“ Catalonia is not Spain!”
Back in around 1997 I was on holiday in Salou like the vast majority of (British) holidaymakers I was of the opinion I was in Spain. I remember sitting at the pool bar one day chatting to the barman when I happened to say something along the lines of "What part of Spain are you from?" The guys face turned to a shade of indignation and he retorted "I am not Spanish! I am Catalonian!" still not fully understanding the distinction and muttering something along the lines of Oh, OK then." I continued sipping the local beer.
Most people when visiting some countries tend to overlook the indigenous populations sense of identity. For example, lots of people who visit the UK tend to call it Britain, The UK or England which is in fact wrong as England is only part of the Union. Everyone has heard of Scotland mainly due to constant calls from certain groups lobbying for self rule, poor old Wales hardly gets a recognition as having once been kingdom in its own right and as for Northern Ireland everyone thinks it's just Ireland.
Catalonia became part of Spain in 1704 when Philip, Duke of Anjou defeated the Barcelona forces and crowning himself Philip V of Spain. Catalonia has in fact declared itself a Republic on four previous occasions, in 1641, 1873, 1931 and 1934 finally falling to General Franco's forces in 1939 in the closing stages of The Spanish Civil War with the Republic's Lluís Companys, president of Catalonia being tortured and executed. As a former Republican stronghold, Catalan autonomy was revoked, the language heavily suppressed Catalonian festivals banned and the practice of using local names for baby's forbidden. The Spanish civil war was in fact fought by many factions loosely bound together under either a Republican or Nationalists cause with the Nationalists being referred to as fascistas (fascists). Having been supported throughout the civil war by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime Franco repaid the Germans by despatching The Blue Division, officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios with a total of 45,482 troops to Germany, fighting on the Russian front from 1941 through to 1943 until finally being ordered to return to Spain due to pressure from the Allies and the Roman Catholic church. At the end of WWII Spain was the last remaining Fascist country and in 1969 Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón to succeed him. In 1975 after Franco's death from a heart attack, Juan Carlos was pronounced King and the country began a transition to democracy. Catalonia was given autonomy in 1978 and has its own executive parliament (the Generalitat) in 2006 during fresh demands for self-rule a deal was stuck with the Spanish government giving Catalonia greater powers over taxation and recognition of the status of “Nation” within Spain. In 2010 much of the statute was struck down by Spains constitutional court and over a million Catalonians took to the streets and so yet another call for independence began.