General Catalonia history and where it all started

Catalonia is a small triangular shaped island found on the north-east part of Spain. The sovereign community of Catalonia was formed in 1979 and has a government that is referred to as a Generalist consisting of the Executive that is headed by a President and a deliberative parliament.

The capital city of Catalonia is Barcelona.  Catalonia was previously under the Aragon crown and from as far as the 17th century it has been fighting to be separated from Spain to become an independent nation.

Catalonia was among the first to be possessed by the Romans. The Goths were the first to occupy it, then the Moors and Charlemagne in the 8th century who integrated Catalonia into Spain. As a result of a marriage joining together King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile which united the realms of Catalonia and Spain, the two became like one nation. After sometime the Catalans felt like they were giving Spain too much and receiving very little in return so a rebellion started in order to separate themselves to become an independent state.

When the 17th century rolled in, the Catalans felt the need for separation from Spain because of several factors one of them being that Spain had experienced an economic meltdown and a conflict of interest with Castille. They tried to revolt by placing themselves under France’s protection but that was short lived because that was suppressed in the year 1650.  By the 1700s their constitution and autonomy had been abolished by Bourbon Philip the fifth.

Catalan continued with the quest for separatism again in the 19th century following up on the efforts made in the 1850s to bring back Catalan language as a literature, that movement is referred to as the Rebirth or Renaixenca. The defeat of the Carlists brought forth the support of the church for Autonomy.

It attracted two stands on the matter one of them being the conservative and the other being the liberal.

A left-wing coalition party was formed called Esquerra Republicana. The party went on to win the elections conducted in 1931 that led to the proclamation of Catalan as a republic by its leader. By 1932, self-rule for Catalonia became a law after compromises were made by the central government. The civil war was a major derailment for Catalonia because General Franco repressed the nationalism of the Catalan people.

After the general passed on, Spain became a democratic country but that did not entice Catalonia to stay rather they opted to continue with their quest for freedom. Limited autonomy was given to them in 1977.  A union party was formed the next year and it shaped the politics of Catalonia for so many years after. Autonomy in its full form was given in 1979 and by 2006 a nation status was given and with it came taxation of the same level with the centralized government in Spain. After a few years, a constitutional court of Spain removed some parts of the statute calling Catalonia a nationality and not a nation as had previously been declared.

The parliament called for a referendum to vote on independence from Spain in 2014, This was a move made after Scotland tried to do the same to break free from the United Kingdom. Mariano Rajoy the Spanish Prime Minister fought the move till it was left pending as the court deliberated on the legality of the referendum votes. Artur Mas the Convergence and Union Leader still went on with the referendum though informally, a majority of those who participated voted for the exit from Spain.

The fight has continued over the years but there will be a fresh election on December 21, 2017 and we are yet to see the outcome Since Spain continues to frustrate the efforts of Catalans by even arresting their leaders and anyone in public support of the separatism.