Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
his rights to the throne of France. This deal put a Bourbon on the throne of Spain, but led to
war with the other claimant, Archduke Charles of Austria: the resulting
War ofthe Spanish
Succession
lasted thirteen years from 1701, with Catalunya (along with England) lining up
on the Austrian side in an attempt to regain its ancient rights.
However,the
TreatyofUtrecht
in1714gavethethronetothe
Bourbon
(
Borbón
inCastili-
an,
Borbó
in Catalan) Philippe, now Philip V of Spain, and initiated a fresh period of re-
pression from which the Catalans took a century to recover. Barcelona lay under siege for
over a year, and with its eventual capitulation a fortress was built at Ciutadella to subdue the
city's inhabitants - the final defeat, on September 11, is still commemorated every year as
a Catalan holiday,
La Diada
. The university at Barcelona was closed, the Catalan language
was banned, the Consell de Cent and Generalitat were abolished - in short, Catalunya was
finished as even a partially autonomous region.
Napoleonic and Peninsular Wars
When neighbouring France became aggressively expansionist following the Revolution of
1789, Spain was a natural target, first for the Revolutionary armies and later for the mach-
inations of Napoleon. In 1805, during the
Napoleonic Wars
, the French fleet (along with
the Spanish who had been forced into an alliance) was defeated at Trafalgar. Shortly after,
Charles IV was forced to abdicate, and Napoleon installed his brother Joseph on the throne
three years later. Attempting to broaden his appeal among Spain's subjects, the French em-
peror proclaimed a separate government of Catalunya - independent of Joseph's rule -
with Catalan as its official language. The region's response was an indication of how far
Catalunya had become integrated into Spain during the Bourbon period - despite their his-
tory the Catalans supported the Bourbon cause solidly during the ensuing
Peninsular War
(1808-14), ignoring Napoleon's blandishments. Girona was defended heroically from the
French in a seven-month siege, while Napoleon did his cause no good at all by attacking and
sacking the holy shrine and monastery at Montserrat. Fierce local resistance was eventually
backed by the muscle of a British army, and the French were at last driven out.
The slow Catalan revival
Despite the political emasculation of Catalunya, there had been signs of
economic revival
during the eighteenth century, not least as (from 1778) Catalunya was allowed to trade with
the Americas for the first time; in this way, the shipping industry received a boost and
Catalunya was able to export its textiles to a wider market. After the Napoleonic Wars,
Catalunya experienced
industrialization
on a scale like nowhere else in Spain. In the mid-
nineteenthcentury,thecountry'sfirst
railway
wasbuiltfromBarcelonatoMataró,latertobe
extended south to Tarragona and north to Girona and the French border.
Manufacturing
in-
dustriesencouragedashiftinpopulationfromthelandtothetowns;Catalanoliveoilproduc-
tion helped supply the whole country; and previously local industries flourished on a wider
