Final Installment of the History of Barcelona and Catalunya

In 1283, a Catalan Corts was established to represent three levels of power: the nobles, the high clergy and the superior merchants.  When the Corts was not in session, it was represented by a committee of 12, known as the Generalitat, which was basically a parliament.

The government of the city of Barcelona, the Council of One Hundred, (although the number flucuated) was begun in 1249 by Juame I.  It initially consisted of twenty citizens to advise on city management.  By 1274, it was made up of five councillors, the mayor and a chief magistrate who chose the council of citizens, a new council was chosen every year.  This was more democratic as it allowed tradesmen and skilled workers to sit on council, the system lasted for 450 years.

Palau de la Generalitat

Bridge of Sighs, added in 1928

Gothic facade

Ajunctament - Barcelona Civic Government

Barcelona grew rapidly in the medieval period, another set of city walls, in addition to the old Roman walls were built for defensive purposes.  However, horrible events occurred in the middle ages, in 1333 the Catalan wheat crop failed, the resulting famine claimed one quarter of the population of Barcelona.  In 1348, the black death killed 40% of the population of rural Catalunya.  While rural Catalunya was on the verge of collapse, the aristocracy took the opportunity to accumulate all the unclaimed farmland; thus, the peasants revolted and land wars raged from 1370 through the 1400s.

Guilds were established in Barcelona in the thirteenth century and lasted into the mid nineteenth, they were the foundation of economic life in the city.  The guilds were powerful, as they determined workers’ rights, fixed prices, negotiated privileges with the monarchy, participated in drafting city laws and organized a militia.  Many of the streets in the medieval core, the Barri Gotic, are named after the trades.

In 1410 Marti I (the Humanist) died without an heir, a Castilian, Ferdinand of Antequera took the crown.  From this point on, Catalunya and Aragon were ruled by Castilians.  Plagues and the collapse of the rural economy destroyed Barcelona as a merchant sea power.  In 1462 a civil war broke out between the monarchy and the ruling class, this broke the bonds between the monarchy and the Generalitat and the Council of One Hundred.

In 1471, the throne went to Ferdinand III (the Catholic), he had married Isabella of Castile in 1469, bringing Catalunya under Castilian control, thus ending the independence of Catalunya which had began 600 years earlier.  Catalunya was in decline, the union of the Catholic kings created a superpower with little regard for Catalunya.  The riches of the New World poured into Castile, very little trickled into Catalunya.

Moving along here, the Hapsburgs of Austria were ruling Spain from Madrid, the king was Felipe IV who ruled by royal decree, thus eroding the independence of Catalunya. The last of the Hapsburgs left no heir; therefore, England, Holland, Austria and France all wanted their own candidate on the Spanish throne.  The French choice, a Bourbon prince, Felipe V, got the throne, but the Catalans backed the Austrian choice, the rest of them declared war on France.  This was the War of Spanish Succession 1701-1714.  This is important, as the war led to the conquest of Catalunya and the loss of its political institutions.  England made peace with France while Catalunya was left on its own.  The Catalans fought hard but Barcelona was under siege for 14 months, the city surrendered on September 11, 1714, which, to this day, is the National Day of Catalunya.

The Bourbons destroyed Catalunya’s political institutions, any revolts were to be crushed, all the ancient entitlements that had been in existence since the middle ages were voided.  Then the Bourbons built a huge citadel on 150 acres of city land, destroying homes, hospitals and buildings in the process with no compensation provided.  They also erected large city walls, the entire city could be bombarded from the citadel.  The Bourbon walls were a detested symbol of Castilian rule, the walls also transformed Barcelona into a huge fort, hemming in the city.

Under the Bourbons, trade began to flourish as the Atlantic was now open to Catalan merchants.  The textile trade soared but the guilds which once protected the working class fell away, leaving the workers subject to abuse by the industrialists.

The city was a fetid cesspool, the population had outgrown the walls but the Bourbons would not allow the walls to be torn down.  The medieval centre became a slum as additional floors were added to buildings and existing floors were divided into smaller living spaces.  The lack of sanitation resulted in the outbreak of disease, the population of the city was discontent and quick to riot.

