The Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Catalan: Comunitat Autònoma de Catalunya; Spanish: Comunidad Autónoma de Cataluña; Aranese: Comunautat Autonoma de Catalonha), known informally as Catalonia, is today one of the 17 autonomous communities that constitute Spain. Its territory corresponds to most of the historic territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. The autonomous community of Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² with an official population of 7,083,600 (2006). Immigrants from outside Spain represent 12.2% of the total population [1].

Catalonia was officially recognised as a nationality in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy enacted in 1979 pursuant to the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

As of June 18, 2006, Catalonia voted to adopt a new Statute of Autonomy, including a provision defining Catalonia as a nation (albeit without legal value).

Official languages are Catalan, Spanish (also known as Castilian), and (in Val d'Aran) Aranese.

Geography

See also :Category:Geography of Catalonia

The Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia borders on Land of Valencia to the south, Aragon to the west, France and Andorra to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the east and southeast.

Mountains

North Catalan Pyrenees:
*Pica d'Estats, 3141 m.
*Coma Pedrosa, 2946 m.
*Puig Pedrós, 2911 m.
*Puigmal, 2909 m., Cerdanya depression.
*Perthus pass, (near the ancient Roman road).South Catalan Pyrenees:
*Val d'Aran
*Sant Gervàs, 1187 m.
*Boumort, 2076 m.
*Serra del Montsec, 1693 m.
*Cadí, 2647 m.
*Pedraforca, 2497 m.
*Mongrony, 2045 m.
*Serra del Taga, 2035''' m.Catalan Coastal Mountains:
*Montnegre, 638 m.
*Tibidabo, 512 m.
*Montseny, 1712 m.
*Montserrat, 962 m.
*Montsant, 1124 m.Iberic system:
*Lluçanès, 1000 m.
*Puigsacalm, 1515 m.
*Maestrat.

Rivers

Ebre River, 910 km Her tributaries:
*Noguera Pallaresa, 154 km
*Noguera Ribagorçana, 133 km
*Segre, 265 kmOther rivers:
*Llobregat 167 km and its tributary Anoia and Cardener.
*Ter 167 km
*Garona 647 km
*Onyar 34 km
*Fluvià 70 km
*Valira 44 km
*Besòs 53 km
*Muga 58 km
*Esera
*Foix 41 km
*Francolí 60 km
*Gaià 59 km
*Tordera 55 km

Foix river

Other natural spaces

*Estany de Banyoles
*Camarasa Reservoir
*Sallent Dam
*Cap de Creus
*Roses Gulf
*Ebro Delta

Conservation areas

There are several conservation areas in Catalonia:
*Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park.
*Alt Pirineu Natural Park
*Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park
*Cape Creus Natural Park
*Delta of Llobregat Natural Park
*Els Ports Natural Park
*Montseny Natural Park
*Montserrat Natural Park
*Sant Llorenç de Morunys Natural Park
*Montsant Natural Park
*Volcanic Region of La Garrotxa Natural Park

History

Main article: History of Catalonia

The territory that now constitutes the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain, and the adjoining Catalan region of France, was first settled during the Middle Palaeolithic. Like the rest of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, it was colonized by Ancient Greeks and Carthaginians and participated in the pre-Roman Iberian culture. With the rest of Iberia, it was part of the Roman Empire, then came under Visigothic rule after Rome's collapse. The northernmost part of Catalonia was briefly occupied by the Moorish (Muslim-ruled) al-Andalus in the eighth century, but after the defeat of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqiwas's troops at Tours in 732 local Visigoths regained autonomy, though they voluntarily made themselves tributary to the emerging Frankish kingdom, which gave the grouping of these local powers the generic name Marca Hispanica.Identifiably Catalan culture developed in the Middle Ages under the hegemony of the Counts of Barcelona. As part of the Crown of Aragon — most historians would say the dominant part — the Catalans became a great maritime power, expanding by trade and conquest into Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and even Sardinia and Sicily.

The marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1469) unified Christian Spain; in 1492, the last of al-Andalus was conquered and the Spanish conquest of the Americas began. Political power began to shift away from Catalonia toward Castile.

For some time, Catalonia continued to retain its own laws, but these gradually eroded (albeit with occasional periods of regeneration). Over the next few centuries, Catalonia was generally on the losing side of a series of wars that led steadily to more centralization of power in Spain. The most significant conflict was the War of the Spanish Succession, which began when Carlos II died without a successor in 1700. Catalonia supported the claim of a member of the Austrian branch of the Hapsburg dynasty, while the rest of Spain generally supported the French Bourbon claimant, Felipe V. Following the final surrender of Catalan troops on September 11, 1714, Felipe V's Nueva Planta decrees banned all the main Catalan political institutions and imposed military-based rule over the region.

In the latter half of the 19th century, Catalonia became a center of Spain's industrialization; to this day it remains the most industrialised part of Spain, rivaled only by the Basque Country. In first third of the 20th century, Catalonia several times gained and lost varying degrees of autonomy, but Catalan autonomy and culture were crushed to an unprecedented degree after the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic (founded 1931) in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) brought General Francisco Franco to power. Even public use of the Catalan language was banned.

