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143-578: Both the perceived nationhood of Spain , and the perceived distinctions between different parts of its territory derive from historical, geographical, linguistic, economic, political, ethnic and social factors. Present-day Spain was formed in the wake of the expansion of the Christian states in northern Spain, a process known as the Reconquista . The Reconquista, ending with the Fall of Granada in 1492,

286-590: A constitution for universal representation under a constitutional monarchy was declared, but after the fall of the Bonapartist regime, the Spanish king dismissed the Cortes Generales, set on ruling as an absolute monarch . The French occupation of mainland Spain created an opportunity for overseas criollo elites who resented the privilege towards Peninsular elites and demanded retroversion of

429-529: A "territoriality principle", conflicting with the "personality principle" underlying the right to use Spanish anywhere in Spain. Among the Spanish population as a whole, Spanish is spoken by 98.9%, and 23.3% speak Catalan/Valencian (17.5% speak Catalan and 5.8% speak Valencian ), 6.2% speak Galician and 3,0% speak Basque . Valencian and Catalan are regarded by most linguists and the European Union as

572-466: A 2012 survey by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas clearly identified three autonomous communities with significantly higher percentage populations who did not identify with Spain at all: Basque Country (23.5%), Catalonia (21.9%) and Navarre (16.9%). There is continued pressure in some regions for increased autonomy or full independence. The two most popular parties in Spain have different views on

715-557: A basis for devolution of power. From the Reconquista onwards, in most parts of the peninsula, territories have identified themselves as distinct from the rest of Spain in one of three ways. In the north: Galicia , León , Cantabria , Asturias , the Basque Country and Navarre ; and the east: Aragon , Catalonia , Balearic Islands and Valencia distinguish themselves through claims of historical independence and, often,

858-470: A characterization is a distortion of the complex interactions they seek to understand." Convivencia often refers to the interplay of cultural ideas between the three religious groups and ideas of religious tolerance . James Carroll invokes this concept and indicates that it played an important role in bringing the classics of Greek philosophy to Europe, with translations from Greek to Arabic to Hebrew and Latin. Jerrilynn Dodds references this concept in

1001-425: A collective project that could integrate distinct peoples who feel themselves to be different". In Spain, "nationalism" may refer to unitary Spanish nationalism or to the assertion of nationhood for one of the territories within Spain. Many but by no means all supporters of the latter urge secession of their territory from the Spanish state. There are clearly defined nationalist parties that support separation from

1144-455: A conflict between Spanish nationality and their own claimed national or regional identity. Regionalists "see the region as the real historical unit". They may call for greater autonomous powers and for the definition of the region as a nationality or nation within Spain, or may seek to promote the interests of the region without challenging its status within the system of Autonomous Communities. Some of these regionalist parties are associated with

1287-589: A female figure with a rabbit at her feet, and Strabo called it the "land of the rabbits". The word in question actually means " Hyrax ", possibly due to the Phoenicians confusing the two animals. There is also the claim that "Hispania" derives from the Basque word Ezpanna , meaning "edge" or "border", another reference to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula constitutes the southwest corner of

1430-430: A fundamental unity comprising considerable variety Mainland Spain has been characterised historically by relative inaccessibility from outside and by difficult communication between different parts of it. "[W]alls and battlements divide within itself the territory which walls and battlements separate from other countries". In contrast to the "vast monotony" of the central plateau, the surrounding peripheral areas "present to

1573-706: A land of small proprietors with relatively secure tenure. Its position has oriented its trade towards the Mediterranean through the great port-city of Barcelona, rather than the transatlantic trade that grew during the Spanish Golden Age . Catalonia's identity derives from before it was a part of the Crown of Aragon. Largely free of Muslim occupation, Catalonia long had closer ties to France and areas other than in Iberia. Briefly part of Charlemagne's empire ,

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1716-522: A large measure of regional autonomy. La Convivencia However, some voices have challenged the historicity of the above view of intercultural harmony, depicting it as a myth, and claiming that it is a "politically correct" anachronism . According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages , "Critics charge that [the term 'convivencia'] too often describes an idealized view of multi-faith harmony and symbiosis, while supporters retort that such

1859-615: A puppet kingdom satellite to the French Empire was installed with Joseph Bonaparte as king. The 2 May 1808 revolt was one of many uprisings across the country against the French occupation. These revolts marked the beginning of a devastating war of independence against the Napoleonic regime. Further military action by Spanish armies, guerrilla warfare and an Anglo-Portuguese allied army, combined with Napoleon's failure on

2002-532: A reaction against the gallicised elites and following defeat in the field, peace was made with France in 1795 at the Peace of Basel in which Spain lost control over two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola . In 1807, a secret treaty between Napoleon and the unpopular prime minister led to a new declaration of war against Britain and Portugal. French troops entered the country to invade Portugal but instead occupied Spain's major fortresses. The Spanish king abdicated and

2145-761: A resolution in favour of democracy. With Franco's death in November 1975, Juan Carlos succeeded to the position of King of Spain and head of state in accordance with the Francoist law. With the approval of the new Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the restoration of democracy , the State devolved much authority to the regions and created an internal organisation based on autonomous communities . The Spanish 1977 Amnesty Law let people of Franco's regime continue inside institutions without consequences, even perpetrators of some crimes during transition to democracy like

2288-644: A return of their derogated laws as well as better living conditions ( Revolt of the Comuneros , Revolt of the Brotherhoods , Catalan Revolt ). In the 1833 territorial division of Spain , the nation was divided into 49 provinces – most of which have remained unchanged since then – which were grouped into 15 "historic regions", many of whose boundaries bear a strong resemblance to those of the present-day Autonomous Communities. The "historic regions", however, were not granted any administrative powers. Carlism ,

2431-762: A royalist Catholic reaction to the 19th-century liberal state , was strongest among poorer peasants in Navarre, the Basque Country, and rural areas of Catalonia. Nationalistic movements with significant support appeared in some parts of Spain – especially in the Basque Country and Catalonia – later in the 19th century, coinciding with the loss of the last parts of the Spanish Empire , the abolition of privileges, and some regions having advanced more than others in industrial development. The dictator Primo de Rivera moved against regional liberties and privileges, but

