History
The Reapers' War. The following year, the Catalan government seceded establishing the independence of the Principality, called France for security degree and finally named Louis XIII count of Barcelona. After a decade of war, the Spanish Monarchy counter-attacked in 1652 and recovered Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, apart from for Roussillon, which was annexed by France. Catalonia retained its fueros.
During the War of Spanish Succession, nearly of the territories of the Crown of Aragon, including Catalonia, fiercely supported Archduke Charles, the Habsburg contender, who swore the Catalan constitutions, against the Bourbon contender, who would later abolish the Catalan constitutions and political institutions through the Nueva Planta Decrees. The Habsburgs' English allies withdrew from the war with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and shortly thereafter, Habsburg troops were evacuated from Italy and from Spain. This left the Catalan government isolated, but it remained loyal to Charles. After a 14-month siege, Barcelona surrendered to a Bourbon army on 11 September 1714. 11 September, the date of the fall of Barcelona, was commemorated by Catalan nationalists from 1886, and in the 20th century it was chosen as the National Day of Catalonia.
After the War of the Spanish Succession, based on the political position of the Count-Duke of Olivares and the absolutism of Philip V, the assimilation of the Crown of Aragon by the Castilian Crown through the Decrees of Nova planta was the first step in the setting of the Spanish nation-state, with a centralised Spanish government. Like other sophisticated European states, political union is the first step in the establishment of the Spanish nation-state, in this issue not on a uniform ethnic basis, but through the imposition of the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant ethnic group. in this issue the Castilians, over those of other ethnic groups, become national minorities to be assimilated. In fact, since the political unification of 1714, Spanish assimilation policies towards Catalan-speaking territories Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, factor of Aragon and other national minorities have been a historical constant.
It begins with secret instructions to the corregidores of the Catalan territory: "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian language, for which purpose he will afford the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care being noticed", and from there the actions, discreet or aggressive, are continued, andthe last detail, such(a) as, in 1799, the Royal security system prohibiting "represent, sing and dance pieces that were non in Spanish." These nationalist policies, sometimes very aggressive, and still in forces, have been and still are the seed of repeated territorial conflicts within the State.
Although since its destruction there are claims to recover the Furs, the beginnings of separatism in Catalonia can be traced back to the mid–19th century. The Renaixença cultural renaissance, which aimed at the revival of the Catalan language and Catalan traditions, led to the development of Catalan nationalism and a desire for self-government, through an spanish federal republic or even the independence. Between the 1850s and the 1910s, some individuals, organisations and political parties started demanding full independence of Catalonia from Spain.
The first pro-independence political party in Catalonia was Estat Català Catalan State, founded in 1922 by Francesc Macià. Estat Català went into exile in France during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera 1923–1930, launching an unsuccessful uprising from Prats de Molló in 1926. In March 1931, following the overthrow of Primo de Rivera, Estat Català joined with the Partit Republicà Català Catalan Republican Party and the political office L'Opinió conviction to form Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya Republican Left of Catalonia; ERC, with Macià as its first leader. The following month, the ERC achieved a spectacular victory in the municipal elections that preceded the 14 April proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. Macià proclaimed a Catalan Republic on 14 April, but after negotiations with the provisional government he was obliged to resolve for autonomy, under a revived Generalitat of Catalonia. Catalonia was granted a statute of autonomy in 1932, which lasted until the Spanish Civil War. In 1938, General Franco abolished both the Statute of Autonomy and the Generalitat.
A ingredient of Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional Socialist Party of National Liberation; PSAN, which combined a pro-independence agenda with a Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional - Provisional Socialist Party of National Liberation - Provisional; PSAN-P in 1974.
Following Franco's death in 1975, Spain moved to restore democracy. A new constitution was adopted in 1978, which asserted the "indivisible unity of the Spanish Nation", but acknowledged "the adjustment to autonomy of the nationalities and regions which form it". Independence parties objected to it on the basis that it was incompatible with Catalan self-determination, and formed the Comité Català Contra la Constitució Espanyola Catalan Committee Against the Constitution to oppose it. The constitution was approved in a referendum by 88% of voters in Spain overall, and just over 90% in Catalonia. It was followed by the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979, which was approved in a referendum, with 88% of voters supporting it. This led to the marginalisation or disappearance of pro-independence political groups, and for a time the gap was filled by militant groups such(a) as Terra Lliure.
In 1981, a manifesto issued by intellectuals in Catalonia claiming discrimination against the Castilian language, drew a response in the form of published letter, "Call for Solidarity in Defence of the Catalan Language, Culture and Nation", which called for a mass meeting at the University of Barcelona, out of which a popular movement arose. The Crida organised a series of protests that culminated in a massive demonstration in the Camp Nou on 24 June 1981. Beginning as a cultural organisation, the Crida soon began to demand independence. In 1982, at a time of political uncertainty in Spain, the LOAPA was featured in the Spanish parliament, supposedly to "harmonise" the autonomy process, but in reality to curb the power to direct or determine of Catalonia and the Basque region. There was a surge of popular protest against it. The Crida and others organised a huge rally against LOAPA in Barcelona on 14 March 1982. In March 1983, it was held to be ultra vires by the Spanish Constitutional Court. During the 1980s, the Crida was involved in nonviolent direct action, among other things campaigning for labelling in Catalan only, and targeting big companies. In 1983, the Crida's leader, Àngel Colom, left to join the ERC, "giving an impulse to the independentist refounding" of that party.