After Franco's death (1975) and the adoption of a democratic Spanish constitution (1978), Catalonia recovered cultural autonomy and some political autonomy. Today, Catalonia is almost universally recognized as one of the most economically dynamic regions of Spain and the Catalan capital, Barcelona, is a major international cultural centre and touristic destination.

See also Catalan Countries

Language

Catalonia is the original heartland of the Catalan language, and remains the most important and largest territory where the language is spoken.

Catalan is one of the two official languages of Catalonia, as established in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy [2]: the other is Castilian, which is the language throughout Spain (its official status confirmed by the 1978 Spanish Constitution). Catalonia has regulated its institutions and their various jurisdictions within the framework provided by the Spanish constitution in the "Sau Statute."

The Catalan Government has a policy of promoting the Catalan language. Thus, state education is partly given in Catalan and partly in Spanish, and government bureaucracy is entirely in Catalan, Catalan media is heavily subsidised and business are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least in Catalan. Whilst these efforts have ensured that Catalan is increasingly dominant at an official and academic level, there is no evidence that they have changed the social use of the language, with people whose mother tongue is Spanish still using Spanish as their everyday language. Some Catalan speakers argue that this policy is necessary to protect their language in the face of residents and immigrants who fail to learn or use Catalan.

Catalan is properly regarded by most linguists as being an Ibero-Romance language (the group that includes Spanish). It has many features of Gallo-Romance languages such as French.

Occitan, in its Aranese variety (a dialect of Gascon) is official and subject to special protection in the Val d'Aran (Aran Valley). This small region of 7,000 is the only place where Occitan (spoken mainly in France and some Italian valleys) has full official status.

Literacy

According to the 2001 Linguistic Census [3], about 5,900,000 people in Catalonia, nearly 95% of residents, understand the Catalan language. The percentage of people aged two and older who can speak, read and write Catalan is as follows:

Knowledge of Catalan
Ability	Individuals	Percentage
Understands	5,872,202	94.5%
Speaks	4,630,640	74.5%
Reads	4,621,404	74.4%
Writes	3,093,223	49.8%
Population	6,215,281	100%

Over the last 20 years, knowledge of Catalan has advanced significantly in all these areas, with the ability to write it having experienced the most pronounced increase, from 31.6% of the population in 1986 to 49.8% in 2001.

By age groups, those between 10 and 29 have the higher level of Catalan-language literacy (e.g., 98.2% aged 10–14 understand it, and 85.2% can write it); this is attributed to these individuals having received a proper education in Catalan.

Geographically, Catalan is most understood in northwest Catalonia (Alt Pirineu, Val d'Aran), at 97.4%, followed by south and western Catalonia, whereas Barcelona's metropolitan area sees the lowest knowledge, at 93.8%. The situation is analogous for written-language skills, with central Catalonia scoring the highest percentages (61.4%), and Barcelona the lowest (46.4%).

Barcelona is one of the main centres of the Spanish publishing industry in Spanish, and the main one for Catalan-language publishing.

Social Use

According to a study carried out in 2003 by the Generalitat de Catalunya [4], Catalan is used by 50.1% of the population in everyday situations.

Significantly, over 55% of respondents use Spanish to address their parents (versus 42% who choose Catalan). This is attributed to massive immigration from southern Spain from the second half of the 20th century until the 1980s, as a consequence of which many Catalans have one or both parents from outside Catalonia. However, a majority (52.6%) use Catalan with their children (42.3% Spanish). This can be attributed to some Spanish-speaking citizens shifting from their mother tongue to Catalan at home.

Outside the family, 48.6% of the population indicate that they address strangers exclusively or preferentially in Catalan, while the proportion of those who use Spanish is 41.7%. 8.6% claim to use both equally.

See Catalan language for further information.

Aranese

According to the 2001 Aranese Linguistic Census [5], knowledge of Aranese in the Occitan-speaking territory of Aran is as follows:

Knowledge of Aranese
Ability	Individuals	Percentage
Understands	6,712	88.88%
Speaks	4,700	62.24%
Reads	4,413	58.44%
Writes	2,016	26.69%

Comparing to previous data from 1996, the number of those able to understand Aranese has declined slightly (90.5% in 1996), while at the same time there has been a marginal increase in the number of those able to write it (24.97% in 1996).

By age groups, the largest percentage of those with knowledge of Aranese is in the 15-19 and 65-69 groups (both above 96%), while those aged 30-34 score lowest (just over 80%). Literacy is higher in the 10-19 group with over 88% declaring themselves able to read, and 76% able to write Aranese. Those over 80 are the least literate, with only about 1.5% of them being able to write the language.

According to their place of origin, it is significant to note that in the Val d'Aran those born outside Spain outnumber Spaniards born outside Aran and Catalonia in the active use of Aranese (17% of non-Spaniards can write Aranese, while the percentage for Spaniards excluding Catalans is 10%).

