around Granada was conquered and the Spanish conquest of The Americas began. Political power began to shift away from Aragón toward Castile and, subsequently, from Castile to the Spanish Empire , which engaged in frequent warfare in Europe striving for world domination. ]] For an extended period, Catalonia, as part of the late Kingdom Of Aragon , continued to retain its own usages and laws, but these gradually eroded in the course of the transition from a feudal state to a modern one and the king's struggle to get from the territories as much of the power as possible. Over the next few centuries, Catalonia was generally on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to more centralization of power in Spain. The most significant conflict was the War Of The Spanish Succession , which began when Carlos II ''El Hechizado'' died without a successor in 1700. Catalonia, as the other kingdoms which used to form the Crown of Aragon, mostly took side with the Austrian branch of the Habsburg dynasty pretender, while most of Spain fell under the French Bourbon claimant, Felipe V . Following the fall of Barcelona on 11 September 1714 , Felipe V's Nueva Planta Decrees banned all the main Aragonese political institutions and imposed military-based rule over the region in direct violation of the Treaty Of Utrecht . In the latter half of the 19th Century , Catalonia became an industrial center; to this day it remains one of the most industrialised parts of Spain, rivaled only by the Basque Country and Community Of Madrid . In the first third of the 20th century, Catalonia gained and lost varying degrees of autonomy several times, receiving its first statute of autonomy during the Second Spanish Republic (1931). This period was marked by politic unrest and the preeminence of the Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). After the defeat of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) which brought General Francisco Franco to power, Catalan autonomy and culture were crushed to an unprecedented degree; during the first years of the dictatorial regime, even use of the Catalan Language in public was banned. After Franco's death (1975) and the adoption of A Democratic Spanish Constitution (1978), Catalonia recovered political and cultural autonomy. Today, Catalonia is one of the most economically dynamic regions of Spain. The Catalan capital and largest city, Barcelona , is a major international cultural centre and a major tourism destination. Catalonia's second Statute Of Autonomy , adopted by the Catalan government on 22 December 1979, officially recognized Catalonia as a Nationality . Then, the amended version approved on 9 August 2006 has defined Catalonia as a Nation in the preamble. The precise meaning of the term nation is ambiguous as to not conflict with the Spanish Constitution. The Statute of Autonomy also establishes that ''"Catalonia wishes to develop its political personality within the framework of a State which recognises and respects the diversity of identities of the peoples of Spain".'' After the charter was first passed in the regional parliament, it was then edited in conjunction with the national Cortes. The major political parties in Catalonia endorsed the final statute, and it was approved in a referendum in which 73.9% voted for the autonomy plan and 20.8% against it. The turnout was unpredencently low, at around 49% of the total census, which resulted in the highest abstention ever registered in Catalonia regarding this kind of referendum. "Catalonia endorses autonomy plan" , BBC News. 19 June 2006 LANGUAGE Originating in the historic territory of Catalonia , which is the official language throughout Spain, and Aranese (spoken in the Val D'Aran valley). Catalan was, until the 1970s, excluded from the state education system, and all other official use, and its use discouraged by the central government. Immigration had also reduced the social use of the language, especially in urban areas. In an attempt to reverse this decline the newly reestablished regional institutions of Catalonia embarked on a project of linguistic normalization of the Catalan language Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups and has, since 1983 , enforced laws which attempt to protect, and extend, the use of Catalan. Nowadays Catalan is the language of the Catalan autonomous government and the other public institutions that fall under its jurisdiction. Basic public education is given in Catalan other than two hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. Businesses are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) in Catalan under penalty of legal fines, there is no obligation to display this information in either Aranese or Spanish. The use of fines was introduced in 1997 linguistic law Catalonia's linguistic law which aims to increase the use of Catalan. According to the most recent linguistic census elaborated by the Government of Catalonia, 53,4% of citizens declared Spanish as their native language, although a majority claims Catalan as "their own language" (48.8% Catalan vs. 44.3% Spanish), and in most everyday uses, people who use exclusively Catalan or both languages equally are in the majority. IDESCAT 2003 The law, therefore, assures that both Catalan and Spanish –being official languages– can be used by the citizens without prejudice in all public and private activities Second article of Catalonia's linguistic law even though the Generalitat usually uses Catalan in its communications and notifications addressed to the general population. The citizens can also receive information from the Generalitat in Spanish if they so desire. Ninth article of Catalonia's Linguistic Law Finally, since the Statute Of Autonomy Of 1979 , Occitan , in its Aranese variety (a dialect of Gascon ), has been official and subject to special protection in the Val D'Aran (Aran Valley). This small area of 7,000 inhabitants has been the only place where Occitan (spoken mainly in France and some Italian valleys) has received full official status. Since 9 August 2006 , after the application of a new statute, Occitan has been also official in all of Catalonia. Catalan See Also: Catalan language Catalan is regarded by most and in lesser degree French . Literacy According to the 2001 Linguistic Census,http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/censling2001.pdf about 5,900,000 people in Catalonia (nearly 95% of the population) understand the Catalan language. The percentage of people aged two and older who can speak, read and write Catalan is as follows:
|