I learned much of this when I visited Barcelona. The people were so proud of their language and independent government. While I felt I had wasted boning up on my Spanish, it was fascinating to learn about Catalan and its origins. Truly a beautiful city and rich in culture and history.

Video: “Catalonian” Me: **deep inhale** Catalan

War of Spanish Succession is wrong. Austrians and Hapsburg are the same. It was Hapsburg (Austrian) vs. Bourbon (French) successors.

And Portugal is just watching like.. Wtf is Spain up to this time.

a video without netherlands and it's anthem playing is not a true vid of Hillbert

As per my name, one can see that I am Catalana, I was born there, my mother tongue was Catalan, then Spanish was my second language when I started school, age 4, home was always Catalan, school, we had French and Italian lessons, (which are cousin languages) then age 14, we moved to Australia, English came into the picture, later marrying a Aussie born Greek background, that came into my life, all this happened before I was 20. I spoke Catalan to my mum and dad, till their passing, about 62 years, now at 75 I am able to speak all of them, but I only write Catalan, Spanish and English.

I'm not a historian and I'm probably biased, but there are some things I would like to say: · Hispania was the name Romans gave to the Iberian Peninsula. They divided this territory in several provinces (from two at the beginning to five at the end). It’s probably better to just say it’s a geographical term, not a pollitical one. · You’re skipping the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Germanic domination and the Muslim invasion. I think they are worth mentioning, since it answers why Christian Kingdoms ended organizing this way. · When the Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula, the Christians began fighting them by establishing small kingdoms in the north that started expanding southward. Portugal, Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia are some of these kingdoms. By marriage, some of these kingdoms began to unite, Castile and Leon for one side and Aragon and Catalonia for another. Although Castile and Leon were completely fused, that’s not the same for Aragon and Catalonia, since they worked more or less as a confederation, different kingdoms with the same king. When they conquered the Balearic Islands and Valencia, they added these two kingdoms to this confederation they called the Crown of Aragon (although neither Aragon nor Catalonia had a dominant position). · And you missed the Balearic Islands in your map, just saying. · The flag for Aragon and Catalonia are mostly the same, since it’s the flag of the King and they had the same king (it's four horizontal stripes on a field of gold). · The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella functioned mostly the same way than with Catalonia and Aragon: two kingdoms (well, one for Castille and Leon and four for Aragon, but two kingdoms is easier) with the same king. It’s not one country, instead different countries with the same ruler (if you look it this way it makes all the wars of this period easier to understand ). In the following years, parts of Italy, the Netherlands, Germany or America were added to the Spanish Empire. · The flag of Spain doesn’t appear until the 18th century, and the Coat of Arms until the 1970s. · The War of the Spanish Succession is less a conflict between Castile and Aragon or two kings than two opposite visions of how Spain should be ruled: the France way (absolutist, centralised) or the Austrian way (more de-centralised and respectful with the local laws and customs). There were Borbonists (supporters of France) and Austriacists (supporters of Austria) on all parts of the country, more Borbonists than Austriacists in Castille and the other way around in Aragon. It’s recorded and notorious that one of the battle cries in the Siege of Barcelona was ‘For Spain’. Their vision of Spain, of course. In the end, the France way won. · September 11th is not ‘La Diada Nacional’ is just ‘La Diada’, more or less ‘THE Day’. · Again, careful with the flags. The white one with a red 'X' represented the Habsburg, in this period the rulers were Bourbon. The ‘Catalan’ one is not the official one, it represents the will for independence and it doesn’t appear until the 20th century (inspired by Cuba's independence in 1898). · The Catalan Nationalist movement appears at mid-late 19th century. · At the beginning of the 20th century there’s a brief period of semi-autonomy in Catalonia, until the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1923. · The dictatorship (and the Monarchy) ended when republican parties won the 1931 local elections and the Republic was declared in Barcelona and Madrid. This Catalan Republic lasted for three days (literally), until it joined the Second Spanish Republic. The man in the photo is Francesc Macià, the president of the ephemeral Catalan Republic and later the president of the autonomous region of Catalonia. · Again, careful with the flags. You mixed the Coat of Arms of the King in the Spanish Republican flag. Not cool. · It would be cooler if you showed the evolution of the Civil War through the years, not only a static map. And there was bombardment of Barcelona (by Mussolini’s italian planes), but no siege. In 1939 Franco occupied the remnants of Catalonia in three weeks. · Good work here with the Spanish flag, the one with the bird is the right one. ·It’s a bit strange that you cut your video at the end of Franco’s Dictatorship, since it was forty years ago and a lot of things have happened: - Spain transitioned into a democracy and in 1979 got a new Constitution. - Most of the judges, policemen and civil servants from the Dictatorship strangely kept their jobs. - Catalonia got again his autonomy status, but another sixteen regions of Spain did the same, diluting its self-government. Its status is recorded in the Statute of Autonomy (more or less like a mini-Constitution, the highest law of the region just below the Constitution). Spain joined the EU in 1986. - In the 2000s, after a long time slowly gaining more powers, Catalan parties sought a new Statute to further expand and protect these powers. They finished their work in 2005 and in 2006 was substantially reduced by the Spanish Parliament and reluctantly approved in referendum by the Catalan people. - In 2006 this Statute was challenged at the Constitutional Court, which ruled in 2010 against the Statute and further reduced its powers. A huge demonstration was held in Barcelona on July 10th 2010 protesting against the ruling and claiming for independence. Now it was not only a matter of money or language, but a matter of pride and respect. - In 2011 a new pro-independence organization was born. They have pushed for independence and organized a huge demonstration on September 11th for five years. - The Spanish government has systematically declined to acknowledge any petition from the Catalan government, even the smaller ones. Sorry for the long post. Here’s a Politico article www.politico.eu/article/catalonia-referendum-independence-timeline-how-did-we-get-here/ that covers the last ten years in Catalonia and how the claim for independence has grown. Very good.

