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Welcome to the history page. This week we
will carry on with our examination of the reforms instituted
during the first two years of the Second Republic, a period
known, fittingly, as the Reformist Biennium. Last week we
touched briefly on the key legislation introduced by the Agrarian
Reform, noting that most of these controversial measures were
either disregarded by the landowning oligarchy or deliberately
violated so as to incite mass revolt.
Despite these attempts at subversion, when
the Agrarian Reform finally came before parliament for discussion
and ratification in the summer of 1932 (readers will remember
that several preliminary decrees were instituted in 1931 during
the provisional stages of government), republican lawmakers
did not try to assuage the powerful upper classes. Rather,
they implemented iron-handed political surgery, calling for
the expropriation of estates which were either manifestly
underdeveloped or exploited for purposes other than agricultural
production. As it turned out, however, the intended expropriations
never took place. For, in addition to the enormity of the
task (it took a year just to compile an inventory of the estates
in question) and the low budget allocated to the project,
a new centre-right coalition gain parliamentary majority the
following year, effectively annulling the legislative groundwork
laid down by Azaña’s reformist administration.
Decentralization
Nonetheless, while the agrarian battle raged
on, another important aspect of the Republic’s political
platform did come to fruition: On 9th September 1932, after
suffering the authoritarianism and inefficiency of Castilian
hegemony for over two centuries, Catalonia was granted political
autonomy within the Spanish state. Various attempts were also
made at establishing Basque autonomy, although, as we shall
see, all of them ended in failure. Why, then, in the face
of wide-spread dissention, did Catalonia’s impetus toward
self-government meet with such rapid success? The complete
answer to that question could fill several volumes; for today,
we will have to make due with the abridged answer, which is
also rather lengthy.
In a nutshell, the driving force behind
Catalan autonomy lay (and lies) in the region’s millenarian
history. Long before it ever became part of the unified and
‘reconquered’ Spanish nation, Catalonia possessed
sophisticated governmental institutions of its own, competently
ruling itself as well as its various overseas holdings. Let
us take a bird’s-eye view of Catalan development up to
1,700 and the induration of Castilian authoritarianism.
Catalonia: A Confederation of Free Counties
In the 9th century, Catalonia was conquered
by Charlemagne in order to create a barrier against the encroaching
Moors. Tributary counts ruled over the area until the Emperor’s
death in 814, after which time Frankish control began to dwindle
south of the Pyrenees, and the counts established their political
and military independence. Wilfred the Hairy (874-898) is
generally considered the first independent count of Barcelona,
however, it would take another century and the progressive
weakening of Moorish hegemony until a noticeable flourishing
of culture and economy began to accrue.
The Crown of Aragon
In 1037, through the auspices of conjugal
union, the confederated counties of Catalonia joined forces
with the small kingdom of Aragon to create the Crown of Aragon,
a political entity that would become one of the most powerful
states in Medieval Spain. Each party retained its political
individuality in questions of institutions, laws, language,
etc., however, the combined military force of the two regions
made possible the reconquest of large swathes of territory
from the Moors. Under Jaume the Conqueror (1208-1276), the
Crown of Aragon added the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Murcia
and Ceuta to its territorial possessions, while under Pedro
III (1276-1285), the Catalan dominion extended to the island
of Sicily as well.
In the early 15th century, King Martin I
produced no heirs and a problem of succession arose. Two candidates
for kingship were put forth: the Catalan Count of Urgell and
the Castilian prince, Don Fernando, of the Trastámara
dynasty. To resolve the matter reasonably, a meeting known
as the Capsa Agreement took place among the Crown’s triumviral
powers, i.e. Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia. After long deliberations,
Prince Fernando emerged as the victor, upgrading the Catalan
counties into a principality and foreshadowing Catalonia’s
eventual absorption into Castile. For the time being, however,
the inclination of the Aragon branch of the Trastámara
line was not one of fusion with Castile, but of Mediterranean
expansion. The dynasty’s second monarch, Alfonso V (1396-1458,
known as the Magnanimous) succeeded in annexing Naples to
the Crown of Aragon, and found that he enjoyed living there
more than in Spain. Indeed, his court in Naples became one
of the most noted intellectual centres of the day.
Joined in Marriage
Alfonso V was succeeded by his brother Joan
II (1458-1479) who faced the thorny problem of trying to placate
an emergent Catalan bourgeoisie. Always a step ahead of the
times, a precocious revolutionary spirit took hold of Catalonia’s
powerful merchants, leading them to demand that the Principality
of Catalonia be instituted as a crown republic and calling
for a significant reduction in royal power. During this tumultuous
period, Joan’s son, Ferdinand II (1452-1516), married
Isabel I of Castile (1451-1504), thus consolidating the union
of the Spanish nation by bringing together the two largest
kingdoms in Iberia in a dual monarchy. Even after unification,
each of the constituent parts of this powerful political ensemble
maintained its own courts and lawmaking institutions as well
as full jurisdiction in local matters.
Enter Hapsburgs
This situation changed somewhat with the
succession of Isabel and Ferdinand’s grandson, Carlos
I of Spain and V of Germany, after which time Castile was
made to acquiesce to the Emperor’s authoritarianism.
On the other hand, Navarra, the Basque Country and the Crown
of Aragon continued to retain most of their traditional independence
throughout the 16th century.
By the middle of the 17th century, however,
under the rule of the so-called ‘minor Hapsburgs’,
Castilian centralism, with its new custom of posting imperial
viceroys, had begun to engulf the ‘outer’ regions.
Resentful of their loss of independence and justifiably fed
up with how Felipe the Fourth’s pet ministers were running
the country, Catalonia revolted in 1640, killing the viceroy
and numerous Castilian civil servants. The principality remained
independent until 1652, when Felipe IV promised to respect
Catalonia’s traditional political liberties.
The Bourbons Lay Down the Law
The final death blow to regional autonomy
in Spain came in 1714 at the close of the War of the Spanish
Succession. The personification of this new authoritarianism
was the Bourbon, Felipe V, who, in centralist French fashion,
outlawed all political liberties in the provinces as well
as the use of local languages, such as Catalan, in government
documents and proceedings.
Closing
These cultural, linguistic and political
restrictions remained in force, as did the Bourbon dynasty,
up until the period we are dealing with - which, in case anyone
has forgotten, is the early 1930s. Also constant during the
intervening two centuries was the Catalan desire to reassert
its identity as a distinctive part of the Spanish nation,
free to express its cultural differences and manage its own
affairs as in the centuries of yore. Join us next week as
we pick up the thread of Catalan autonomy in the 20th century.
Emily Kaufman
emilykaufman@ibizahistoryculture.com
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