Catalonia ( ; ; Aranese; Catalonha) is one of the
seventeen Autonomous
Communities of the Kingdom of Spain
. Its capital city is Barcelona
. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km²
and has an official population of 7,364,078.
It borders France
and Andorra
to the
north, Aragon
to the west,
the Valencian
Community
to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea
to the east (580 km coastline). The
official languages are
Catalan,
Spanish and
Aranese.
Etymology
The name
Catalunya (Catalonia) began to be used in the
12th century in reference to the group of counties that comprised
the
Marca Hispanica, which gradually
became independent from the French. The origin of the term is
subject to diverse interpretations. A theory suggests that
Catalunya derives from the term "Land of Castles", having
evolved from the term
castlà, the ruler of a castle (see
castellan). This theory, therefore,
suggests that the term
castellà ("
Castilian") would have been
synonymous. Though critics usually consider it rather
limited.
Another theory suggests that
Catalunya derives from
Gothia, "Land of the
Goths", since
the
Spanish March was one of the
places known as
Gothia, whence
Gothland and
Gothlandia theoretically
derived,
Yet another theory less accepted, points to the
Lacetani, an
Iberian tribe
that lived in the area, and whose name, due to the Roman influence,
could have evolved to
Katelans and then
Catalans.
Climate
The climate of Catalonia is diverse.
The populated areas
lying by the coast in Tarragona
, Barcelona
and Girona
feature a Mediterranean climate.
The inland
part (including the Lleida province
and the inner part of Barcelona) show a mostly
continental
Mediterranean climate. The Pyreneean
peaks have a mountain or even Alpine climate at the highest
summits.
In the Mediterranean area, summers are dry and hot with sea
breezes, and the maximum temperature is around 25-30 °C. Winter is
cool or cold depending on the location. It snows frequently in the
Pyrenees, and it occasionally snows at lower altitudes, even by the
coastline. Spring and autumn are typically the rainiest seasons,
except for the Pyrenean valleys, where summer is typically
stormy.
The inland part of Catalonia is hotter and drier in summer.
Temperature may reach 35 °C, some days even 40 °C. Nights are
cooler there than at the coast with the temperature of around 14°
to 16 °C.
Fog is not uncommon in valleys and plains, it
can be especially resilient and with freezing drizzle episodes during winter by
the Segre
and other
river valleys.
Legal status within Spain
The
Spanish Constitution of
1978 declares that Spain is an indissoluble nation that
recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the
nationalities and
regions that constitute it.
Catalonia, alongside Basque
Country
and Galicia
was set
apart from the rest of Spain as a Historical nationality
and given the ability to accede to autonomy automatically, which
resulted in the 1979 Statute of Autonomy of
Catalonia. The rest of Spain, in a process spearheaded
by Andalusia
and completed by 1985, carved itself into 14
additional Autonomous
Communities by drafting their own Statutes of Autonomy.
After
2003 there has been a round of amendments to the various Statutes
of Autonomy (notably, alongside Catalonia's, those of Aragon, the
Valencian
Community, the Balearic Islands
and the Canary Islands
)
Both the 1979 Statute of Autonomy and the current one, 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.
The
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. The Preamble of the Statute lacks legal
value, thus the constitutional status is the same as it was in
1979, which is an Autonomous Community. 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 surrounding
Autonomous Communities of Aragon,
Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, as well as by the
Partido Popular. The
objections are based on various issues such as disputed
cultural heritage but, especially, on the
Statute's alleged breaches of the principle of "solidarity between
regions" enshrined by the
Constitution in fiscal and
educational matters. As of November 2008, the
Constitutional Court of Spain
is assessing the constitutionality of the challenged articles; its
binding conclusion is expected in 2009.
History
Catalan Court.
Like some
other parts in the rest of the Mediterranean
coast of the Iberian Peninsula
, Catalonia was colonised 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 four
centuries after Rome's collapse.
In the eighth century, it came under
Moorish al-Andalus
control. Still, after the defeat of Emir
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi'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 what came to be known
as the Marca Hispanica, a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania
made up of locally administered separate petty kingdoms 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 organised as small counties throughout the
northernmost part of Catalonia. The
counts of Barcelona were
Frankish
vassals nominated by the emperor
then the king of France, to whom they were feudatories
(801–987).
In 987 the count of Barcelona did not recognize the French king
Hugh Capet and his new dynasty which put
it effectively out of the Frankish rule. Two years later, in 989,
Catalonia declared its independence.