Fun fact, the regions of Spain that were under Aragonese rule still bear its red and yellow stripes upon their modern flags (Aragon proper, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic islands), making for a group of very sinilar-looking flags in a country whose regions otherwise have very different designs for theirs. Also, Catalan is supposedly the language closest to the vulgar Latin spoken in Iberia in the days of the Romans.

You would almost think Hilbert is dutch or something😂

Have a bit of a problem with the notion of Catalonia being singularily opposed to the Spanish crown in the Spanish Succession War. The resistance was more a thing among the nobility who were afraid of losing their privileges. Not about a notion of being Catalonian.

Great video but there are two thinks that i want to coment. -The people from catalonia are catalans, not catalonians. -Ur flag isnt the `estelada´ (the one you show in the video) its the `senyera´ . The `estelada´ its a flag that represents the separatist movement and was created in 1918.

Catalonia: I want to hold a referendum Spain: isn't that illegal? Catalonia: *I will make it legal*

Spain clearly belongs to the Dutch. Long live the Hapsburg jaw.

You went through the Spanish civil war without discussing the CNT-FAI? You briefly mentioned it for at about 6:15 but it was almost entirely glossed over.

6:20 That´s not actually true, though Catalan was banned from official and public matters of the nation, it could be spoken and you could still read from it. It was repressed in the sence that it was not allowed to be thought or to be used by the local goverment but there was never a law that arrested a catalan speaker if he/she was speaking to a friend and a policeman heard them. The opresion of the language was more on a institutional level than a local one.

It is a good video, but the History is much more complex than that. For example, in the Middle Ages the Corona de Aragon (Crown of Aragon) was actually born thanks to a marriage between the main ruler of the Barcelona County and the doughter of the king of Aragon. It was a pact, a marriage. Besides, the Catalans were not united as a kingdom (they lived in several counties: Barcelona, Girona, Urgell...) and they were not under the power of Aragon "being permitted to preserve their language and customs". And of course as you well know, they are not the only ones who lived this History and the repression (generally speaking). There is a lot of things to consider here. But good job trying to do the summary haha it is no easy job ;)

Very nice mate. Topical. Love it.

it would be nice if people of other countries don't exclude the islands from our territory... canary and balearic islands also existe xD You used a wrong flag to show the union of the kingdoms. The first flag was Cross of Burgundy (more or less Florida's flag nowadays). You also explain wrongly the fight between the borbon and austria's supporters, it was not between aragon and the rest, it was between people inside all the territories, saying that it was between territories is like saying that civil war was between territories, completely wrong. You also mixed Cross of Burgundy with estelada... wrong, both flags are from different times.

