Generalitat de Catalunya

History of the Generalitat of Catalonia

Catalonia’s autonomy within the Spanish state is based not only on the current will of its citizens and the prevailing laws, but also on a long-term historical memory and, more specifically, on its medieval predecessor –La Diputació General de Catalunya (The General Council of Catalonia)- which the legislators of 1931 saw fit to invoke as the legitimate base for contemporary self-government.

The origins of Catalonia’s political formation lie in a series of feudal counties created in the overlapping area between the Carolingian Empire and the northern territories of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsula (Spanish March). The county of Barcelona became its capital and at the end of the tenth century it became independent from the French. In 1137 the Catalonia and Aragon dynasties unified under the rule of Ramon Berenguer IV, who overthrew the last Arab strongholds (Lleida, Tortosa and Siurana) between 1148 and 1153.

James I, the Conqueror, commenced the expansion of Catalonia into the Mediterranean with the conquest of the kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia (1229-1238) and throughout the thirteen and fourteenth centuries the country became an economic power (with maritime consulates in may of its ports) and a political power (conquering Sicily, Sardinia, the duchies of Athens and Neopatria and, in the fifteenth century, Naples). The permanent delegation of the Catalan courts –one of the first European parliaments- took place in the Generalitat of Catalonia, the regional government institution later restored in the twentieth century.

The marriage of Ferdinand II with Elisabeth of Castille (the Catholic Kings) represented the union of dynasties with Castille. However, Catalonia-Aragon was to conserve its institutional politics and sovereignty (law, currency, tax system, etc.) until the eighteenth century. The War of the Spanish Succession between the Bourbons and the Habsburgs led to the crowning of Phillip V of Spain and brought grave defeat to Catalonia, which fought on the side of the Austriacist army, resulting in the abolition of the Catalan institutions (‘Decret de Nova Planta’ or New Regime Decree) and the establishment of a new absolutist policy and the onset of ‘castillianisation’.

Even so, the eighteenth century was one of economic recovery and saw the commencement of industrialisation throughout the country, consolidated from 1832 with the arrival of the steam engine and the predominance of the wool and cotton textile industry. The different movements of national recovery throughout Europe in the nineteenth century influenced the emergence of the cultural Renaissance (Floral Games, the recovery of Catalan language and literature) and of political Catalanism, as well as artistic movements, such as Modernism and the Avant Guard.

The Generalitat of Catalonia was restored under the Second Spanish Republic and the Statute of Autonomy was passed (1932) but the defeat of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) led to the Franco dictatorship and the abolition of all the country’s rights and institutions. The restoration of the Generalitat of Catalonia (1977) witnessed the creation of a Parliament and an Autonomous Government, along with the approval of the Statute of Autonomy (1979), which was replaced in 2006 by the current Statute of Autonomy.