Then, in 1137,
Ramon Berenguer
IV, Count of Barcelona married Queen Petronila of Aragon establishing the
dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom of
Aragon
which was to create the Crown of Aragon.
It was
not until 1258, by means of the Treaty of Corbeil, that the king of
France formally relinquished his feudal lordship over the counties
of the Principality of Catalonia
to the king of Aragon James I, descendant of Ramon Berenguer
IV. This Treaty transformed the region's
de facto independence into a
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 maritime power, helping expand the Crown by trade and
conquest into the Kingdom of
Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and even Sardinia,
Sicily, Corsica
, Naples
, Athens
, Canary
Islands and America.
In 1410, King
Martin I died without
surviving descendants. As a result, by the
Pact of Caspe,
Ferdinand of Antequera from the
Castilian dynasty of
Trastamara, received
the Crown of Aragon as
Ferdinand I
of Aragon.
His
grandson, King Ferdinand II of
Aragon married Queen Isabella
I of Castile in 1469; retrospectively, this is seen as the dawn
of the Kingdom of
Spain. At that point both
Castile and
Aragon remained distinct territories, each
keeping its own traditional institutions, Parliaments and laws.
Political power began to shift away from Aragon toward Castile and,
subsequently, from Castile to the
Spanish
Empire.
For an extended period, Catalonia, as part of the former Crown of
Aragon, continued to retain its own usages and laws, but these
gradually eroded in the course of the transition from
feudalism to a modern state, fueled by the kings'
struggle to have more
centralized
territories. Over the next few centuries, Catalonia was generally
on the losing side of a series of local conflicts that led steadily
to more centralization of power in Spain, like the
Reapers' War (1640–1652).
The most significant conflict was the
War of the Spanish Succession,
which began when
Charles II of
Spain (the last Spanish
Habsburg) died without a successor in
1700. Catalonia, as the other territories which used to form the
Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages, mostly rose up in support of
the Habsburg pretender
Charles of Austria, while the
rest of Spain mostly adhered to the French
Bourbon claimant,
Philip V.
Following the fall of Barcelona on 11 September 1714,
the 'special status' of the territories belonging to the former
Crown of Aragon and its institutions were abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees, under which all
its lands were incorporated to Crown of
Castile, as provinces, into a united Spanish administration, as
Spain
moved towards a centralised government under the new
Bourbon dynasty.
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. 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 political unrest and the
preeminence of the
Anarchists
during the
Spanish Civil War
(1936–1939). They were also active throughout the early 20th
century, achieving the first eight-hour workday in the world in
1919. After the defeat of the Republic in the
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) which
brought General
Francisco Franco to
power, his regime suppressed any kind of public activities
associated with Catalan nationalism,
Anarchism,
Socialism,
Democracy or
Communism, such as publishing books on the matter
or simply discussing them in open meetings. As part of this
suppression the use of
Catalan in
government-run institutions and in public events was banned.
During
later stages of the Francoist
régime certain folkloric and religious celebrations
in Catalan resumed and were tolerated. Use of Catalan in the
mass media was forbidden, but was
permitted from the early 1950s in the theatre. Publishing in
Catalan continued throughout the dictatorship.
After Franco's death (1975) and with 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 tourist destination.
Languages
Originating in the historic territory of Catalonia,
Catalan is one of the three official
languages and has enjoyed special status since the approval of the
Statute of Autonomy of
1979 which declares it to be the language "proper to
Catalonia".
The other languages with official status are
Spanish, which has official status
throughout Spain, and Aranese, a dialect of Gascon
Occitan spoken in the Aran Valley
.
Under the Franco dictatorship Catalan was, until the 1970s,
excluded from the state education system and all other official and
public use, including the prohibition of giving children Catalan
names .
Rural-urban migration
originating in other parts of Spain also reduced the social use of
the language in urban areas, while increasing the use of Spanish.
Lately, a similar
sociolinguistic
phenomenon has occurred with foreign immigration.
After the Franco dictatorship, in an attempt to reverse this, the
re-established self-government democratic institutions of Catalonia
embarked on a long term
language
policy to increase the use of Catalan and has, since 1983,
enforced laws which attempt to protect, and extend, the use of
Catalan. Some groups consider these efforts a way to discourage the
use of Spanish, while some others, including the Catalan government
and the European Union consider the policies respectful, or even as
an example which "should be disseminated throughout the
Union".
