The Stateless Nation: Catalonia

The stateless nation Catalonia is located in the northern part of Spain. They have a triangle like boarder that touches France. Catalonia stateless nation has many years of history dating back to Before Crist era. They were once rules by kings and now have a president. Catalonians have tried before to have their own nation but been denied, but trying again for independences, November 2015. The physical features of Catalonia are mountains, rocky coast, beaches, and fields for aquaculture. The history of Catalonia started in the early B.C. The Carthaginians and Romans founded Barcelona, and then Romans took over Spain. The politics of Catalonia was once ruled under Franco, but Catalonia was granted independence in 1979, and got to speak Catalan

Catalonia is made up of four providences Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona. Catalonia territory is “bordered by the Pyrenees on the north, the Mediterranean on the east, and the Ebro River on the west. Slightly larger than the state of Maryland” (Alab). Pyrenees separates Catalonia from France. Pyrenees Mountain range extend on a coast to interior land. There is many rivers that run through the Pyrenees mountain range. The rivers either flow east into the Mediterranean Sea or west to the Ebro River.

Also, more Physical characteristic of the land is that there is four provinces that make up Catalonia; Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona. Catalan has little less than 12,400 square miles of land and has many different terrains. Between the Pyrenees Mountains and Barcelona is Costa Brava, Costa Brava is filled with rocky small beaches, many caves, and a few bays. Near Tarragona just south of Barcelona has “fine sand beaches to the marshy delta of the Ebro and its rich rice fields” (). Catalonia has two mountain ranges Pyrenees Mountain that runs along the coast and a sacred mountains, named

The Arabs and Byzantines help aid Catalonia before they moved into the “regions of Tortosa, Tarragona, and Lleida became a part of the Muslim world for the next 400 years”(). The Muslim influence was never very strong in parts Catalonia, so the Franks took over Barcelona. The Muslims Moors beginning using the land for farming and built an irrigation systems. After the 400 years the Catholic Monarchs, than pushed the Muslims south, and took over Catalonia region. The crown of Aragon and Catalonia still had separate laws.

Around the 13th centuries When Jaume 1 the Conqueror wanted the the Muslims completely out of out of the south and Mediterranean. That never happened but instead he conquered Mallorca, Ibiza and Valencia. The crown of Argon even moved into Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, and Athens. They were a really powerful military and strong empire out of Barcelona. When Catalonia conqueror Sicily it started a war between the crown of Aragon and French. The Catalan won the war with the defeat of the