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 42 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.
Francesc Macià i Llussà was a Catalan politician who served as the 122nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army.
Lluís Companys i Jover was a Spanish politician who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
The Republican Left of Catalonia is a pro-Catalan independence, social democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, with a presence also in Valencia, the Balearic Islands and the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales. It is also the main sponsor of the independence movement from France and Spain in the territories known as Catalan Countries, focusing in recent years on the creation of a Catalan Republic in Catalonia proper. Its current president is Oriol Junqueras and its secretary-general is Marta Rovira. The party is a member of the European Free Alliance.
The Catalan independence movement is a social and political movement which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain.
The Parliament of Catalonia is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as deputies, who are elected for four-year terms or after extraordinary dissolution, chosen by universal suffrage in lists of four constituencies, corresponding to the Catalan provinces. The Parliament building is located in Ciutadella Park, Barcelona.
Conca de Barberà is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) for wines located in central Catalonia in the northern portion of the Tarragona Province. Situated within the river valleys of the Francolí and Anguera, it has historically been known for its white wines, but has been gaining more attention for its reds, especially those from the native Trepat grape. Today, the Conca de Barberà DOP mainly produces red wines, along with whites, and minor amounts of rosés and sparkling wines.
The Library of Catalonia is the Catalan national library, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The primary mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic production and that related to the Catalan linguistic area, to look after its conservation, and to spread its bibliographic heritage while maintaining the status of a center for research and consultation.
The events of 6 October were a general strike, armed insurgency and declaration of a Catalan State in Catalonia during the Revolution of 1934 on 6 October 1934.
The Revolution of 1934, also known as the Revolution of October 1934 or the Revolutionary General Strike of 1934, was a revolutionary strike movement that took place between 5 and 19 October 1934, during the black biennium of the Second Spanish Republic. The revolts were triggered by the entry of the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) into the Spanish government. Most of the events occurred in Catalonia and Asturias and were supported by many Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and General Union of Workers (UGT) members, notably Largo Caballero, as well as members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Historians have argued that the incident sharpened antagonism between the political Right and Left in Spain and was part of the reason for the later Spanish Civil War. Around 2,000 people were killed during the uprising, which was repressed by Spanish government forces.
A constitutional crisis took place in Spain from 2017 to 2018 as the result of a political conflict between the Government of Spain and the Generalitat de Catalunya under the then-President Carles Puigdemont —the government of the autonomous community of Catalonia until 28 October 2017— over the issue of Catalan independence. It started after the law intending to allow the 2017 Catalan independence referendum was denounced by the Spanish government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and subsequently suspended by the Constitutional Court until it ruled on the issue. Some international media outlets have described the events as "one of the worst political crises in modern Spanish history".
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.
The Catalan State was a short-lived state that existed in Catalonia from 6 to 7 October 1934 during the Events of 6 October. The Catalan State was proclaimed by Lluís Companys, the left-wing President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, as a state "within the Spanish Federal Republic" in response to members of the right-wing CEDA party being included in the government of Second Spanish Republic. The Catalan State was immediately suppressed by the Spanish Army led by General Domènec Batet and Companys surrendered the next day.
Events from 1934 in Catalonia.
Federalism in Spain began in the 1830s, although it has its roots in the 1790s. The first and only attempt to establish a federal state in Spain occurred during the First Spanish Republic (1873-1874). After this failure, federalism was a minority political current. In the Second Spanish Republic and in the Transition, an intermediate model was chosen between federalism and centralism — the integral state, in the first case; and the regional state in the second.
Josep Dencàs i Puigdollers was a Catalan nationalist politician active in the Republican Left of Catalonia.
The Assembly of Catalonia was a unitary body of the anti-Francoist opposition of Catalonia created in November 1971. Its fundamental demands were the demand for democratic freedoms, the general amnesty for political prisoners and the achievement of the statute of autonomy, which were synthesized in the motto of Freedom, Amnesty, Statute of Autonomy. In addition to the political parties—all of them clandestine—forces of various kinds were part of it, such as trade union organizations, professional groups, representatives of the university movement, neighborhood movements, Christian groups, regional assemblies, etc. The objectives of the Assembly were achieved during the democratic transition, especially when the Cortes approved the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in 1979.
The Autonomous Region of Catalonia was established after the grant of self-government to Catalonia during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939), becoming an autonomous region within the Spanish Republic. The Generalitat of Catalonia was the institution in which the autonomous government of Catalonia was organized, it was established in order to replace the Catalan Republic proclaimed during the events of the proclamation of the Spanish Republic.
The Bases for the Catalan Regional Constitution, better known as the Manresa Bases, is the document presented as a draft Catalan regional constitution for a paper by the Unió Catalanista to the council of representatives of Catalanist associations, which met in Manresa (Barcelona) on 25 and 27 March 1892 at the initiative of the Lliga de Catalunya. The Bases de Manresa are often considered to be the "birth certificate of political Catalanism", at least that of conservative roots.