Today, Catalan is the main language of the Catalan autonomous
government and the other public institutions that fall under its
jurisdiction. Basic public education is given in Catalan except for
two hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. Businesses are
required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least
in Catalan under penalty of fines; there is no obligation to
display this information in either Aranese or Spanish, although
there is no restriction on doing so in these or other languages and
this is often done, in particular in Spanish. The use of fines was
introduced in a 1997 linguistic law that aims to increase the use
of Catalan. The law ensures that both Catalan and Spanish – being
official languages – can be used by the citizens without prejudice
in all public and private activities, but primary education can
only be taken in Catalan language. The Generalitat uses Catalan in
its communications and notifications addressed to the general
population, but citizens can also receive information from the
Generalitat in Spanish if they so desire.
According to the most recent linguistic census held by the
Government of Catalonia , a plurality claims Spanish as "their own
language" (37.26% Catalan compared to 46.53% Spanish), and in most
everyday uses people who use exclusively Spanish or both languages
equally are in the majority. 57.83% of citizens declared Spanish as
a native language, either exclusively or along with Catalan.
Also,
starting with the Statute of
Autonomy of 1979, Aranese (a dialect of
Gascon) has been official and
subject to special protection in the Aran Valley. This small area of 7,000 inhabitants was
the only place where a dialect of
Occitan has received full official status.
Then, on 9 August 2006, when the new Statute came into force,
Occitan became official throughout Catalonia.
Due to the
intense immigration
which Spain in general and Catalonia in particular experienced in
the first decade of the twentyfirst century, many foreign languages
are spoken in various cultural communities in Catalonia, of which
Arabic and
Urdu
are the more common.
Economy
The Catalonia is more industrialised than other parts of Spain. The
distribution of sectors is the following one:
In 2007 the regional
GDP of
Catalonia was € 202,509 million and per capita GDP was € 24,445 in
2007. In this year, the GDP growth was 3.7%,. In the context of the
2008 financial crisis,
Catalonia is expected to suffer a
recession amounting to almost a 2% contraction of
its regional GDP in 2009
The main
tourist destinations in Catalonia are the city of Barcelona, the beaches of the Costa
Brava at Girona
and the
Costa
Daurada
at Tarragona
. In the Pyrenees there are several ski resorts.
Many
savings banks are based in
Catalonia: 10 of the 46 Spanish savings banks are Catalan and
"
La Caixa" is Europe's premier savings bank
The first
private bank in Catalonia is
Banc Sabadell, now fourth of the
Spanish private banks.
The stock market of Barcelona, which in 2004 traded almost 205,000
million € ., is the second largest of Spain after Madrid, and
Fira de Barcelona organizes
international exhibitions and congresses to do with different
sectors of the economy.
The main economic cost for the Catalan families is the purchase of
a house. According to daof ta the Society of Appraisal on the 31
December 2005 Catalonia is, after Madrid, the second most expensive
region in Spain for housing: 3,397 €/m² on average(See
Spanish property bubble).
Politics
After
Franco's death in 1975 and
the adoption of
a
democratic constitution in Spain in 1978, Catalonia recovered,
and extended, the powers that it had gained in the statute of
autonomy of 1932 but lost with the fall of the
Second Spanish Republic at the end
of the
Spanish Civil War in
1939.
The region has gradually achieved more autonomy since 1979. The
Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in culture, environment,
communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local
government, and shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government in
education, health and justice.
There is some nationalist sentiment present in a part of the
population of Catalonia, which ranges from the desire for
independence from Spain expressed by
Catalan separatists, to a more generic
demand for further autonomy.Some non-binding referendums with local
character, asking the population whether or not do they want to
achieve the independence, have been undertaken
[690].
Law and government of Catalonia
The
Statute of Autonomy
of Catalonia is the fundamental organic law, second only to the
Spanish Constitution
from which the Statute originates.
The Catalan Statute of Autonomy
establishes that Catalonia is organized politically through the
Generalitat de
Catalunya, conformed by the Parliament, the Presidency of the Generalitat, the Government
or Executive Council and the other institutions created by the
Parliament.
The seat
of the Executive Council is the city of Barcelona. Since the restoration of the Generalitat on
the return of democracy in Spain, the
presidents
of Catalonia have been Jordi Pujol
(1980-2003), Pasqual Maragall
(2003-2006) and José
Montilla Aguilera, incumbent .