2574-458: A separate country socially, politically, legally, and in currency and language. Habsburg Spain was one of the leading world powers throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and became the world's leading maritime power . It reached its apogee during the reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs— Charles V/I (1516–1556) and Philip II (1556–1598). This period saw

2717-744: A series of victories against England in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 . However, during the middle decades of the 17th century Spain's maritime power went into a long decline with mounting defeats against the Dutch Republic ( Battle of the Downs ) and then England in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654–1660 ; by the 1660s it was struggling to defend its overseas possessions from pirates and privateers. The Protestant Reformation increased Spain's involvement in religiously charged wars, forcing ever-expanding military efforts across Europe and in

2860-433: A split in the inheritance of the daughters of Alfonso VI and remained independent throughout the Reconquista. All these different kingdoms were ruled together, or separately in personal union , but maintained their particular ethnic differences, regardless of similarities through common origins or borrowed customs. These kingdoms sometimes collaborated when they fought against Al-Andalus and sometimes allied themselves with

3003-408: A weak or conflicted regional identity. The 1978 Constitution specifies Spanish as the official language of the State and declares that "all Spaniards have the duty to know it and the right to use it". It goes on to state that other Spanish languages shall also be official within their respective Autonomous Communities as laid down in their Statutes of Autonomy. This provision has been criticised as

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3146-580: Is scarcely any information available on the Jewish and Christian communities during the Caliphate of Cordoba, and that this may come as a shock in view of the huge clout of the convivencia meme [“... quizá pueda resultar chocante teniendo en cuenta el enorme peso del tópico convivencial.”] According to Manzano, Castro's conception "was never converted into a specific and well-documented treatment of al-Andalus, perhaps because Castro never succeeded in finding in

3289-763: The Reconquista , repelling Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492. The dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479 under the Catholic Monarchs is often considered the de facto unification of Spain as a nation-state . During the Age of Discovery , Spain pioneered the exploration of the New World , made

3432-681: The Siglo de Oro , Spanish art , architecture , music , poetry , painting , literature , and cuisine have been influential worldwide, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas . As a reflection of its large cultural wealth , Spain is the world's second-most visited country , has one of the world's largest numbers of World Heritage Sites , and it is the most popular destination for European students. Its cultural influence extends to over 600 million Hispanophones , making Spanish

3575-596: The 12 April 1931 municipal elections . These gave a resounding victory to the Republican-Socialist candidacies in large cities and provincial capitals, with a majority of monarchist councilors in rural areas. The king left the country and the proclamation of the Republic on 14 April ensued, with the formation of a provisional government. A constitution for the country was passed in October 1931 following

3718-678: The Alhambra decree , those Jews who had not converted to Catholicism were expelled. Many Jews settled in Portugal , where they were expelled in 1497. Following a failed revolt in Granada in 1499, the Muslims in Granada and in the Crown of Castile were forced to convert, face death, or be expelled. This happened as the treaty assuring religious freedom at the time of Granada's surrender in 1492

3861-539: The Basque Country and the creation of a mass tourism industry. Franco's rule was also characterised by authoritarianism , promotion of a unitary national identity , National Catholicism , and discriminatory language policies . In 1962, a group of politicians involved in the opposition to Franco's regime inside the country and in exile met in the congress of the European Movement in Munich, where they made

4004-658: The Bourbon monarchy of the 18th century, the central authorities in Spain made various efforts towards centralisation, notably the Nueva Planta decrees extinguishing most of the ‘’ fueros ’’ – long-standing privileges and institutions of different territories. Some kingdoms, like Navarre and the Lordships of the Basque Country, did maintain constitutions based on their historical rights and laws, while other kingdoms revolted against this process of centralisation demanding

4147-605: The Bourbons , was installed. The Crowns of Castile and Aragon had been long united only by the Monarchy and the common institution of the Inquisition's Holy Office . A number of reform policies (the so-called Bourbon Reforms ) were pursued by the Monarchy with the overarching goal of centralized authority and administrative uniformity. They included the abolishment of many of the old regional privileges and laws, as well as

4290-620: The Catalan counties broke away when Carolingian monarchs proved unable to successfully defend them. By the 11th century the County of Barcelona embraced most of present-day Catalonia plus some territories in France, and had grown to be an important Mediterranean power. The County of Barcelona united by marriage with the Kingdom of Aragon in the mid-12th century, forming the Crown of Aragon, and

4433-704: The Cuban War of Independence and the Philippine Revolution broke out and eventually the United States became involved. The Spanish–American War was fought in the spring of 1898 and resulted in Spain losing the last of its once vast colonial empire outside of North Africa. El Desastre (the Disaster), as the war became known in Spain, gave added impetus to the Generation of '98 . Although

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4576-1029: The Italian Wars , the Schmalkaldic War , the Dutch Revolt , the War of the Portuguese Succession , clashes with the Ottomans , intervention in the French Wars of Religion and the Anglo-Spanish War . Through exploration and conquest or royal marriage alliances and inheritance, the Spanish Empire expanded across vast areas in the Americas, the Indo-Pacific, Africa as well as the European continent (including holdings in

4719-588: The June 1931 Constituent general election , and a series of cabinets presided by Manuel Azaña supported by republican parties and the PSOE followed. In the election held in 1933 the right triumphed and in 1936, the left. During the Second Republic there was a great political and social upheaval, marked by a sharp radicalization of the left and the right. Instances of political violence during this period included

4862-591: The Kingdom of Castile . Demands for greater autonomy or full independence remain in certain regions, conflicting with the view that decentralisation has already gone far enough. The most dramatic recent manifestations of separatism have been the violent campaign by the Basque ETA group in the late 20th century, and the unilateral Catalan declaration of independence in 2017. ... the Peninsula strongly asserts

5005-732: The Lliga . Spain – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green) Spain , formally the Kingdom of Spain , is a country in Southwestern Europe with territories in North Africa . Featuring the southernmost point of continental Europe , it is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most populous European Union member state. Spanning across

5148-569: The Massacre of 3 March 1976 in Vitoria or 1977 Massacre of Atocha . In the Basque Country, moderate Basque nationalism coexisted with a radical nationalist movement led by the armed organisation ETA until the latter's dissolution in May 2018. The group was formed in 1959 during Franco's rule but had continued to wage its violent campaign even after the restoration of democracy and the return of

