|
History
The reconquest of Spain from the Arab and Berber Muslims took
place from a number of small Christian kingdoms and entities.
One of these was the County of Barcelona (headed by the Count) and the kingdom of Aragon where the king also had the title of Count.
As in most of post-Roman Europe a number of dialects grew
out of Latin. Some of these gained the status of official languages;
others remained peasant dialects. Catalan (and its extension
in France, Provençal) became an important literary language and
the vehicle of Troubador poetry, from which stemmed the western
tradition of romantic love (itself deriving from contemporary
Arabic literature). The Kingdom and County developed into the
kingdom of Aragon. This conquered the Balearic Islands (Mallorca,
Ibiza, Minorca) from the Arab rulers and parts of southern Italy including Sicily from the Norman kingdom.
To the west the other kingdoms coalesced into the kingdom of
Castile based on Toledo.
By 1479 there were three main Iberian kingdoms: Portugal,
Castile and Aragon (and Navarre and Andorra). In that year the
two kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united when Fernando
of Aragon became king of Castile, being already married to Queen
Isabella of Castile. Thus to many Catalans it is by no means
inevitable that there should be a single Spanish state. It would
have been just as logical to have continued with the three state
structure. Many Catalans would prefer to revive the pre-1479
situation. The union of the kingdoms perhaps happened too late
to be permanent. Catalan did not decline to a local dialect (as
Scots may have done) but remains a literary language. Castilian
remains the language of Spain and of Spanish America. Some Catalan
nationalists hope that in the foreseeable future they may have
a direct relationship with Brussels and the European Union, thus
effectively dissolving the unity of Spain. Do they have a majority?
It is not clear that they do, and perhaps the majority will be
content with the local autonomy now achieved.
During the Franco dictatorship the use of Catalan for official purposes
was forbidden as Franco wished only Castilian to be used in Spain.
The main cultural difference between Aragon and Castile had
been that Aragon looked to the sea and was open to foreign influences
through its merchants, while Castile had grown from the mountains
of the north and had expanded into the harsh interior and relied
on the military qualities. It was the Castilians who dominated
Spain, and imposed dictatorship of one kind or another for most
of its history.
The detailed history of Aragon and Catalonia can be seen in Norman Davies - Vanished Kingdoms (click on Index).
|