Catalonia
is divided into four provinces:
Barcelona
, Girona, Lleida
, and Tarragona
, which are subdivided into comarques (roughly equivalent to
counties), and further into local municipalities.
Security forces
Catalonia has its own police force, the
Mossos d'Esquadra, whose origins date
back to the eighteenth century. Since 1980 they have been under the
command of the Generalitat, and since 1994 they have expanded in
number in order to replace the national
Guardia Civil and
Policía Nacional, which
report directly to the Homeland Department of Spain. The national
bodies retain personnel within Catalonia to exercise functions of
national scope such as overseeing ports, airports, coasts,
international borders, custom offices, the identification of
documents and arms control amongst others.
Most of the justice system is administered by national judicial
institutions. The
criminal justice
system is uniform throughout Spain, while "
civil law" is administered
separately within Catalonia.
After
Navarre
and the Basque
Country, Catalonia is the Spanish region with the highest
degree of autonomy.
Demographics
The autonomous community of Catalonia covers an area of
32,114 km² with an official population of 7,354,411 (2008)
from which immigrants represent an estimated 12.3%.
The
Urban Region of Barcelona
includes 3,327,872 people and covers an area of 2.268 km² and
about 1.7 million people live in a radius of 15 km from
Barcelona. The metropolitan area of the Urban Region
includes cities like l'Hospitalet de Llobregat
, Badalona
, Santa Coloma de Gramenet
and Cornellà
.
In 1900 the population of Catalonia was 1,984,115 people and in
1970 it was 5,107,606.
That increase was produced due to the
demographic boom produced in Spain during the 60s and early 70s and
also due to the large-scale internal migration produced from the
rural interior of Spain to its
industrial cities. In Catalonia that wave of internal migration
arrived from several regions of Spain, especially Andalusia, Murcia
and Extremadura
.
Transport
Airports
Commercial and passenger ports
Roads
- see also List of autopistes
and autovies in Catalonia
There are 12,000 km of roads throughout Catalonia.
The principal highway is
AP-7 known
also as
Autopista del Mediterrani.
It follows the coast
from the French Border to Valencia, located south of Tarragona. The main roads
generally radiate from Barcelona. The A-2 and AP-2 connect inland
and onward to Madrid.
Other major roads are:
Railways
Catalonia
saw the first railway construction in Iberian Peninsula in 1848, linking Barcelona with Mataró
.
Given the
topography most lines radiate from Barcelona. The city has both suburban and inter-city
services.
The main east coast line runs through the
province connecting with the SNCF (French Railways) at Portbou
on the coast.
There are two publicly owned railway companies operating in
Catalonia: the Catalan
FGC and the
Spanish national
RENFE.
High
speed AVE (Alta Velocidad Española)
services from Madrid currently reach Lleida
, Tarragona and Barcelona. The official opening between Barcelona and Madrid
took place
20 February 2008. The journey between Barcelona and Madrid now takes
about 2 and a half hours. Construction has commenced to
extend the high speed line northwards to connect with the French
high speed TGV network.
This new line passes through Girona and there is
a tunnel through the Pyrenees.
Some symbols of Catalonia
Catalonia has its own representative and distinctive symbols such
as:
The flag of Catalonia
- One of the most famous international symbols of Catalonia is
FC Barcelona. The area's footballing
branch is supported with a passion by the 'cules'. Each season they
engage in one of Spanish football's most famous rivalries, the
El Clásico with La Liga powerhouse and long-time rivals Real Madrid.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia
There are
several UNESCO
World Heritage Sites in
Catalonia:
Popular culture
Castellers are one of the main
manifestations of Catalan popular culture. The activity consists in
constructing human towers by competing
colles castelleres
(teams). This practice originated in the southern part of Catalonia
during the 18th century.
The
sardana is the most characteristic
Catalan popular dance, other groups also practice
Ball de bastons,
moixiganga or
jota in
the southern part. Musically the
Havaneres are also characteristic in
the marine localities of the
Costa Brava
specially during the summer months when these songs are sung
outdoors accompanied by a
cremat of
burned rum. As opposed to other parts of Spain,
flamenco is not popularly performed, but rather the
rumba is a more prevalent dance
style.