5291-652: The Reapers' War of 1640–59 showed the "typical tendencies of Catalan separatism", when Catalonia sought the protection of France, then at war with Spain. During the War of the Spanish Succession , Catalonia largely supported the claim of the Archduke Charles . The victorious Bourbons soon outlawed many Catalan political and cultural institutions through the Nueva Planta decrees, and Castilian

5434-1042: The Romanization and Christianization of Hispania, the fall of the Western Roman Empire ushered in the inward migration of tribes from Central Europe, including the Visigoths , who formed the Visigothic Kingdom centred on Toledo . In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate , and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centred on Córdoba . Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them Asturias , León , Castile , Aragon , Navarre , and Portugal ; made an intermittent southward military expansion and repopulation, known as

5577-466: The Second Republic (1931–6) made a start on restoring and extending regional autonomy. Following the Spanish Civil War , the Francoist regime imposed Spanish as the only official language. The use of other languages was restricted, and all forms of regional autonomy and special privileges (except in Navarre) were suppressed. The attempt to "eradicate the linguistic and cultural diversity of Spain" went further than any previous regime, but only "led to

5720-477: The World Trade Organization (WTO). The name of Spain ( España ) comes from Hispania , the name used by the Romans for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces during the Roman Empire . The etymological origin of the term Hispania is uncertain, although the Phoenicians referred to the region as i-shphan-im , possibly meaning "Land of Rabbits" or "Land of Metals". Jesús Luis Cunchillos  [ es ] and José Ángel Zamora, experts in Semitic philology at

5863-404: The fifty provinces . Various powers have been devolved from the centre to these “Autonomous Communities”, which have their own parliaments and governing institutions. This process created a decentralised state structure but not a federal one. While recognising a "right to autonomy", the Constitution reaffirmed the "indissoluble unity of Spain". There has been a "real decentralisation of power", at

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6006-435: The first circumnavigation of the globe and formed one of the largest empires in history . The Spanish Empire reached a global scale and spread across all continents, underpinning the rise of a global trading system fueled primarily by precious metals . In the 18th century, the Bourbon reforms centralized mainland Spain. In the 19th century, after the Napoleonic occupation and the victorious Spanish War of independence ,

6149-675: The "historic nationalities" of Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia, which were selected to receive a greater degree of autonomy sooner, but later amendments have increased the autonomy of most other regions as well. This delineation of regions and nationalities within Spain has been seen as only imperfectly reflecting historical and ethnic distinctions. The Autonomous Communities were not built from scratch but were assembled from pre-existing provinces, some of which themselves contained splits in terms of linguistic and regional identity. By contrast, several smaller regions such as La Rioja opted to become separate Autonomous Communities despite having

6292-459: The "neo-lachrymose conception of Jewish-Arab history" by Bat Yeor and others, which also "cannot be maintained in the light of historical reality". Cohen aims to present a correction to both these "myths". The Spanish medievalist Eduardo Manzano Moreno  [ es ] wrote that the concept of convivencia has no support in the historical record [“el concepto de convivencia no tiene ninguna apoyatura histórica“]. He further states that there

6435-400: The 11th century, the Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed, fracturing into a series of petty kingdoms ( Taifas ), often subject to the payment of a form of protection money ( Parias ) to the Northern Christian kingdoms, which otherwise undertook a southward territorial expansion. The capture of the strategic city of Toledo in 1085 marked a significant shift in the balance of power in favour of

6578-432: The 14th century , the end of the reign of House of Barcelona and a civil war (1462–1472) weakened the role of the Principality within the Crown and international affairs. After the union of Castilian and Aragonese Crowns (1479), Catalonia continued as a distinct political entity under the Spanish crown, retaining its political liberties. Nevertheless, there were conflicts with the centre over trade and financial policy, and

6721-422: The 16th and 17th centuries Spain hugely increased its wealth and power through colonial conquest. Nevertheless, although under a single monarchy, Spain remained "a confederation of loosely connected States" with "no real political unity". The Catholic Church in Spain , upholding and upheld by the State and with the Inquisition enforcing religious orthodoxy, was much more important as a unifying factor. The power of

6864-416: The 1960s and the 1970s as industry continued to grow mainly in the regions where it was already concentrated, bringing about the internal migration of millions of Spaniards and contributing to a revival of nationalism in the receiving regions. Catalonia and the Basque Country, together with Madrid and Navarre, are still the wealthiest parts of Spain in terms of GDP per head, and this has fuelled conflict between

7007-402: The 850s as a challenge. Mark Cohen , professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University , in his Under Crescent and Cross , calls the idealized interfaith utopia a myth that was first promulgated by Jewish historians such as Heinrich Graetz in the 19th century as a rebuke to Christian countries for their treatment of Jews. This myth was met with what Cohen calls the "counter-myth" of

7150-416: The Atlantic Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid , and other major urban areas include Barcelona , Valencia , Seville , Zaragoza , Málaga , Murcia and Palma de Mallorca . In early antiquity, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Celts , Iberians , and other pre-Roman peoples . With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula , the province of Hispania was established. Following

7293-484: The Basque Country and Catalonia are among the top 10. There has been "a persistent tension between Spanish national identity, nationalism, and state-building on the one hand, and the corresponding forces in the ethno-regions on the other" as the result of the way in which the Spanish state became integrated. Another survey, carried out in 2002 in Spain only, asked respondents about their comparative degree of identification with their own region compared to that with Spain. In

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7436-422: The Basque Country and Catalonia, 15% or more "did not consider themselves Spanish at all". In all regions except Madrid, a majority identified at least as strongly with their region as with Spain, indicating "well-established" regional consciousness throughout the country. "[M]any Spaniards do not identify with being Spanish, but rather have a tendency to identify more with either their region or city." Results from

7579-500: The Basque Country centred on the iron ore deposits. Thus the regions of industrial development in part coincided with those where a distinctive language and culture were most prominent. Moreover, the economic development of Spain as a whole was late and sporadic, and its wealth and prestige had suffered repeated blows from the loss of the colonies: "if [Spain] had become a prosperous and progressive community, no-one would have turned to Catalan nationalism". Regional disparity continued into