During the he Spanish civil war, Madrid standed for several years

Can you do a video on the anarchist territories in Catalonia and Aragon in the late 1930s? They only got half a sentence in this one and it is incredibly hard to find information on them.

I'd love to hear more about how the history relates to the current situation. Great content, thanks!

You have to be careful with the flags you are using. The flag with the star is not official and called "estelada" which means "with star". It is literally a copy of the cuban flag, so it was not used until late 19 century. Therefore you made a mistake. Navarra was incorporated AFTER, Granada, not before. You said confusing. Philip V of the Bourbon House was accepted king of all Spain, but then Catalonia switch sides for the Habsbourg Charles. The 1640 events were important on that change. AGG the flags! Change them, they are almost all wrong. Catalonia was NEVER independent in the 20 century. They declare the independence in 1934 and lasted for 8h. The independence was not even a true independence because they said they were within the "Iberian Federation". Another mistake. Calonia was taken in february 1939 quite fast after the Ebro Battle of late 1938. There was no bombardement. Even the nacionalist troops were saluted (It is common to take winners side AFTER the war, just to be safe). You should have spoken about the civil war within the republicans in Catalonia. Calonia has now in 2017 more freedom, rights and self goberment than in 1931-39. For example, before the 1-O, Catalonia has more self goberment than Scotland. It is just false that Catalan languaje is not accepted.

I always thought that the demonym for people that come from Catalonia was “Catalan”, “Catalonian” just sounds weird.

Thank you for the information. I am a Creole American American, I meat a Man in Barcelona that I am interested in. He is Catalan. This interaction was the first time hearing about the Catalan people. I want to respect who he is...

You have a problem with "succession war" in Spain, please read more about this

I de cop, un comentari català XD

My mum is Catalan. When she was young franco was still about and she said she remembers not being allowed to go to the toilet in primary school because she didn’t how to say it in Spanish and had to wet herself 😢

I love Spain, I have basque and galician roots , long live to Spain

As catalan I have to say that your pronunciation is awesome, but one thing that I have to say is that our oficial flag is ne one with just 4 red stripes and 5 yellow. In any case that video is really good!

7:13 sorry but not true at all, as a spaniard and a valencian (we speak valencian which is practically catalan) in Spain we dont mind that catalans have their own language, basques have theirs, galicians too...I have never met anyone, and I know very right wing, independence-opposed people, who wants catalans to speak only spanish. The truth is, thanks to some catalan politicians, it's more the other way round. In Catalonia you can be fined if the name of your business is not in catalan. Children in public schools cannot choose spanish as their first language, even though it is the mother tongue of 50 per cent of the population. It's easy to judge from the outside, especially seeing what happened on Sunday, but things are not black and white.

2:28 Not really. It was more of a dynastic union than other thing. The kingdoms had their own laws, taxation, official language, police... Also that flag is official since 1843, and was designed in the 1740s.

KURDİSTAN❤CATALONİA

Love Catalonia! ❤

As a non independentist catalan I have to say that the video is quite objective, however it has some errors, like using the independentist flag (the one with blue and the star and created in the XX century) the whole video when talking about Catalonia and not the Senyera which is the official flag.

Feels like a good basic explanation but fails hard on many details. Catalonia was never a self governed kingdom, and the language they speak did never define a nation. You can find other regions in Spain that used very similar variations of latin to Catalan, such as Valencia and Balearic Islands. In fact, because of this language connection, some catalan independentists claim those regions should also be part of what they call "Paisos Catalans" which is a complete nonsense without any historical support (and also refused by the inhabitants of the other regions). Something you also didn't mention is that Catalonian people voted in favor of a constitutional referendum in 1978, which defined them as an autonomous region, gave Catalan the same level of importance as Castillian (Spanish) in their region, and a level of self government no other european region (except some other Spanish ones) can compare to. This same constitution that was voted back then stated that this country model could not be undone unless it was voted by the whole country, which is the main point now. The very basic reason why some Catalonians want independence is because it has become a wealthier region in average. They believe separating from the rest of Spain will increase their income since they won't have to share it with lower income regions. It's not about self government, freedom, democracy or language, since that's all more than guaranteed.