In the greater celebrations other elements of the Catalan popular
culture are usually present: the parades of
gegants (giants) and
correfocs of devils and firecrackers. Another
traditional celebration in Catalonia is
La Patum de Berga declared oral and
immaterial patrimony of the Humanity by UNESCO in the
25 November 2005.
In addition to the traditional local Catalan culture, people can
enjoy traditions from other parts of Spain as a result of sizeable
migration from other regions.
See also
References
- [1] (catalan)
- Enciclopèdia Catalana online: Catalunya ("Geral de
Cataluign, Raimundi Catalan and Arnal Catalan appear in
1107/1112") in Catalan
- La formació de Catalunya
- Curiositats sobre Catalunya i el català
- La Catalogne : son nom et ses limites
historiques. Histoire de Rousillon.
-
http://books.google.com/books?id=nUABAAAAMAAJ&q=gotholandia&dq=gotholandia&hl=es&pgis=1
- Bulke, Ulrich. (1900). A History of Spain from the Earliest Times to the
Death of Ferdinand the Catholic. Longman, Greens and Co.
London, UK
- El Misteri de la Paraula Cathalunya
- Constitución Española, Título Preliminar
- First article of the Statute of Autonomy of
Catalunya
- Admitidos los recursos de Aragón, Valencia y
Baleares contra el Estatuto catalán. hoy.es
- Marc Howard Ross, " Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict", page
139. Cambridge University Press, 2007
- The Resurgence of Catalan Earl W. Thomas Hispania, Vol. 45, No.
1 (Mar., 1962), pp. 43-48 doi:10.2307/337523
- Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (Article
6)
- Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and
Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups
- http://medios.mugak.eu/noticias/noticia/150764 Diario El Mundo,
Spanish Only
- http://www.elimparcial.es/contenido/19605.html Diario El
Imparcial, Spanish Only
-
http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/06/17/llaman_lputo_inmigrante_espanolr_al_padr
Diario Periodista Digital, Spanish Only
-
http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/ultimahora.php/2006/02/02/la_justicia_obliga_a_una_escuela_de_bada
Diario Periodista Digital, Spanish Only
- Page 13: Catalan Deputy of Education
Ernest
Maragall declares respect from the Catalan Government to
Spanish language and to everyone's rights. Catalan only
- EU takes Basque Country, Galicia, Catalonia and
Valencia as examples of bilingualism.
- The President Montilla promises to look after the
use and respect both for Spanish and Catalan languages.
- Report from the European Union in which Catalan
immersion is taken as an example which "should be disseminated
throughout the Union" (page 18)
- Catalonia's linguistic law
- Second article of Catalonia's linguistic
law
- Ninth article of Catalonia's Linguistic
Law
- http://www.idescat.cat/dequavi/?TC=444&V0=15&V1=2
-
http://www.europapress.es/cultura/noticia-catalunya-arabe-urdu-aparecen-lenguas-habituales-catalunya-creando-peligro-guetos-20090629150020.html
- European Structural Funds in Spain
(2000-2006)
- [2] CIDEM
- [3] CIDEM
-
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/BBVA/descarta/economia/catalana/caiga/elpepuespcat/20090114elpepueco_7/Tes
- Ranking of Savings Banks
- [4] Profile of "Banc Sabadell" in
Euroinvestor]
- Beginnings of the autonomous regime,
1918-1932
- The republican Government of Catalonia,
1931-1939
- Title IV. Powers (articles 110-173)of the 2006
Statute
- CIS Poll covering, among others, nationalist
opinions.
- Legislació civil catalana
- "Catalunya arriba a set milions d'habitants", Diari El
Punt.
- " Catalans grapple with migrant influx", BBC
News. 3 January 2007
-
http://www15.gencat.net/pres_catalunya_dades/AppPHP/cat/poblacio.htm
- Statute of Catalonia (Article 8)
- Law 1/1980 where the Parlamient of Catalonia
declares that 11th of September is the National Day of
Catalonia
- Law 1/1993 National Anthem of Catalonia
- Law 1/1993 in the BOE
- Patum de Berga
External links
(BCN) Barcelona/El Prat de Llobregat {El
Prat/Barcelona};
(GRO) Girona/Gerona{Vilobi d`Onyar};
Reus/Tarragona/Costa Daurada
(REU){Constanti/Reus/Tarragona};
(QSA){Sabadell SAB)}.
, Poblet, Tarragona province
and Hospital de Sant Pau
, Barcelona
, Barcelona
, Barcelona
(La Pedrera), Barcelona
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