7722-424: The Catalan government organised independence referendums in 2014 and 2017 , the latter forming the basis for the Catalan declaration of independence of 2017. The presence of a distinct Catalan language has been seen as the basis for "the claim of Catalonia to be considered as something more than a mere region". Catalan is spoken also in Valencia, the Balearics, and certain adjacent areas of France. The language

7865-403: The Christian kingdoms. The arrival from North Africa of the Islamic ruling sects of the Almoravids and the Almohads achieved temporary unity upon the Muslim-ruled territory, with a stricter, less tolerant application of Islam, and partially reversed some Christian territorial gains. The Kingdom of León was the strongest Christian kingdom for centuries. In 1188, the first form (restricted to

8008-433: The Church began to wane during the 18th century as the Bourbon monarchy sought a more centralised State. The 19th-century liberal governments continued the centralising process, but encountered increasing resistance in the regions and failed to "invent tradition" as a new focus for national feeling: an annual celebration on May 2 recalling national resistance to the Napoleonic invasion did not excite much national fervour, and

8151-433: The Civil War, followers of the Catalanist Lliga were largely of the middle class, while industrial workers (many of whom did not speak Catalan) were more likely to support either socialism, represented by different political parties and the UGT union, or anarcho-syndicalism ( CNT and FAI ). A left-wing nationalist party, the Republican Left of Catalonia ( Esquerra or ERC) was formed in 1931 and soon grew to overshadow

8294-438: The County became known as the Principality of Catalonia. With the ancient Parliament of Catalonia (the Corts Catalanes ) and the Catalan constitutions , Catalonia developed one of the first constitutional monarchies in Europe. Catalonia is said to have "reached her maximum splendor" at this time, and possessed a strong literary tradition, especially represented by the Jocs Florals , a form of poetry contest. The crisis of

8437-431: The European Union, the eurozone , North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a permanent guest of the G20 , and is part of many other international organizations such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and

8580-496: The European continent. Archaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated by hominids 1.3 million years ago. Modern humans first arrived in Iberia from the north on foot about 35,000 years ago. The best-known artefacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia, which were created from 35,600 to 13,500 BCE by Cro-Magnon . Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that

8723-425: The Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several major refugia from which northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last ice age . The two largest groups inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman conquest were the Iberians and the Celts . The Iberians inhabited the Mediterranean side of the peninsula. The Celts inhabited much of the interior and Atlantic sides of the peninsula. Basques occupied

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8866-406: The Iberian Peninsula began in the early eighth century when Arab invaders took political control over the Iberian Peninsula, calling it al-Andalus. With the death of ruler Al-Hakam II in 976, the Caliphate began to dissolve and fragmented into six large states and a number of smaller ones. Al-Andalus was briefly consolidated again by Muslim invaders and reformists, the Almoravids and the Almohads, in

9009-411: The Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and the Franche-Comté ). The so-called Age of Discovery featured explorations by sea and by land, the opening-up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginnings of European colonialism . Precious metals , spices, luxuries, and previously unknown plants brought to the metropole played a leading part in transforming the European understanding of

9152-413: The Mediterranean. By the middle decades of a war- and plague -ridden 17th-century Europe, the Spanish Habsburgs had enmeshed the country in continent-wide religious-political conflicts. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the economy generally. Spain managed to hold on to most of the scattered Habsburg empire, and help the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire reverse a large part of

9295-493: The Muslims against rival Christian neighbors. The common non-Christian enemy has been usually considered the single crucial catalyst for the union of the different Christian realms. However, it was effective only for permanently reconquered territories. Much of the unification happened long after the departure of the last Muslim rulers. Just as Christians remained in Arab Spain after the Muslim conquest, so too did Muslims and Arab culture remain after Christian conquest. Eventually,

9438-416: The People's Party in its region or acting as its substitute or branch, as in the Navarrese People's Union (UPN). The cultural image of " flamenco , Sevillanas dancing, and bullfighting , which originated in Andalusia" is widespread outside Spain, but this image is "rather narrow and misleading" and "has really masked the true heterogeneous nature of the country." The Autonomous Communities which made up

9581-503: The Reconquista, between the Battle of Covadonga c. 720 CE and the Fall of Granada in 1492. During this period several independent Christian kingdoms and mostly independent political entities ( Asturias , León , Galicia , Castile , Navarre , Aragon , Catalonia ) were formed by their own inhabitants' efforts under aristocratic leadership, coexisting with the Muslim Iberian states and having their own identities and borders. Portugal, formerly part of León, gained independence in 1128 after

9724-400: The Russian front , led to the retreat of French imperial armies from the Iberian Peninsula in 1814, and the return of King Ferdinand VII . During the war, in 1810, a revolutionary body, the Cortes of Cádiz , was assembled to coordinate the effort against the Bonapartist regime and to prepare a constitution. It met as one body, and its members represented the entire Spanish empire. In 1812,

9867-438: The Second World War, although it was sympathetic to the Axis and provided the Nazi Wehrmacht with Spanish volunteers in the Eastern Front . The only legal party under Franco's dictatorship was the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS (FET y de las JONS), formed in 1937 upon the merging of the Fascist Falange Española de las JONS and the Carlist traditionalists and to which the rest of right-wing groups supporting

10010-467: The Spanish National Research Council ( Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas , CSIC), conducted a comparative philological study between several Semitic languages and hypothesize that the Phoenician name translates as "land where metals are forged", having determined that the name originated in reference to the gold mines of the Iberian Peninsula. There have been a number of accounts and hypotheses about its origin: Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that

10153-509: The Spanish state, like the Republican Left of Catalonia . Other nationalist parties, such as Convergence and Union , Basque Nationalist Party , and Galician Nationalist Bloc , have taken a range of positions between supporting greater decentralization of the Spanish state and calling for outright separation. In many parts of Spain—Castile, León, Cantabria, Navarre, Balearic Islands, Valencia, Andalusia, Rioja, Extremadura, La Mancha, Murcia, Ceuta & Melilla—most people do not sense

