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Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya, Spanish: Cataluña, Aranese: Catalonha) is a region in the north-east of the Iberian peninsula which formed the most populous part of the medieval Crown of Aragon and which is now an autonomous community within Spain. Modern Catalonia consists of the Spanish provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, an area of 32,114 km² with a population of 7,134,697 (2006 figures). The historical territory of the Principality of Catalonia also included most of what is now the French département of the Pyrénées-Orientales, ceded to France by the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Catalonia shares borders with France and Andorra to the north, with Aragon to the west, and with the Valencian Community to the south: to the east there is a 580 km Mediterranean coastline.

Legal Status within Spain

Catalonia is an Autonomous Community in the Kingdom of Spain, with the status of historical region or "nationality" in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. In September 2005, the Parliament of Catalonia approved the definition of Catalonia as a nation in the preamble of the new Statute of Autonomy. In the opinion of the Spanish Government this mention does have a declaratory but not legal value, since the Spanish Constitution recognizes the indissoluble "unity of the Spanish Nation". This said Spain can now be argued to have a federal structure in practice.

History

Like some other parts in the rest of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, it was colonized by Ancient Greeks, which chose Roses to settle in. 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 briefly came under Visigothic rule after Rome's collapse. But soon after it became under Moorish al-Andalus control in the eighth century. 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 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 organized 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 recognise 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 did formally relinquish 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 an 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 final surrender of Catalan troops 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 dictatoria 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.

Language

Catalan, regarded as the native language of Catalonia, is one of the three official languages as established in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The others are Spanish, which is the official language throughout Spain, and Aranese (spoken in the Val d'Aran valley).

The Catalan autonomous government has been promoting the Catalan language since its comeback in the early 1980s to date. Thus, public education is mostly given in Catalan and partly in Spanish, while government bureaucracy is entirely in Catalan. Businesses are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least in Catalan under penalty of legal fines, if they do not comply. The Catalan government maintains this policy in order to protect and promote Catalan in response to the repression and prohibition of the Franco years. Nowadays it encourages new immigrant residents to learn and use Catalan.

Catalan is regarded by most linguists as being an Iberian Romance language (Such as Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Aragonese...), but it also has several features of Gallo-Romance languages such as Occitan and in lesser degree French.

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 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 is also official in all of Catalonia.

Literacy

According to the 2001 Linguistic Census, 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:

As a result of the ongoing linguistic policies favouring Catalan, implemented in various degrees by the autonomous government during the last 20 years, knowledge of Catalan has advanced significantly in all these areas, with the ability to write it having experienced the most pronounced increase, from 31.6% of the population in 1986 to 49.8% in 2001.

By age groups, those between 10 and 29 have the highest level of Catalan-language literacy (e.g., 98.2% aged 10–14 understand it, and 85.2% can write it); this is attributed to these individuals having received a proper education in Catalan.

Geographically, Catalan is understood in northwest Catalonia (Alt Pirineu, Val d'Aran), at 97.4%, followed by south and western Catalonia, whereas Barcelona's metropolitan area sees the lowest knowledge, at 93.8%. The situation is analogous for written-language skills, with central Catalonia scoring the highest percentages (61.4%), and Barcelona the lowest (46.4%).

Barcelona is one of the main centres of the Spanish publishing industry for both Spanish-language and Catalan-language publishing.

Social use

According to a study carried out in 2003 by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalan is used by 50.1% of the population in everyday situations.

Significantly, over 55% of respondents use Spanish to address their parents (versus 42% who choose Catalan). This is attributed to massive immigration from other areas in Spain during the second half of the 20th century, as a consequence of which many Catalans have one or both parents born outside Catalonia. However, a majority (52.6%) use Catalan with their children (42.3% Spanish). This can be attributed to some Spanish-speaking citizens shifting from their mother tongue to Catalan at home.

Outside the family, 48.6% of the population indicate that they address strangers exclusively or preferentially in Catalan, while the proportion of those who use Spanish is 41.7%. Then 8.6% claim to use both equally.