Economy of Catalonia

The Catalan economy is distinguished by an industrial profile. The population profile is:
*Primary sector: 2.8 %
*Secondary sector: 37.2 %
*Tertiary sector: 60 %

The GDP is 2.5 %, the land dedicated to agricultural use is 33 %. The most commonly cultivated crops in Catalonia are maize, potatoes, forage, vines, olives and cereals.

Also commonly practiced are horticulture and animal husbandry; most important to the latter the , bovine livestock and ovine livestock.

Transportation in Catalonia

Airports

*Barcelona International Airport
*Girona-Costa Brava Airport
*Reus Airport
*Sabadell Airport

Commercial and passenger ports

*Port of Barcelona
*Port of Tarragona

Roads, Highways... etc

There are 12000 km of road in Catalonia.

The principal highway is AP-7 know also as Autopista del Mediterraneo which crosses Catalonia by the Mediterranean sea.Others are:
*AP-7
*A-2
*A-16
*C-17
*C-32
*LL-12

Railroad

Catalonia was the first autonomous community in Spain to have a railroad. The actual railroad structure is based mainly in Barcelona and the surroundings.

The railroad companies operating in Catalonia are FGC and RENFE.

Law and government of Catalonia

The Government of Catalonia is known as the Generalitat in the Catalan language. It consists of a Parliament, a President and an Executive Council. Local governments include comarques (roughly equivalent to counties), as well as smaller forms of municipal administration. Catalonia is divided into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona (Gerona in Spanish), Lleida (Lérida in Spanish, Lhèida in Aranese), Tarragona.

Girona

Catalan Self-government

After Franco's death (1975) and the adoption of a democratic constitution in Spain (1978), Catalonia recovered its autonomous status, which had been lost with the fall of the Second Spanish Republic at the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

The region has gradually achieved a greater degree of autonomy since 1979. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in various matters of culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments, but in education, health and justice, the region shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government. Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra (literally 'squad lads'), which is currently in the process of taking over most of the role within Catalonia of the Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, which are under the authority of the Spanish national government, although the Spanish government will keep agents in the region for matters relating to terrorism and immigration. Most of the justice system is administered by national judicial institutions. The legal system is uniform throughout the Spanish State, with the exception of so-called "civil law", which is administered separately within Catalonia [6].

After the Navarre and the Basque Country regions, Catalonia has the greatest level of self-government in Spain. As an autonomous community of Spain, Catalonia has no official status or recognition at an international level. On June 18, 2006, a referendum across Catalonia approved reforms to the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia , although the Spanish national government has yet to approve the reforms.

Politics of Catalonia

Present-day Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, held in Barcelona.

Catalan independentist demonstration, o 6th May, 2006

Parties

* CiU — Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Unity) - federation
** CDC — Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Convergence of Catalonia)
** UDC — Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (Democratic Union of Catalonia)
* ERC — Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia)
* ICV-EUiA — Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (Green Initiative for Catalonia-Left United Alternative)
* PP — Partit Popular (People's Party)
* PSC-PSOE — Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya-Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Socialist Party of Catalonia-Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)

Summary of votes and seats

Votes and seats are compared with those won at the 1999 election.

Voters: 5,307,837

 Voting:                               3,319,276   62.5%
 Invalid votes:                            8,793   00.3%
 Valid votes:                          3,310,483   99.7%
 -
 Party                                 Votes       %               Seats
 -
 Convergència i Unió                   1,024,425   30.9  (-06.8)    46  (-10)
 Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya       544,324   16.4  (+07.7)    23  (+11)
 Iniciativa Verds-Esquerra Alternativa   241,163   07.3  (+04.8)     9  (+06)
 Partit Popular                          393,499   11.9  (+02.4)    15  (+03)
 Partit Socialista de Catalunya        1,031,454   31.2  (-06.6)    42  (-10)
 Others                                   75,618   02.3              -
 -
 Total                                 3,310,483                   135
 -

Environmental policy

Awareness of environmental problems tends to be much lower in Catalonia (and in Spain as a whole) than in northern Europe. CO₂ emissions in Catalonia have increased by 40% since 1992 and 60% of the region's electricity comes from aging nuclear power stations (a figure exceeded in Europe only by France and Lithuania). Despite Catalonia's change of government in 2004 from a conservative CiU/PP alliance to a "red/green" tripartite coalition of PSC, ERC, and ICV parties, there is little evidence of greater concern for the environment. The ICV was put in charge of the Ministry of the Environment but has largely continued the outgoing administration's environmentally-unfriendly policies. The Ministry's decision to build the controversial Bracons tunnel through an area of outstanding natural beauty, and a scheme to site an incinerator burning 90,000 metric tonnes of industrial waste [7] in a heavily-populated valley are just two cases in point. Although Catalonia participates in many international environmental forums, the political will to pursue "green" polices is generally lacking. This may be explained by the fragility of public institutions, and a lack of genuine commitment to grass-roots democracy.