10296-820: The Strait of Gibraltar. Upon the conclusion of the Granada War , the Nasrid Sultanate of Granada (the remaining Muslim-ruled polity in the Iberian Peninsula after 1246) capitulated in 1492 to the military strength of the Catholic Monarchs , and it was integrated from then on in the Crown of Castile. In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of their monarchs, Isabella I and Ferdinand II, respectively. In 1492, Jews were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion; as many as 200,000 Jews were expelled from Castile and Aragon . The year 1492 also marked

10439-577: The US to establish a military presence on the Iberian Peninsula as a counter to any possible move by the Soviet Union into the Mediterranean basin. US Cold War strategic priorities included the dissemination of American educational ideas to foster modernization and expansion. In the 1960s, Spain registered an unprecedented rate of economic growth which was propelled by industrialisation , a mass internal migration from rural areas to Madrid , Barcelona and

10582-609: The advances made by Protestant forces, but it was finally forced to recognise the separation of Portugal and the United Provinces (Dutch Republic), and eventually suffered some serious military reverses to France in the latter stages of the immensely destructive, Europe-wide Thirty Years' War . In the latter half of the 17th century, Spain went into a gradual decline, during which it surrendered several small territories to France and England; however, it maintained and enlarged its vast overseas empire, which remained intact until

10725-632: The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World , during a voyage funded by Isabella. Columbus's first voyage crossed the Atlantic and reached the Caribbean Islands, beginning the European exploration and conquest of the Americas. The Treaty of Granada guaranteed religious tolerance towards Muslims, for a few years before Islam was outlawed in 1502 in Castile and 1527 in Aragon, leading

10868-419: The beginning of the 19th century. The decline culminated in a controversy over succession to the throne which consumed the first years of the 18th century. The War of the Spanish Succession was a wide-ranging international conflict combined with a civil war, and was to cost the kingdom its European possessions and its position as a leading European power. During this war, a new dynasty originating in France,

11011-633: The beginning of the Arab period. The vast majority of Iberia came under Islamic control fairly quickly. Over the next couple hundred years, the rulers of Muslim Spain , especially the Caliphate of Cordoba , were consolidating power and patronizing the arts and sciences, as well as experiencing relative religious tolerance . In the mountainous, rural northern regions to the north, the Christian rulers were regaining their footing, despite numerous internal conflicts, and they slowly expanded their control throughout

11154-564: The bishops, the magnates, and 'the elected citizens of each city') of modern parliamentary session in Europe was held in León ( Cortes of León ). The Kingdom of Castile , formed from Leonese territory, was its successor as strongest kingdom. The kings and the nobility fought for power and influence in this period. The example of the Roman emperors influenced the political objective of the Crown, while

11297-596: The burning of churches, the 1932 failed coup d'état led by José Sanjurjo , the Revolution of 1934 and numerous attacks against rival political leaders. On the other hand, it is also during the Second Republic when important reforms to modernize the country were initiated: a democratic constitution, agrarian reform, restructuring of the army, political decentralization and women's right to vote . The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936: on 17 and 18 July, part of

11440-624: The conception of a Castilian region as a hub connecting the different parts of Spain; however in practice the language and culture of central Spain are essential to the concept of the Spanish Nation. Other usual components of the nation have been pan-Hispanism and the Catholic church . Historically, the development of Spanish nationalism has been tied to the state-building process of the Spanish monarchy, with its capital in Madrid. Through

11583-547: The conflict between progressives and moderates ended in a weak early constitutional period. The 1868 Glorious Revolution was followed by the 1868–1874 progressive Sexenio Democrático (including the short-lived First Spanish Republic ), which yielded to a stable monarchic period, the Restoration (1875–1931). In the late 19th century nationalist movements arose in the Philippines and Cuba. In 1895 and 1896

11726-586: The conservative Lliga . Autonomous government was suppressed upon the victory of the Spanish Nationalists in 1939, to be restored under the 1978 Constitution as the Generalitat de Catalunya . Tension built up following the judicial suspension of parts of a revised Statute of Autonomy in 2010, in particular concerning autonomy in taxation policy and the use of the term "nation". There were massive demonstrations in 2010 and 2012 , after which

11869-428: The crown. The monarchy, then, had to engage in negotiation and compromise. These kingdoms retained much of their independent identity after the dynastic union of Aragon and Castile, in the face of subsequent efforts towards unification and centralisation by Spanish leaders. Catalonia, in the north-east of Spain bordering France and the Mediterranean, contains large areas of productive agriculture. Historically it has been

12012-545: The customs barrier between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile in 1717, followed by the introduction of new property taxes in the Aragonese kingdoms. The 18th century saw a gradual recovery and an increase in prosperity through much of the empire. The predominant economic policy was an interventionist one, and the State also pursued policies aiming towards infrastructure development as well as the abolition of internal customs and

12155-403: The degree of regionalism, interpreted as reflecting "internal tensions within the Spanish state, where the dominant Castilian-speaking group seems to have become increasingly loyal to the state in response to pressures from non-Castilian areas for devolution or secession". Madrid, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Cantabria and Murcia are among the lowest 10 regions in Europe on this index, while

12298-436: The democratic system of the constitutional monarchy of a two-parties system. The July 1909 Tragic Week events and repression exemplified the social instability of the time. The La Canadiense strike in 1919 led to the first law limiting the working day to eight hours. After a period of Crown-supported dictatorship from 1923 to 1931, the first elections since 1923, largely understood as a plebiscite on Monarchy, took place:

12441-564: The development of railways and incipient capitalism developed in several areas of the country, particularly in Barcelona , as well as labour movement and socialist and anarchist ideas. The 1870 Barcelona Workers' Congress and the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition are good examples of this. In 1879, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was founded. A trade union linked to this party, Unión General de Trabajadores ,

12584-401: The earliest constitutions in Europe. Each polity was essentially treated as a separate country with separate laws and parliaments, though united by one king. Each kingdom retained its traditional laws ( fueros ). The parliaments claimed representative authority for the people of their region, initiated new legislation (though the king retained veto power), and needed to approve any expenditures by

12727-462: The eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Christian kingdoms progressively expanded south taking over Muslim territory in what is historiographically known as the Reconquista, effectively confining al-Andalus to the southern Emirate of Granada , ruled by the Nasrid dynasty from 1231 to 1492. The Almohad Muslim dynasty forced Christians and Jews to convert, and forced Muslims into their interpretation of

