Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory is situated on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight vegueries (regions), which are in turn divided into 43 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populous municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.
The recorded history of the lands of what today is known as Catalonia begins with the development of the Iberian peoples while several Greek colonies were established on the coast before the Roman conquest. It was the first area of Hispania conquered by the Romans. It then came under Visigothic rule after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. In 718, the area was occupied by the Umayyad Caliphate and became a part of Muslim ruled al-Andalus. The Frankish Empire conquered northern half of the area from the Muslims, ending with the conquest of Barcelona in 801, as part of the creation of a larger buffer zone of Christian counties against Islamic rule historiographically known as the Marca Hispanica. In the 10th century the County of Barcelona became progressively independent from Frankish rule.
Esteban Terrades i Illa also known as Esteve Terradas, was a Spanish mathematician, scientist and engineer. He researched and taught widely in the fields of mathematics and the physical sciences, working not only in his native Catalonia, but also in the rest of Spain and in South America. He was also active as a consultant in the Spanish aeronautics, electric power, telephone and railway industries.
Telephone services in Catalonia were introduced in the late 19th century. At the start of the 20th century, the Spanish government left it to private industry to create the infrastructure needed for telephone communications, as a result the companies created only the lines they thought would be profitable. At the time there were two telephone companies in Catalonia: Companyia Telefònica del Vallès and Companyia Peninsular de Telèfons.
The Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas was a Spanish chartered company which existed from 1728 to 1785. It conducted trade with Spain's overseas colonies and maintained its own fleet of warships to defend the company's merchantmen. In 1785, after having several of its ships captured by the British Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War, the Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas was merged with the Barcelona Trading Company to form the Royal Company of the Philippines.
Sebastià Juan i Arbó was a Spanish novelist and playwright. He wrote in Catalan and Spanish. He was born in Sant Carles de la Ràpita on 27 October 1902 and died in Barcelona on 3 January 1984. His work includes novels, drama, biographies and translations. He was an honorary member of the Association of Writers in the Catalan Language. In 1948, he won the Premio Nadal.
Josep Bonaplata i Corriol was a Catalan industrial entrepreneur known for introducing the steam engine into Catalonia and Spain. His parents, Ramon Bonaplata and Teresa Corriol, were textile manufacturers, principally of chintz, and he had three brothers, Salvador, Ramon and Narcís.
Catalonia International, formerly known as The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia – is a public-private consortium set up by the Catalan government, the Generalitat. It is devoted to promoting international awareness of Catalonia within the international community through public diplomacy tools. In December 2018 its board of trustees appointed Ms. Laura Foraster as the new secretary general.
La España Industrial,, was a cotton textile company founded 1847, and which built its primary factory in the village of Santa María de Sans. It was not only the first joint-stock company created in Spain for cotton manufacturing, but it was also the first company to undertake all aspects under one roof. It was for many years, the largest and most innovative cotton manufacturer in Spain. It was formed in 1847, grew to 2,500 employees in late 19th century, consolidated factories in the 1970s and finally closed its doors for good in 1981.
Can Batlló, or the old Joan Batlló Factory is a former industrial complex located close to the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, near the square known as Plaça Cerdà. It is composed of the facilities set up for the textile factory created in 1878 by Joan Batlló i Barrera. Towards the end of the 19th century it livened up the La Bordeta neighbourhood in Barcelona. The project was the work of engineer Juan Antonio Molinero.
Francisco Antonio Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, count of Melgar, was a Spanish noble and Viceroy of Catalonia.
The Catalan Republic was a state proclaimed in 1931 by Francesc Macià as the "Catalan Republic within the Iberian Federation", in the context of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. It was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, and superseded three days later, on 17 April, by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan institution of self-government within the Spanish Republic.
Josep Maria Fradera i Barceló is a Spanish historian, professor of Contemporary History at the Pompeu Fabra University. Specialised in the colonial system of the late Spanish Empire, he has also studied the history of Catalonia.
Destino was a Spanish weekly magazine published in Spain between 1937 and 1980, initially in Burgos and from 1939 in Barcelona.
The Royal Company of the Philippines was a chartered company founded in 1785, directed to establish a monopoly on the Spanish Philippines and all surrounding trade. It weakened in importance until it was dissolved in the 1830s. Its direct predecessor was that of the Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas.
The 2017 demonstration against Catalan independence was a large demonstration in Barcelona, Spain, organized by Societat Civil Catalana on 8 October 2017, usually named after its slogan 'Stop! let's come to our senses'. It took place around midday starting in Plaça Urquinaona and ending in França railway station. The objective of the rally was to voice protests and growing concerns about the accelerating Catalan independence movement and the recent referendum on self-determination as well as to call for the preserved unity of Spain. The number of demonstrators was estimated at 950,000 by the organizers and 350.000 by the local police.
The Royal Barcelona Board of Trade or Chamber of Commerce was the leading institution for regulating, representing and promoting Catalan commercial and industrial activity in the 18th and 19th century with jurisdiction over the whole Principality of Catalonia. It was created in Barcelona in 1758 and replaced in 1847 by the Provincial Board of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce.
The cotton industry was the first and leading industry of Catalan industrialisation which led, by the mid-19th century, to Catalonia becoming the main industrial region of Spain. It is the one Mediterranean exception to the tendency for early industrialisation to be concentrated in northern Europe. The Catalan cotton industry, in common with many European countries and the United States, was the first large-scale application of modern technology and the factory system.
The Bonaplata Factory (1832-1838) was the first factory in Spain to successfully use steam engines, the first foundry to manufacture and repair cast-iron machinery for sale to the textile industry and, significantly, gained government concessions that definitively demonstrated the government's commitment to domestic manufacturing.
The Conflict of the Selfactinas refers to luddist actions that occurred in Barcelona during the month of July 1854 against the mechanisation of spinning with the self-acting or fully automatic mule held responsible for rising unemployment. The Conflict represents the first attempt in Spain to regulate child labor and to improve the conditions of workers and led directly to the first general strike in Spain. It was also the first time in Spanish history that "government authorities accepted the representative role of work's associations".
