The History of Catalonia

Interested in why many Catalans consider themselves apart from wider Spanish society and want an independent state? Perhaps finding out about their history is key.

Music Used:
Sneaky Snitch - Kevin MacLeod
Laid Back Guitars- Kevin MacLeod
Desert City - Kevin MacLeod
Holfix - Mystery
A Himatsu - Adventures
Suonatore Di Liutto - Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

History of Australia:

Why is Gibraltar British?

The Role of Foreigners in the Spanish Civil War:

Weimar Political Parties:

Patreon:

[fumarc]

I learned much of this when I visited Barcelona. The people were so proud of their language and independent government. While I felt I had wasted boning up on my Spanish, it was fascinating to learn about Catalan and its origins. Truly a beautiful city and rich in culture and history.

[georgeesteve]

Video: “Catalonian”
Me: **deep inhale** Catalan

[mikenkmike]

War of Spanish Succession is wrong. Austrians and Hapsburg are the same. It was Hapsburg (Austrian) vs. Bourbon (French) successors.

[youcanthandlethetruth]

And Portugal is just watching like..





Wtf is Spain up to this time.

[Chaika]

a video without netherlands and it's anthem playing is not a true vid of Hillbert

[carmenfreixas]

As per my name, one can see that I am Catalana, I was born there, my mother tongue
was Catalan, then Spanish was my second language when I started school, age 4, home
was always Catalan, school, we had French and Italian lessons, (which are cousin languages) then age 14, we moved to Australia, English came into the picture, later
marrying a Aussie born Greek background, that came into my life, all this happened before
I was 20. I spoke Catalan to my mum and dad, till their passing, about 62 years, now at
75 I am able to speak all of them, but I only write Catalan, Spanish and English.

[sojunikkyu]

I'm not a historian and I'm probably biased, but there are some things I would like to say:

· Hispania was the name Romans gave to the Iberian Peninsula. They divided this territory in several provinces (from two at the beginning to five at the end). It’s probably better to just say it’s a geographical term, not a pollitical one.
· You’re skipping the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Germanic domination and the Muslim invasion. I think they are worth mentioning, since it answers why Christian Kingdoms ended organizing this way.
· When the Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula, the Christians began fighting them by establishing small kingdoms in the north that started expanding southward. Portugal, Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia are some of these kingdoms. By marriage, some of these kingdoms began to unite, Castile and Leon for one side and Aragon and Catalonia for another. Although Castile and Leon were completely fused, that’s not the same for Aragon and Catalonia, since they worked more or less as a confederation, different kingdoms with the same king. When they conquered the Balearic Islands and Valencia, they added these two kingdoms to this confederation they called the Crown of Aragon (although neither Aragon nor Catalonia had a dominant position).
· And you missed the Balearic Islands in your map, just saying.
· The flag for Aragon and Catalonia are mostly the same, since it’s the flag of the King and they had the same king (it's four horizontal stripes on a field of gold).
· The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella functioned mostly the same way than with Catalonia and Aragon: two kingdoms (well, one for Castille and Leon and four for Aragon, but two kingdoms is easier) with the same king. It’s not one country, instead different countries with the same ruler (if you look it this way it makes all the wars of this period easier to understand ). In the following years, parts of Italy, the Netherlands, Germany or America were added to the Spanish Empire.
· The flag of Spain doesn’t appear until the 18th century, and the Coat of Arms until the 1970s.
· The War of the Spanish Succession is less a conflict between Castile and Aragon or two kings than two opposite visions of how Spain should be ruled: the France way (absolutist, centralised) or the Austrian way (more de-centralised and respectful with the local laws and customs). There were Borbonists (supporters of France) and Austriacists (supporters of Austria) on all parts of the country, more Borbonists than Austriacists in Castille and the other way around in Aragon. It’s recorded and notorious that one of the battle cries in the Siege of Barcelona was ‘For Spain’. Their vision of Spain, of course. In the end, the France way won.
· September 11th is not ‘La Diada Nacional’ is just ‘La Diada’, more or less ‘THE Day’.
· Again, careful with the flags. The white one with a red 'X' represented the Habsburg, in this period the rulers were Bourbon. The ‘Catalan’ one is not the official one, it represents the will for independence and it doesn’t appear until the 20th century (inspired by Cuba's independence in 1898).
· The Catalan Nationalist movement appears at mid-late 19th century.
· At the beginning of the 20th century there’s a brief period of semi-autonomy in Catalonia, until the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1923.
· The dictatorship (and the Monarchy) ended when republican parties won the 1931 local elections and the Republic was declared in Barcelona and Madrid. This Catalan Republic lasted for three days (literally), until it joined the Second Spanish Republic. The man in the photo is Francesc Macià, the president of the ephemeral Catalan Republic and later the president of the autonomous region of Catalonia.
· Again, careful with the flags. You mixed the Coat of Arms of the King in the Spanish Republican flag. Not cool.
· It would be cooler if you showed the evolution of the Civil War through the years, not only a static map. And there was bombardment of Barcelona (by Mussolini’s italian planes), but no siege. In 1939 Franco occupied the remnants of Catalonia in three weeks.
· Good work here with the Spanish flag, the one with the bird is the right one.
·It’s a bit strange that you cut your video at the end of Franco’s Dictatorship, since it was forty years ago and a lot of things have happened:
- Spain transitioned into a democracy and in 1979 got a new Constitution.
- Most of the judges, policemen and civil servants from the Dictatorship strangely kept their jobs.
- Catalonia got again his autonomy status, but another sixteen regions of Spain did the same, diluting its self-government. Its status is recorded in the Statute of Autonomy (more or less like a mini-Constitution, the highest law of the region just below the Constitution).
Spain joined the EU in 1986.
- In the 2000s, after a long time slowly gaining more powers, Catalan parties sought a new Statute to further expand and protect these powers. They finished their work in 2005 and in 2006 was substantially reduced by the Spanish Parliament and reluctantly approved in referendum by the Catalan people.
- In 2006 this Statute was challenged at the Constitutional Court, which ruled in 2010 against the Statute and further reduced its powers.
A huge demonstration was held in Barcelona on July 10th 2010 protesting against the ruling and claiming for independence. Now it was not only a matter of money or language, but a matter of pride and respect.
- In 2011 a new pro-independence organization was born. They have pushed for independence and organized a huge demonstration on September 11th for five years.
- The Spanish government has systematically declined to acknowledge any petition from the Catalan government, even the smaller ones.