12870-478: The expense of an "enormous and confusing variety of autonomy statutes". Eight of the Autonomous Communities (Andalucia, Aragon, Basque Country, Canary Islands, Catalonia, Galicia, and Valencia) are officially designated as "nationalities", while the rest are defined as regions, historical regions, communities and historical communities. The designation as a "nationality" was originally confined to

13013-494: The faith. Among those who chose exile rather than conversion or death was the Jewish philosopher Maimonides . While the Reconquista was ongoing, Muslims and Jews who came under Christian control were allowed to practise their religion to some degree. This ended in the late 15th century with the fall of Granada in 1492. Even before this event, the Spanish Inquisition had been established in 1478. In 1492, with

13156-539: The federalist views of Pi y Margall and the republican and progressive views of Valentí Almirall , but it was Prat de la Riba who first formulated a Catalan nationalist programme and helped to found the conservatively oriented Lliga Regionalista , an important political force in the early 20th century. Theirs was a federalist programme providing for a large measure of separation, rather than total independence from Spain. A more right-wing and clericalist strand of Catalan nationalism, following on from Carlist principles,

13299-712: The following political divisions between liberals and absolutists led to the breakaway of most of the American colonies . These political divisions finally converged in the 20th century with the Spanish Civil War , giving rise to the Francoist dictatorship that lasted until 1975. With the restoration of democracy and its entry into the European Union, the country experienced an economic boom that profoundly transformed it socially and politically. Since

13442-558: The former Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands) can be treated with slightly more unity when dealing with the past than when dealing with the present. By the time of the dynastic union between Ferdinand and Isabella, the Crown of Aragon encompassed many different territories, including ones in other parts of the Mediterranean Sea , though only four remain within Spain's borders now. At

13585-501: The globe. The cultural efflorescence witnessed during this period is now referred to as the Spanish Golden Age . The expansion of the empire caused immense upheaval in the Americas as the collapse of societies and empires and new diseases from Europe devastated American indigenous populations. The rise of humanism , the Counter-Reformation and new geographical discoveries and conquests raised issues that were addressed by

13728-741: The initial invasion. The Kingdom of Asturias-León consolidated upon this territory. Other Christian kingdoms, such as Navarre and Aragon in the mountainous north, eventually surged upon the consolidation of counties of the Carolingian Marca Hispanica . For several centuries, the fluctuating frontier between the Muslim and Christian-controlled areas of the peninsula was along the Ebro and Douro valleys. Conversion to Islam proceeded at an increasing pace. The muladíes (Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin) are believed to have formed

13871-658: The intellectual movement now known as the School of Salamanca , which developed the first modern theories of what are now known as international law and human rights. Spain's 16th-century maritime supremacy was demonstrated by the victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and over Portugal at the Battle of Ponta Delgada in 1582, and then after the setback of the Spanish Armada in 1588, in

14014-517: The introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. Emperors Hadrian , Trajan , Theodosius I , and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania. Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century CE, and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century. Most of Spain's present languages and religions, as well as the basis of its laws, originate from this period. Starting in 170 CE, incursions of North-African Mauri in

14157-413: The kingdoms of Castile and Aragon eclipsed the others in power and size through conquest and dynastic inheritance. The process of amalgamation can be summed up thus: From the west, Galicia and Asturias merged into León, which itself was incorporated in the Crown of Castile ; from the east, Catalonia and Valencia merged into the Crown of Aragon . The Crowns of Castile and Aragon finally united in 1469 with

14300-642: The libraries of Córdoba as "a significant benchmark of overall social (not just scholarly) well being, since they represented a near-perfect crossroads of the material and the intellectual." James L. Heft, the Alton Brooks Professor of Religion at USC , describes Convivencia as one of the “rare periods in history” when the three religions did not either keep “their distance from one another, or were in conflict.” During most of their co-existing history, they have been “ignorant about each other” or “attacked each other.” The period of Islamic rule in

14443-411: The lives of over 500,000 people and caused the flight of up to a half-million citizens from the country. On 1 April 1939, five months before the beginning of World War II , the rebel side led by Franco emerged victorious, imposing a dictatorship over the whole country. Thousands were imprisoned after the civil war in Francoist concentration camps . The regime remained nominally "neutral" for much of

14586-848: The majority of the Iberian Peninsula , its territory also includes the Canary Islands , in the Atlantic Ocean, the Balearic Islands , in the Mediterranean Sea, and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla , in Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France , Andorra , and the Bay of Biscay ; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar ; and to the west by Portugal and

14729-557: The majority of the population of Al-Andalus by the end of the 10th century. A series of Viking incursions raided the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula in the 9th and 10th centuries. The first recorded Viking raid on Iberia took place in 844; it ended in failure with many Vikings killed by the Galicians' ballistas ; and seventy of the Vikings' longships captured on the beach and burned by the troops of King Ramiro I of Asturias . In

14872-518: The marriage of the Catholic Monarchs . After this, the Muslim Emirate of Granada was conquered in 1492, and Navarre was invaded and forced into the union in 1512, through a combination of conquest and collaboration of the local elites. Castile and Aragon remained in many ways distinct territories: Philip II and his Castilian officials marked the occasion of crossing into Aragon with a ceremony of laying down their symbols of authority. During

15015-641: The meseta; however, due to the bellicose inland tribes, the Carthaginians settled on the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. During the Second Punic War , roughly between 210 and 205 BCE, the expanding Roman Republic captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast. Although it took the Romans nearly two centuries to complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula , they retained control of it for over six centuries. Roman rule

15158-668: The military carried out a coup d'état that triumphed in only part of the country. The situation led to a civil war, in which the territory was divided into two zones: one under the authority of the Republican government , that counted on outside support from the Soviet Union and Mexico (and from International Brigades ), and the other controlled by the putschists (the Nationalist or rebel faction ), most critically supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . The Republic