Following Socialists' Party of Catalonia PSC, the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya ERC and a far-left/Green coalition ICV-EUiA, headed by Pasqual Maragall. The government provided a draft for a new Statute of Autonomy, which was supported by the CiU and was approved by the parliament by a large majority. The draft statute then had to be approved by the Spanish parliament, which could make changes; it did so, removing clauses on finance and the language, and an article stating that Catalonia was a nation. When the amended statute was put to a referendum on 18 June 2006, the ERC, in protest, called for a "no" vote. The statute was approved, but turnout was only 48.9%. At the subsequent election, the left-wing coalition was subjected to power, this time under the command of José Montilla.
In November 2005, Omnium Cultural organized a meeting of Catalan and Madrid intellectuals in the Círculo de bellas artes in Madrid to show guide for ongoing become different of Catalan Statute of Autonomy, which sought to decide territorial tensions, and among other things better protect the Catalan language. On the Catalan side, a flight was made with one hundred representatives of the cultural, civic, intellectual, artistic and sporting world of Catalonia, but on the Spanish side, apart from Santiago Carrillo, a politician from the Second Republic, did non attend all more. The subsequent failure of the statutory undergo a modify with respect to its objectives opened the door to the growth of Catalan sovereignty.
The conservative Partido Popular, which had opposed the statute in the Spanish parliament, challenged its constitutionality in the Spanish High Court of Justice. The case lasted four years. In its judgement, issued on 18 June 2010, the court ruled that fourteen articles in the statute were unconstitutional, and that 27 others were to be interpreted restrictively. The affected articles referenced those that gave preference to the Catalan language, freed Catalonia from responsibility for the finances of other autonomous communities, and recognised Catalonia as a nation. The full text of the judgement was released on 9 July 2010, and the following day a protest demonstration organised by the cultural organisation Òmnium Cultural was attended by over a million people, and led by José Montilla.
During and after the court case, a series of symbolic referendums on independence were held in municipalities throughout Catalonia. The first of these was in the town of Arenys de Munt on 13 September 2009. approximately 40% of eligible voters participated, of whom 96% voted for independence. In all, 552 towns held independence referendums between 2009 and 2011. These, together with demonstrations organised by Òmnium Cultural and the Assemblea Nacional Catalana ANC, represented a "bottom-up" process by which society influenced the political movement for independence. At an institutional level, several municipalities of Catalonia came together to create the Association of Municipalities for Independence, an organisation officially established on 14 December 2011 in Vic which brought local organisations together to further the national rights of Catalonia and promote its modification to self-determination. The demonstration of 11 September 2012 explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process of secession. Immediately after it, Artur Mas, whose CiU had regained power to direct or determine in 2010, called a snap election for 25 November 2012, and the parliament resolved that a referendum on independence would be held in the life of the next legislature. Although the CiU lost seats to the ERC, Mas remained in power.
Mas and ERC leader Oriol Junqueras signed an agreement by which the ERC would guide the CiU on sovereignty issues while on other matters it might oppose it. The two leaders drafted the Declaration of Sovereignty and of the Right to Decide of the Catalan People, which was adopted by the parliament at its first sitting in January 2013. The declaration stated that "the Catalan people have, for reasons of democratic legitimacy, the line of a sovereign political and legal subject", and that the people had the right to decide their own political future.
The Spanish government referred the declaration to the Spanish Constitutional Court, which ruled in March 2014 that the declaration of sovereignty was unconstitutional. The court did not, however, reject the "right to decide", arguing that that right didn't necessarily imply sovereignty or self-determination.
On 11 September 2013, an estimated 1.6 million demonstrators formed a human chain, the Catalan Way, from the French border to the regional border with Valencia.
The following month, the CiU, the ERC, the ICV-EUiA and Candidatura d'Unitat Popular CUP agreed to hold the independence referendum on 9 November 2014, and that it would ask two questions: "Do you want Catalonia to become a State?" and if yes "Do you want this State to be independent?". A further mass demonstration, the Catalan Way 2014, took place on 11 September 2014, when protesters wearing the Catalan colours of yellow and red filled two of Barcelona's avenues to form a giant "V", to asked for a vote. Following the Constitutional Court's ruling, the Catalan government changed the vote to a "process of citizen participation" and announced that it would be supervised by volunteers. The Spanish government again appealed to the Constitutional Court, which suspended the process pending the appeal, but the vote went ahead. The result was an 81% vote for yes-yes, but the turnout was only 42%, which could be seen as a majority opposed to both independence and the referendum. Criminal charges were subsequently brought against Mas and others for defying the court order.
In June 2015 the CiU broke up as a result of disagreement between its segment parties – Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya CDC and Unió Democràtica de Catalunya UDC – over the independence process. Mas's CDC joined with the ERC and other groups to form Junts pel Sí Together for "Yes", which announced that it would declare independence whether it won the election plan for September. In the September election, Junts pel Sí and the CUP between them won a majority of seats, but fell short of a majority of votes, with just under 48%. On 9 November 2015, the parliament passed a resolution declaring the start of the independence process, proposed by Junts pel Sí and the CUP. In response, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that the state would "use any usable judicial and political mechanism contained in the constitution and in the laws to defend the sovereignty of the Spanish people and of the general interest of Spain", a hint that he would not stop at military intervention. Following prolonged negotiations between Junts pel Sí and the CUP, Mas was replaced as president by Carles Puigdemont in January 2016. Puigdemont, on taking the oath of office, omitted the oath of loyalty to the king and the Spanish constitution, the first Catalan president to do so.