Hilbert coming in clutch with those well-timed videos that double his subscriber count

Great video! Would've loved if you went into the CNT-FAI though.

i'm a simple man, i see wilhelmus, i like

As a Scot who strives for independence, long live Catalonia!

By "this man" you mean Lluís Companys. You found his picture, you might as well say who he was. Also I think the section on the Spanish Civil War needs to be expanded somewhat.

Please go ahead and make the second video, I would love to hear the perspective of an outsider that is not influenced by the current political situation...not a sarcastic comment by the way, I really would like to know.

As a Catalan, I can guarantee you that this problem isn't as easy as it seems. The problem is not with Spain itself, but with the corrupt politicians of the pp party, which now have been ruling Spain for more than 5 years, driving it further into disaster. Although this thought radicalised rapidly throughout the last years, turning it into a general hate against Spain. I've been living for 12 years now in Barcelona, I was born here, I was raised here and I left when I was 12 years old. I can assure you totally that it isn't as dramatic as it may seem. In Barcelona, in fact in Catalonia as whole, wealth never disappeared, not even during the years of the great crisis. It's still one of the wealthiest(if not the most) of Spain, and it's due to(among other things) the geographic location, the proportionally higher population, the industrial centres, and of course, Barcelona. It's very sad that in the moments like now, when we should be united against the real problems, some people just ignore the facts and want (as always) a extreme, fast, and efficient solution, like the declaration of independence from Spain, which as we all are often told, will make things considerably better. I don't want to disappoint you, but this is just a mere, big, fat lie. It's based on both left and right-wing rethoric, which has been used for decades, in order to transform the Catalan people into a 'Last bastion of civilization in the Iberian peninsula',which is just extremely ridiculous. In Catalonia one can live very very good, in one of the most wealthy regions, of one of the most wealthy countries on this planet.

Cool video and thanks for sharing this History With Hilbert

This video is amazing! Lots of information and beautiful graphics. Please keep on making these videos, Hilbert! Love it, definitely gonna recommend this channel to my friends and family!

i will never be ashamed for being catalan and i wont stop speaking my language just because someone that i dont care about tells me so, thanks for speaking up about it

Jo visc a Barcelona, i vaig tenía molts problemes amb tot aixó, gracies per fer contingut en angles sobre catalunya

Spaniard here. It's not that the majority of Spaniards are against Catalan independence, we are against the illegal ways that they apply to do it. I wouldn't mind if Catalonia got independent as long as it's in the limits of the law and is democratically guaranteed. Right now, with this whole show, Catalan separatists are taking Catalan Unionists with them on this crazy ride without them having a say in it. BTW, about your last bit of the video. Never have I heard a Spaniard say that the Catalan language shouldn't be talked in Catalonia. Where did you get that information from?

Hola Hibert…..te recomiendo que visites España...y te entrevistes con profesores de Historia de la universidades de Barcelona, Salamanca, Madrid, Zaragoza y Sevilla...….Creo que no tienes toda la información, y te estas equivocando en poner este tipos de videos sin tener toda la información. Es cierto que con poco tiempo no se puede hacer un video de la historia de un país....Pues lanzas por capítulos en una serie.....EL ERROR DE CUALQUIER HISTORIADOR. ES LANZAR UN ASUNTO HISTORICO SIN TENER LOS RECURSOS Y LAS FUENTES CORRECTAS DE INFORMACION.....Y TU HAS COMETIDO ESE ERROR....BRAVO POR TUS VISITAS A TU CANAL....PERO ESTAS GENERANDO CONFLICTOS....Y ESO NO LO HACE NADIE DIGNO DE CALIFICARSE AMANTE DE LA HISTORIA Y A QUIEN LE GUSTE LA HISTORIA...