15301-604: The nobles benefited from feudalism . Muslim strongholds in the Guadalquivir Valley such as Córdoba (1236) and Seville (1248) fell to Castile in the 13th century. The County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon entered in a dynastic union and gained territory and power in the Mediterranean. In 1229, Majorca was conquered, so was Valencia in 1238. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the North-African Marinids established some enclaves around

15444-480: The only American colonies Spain held were Cuba and Puerto Rico . The Napoleonic War left Spain economically ruined, deeply divided and politically unstable. In the 1830s and 1840s, Carlism (a reactionary legitimist movement supportive of an alternative Bourbon branch), fought against the government forces supportive of Queen Isabella II 's dynastic rights in the Carlist Wars . Government forces prevailed, but

15587-411: The period around the turn of the century was one of increasing prosperity, the 20th century brought little social peace. Spain played a minor part in the scramble for Africa . It remained neutral during World War I . The heavy losses suffered by the colonial troops in conflicts in northern Morocco against Riffians forces brought discredit to the government and undermined the monarchy. Industrialisation,

15730-531: The presence of a native minority language . Many of these areas also identify with Christian kingdoms from the early Reconquista, before dynastic unions linked the provinces. In the south, some Andalusians claim a unique national identity, often based on the idea of a distinct Andalusian dialect of Spanish or, sometimes, because of the deeper impact of the Al-Andalus historical period there. In central Spain, entities have identities historically connected to

15873-429: The primary language that they actually did speak, against 50% for Spanish (Castilian); 7% spoke the two languages equally. The ethnolinguistic composition of the population has been heavily affected by extensive immigration from non-Catalan speaking parts of Spain, much of it associated with rapid growth in industry, since the late 19th century and more particularly between 1950 and 1975. Catalonia, especially Barcelona ,

16016-519: The province of Baetica took place. The Germanic Suebi and Vandals , together with the Sarmatian Alans , entered the peninsula after 409, weakening the Western Roman Empire's jurisdiction over Hispania. The Suebi established a kingdom in north-western Iberia, whereas the Vandals established themselves in the south of the peninsula by 420 before crossing over to North Africa in 429. As

16159-581: The rebels also added. The name of " Movimiento Nacional ", sometimes understood as a wider structure than the FET y de las JONS proper, largely imposed over the later's name in official documents along the 1950s. After the war Spain was politically and economically isolated, and was kept out of the United Nations. This changed in 1955, during the Cold War period, when it became strategically important for

16302-460: The reduction of export tariffs. Projects of agricultural colonisation with new settlements took place in the south of mainland Spain. Enlightenment ideas began to gain ground among some of the kingdom's elite and monarchy. In 1793, Spain went to war against the revolutionary new French Republic as a member of the first Coalition . The subsequent War of the Pyrenees polarised the country in

16445-410: The regions and the centre over regional autonomy in taxation and over policies for redistribution between richer and poorer regions. Eurobarometer surveys throughout Europe asked people to "rate their attachment to their region" and to their country, EU, and local area. From this data a "regionalism index" was constructed. By this index Spain is the country with the highest variation between regions in

16588-450: The religious identity of Spain still predominated over the secular one when Franco came to power. "In comparison with France, the centralizing spirit of Spain was very mild" and even Franco did not succeed permanently in making Spain "a culturally homogeneous nation". Today, Spanish nationalists often reject other nationalist movements within Spain, specifically Catalan and Basque nationalism, but have not so far been able to "articulate

16731-589: The remaining Muslim population to become nominally Christian Moriscos . About four decades after the War of the Alpujarras (1568–1571), over 300,000 moriscos were expelled , settling primarily in North Africa. The unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile by the marriage of their sovereigns laid the basis for modern Spain and the Spanish Empire, although each kingdom of Spain remained

16874-460: The rest of Spain: there was still no true national economy". "By 1930, when a Roman would still have felt at home on an Andalusian estate, Catalonia contained some of the largest textile concerns in Europe". Madrid had long been a centre of small-scale manufacturing, but the development of Spanish industry began in Catalonia at the end of the 18th century in the form of cotton textiles, and later in

17017-534: The revitalization and spread of regionalist sentiments". In the Spanish transition to democracy after the Franco period, there were many movements for more autonomy in certain regions of the country, advocating full independence in some cases, and an autonomous "community" in others. Following the provisions of the 1978 Constitution , Spain was divided into seventeen autonomous entities, each comprising one or more of

17160-537: The root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy , meaning "to forge metals ". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged". It may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania , meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck in the region from the reign of Hadrian show

17303-494: The same language. There are other minority languages such as Asturian and Leonese which are both dialects of the same language, spoken in Asturias and the region of León , alongside Aragonese and Aranese in the Pyrenees. The economic history of Spain has been described in terms of a regional imbalance between a progressive periphery and a stagnant centre. "The prosperity of the periphery could not be easily transferred to

17446-468: The significance of the age of "convivencia," claiming that far from a "peaceful convivencia " his own work "demonstrates that violence was a central and systemic aspect of the coexistence of majority and minority in medieval Spain, and even suggests that coexistence was in part predicated on such violence". Some critics of the concept of Convivencia point to the execution of the Martyrs of Córdoba during

17589-556: The sole sanctioned religion in the Iberian Peninsula. As Anna Akasoy has summarized in a review article, Menocal "argues that the narrow-minded forces that brought about its end were external", both from the North African Muslim Almoravids and Almohads, and Christian northerners. The idea of convivencia has had supporters and detractors from the time Castro first proposed it. Hussein Fancy has summarized

17732-652: The sovereignty to the people . Starting in 1809 the American colonies began a series of revolutions and declared independence, leading to the Spanish American wars of independence that put an end to the metropole's grip over the Spanish Main . Attempts to re-assert control proved futile with opposition not only in the colonies but also in the Iberian peninsula and army revolts followed. By the end of 1826,

17875-545: The spatial orientation seen in architecture that draws on building styles seen in synagogues and mosques. An example of Convivencia was Córdoba, Andalusia in Al-Andalus , in the ninth and tenth centuries. Córdoba was “one of the most important cities in the history of the world.” In it, “Christians and Jews were involved in the Royal Court and the intellectual life of the city.” María Rosa Menocal , Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University, further describes

