Whither Goest Thou, Catalunya?
Tomorrow (today, rather, as it's after midnight already) there are regional elections in Catalunya. The party in power at the moment, as well as some other independent-minded Catalan political parties, are taking these elections as a sign of whether or not the regional population wants independence. If the ruling nationalist party and its allies win a majority of seats in the Catalan parliament, within eighteen months a plan for independence will have been implemented. Could Spain be falling apart again?
Catalunya has always been slightly different from other Spanish regions and ancient kingdoms. It was liberated from the Moors by the French, and formed into different counties, that owed allegiance to the French kings. (You don't bite the hand that liberates you.) In the tenth century, however, the French kingdom became debilitated and the Count of Barcelona did not renew allegiance with the first king of the Capet dynasty. Catalunya became a collection of counties with the County of Barcelona at its head. In the twelfth century, however, Ramón Berenguer, Count of Barcelona, married Petronilla, daughter of the King of Aragón, and unified both lands, though each land would keep their own laws. The Kingdom of Aragón eventually merged with the Kingdom of Castile, and upon the death of Fernando, the Catholic Monarch, both were unified in 1516, though each area still retained its laws and customs. Until the Thirty Years War and the centralization efforts of Conde-duque de Olivares, the valido of Felipe IV, in an effort to raise money. He tried to impose extra taxes on the Catalans, and change certain forms of their government. (A valido was a personage in the Royal Court with powers much like a prime minister's nowadays, but he was a noble appointed by the king who did the king's bidding while the king trusted him. The moment the valido lost the trust of the king, he would be dismissed.)
But the Catalan counties did not want to be told by outsiders how to go about their business. They had had the privilege of keeping their ancient laws and customs and were not about to give them up now. Nor did they feel like paying more. From 1640 to 1653, the Catalans revolted. At that time Spain was also at war with France as part of the Thirty Years War, so Catalunya became a battleground between Spaniards and Catalans and Spaniards and French. At the end, the Catalans swore allegiance to the Spanish king, and Roussillon was lost to the French in the Treaty of the Pyrenees as part of the Treaty of Westphalia. (And never reclaimed, as Spain has tried to reclaim Gibraltar, lost to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht.)
Worse things were in store for Catalunya with the arrival of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne. In 1700 Felipe V of the House of Bourbon came to the throne. But the Catalans, along with the Aragoneses, Basques, and the British, wanted Charles of the Hapsburgs to become king. War ensued, Charles lost, Spain lost Gibraltar, and Catalunya and Aragón lost their traditional governing institutions, which became similar to those already in effect in Castille and other regions of Spain. Catalunya became simply another region of Spain from then on.
The Industrial Revolution in Spain came about mostly in Catalunya. The Basque Country also became industrialized, especially around Bilbao, but Catalunya maintained the brunt of it. The rise of nationalism in Europe also touched Catalunya (as well as other regions, such as Galicia, where a Rixurdimento of the Galician language occurred). La Renaixença came about, and a call was made to learn Catalan. Most nationalists also wanted a federal Spain, and autonomy as part of that. The concentration of urban workers also created different political tendencies, dedicated to bettering the lives of workers in the factories that supplied riches to the region, such as socialism, anarchism, and sindicalism. These tendencies and the intransigence of the civil government, representative of the Crown, created much tension, and ended in the Semana Trágica, from the 26th of July to the 2nd of August, 1909.
The government had decided to send reserve troops to the war Spain was waging in Melilla. Unfortunately, most of the reserve troops consisted of working men with families. To be let off, they could pay six thousand reales. But, at that time, the typical daily salary was around ten reales. No family could afford that, nor could they afford to send the bread-winner off to a war for which he would be paid very little, and from which he might not come back. All of Spain was affected, but Barcelona was the most vociferous. A strike was declared for the 26th of July. That day, a Monday, workers cut off all railroad traffic, and made all stores close in the center of Barcelona, which became a besieged city, with no electricity, phone service, or railway connection with the rest of the country. It quickly became an insurrection, and passed from being only antibellical, to also being anticlerical, which crowds assaulting monasteries and churches, sometimes killing the monks and priests, and burning the buildings. The Church was seen, as always, as being on the side of the rich and powerful, and forgetting about the poor. Soldiers were sent in, and morale among the workers fell as they saw no one else in Spain was rebelling. They were alone. Barcelona breathed again the 2nd of August.
But the repression was harsh. Thousands were arrested, fifty-nine condemned to life in prison, and five to death, though those who were executed were not shown to have instigated anything related to the violence of the strikes. But most were Catalan nationalists. After the strike, violence would break out from time to time until the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, from 1923 to 1930. During those years there was a crackdown on nationalism and the Catalan language was forbidden in public use. A small forerunner of the future. During the Second Republic, Catalunya approved a statute of autonomy and a certain amount of self-government that would disappear with the Civil War and the twilight of the Franco years.
With the Transition, Catalunya, along with the Basque Country and Galicia, was the first to receive the status of autonomous region, because during the Second Republic these regions had voted for autonomy (Galicia just a few days before the outbreak of the Civil War). And now, the president of Catalunya, Artur Mas, is convinced that that is not enough, and has made tomorrow's regional election a plebiscite for independence.