Aranese

According to the 2001 Aranese Linguistic Census, knowledge of Aranese in the Occitan-speaking territory of Aran is as follows:

Compared to previous data from 1996, the number of those able to understand Aranese has declined slightly (90.5% in 1996), while at the same time there has been a marginal increase in the number of those able to write it (24.97% in 1996).

By age groups, the largest percentage of those with knowledge of Aranese is in the 15-19 and 65-69 groups (both above 96%), while those aged 30-34 score lowest (just over 80%). Literacy is higher in the 10-19 group with over 88% declaring themselves able to read, and 76% able to write Aranese. Those over 80 are the least literate, with only about 1.5% of them being able to write the language.

It is significant to note that in the Val d'Aran, those born outside Spain outnumber Spaniards born outside Aran and Catalonia in the active use of Aranese (17% of non-Spaniards can write Aranese, while the percentage for Spaniards excluding Catalans is 10%).

Economy of Catalonia

The GDP as of 2005 is € 170,450 million and Per capita GDP is $24,858, ranking 4th among autonomous communities in Spain.

The Catalan economy is distinguished by its industrial profile. The distribution of sectors in Catalonia is as follows:

• Primary sector: 2.8%
• Secondary sector: 37.2%
• Tertiary sector: 60%

The GDP growth is 3,3%, the land dedicated to agricultural use is 33%. The most commonly cultivated crops in Catalonia are maize, potatoes, forage, vines, olives and cereals.

Also commonly practiced are horticulture and animal husbandry; most important to the latter the porcine livestock, bovine livestock and ovine livestock.

Transportation in Catalonia

Airports

• Barcelona International Airport
• Girona-Costa Brava Airport
• Reus Airport
• Sabadell Airport

Commercial and passenger ports

• Port of Barcelona
• Port of Tarragona
• Port of Palamos

Roads

There are 12,000 km of roads throughout Catalonia.

The principal highway is AP-7 know also as Autopista del Mediterraneo. 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:

• AP-2
• A-2
• N-II
• C-12
• A-16 or C-32
• C-16
• C-17
• C-25
• A-26
• C-32
• C-60

Railways

Catalonia saw the first railway construction in Spain 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 French Railways at Portbou on the coast.

The railroad companies operating in Catalonia are FGC and RENFE.

High speed AVE services from Madrid currently reach Tarragona but construction is near completion into Barcelona (and the airport). Agreement has been reached to connect further to the French high speed network by building a new line and rail tunnel through the Pyrenees.

Law and government of Catalonia

The Government of Catalonia is known as the Generalitat in Catalan language. It consists of a Parliament, a President and an Executive Council. Local governments include comarques (roughly equivalent to counties), as well as smaller forms of municipal administration. Catalonia is divided into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona (Gerona in Spanish), Lleida (Lérida in Spanish, Lhèida in Aranese), and Tarragona.

Catalan self-government

After Franco's death in 1975 and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain in 1978, Catalonia recovered, and extended, the powers granted in the statute of autonomy of 1932 it had lost with the fall of the Second Spanish Republic at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 .

The historical region has gradually achieved a greater degree of autonomy since 1979. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in various matters including culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments while it shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government in education, health and justice. Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, which is currently in process of taking over most of the role within Catalonia of Spanish nationwide police forces Guardia Civil and Policia Nacional, who are to remain responsible only for fighting terrorism, borders and immigration matters. Most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions. The legal system is uniform throughout Spain, with the exception of so-called "civil law", which is administered separately within Catalonia.

After Navarre and the Basque Country, Catalonia is the Spanish region with the highest degree of Autonomy.

Politics of Catalonia

The institutional normative law of Catalonia is the Statute of Autonomy. It 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 through the return of democracy in Spain, the presidents of Catalonia have been Jordi Pujol (1980-2003), Pasqual Maragall (2003-2006) and incumbent José Montilla Aguilera.

Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, whose origins trace back to the eighteenth century. Since 1980 they are under the commandment of the Generalitat, and since 1994 it is expanding in order to replace the Spain-wide Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, which report directly to the Homeland Department of Spain. These corps are to retain a limited number of agents within Catalonia to exercise specific functions such as overseeing ports, airports, coasts, international borders, custom offices, identification documents, control of armament amongst others.

Parties

• CiU — Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Unity) - federation
  • CDC — Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Convergence of Catalonia)
  • UDC — Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Union of Catalonia)
• PSC-PSOE — Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya-Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Socialist Party of Catalonia-Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)
• ERC — Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia)
• ICV-EUiA — Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (Initiative for Catalonia-Greens – United and Alternative Left)
• PP — Partit Popular (People's Party)
• Ciutadans — Partido de la Ciudadanía

Environmental policy

Awareness of environmental problems tends to be much lower in Catalonia (and in Spain as a whole) than in northern Europe. Carbon dioxide emissions in Catalonia have increased by 40% since 1992, and 60% of the region's electricity comes from aging nuclear power stations (a figure only exceeded in Europe by France and Lithuania). Despite Catalonia's change of government in 2004 from the long time ruling conservative/nationalist CiU to a "liberal/green" tripartite coalition of PSC, ERC, and ICV parties, there is little evidence of greater concern for the environment. ICV was put in charge of the Department of Environment, but has largely continued the outgoing administration's policies. The Department's decision to build the controversial Bracons tunnel through an area of outstanding natural beauty, and a plan to situate an incinerator burning 90,000 metric tonnes of industrial waste in a heavily-populated valley are two of the mentioned issues.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia

There are several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Catalonia:

• Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, Tarragona
• Catalan Romanesque Churches at Vall de Boí
• Poblet Monastery, Poblet, Tarragona province
• Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona
• Works of Antoni Gaudi:
  • Sagrada Família, Barcelona
  • Parc Güell, Barcelona
  • Palau Güell, Barcelona
  • Casa Milà, Barcelona

See also

• Principality of Catalonia
• Template:Wikitravel
• History of Catalonia
• National Day of Catalonia
• Catalan Countries
• Catalan nationalism
• Famous Catalan People
• Barcelona
• FC Barcelona
• Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
• .cat
• Caga Tió
• Cuisine of Catalonia
• List of rivers of Catalonia

References

1. Preamble of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, Generalitat of Catalonia
2. First article of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalunya
3. "Catalonia endorses autonomy plan", BBC News. 19 June 2006
4. Estatut d'Autonomia de Catalunya
5. "Multan por rotular en castellano a un comercio de Barcelona", El Mundo. 21 December 2006
6. Oficina de Garanties Lingüístiques
7. http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/censling2001.pdf
8. http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/usos2003.pdf
9. http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/aran/docs/a_aran_cens.pdf
10. CIDEM
11. CIDEM
12. Beginnings of the autonomous regime, 1918-1932
13. The republican Government of Catalonia, 1931-1939
14. Title IV. Powers (articles 110-173)of the 2006 Statute
15. Legislació civil catalana
16. The Vall del Ges incinerator

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• The Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia)
• Statistical information from Idescat (Catalan Institute of Statistics)
• Online guide to French Catalonia
• Key dates in Catalan history
• Lletra. Catalan Literature Online
• Lletra. espai virtual de literatura catalana

• Barcelona Architecture Chronology of Catalan architecture and biographies of Catalan architects, from the Gothic master builders to contemporary architecture.

• Catalan Hyperencyclopaedia: Encyclopedia with information about Catalonia in English
• A guide to the natural history of Catalonia
• Official page of Lloret's tourism
• Barcelona Reporter: daily news in English from the Catalan capital
• Catalonia Today - Catalan newspaper in English
• The Spirit of Catalonia. 1946 book by Oxford Professor Dr. Josep Trueta
• EatCatalunya.com: Online resource in English offering information about Catalan cuisine and culinary culture.

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• Catalonia
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