Catalonia is Spain, greeting from Serbia 🇪🇸 🇪🇸 🇪🇸 🇪🇸 🇪🇸 🇷🇸 🇷🇸 🇷🇸 🇷🇸 🇷🇸 🇷🇸

You all seem to forget that a) Catalonia isn’t oppressed? It’s one of the most prosperous communities in Spain, and it enjoys more freedom than most. b) The whole referendum was ilegal. It was deemed ilegal by the Supreme Court, the people that voted were, by definition, criminals. Yeah, the police went WAY too far, but everyone who voted broke the law. c) THOSE VOTES CAN’T COUNT. The numbers are not credible, people voted multiple times, there were no ID checks, it was not run by computers, kids voted, people voted in the streets...you cannot believe those numbers. d) Even if the numbers were real...two million voted for independence, what about the other eight million Catalans? You all seem to forget, the majority of people it Catalonia don’t want to leave Spain! The people that don’t want to leave (the people who would have voted no) didn’t bother to go and vote because they didn’t bother to participate in something illegal. By going to vote they are still aiding the nationalists.

This video is full of wrong information and mayor gaps in history. First of all, and the most important fact is that you have misunderstood wich is the catalonian flag. The catalonian flag is made from around ten red and yellow horizontal lines of the same size, with no star on it. The same flag with a star and a blue triangle it's the independent catalonian flag. In Catalonia just the 48% of the people want the independence (just like the last regional parlament elections proves), for that reason, this flag just represents the division of the catalonian society and it isn't an official and recognized flag either. That's the reason why you must not represent catalonian people with a flag that isn't their symbol. This is for me, the most important error in this video. In second place you talk about the spanish war of succession without pointing that Catalonia act like a traitor during that war. Catalonia's parlament in that moment of history, The "Generalitat", swore that there will be loyal to Philiph V of Anjou, and they recognized him like their king. They even gifted him with gold supporting his leadership. In exchange, Philiph V treat very good the catalonians. However, during the war against England, Catalonia change sides due to the fact that England invade the Peninsula from Barcelona and occupied the city. Afterwards, Philiph try to negotiate the surrender of Barcelona, but all ended up with its defeat the 11th of september after 4 months surrounding the city. My point is that the king wasn't acting in a mean way, it was the other way round, Catalonia betrayed him. Third. You can give the wrong idea that the dictatorship of General Franco was only suffer, or especially suffer, by Catalonia. That's completely wrong. The whole country suffer the limitations of rights and so on. Obviously, the only official language was spanish, and in consequence, you couldn't speak galician, basque or catalonian like an official language. Of course the more languages you know, the more you were forbidden to use for official matters, but that if just a fact about how many languages you know, and doesn't have anything to do with a special hatred towards catalonians. And last but not least, you mention at the beginning of the video that "The central Government called the voting illegal". That's not true. The voting can only be qualified as illegal by Spains's highest court, The Constitucional Court. This Court haven't dictated its judgment yet, because is pretty slow i must say. However, this court suspended the voting as a preventive measure, in case if later on they qualified the voting as illegal. Anyway, desobeing the court's commands it's illegal, therefore commiting the voting was illegal. I must say that it's pretty obvious that the voting is illegal based on Spanish Constitution and even International Law. But this court takes its time with the purpose of making very elaborated judgments. Catalonia may have a different history to Castilla or other parts of Spain: Andalucía was the territory with biggest arabic influence, the north had the most celtic influence, and so on. That's why history is not the reason of the desire of independence of half the population of Catalonia. If you analyze the official surveys you will notice that the independence supporters have grown from 25% to 48% in this last 5 years. Is not a matter of history, is a matter of actual politics who doesn't want to share their wellness, who want to continue in Catalonian's Government by promising some fake dreamland in a Independent Catalonia. I beg you, you investigate and search about the real aspects of this Catalonia desire of independence. The origins started around 30 years ago, with the inclusion of changes in the school's history text books, and the beginning the forging of a hatred towards the rest of Spain by Catalonian's most powerful businessmen. I hope i have been of help pointing the wrong information. And i repeat myself, the biggest mistake is the one about the flag. The real problem in my country right now is not wether or not Catalonia will be an independent country. The real problem is the actual broken Catalonia society, between one half who stands by its on flag, and the other, that tries to impose their own.

Freedom for the Republic of Catalonia from aggressive Spanish colonialism. Catalans ♥🇫🇷

Good video, but you really need to distinguish between calling the Spanish language “Spanish” and Castellano or Castilian in English because Spaniards especially Catalans are very sensitive to this. Man, you’ll get a tongue lashing or get corrected at least if you say speak Spanish to me instead of saying speak Castilian to me since a Catalan speaker, as well as the other minority languages, consider their own language “Spanish” as well. Just something to keep in mind. Also, historically Spanish wasn’t called Spanish until relatively recently in the modern era. It was referred specifically as Castellano. Hell, even in the Philippines, they still call it that.