18018-620: The subject. The People's Party supports a more centralized Spain, with a unitary market, and usually does not support movements advocating greater regional autonomy. The newer Citizens party was formed in Catalonia in 2006 to oppose independence, and now operates throughout Spain. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party supports a federal state with greater autonomy for the regions, but is opposed to total independence for any region. Nationalist and regionalist political parties operate in many parts of Spain, with widely varying policy platforms and degrees of support. Spanish nationalism has been tied to

18161-477: The third to first centuries BC. The Romans divided the peninsula into different provinces and introduced the Latin language , Roman law , and later Christianity to the majority of the peninsula. They were succeeded by a number of Germanic tribes. The most significant of these was the Visigoths , who attempted to unify the disparate parts of Iberia, focusing on the Roman legacy, especially the Roman law. 711AD marks

18304-470: The time of the union, and long afterwards, those territories were known as the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia , the Kingdom of Valencia , and the Kingdom of Majorca . Despite all being under the same crown, each kingdom effectively had its own distinct government. The Crown of Aragon was characterised by limited monarchy and a federalist structure. The monarchy was limited by some of

18447-456: The traveler every possible landscape". Diversity in forms of agriculture and its productivity are conditioned by the contrasts in rainfall between "wet" and "dry" Spain, and to the extent that irrigation has been introduced. In the past the peripheral regions benefited from cheap coastal transport, whereas transport costs and distance hindered the development of the central regions. The Iberian Peninsula , as Hispania , became subject to Rome in

18590-440: The underlying assumptions on both sides of the debate: "The convivencia debates were never about political ideologies or partisan politics, as they are often construed, but rather," as Ryan Szpiech has argued, "about fundamental and unresolved methodological and philosophical issues. While Castro appealed to philosophical interpretivism, [Claudio] Sánchez-Albornoz appealed to scientific positivism." David Nirenberg challenged

18733-453: The western area of the Pyrenees mountain range and adjacent areas; Phoenician-influenced Tartessians flourished in the southwest; and Lusitanians and Vettones occupied areas in the central west. Several cities were founded along the coast by Phoenicians , and trading outposts and colonies were established by Greeks in the East. Eventually, Phoenician- Carthaginians expanded inland towards

18876-419: The western empire disintegrated, the social and economic base became greatly simplified; the successor regimes maintained many of the institutions and laws of the late empire, including Christianity and assimilation into the evolving Roman culture. The Byzantines established an occidental province, Spania , in the south, with the intention of reviving Roman rule throughout Iberia. Eventually, however, Hispania

19019-468: The world's second-most spoken native language and the world's most widely spoken Romance language . Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy , with King Felipe VI as head of state . A developed country , it is a major advanced capitalist economy, with the world's fifteenth-largest by both nominal GDP and PPP . Spain is a member of the United Nations ,

19162-604: Was bound together by law, language, and the Roman road . The cultures of the pre-Roman populations were gradually Romanised (Latinised) at different rates depending on what part of the peninsula they lived in, with local leaders being admitted into the Roman aristocratic class. Hispania (the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula) served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbours exported gold, wool , olive oil , and wine. Agricultural production increased with

19305-524: Was followed by a contested process of religious and linguistic unification and political centralisation, which began under the Catholic Monarchs and continued intermittently into the 20th century. Peripheral nationalism in its modern form arose chiefly in Catalonia and the Basque Country during the 19th century. The modern division of Spain into Autonomous Communities embodies an attempt to recognise nationalities and regional identities within Spain as

19448-509: Was founded in 1888. In the anarcho-syndicalist trend of the labour movement in Spain, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo was founded in 1910 and Federación Anarquista Ibérica in 1927. Catalanism and Vasquism, alongside other nationalisms and regionalisms in Spain, arose in that period: the Basque Nationalist Party formed in 1895 and Regionalist League of Catalonia in 1901. Political corruption and repression weakened

19591-534: Was inspired by Bishop Josep Torras i Bages . A degree of autonomy was obtained in 1913 with the formation of a Mancomunitat , wherein the four provinces of Catalonia were associated for certain functions. Under the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) Catalonia obtained a Statute of Home Rule in 1932, with a regional administration given the old name of Generalitat , led by the left-wing nationalist party Esquerra Republicana instead of

19734-412: Was introduced as official language. The Renaixença , a Catalan literary and cultural revival, was partly a response to industrialization and was important in the development of modern Catalan identity. A later stage was the development of a distinct form of modernism in the arts and architecture in the period around 1900. The political assertion of what came to be called Catalanisme was spearheaded by

19877-562: Was not supported by the Western powers due to the British-led policy of non-intervention . General Francisco Franco was sworn in as the supreme leader of the rebels on 1 October 1936. An uneasy relationship between the Republican government and the grassroots anarchists who had initiated a partial social revolution also ensued. The civil war was viciously fought and there were many atrocities committed by all sides . The war claimed

20020-481: Was prevalent in Catalonia and beyond during the Middle Ages, but "died as a language of culture in the early 16th century", being revived in the 19th century with the Renaixença . The use of the language was restricted under Franco, but since then it has achieved the status of co-official language and has been actively promoted by Catalonia's government. As of 2011, 95% of the population were able to understand Catalan, and 73% could speak it. In 2007, 32% named Catalan as

20163-424: Was reunited under Visigothic rule . From 711 to 718, as part of the expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate which had conquered North Africa from the Byzantine Empire , nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Muslims from across the Strait of Gibraltar, resulting in the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. Only a small area in the mountainous north of the peninsula stood out of the territory seized during

20306-487: Was seen as voided by the rebellion. Between 1500 and 1502 all remaining Muslims of Granada and Castile were converted. In 1525, Muslims in Aragon were similarly forced to convert. The Muslim communities who converted became known as Moriscos . Still they were suspected by the old Christians of being crypto-Muslims and so between 1609 and 1614 their entire population of 300,000 was forcibly expelled. All these expulsions and conversions resulted in Catholic Christianity becoming

20449-400: Was the first part of Spain to industrialize . This early industrialization and the new economic problems associated with it led to even more of a break with the central government and culture. Catalan industrialists often lobbied for trade protection and opposed trade treaties with other countries. On 2014 figures Catalonia is the fourth wealthiest of Spain's Autonomous Communities. Before

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