[jordinagel]

Fun fact, the regions of Spain that were under Aragonese rule still bear its red and yellow stripes upon their modern flags (Aragon proper, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic islands), making for a group of very sinilar-looking flags in a country whose regions otherwise have very different designs for theirs.
Also, Catalan is supposedly the language closest to the vulgar Latin spoken in Iberia in the days of the Romans.

[Markvdl]

Have a bit of a problem with the notion of Catalonia being singularily opposed to the Spanish crown in the Spanish Succession War. The resistance was more a thing among the nobility who were afraid of losing their privileges. Not about a notion of being Catalonian.

[damianlee]

You would almost think Hilbert is dutch or something😂

[TheRobRok]

Great video but there are two thinks that i want to coment.
-The people from catalonia are catalans, not catalonians.
-Ur flag isnt the `estelada´ (the one you show in the video) its the `senyera´ . The `estelada´ its a flag that represents the separatist movement and was created in 1918.

[darthguilder]

Catalonia: I want to hold a referendum
Spain: isn't that illegal?
Catalonia: *I will make it legal*

[hispanouruguayo]

it would be nice if people of other countries don't exclude the islands from our territory... canary and balearic islands also existe xD
You used a wrong flag to show the union of the kingdoms. The first flag was Cross of Burgundy (more or less Florida's flag nowadays). You also explain wrongly the fight between the borbon and austria's supporters, it was not between aragon and the rest, it was between people inside all the territories, saying that it was between territories is like saying that civil war was between territories, completely wrong. You also mixed Cross of Burgundy with estelada... wrong, both flags are from different times.

[javier]

6:20

That´s not actually true, though Catalan was banned from official and public matters of the nation, it could be spoken and you could still read from it. It was repressed in the sence that it was not allowed to be thought or to be used by the local goverment but there was never a law that arrested a catalan speaker if he/she was speaking to a friend and a policeman heard them. The opresion of the language was more on a institutional level than a local one.

[PisauraXTX]

Can you do a video on the anarchist territories in Catalonia and Aragon in the late 1930s? They only got half a sentence in this one and it is incredibly hard to find information on them.

[Prometosermejor]

You have to be careful with the flags you are using. The flag with the star is not official and called "estelada" which means "with star". It is literally a copy of the cuban flag, so it was not used until late 19 century. Therefore you made a mistake.

Navarra was incorporated AFTER, Granada, not before.

You said confusing. Philip V of the Bourbon House was accepted king of all Spain, but then Catalonia switch sides for the Habsbourg Charles. The 1640 events were important on that change.

AGG the flags! Change them, they are almost all wrong.

Catalonia was NEVER independent in the 20 century. They declare the independence in 1934 and lasted for 8h. The independence was not even a true independence because they said they were within the "Iberian Federation".

Another mistake. Calonia was taken in february 1939 quite fast after the Ebro Battle of late 1938. There was no bombardement. Even the nacionalist troops were saluted (It is common to take winners side AFTER the war, just to be safe). You should have spoken about the civil war within the republicans in Catalonia.

Calonia has now in 2017 more freedom, rights and self goberment than in 1931-39. For example, before the 1-O, Catalonia has more self goberment than Scotland.

It is just false that Catalan languaje is not accepted.

[prigual]

During the he Spanish civil war, Madrid standed for several years

[podemosurss]

2:28 Not really. It was more of a dynastic union than other thing. The kingdoms had their own laws, taxation, official language, police...
Also that flag is official since 1843, and was designed in the 1740s.

[hyperion]

I always thought that the demonym for people that come from Catalonia was “Catalan”, “Catalonian” just sounds weird.

[aitanafinestrat]

It is a good video, but the History is much more complex than that. For example, in the Middle Ages the Corona de Aragon (Crown of Aragon) was actually born thanks to a marriage between the main ruler of the Barcelona County and the doughter of the king of Aragon. It was a pact, a marriage. Besides, the Catalans were not united as a kingdom (they lived in several counties: Barcelona, Girona, Urgell...) and they were not under the power of Aragon "being permitted to preserve their language and customs".
And of course as you well know, they are not the only ones who lived this History and the repression (generally speaking).
There is a lot of things to consider here. But good job trying to do the summary haha it is no easy job ;)