Viva la unidad de Espana! Desde Rumania!

You deserve way more subs, keep up the good work.

Spain is one and united. Every country has a region who wants to detach itself. They never even think of consequences political and economical

Free Catalonia!

“Whilhelmus van Nassau ben ik van Duitsen bloed” Love it, interesting as well.

Catalan language has not decreased because of laws that were approved in the past century, it's mainly because 70% of the population of Cataluña, are from outside of Cataluña (Most of them from other regions of Spain), so that's why Spanish language it's the most used language in the region. About the dictatorship, it's false that you were banned from speaking Catalan, they banned Catalan as an official language of the administration, but you could read books in Catalan and speak it. And it's also false that a lot of people in Spain say that Catalan shouldn't be an official language, most of them are happy to have both official languages in the region.

Respect Catalonia from Syria 🇸🇾❤️‍🔥

freedom for Catalonia p.s. great video

I pensar que podria haver buscat i trobat el video en castellà o català i ho he fet amb anglès. Molt bon treball et felicito !

Love catalunya from kurdistan

various mistakes, one of them Navarre wasn't conquered and annexed by Spain until 1521, in your map you show Granada Kingdom independent of Spain and Navarre already conquered, this is wrong, Granada was conquered in 1492, Navarre will remain independent until 1521, correct this please

Yes please tell us more about Catalonia.

Like a Catalan I am, I would like to say you please use the official flag (w/out star). Also I would like to say that Spanish is the most spoken language here but at school we must speak Catalan. I hope we be Spaniards like always. Regards from Barcelona!

Thank you very much for this most educational video about the history of Catalonia !!!

Catalonia was very happy with the 2nd Republic? In 1934, the Generalitat rebelled against the central Goverment, that had to declare the state of war and to intervene with the army. During the Civil War, there were many Catalans with the national side, and they were of great support for the Franco dictatorship.

you kinda make it sound like "the catalans feel independent" but we're talking about a minor group of catalonians. The majority want to stay with Spain, but those aren't the ones you see on TV

Aragón was a confederation with the main city being Barcelona. Catalans had the political leadership and lead also the Mediterranean expansion. That´s why Aragon has the coats of arms of the Counts of Barcelona.

Respect to Catalonian ,,from Kurdistan

Siege of Catalonia happened 300 years before the terrorist attacks in America. (9/11)

#FreeCatalonians

That map of Spain is not very good. The yellow ocean and yellow land is somewhat difficult to see.

In 1713, with the Treaty of Utrecht, the Succession war ended. But in Catalonia they went on fighting, more than 1 year till 11th September 1714. From July 1713 till September 1714 it is clear that those Catalans didn't fight for a King or another, they fought for their freedom, for our freedom. They were much less in number but the defense was heroic. They defended to death our Catalan language, our laws (there were laws only in Catalunya, there were assemblees of Catalan representants here, "les Corts Catalanes"...), also under the Franco dictatorship the Catalan remained in resistance and organized secretly courses of Catalan language and maintained our identity. Thank you for your contribuition, I think it helps to understand why currently the Catalan Nation is pushing towards independence.

Se te olvidó mencionar el Golpe de estado de cataluña durante la Segunda República

LONG LIVE UNIFIED SPAIN!

Great video Sir, as always.

Nicely done. The language has more connection with the south of France, lengua d'Òc.

The name Catalonia has an Arabic origin and is hung from the word Qetal, which means fight. Because there is no letter Q (ق) in Latin languages, it was replaced by the letter C, so Qetal became cetal and pronounced Ketal. As for Cataloni, it means they killed me. And if we convert it to the name of a country in the Arabic language, we must add the suffix a or the suffix ah to become Cataloniah ,Katalonia , Qatalonia or Catalonia Greetings to you from the Arab Republic of Egypt

Catalonia never was an independent country! Its was a part of The Kingdom of Aragon!! Dont lie! Spain never invaded Catalonia, there was an succession war in Spain. All spain was in war, its was not spain against catalonia! So dont lie!!!!

The Balearic Islands including Ibiza have two official languages: Catalan and Spanish.