During the Peninsular Wars 1804-1814, the Spanish allied with France, the English blockaded the Atlantic and trade slowed, resulting in high unemployment.  The French occupied Catalunya and controlled the cities but they could not control the Catalan countryside where the resistance was fierce.  The rural Catalans were not well armed but they used guerilla tactics to ambush the French.  The French retreated from Spain in 1814.

During the 1830s there was an anti church flare up which resulted in the burning of many churches and convents.  In 1835, church property was confiscated for the state and auctioned off, 4/5 of the church property in Barcelona was sold and the churches and convents demolished.  This transformed the city as the land was used for housing, theatres, offices, markets and squares.

In the 1840s the military and the monarchy in Madrid wanted to keep the Bourbon walls.  The people of Barcelona wanted them torn down and the business class wanted them down so they could profit from development.  The construction of factories and housing was banned inside the walls in 1846, factories were to be built outside the walls.  Finally, in 1854, the city received royal consent to destroy the walls but the citadel was to remain.

Barcelona was in crisis during the years of 1854-1856 as workers fought for rights with factory owners, cholera swept the city and a worker uprising was put down with force, killing workers.  It took ten years for the Bourbon walls to be removed.  Portions of the old Roman walls and the medieval walls still exist today but there is nary a portion of the hated Bourbon walls remaining.

At the end of the 1800s Barcelona was booming and the population soared, the majority of the working class was of Catalan origin and the majority of the population spoke Catalan even though workers from Aragon and Valencia moved to the city.

There was quite a shift in the relations between the peasants and the church during the 1800s.  In the past, the peasants and the church were allies as the peasants worked the church lands and the clergy was known to step in to assist the peasants in dealing with the nobles who controlled their lives.  After the state took over church lands, the church allied itself with the aristocracy and those with money and power.  In Barcelona, this was the wealthy industrialists.  The workers felt a sense of betrayal by the church, anti clericalism among the working class rose to the fore.

In 1890, the young and marginalized were angry and anarchism spread, the anarchists started to throw bombs.  In 1893, during Rossini’s five hour opera of William Tell, Salvador, an anarchist sitting in the balcony, threw a bomb into the stalls where the wealthy sat, killing 22 and wounding 30.  Barcelona went into a panic, police arrested five anarchists at random as well as Salvador and executed them.  Three years later, a church procession was bombed, the police rounded up every anarchist they could find, received confessions through the use of torture and executed five of them, the remainder were sent to a penal colony.  Anarchism melted away but it was to rise again in the early 1900s.

Spain lost her last important colony, Cuba, in 1898, this shut out the colonial markets and the city of Barcelona suffered from the loss of trade.  The anarchists struck again, in what is known as Setmana Tragica, the Tragic Week, when riots broke out and many buildings, churches and convents were burned down.

The wealthy class were conservative, they supported the monarchy in Madrid because they were protectionist and wanted tariffs to remain in place to protect their industries.  The professional classes, smaller businessmen and large shopkeepers were of rural Catalan roots who had moved to the city for education and to practise, they were conservative but anti monarchy.  They drafted a constitution for the governing of Catalunya, which was rejected by Madrid, but it became the political platform for a Catalanist party which won four seats in the Spanish elections of 1901.

In 1921, a military dictatorship was declared by the Captain General, this was supported by the Spanish king.  The Spanish election in 1931 delivered a left-wing government in Spain, they were thrown out in 1934 elections, yet won again in 1936.  However, Franco staged a coup and the Spanish Civil War broke out.  The Catalans fought hard for the Republic of course, and although Barcelona was the last hold out of resistance, the city surrendered to Franco’s nationalists in January of 1939.  Catalunya was once again ruled from Madrid, Franco repressed the Catalan language and culture to a severe degree through to the 1940s.

I have read more than a few accounts that when Franco died in November 1975, the people of Barcelona took to the streets and drained every single case of Cava in the city in celebration.  After the death of Franco, King Juan Carlos I, initiated the transition from dictatorship to democracy.