While I admit that Catalunya has not been well-treated by centralist Castille over these past thousand years, it's not the only region that has suffered. And the international situation is not the same, either. If Catalunya declares independence and achieves it, it will lose membership in the E.U. and the Euro. It will have to start from zero, and it will not be easy. The spectre of tanks in the streets is also there. Will it be worth it?
Catalunya has always been slightly different from other Spanish regions and ancient kingdoms. It was liberated from the Moors by the French, and formed into different counties, that owed allegiance to the French kings. (You don't bite the hand that liberates you.) In the tenth century, however, the French kingdom became debilitated and the Count of Barcelona did not renew allegiance with the first king of the Capet dynasty. Catalunya became a collection of counties with the County of Barcelona at its head. In the twelfth century, however, Ramón Berenguer, Count of Barcelona, married Petronilla, daughter of the King of Aragón, and unified both lands, though each land would keep their own laws. The Kingdom of Aragón eventually merged with the Kingdom of Castile, and upon the death of Fernando, the Catholic Monarch, both were unified in 1516, though each area still retained its laws and customs. Until the Thirty Years War and the centralization efforts of Conde-duque de Olivares, the valido of Felipe IV, in an effort to raise money. He tried to impose extra taxes on the Catalans, and change certain forms of their government. (A valido was a personage in the Royal Court with powers much like a prime minister's nowadays, but he was a noble appointed by the king who did the king's bidding while the king trusted him. The moment the valido lost the trust of the king, he would be dismissed.)
But the Catalan counties did not want to be told by outsiders how to go about their business. They had had the privilege of keeping their ancient laws and customs and were not about to give them up now. Nor did they feel like paying more. From 1640 to 1653, the Catalans revolted. At that time Spain was also at war with France as part of the Thirty Years War, so Catalunya became a battleground between Spaniards and Catalans and Spaniards and French. At the end, the Catalans swore allegiance to the Spanish king, and Roussillon was lost to the French in the Treaty of the Pyrenees as part of the Treaty of Westphalia. (And never reclaimed, as Spain has tried to reclaim Gibraltar, lost to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht.)
Worse things were in store for Catalunya with the arrival of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne. In 1700 Felipe V of the House of Bourbon came to the throne. But the Catalans, along with the Aragoneses, Basques, and the British, wanted Charles of the Hapsburgs to become king. War ensued, Charles lost, Spain lost Gibraltar, and Catalunya and Aragón lost their traditional governing institutions, which became similar to those already in effect in Castille and other regions of Spain. Catalunya became simply another region of Spain from then on.
The Industrial Revolution in Spain came about mostly in Catalunya. The Basque Country also became industrialized, especially around Bilbao, but Catalunya maintained the brunt of it. The rise of nationalism in Europe also touched Catalunya (as well as other regions, such as Galicia, where a Rixurdimento of the Galician language occurred). La Renaixença came about, and a call was made to learn Catalan. Most nationalists also wanted a federal Spain, and autonomy as part of that. The concentration of urban workers also created different political tendencies, dedicated to bettering the lives of workers in the factories that supplied riches to the region, such as socialism, anarchism, and sindicalism. These tendencies and the intransigence of the civil government, representative of the Crown, created much tension, and ended in the Semana Trágica, from the 26th of July to the 2nd of August, 1909.
The government had decided to send reserve troops to the war Spain was waging in Melilla. Unfortunately, most of the reserve troops consisted of working men with families. To be let off, they could pay six thousand reales. But, at that time, the typical daily salary was around ten reales. No family could afford that, nor could they afford to send the bread-winner off to a war for which he would be paid very little, and from which he might not come back. All of Spain was affected, but Barcelona was the most vociferous. A strike was declared for the 26th of July. That day, a Monday, workers cut off all railroad traffic, and made all stores close in the center of Barcelona, which became a besieged city, with no electricity, phone service, or railway connection with the rest of the country. It quickly became an insurrection, and passed from being only antibellical, to also being anticlerical, which crowds assaulting monasteries and churches, sometimes killing the monks and priests, and burning the buildings. The Church was seen, as always, as being on the side of the rich and powerful, and forgetting about the poor. Soldiers were sent in, and morale among the workers fell as they saw no one else in Spain was rebelling. They were alone. Barcelona breathed again the 2nd of August.
But the repression was harsh. Thousands were arrested, fifty-nine condemned to life in prison, and five to death, though those who were executed were not shown to have instigated anything related to the violence of the strikes. But most were Catalan nationalists. After the strike, violence would break out from time to time until the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, from 1923 to 1930. During those years there was a crackdown on nationalism and the Catalan language was forbidden in public use. A small forerunner of the future. During the Second Republic, Catalunya approved a statute of autonomy and a certain amount of self-government that would disappear with the Civil War and the twilight of the Franco years.
With the Transition, Catalunya, along with the Basque Country and Galicia, was the first to receive the status of autonomous region, because during the Second Republic these regions had voted for autonomy (Galicia just a few days before the outbreak of the Civil War). And now, the president of Catalunya, Artur Mas, is convinced that that is not enough, and has made tomorrow's regional election a plebiscite for independence.
While I admit that Catalunya has not been well-treated by centralist Castille over these past thousand years, it's not the only region that has suffered. And the international situation is not the same, either. If Catalunya declares independence and achieves it, it will lose membership in the E.U. and the Euro. It will have to start from zero, and it will not be easy. The spectre of tanks in the streets is also there. Will it be worth it?
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