Do you know that Catalonia was always very well economically rewarded from Castilla? (territorially speaking)

It was a good an neutral review of the situation. The reason the kingdom of Aragon and hence Catalonia suported the Hapbsburg in the Sucesion wars was because they promised to keep the status quo, the rights, laws and privileges. However the Borbon (french house) won the war, they wanted to unite the country and abolish the ”old situation”. The regions that belonged to the Kingdom of Aragon (not only Catalonia) lost their rights, laws and privileges. It is true but is more of an excuse than a reason for independence. The real reason is as always money. Catalonia is one of the most industrialized parts of Spain (financed by the central government) and decided that they are better off of all the burdens of paying taxes and supporting other regions.

Yeah follow up video please!

Don't forget bro, Portugal was part of Spain for 60 years

There is often the same confusion with the name Aragon. To correct the speaker: it was not the Aragonese the "rulers" that were allowing Catalans to live like they wanted, but the other way round. To clarify this, some facts resumed, and the consequences, why Catalonia ruled the Mediterranean Sea as an economic power. The kingdom of Aragon was called so, because the rulers of Catalonia, that hold the title of Counts, always ruled in consensus with other counts in an area that reaches the Provence in current France touching Italy. The Count of Barcelona, the ruler of Catalonia and Occitania married the heiress of the kingdom of Aragon and became in this way King. The intention of the marriage was less to become king (which is only a title) as to have access to Aragons great granary, because Catalunya was seat oriented, commerce oriented. This is why to this point in history Catalonia starts to expand in the Mediterranean Sea becoming in the 14th century the main seapower there. Anyway, ARAGON, is a cool name, because it reminds to Dragon, an important Catalan symbol, since the patron of Catalonia is St. George, who is always depicted as fighting the dragon, a symbol of the Yin/Yang. In some places in Catalonia you find the representation of St. George with the motto: "cogita et age" (think and act).

Catalonia is Spain, that's all

Do U know what a Democracy is? In a Democracy the people vote the laws (like New England town halls). With a Republic, elected representatives vote the laws. do you no err by saying Spain became a democracy after Franco?

Pretty good video and much better than others on the subject. Yes a video on the current events would be helpful. A little nitpick: the music at the end was distracting.

Why use a yellow sea on your maps? Makes them hard to view.

Freedom for Tabarnia !! We don´t want to be part of Catalonia anymore !

Where have you found the information? your video is quite inaccurate, sorry to say vv (just starting by the flags to the rest)

Great video!!

So Catalonia was conquered and annexed by Kingdom of Castilla in 1714.

1) I wouldn't have a problem if the Spanish people all butthurt over secession were to actually admit it's mostly for economic reasons instead of blathering on about some Nationalistic bullshit. (You'd think Franco would have purged that mindset out of them.) 2) It is inherently hypocritical to use a Democratic institution (in this case a constitution) to stifle the very concept of democracy. 3) The Spanish government should have spent more time making sure the polling was actually representative and less time bashing peoples' heads in. At least that way it'd be more legitimate and those against secession wouldn't be as terrified of going out and voting how they feel. Using violence is a very good way to start a revolt. Seems counter-intuitive to what they say they want. 4) The Catalan people are distinct culturally and linguistically. Why is it so damn difficult for countries to stick to their democratic values and allow people to decide for themselves? Agency is important. The first step to the inevitable demise of the Nation-State is the fracturing of existing nations. This is a good thing. Don't fight it.

Would love to hear more about the spanish side of this argument. Seems like everyone is pro-catalon (understandable because police brutality) but I'd still like to hear both sides

Catalan language was never repressed. You could use it in your private life and in the street, the legislations only established that the language in the oficial national documents must be spanish. We have plenty of local documents, oficial documents and documents of associations and the like written in catalan. Before the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, catalan language was already in decline, because the people prefered spanish. Also, one thing that nobody talks about is that the population of Barcelona welcomed Franco, because the were tired of the leftist radicals. The left started a political and religious genocide before the Spanish Civil War, that continue until the very conquest of Barcelona.

Free Catalonia! #FreeCatalonia #CatalanIndependence

I was looking for a descent history of Catalonia, and then my favourite channel goes and makes a video about it. Could I ask for anything better?