What is Catalonia?
When its democratic constitution was ratified in 1978, Spain ceased to be a centralised unitary state and was divided, in political terms, into 17 autonomous communities, each regulated by an autonomy statute. Autonomous communities are political entities similar to the units that make up federal states (called “länder” in Germany and Austria; “gemeenschappen/communautés” and “gewesten/régions” in Belgium; “provinces” in Canada; “states” in the United States and Australia; and “kantone” in Switzerland). The autonomy statutes are like the constitutions of these political entities. Several of these 17 communities were already autonomous during the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) or even sovereign states at some stage in the past. Catalonia established itself as an independent state between the ninth and twelfth centuries. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, it was the nucleus of the Kingdom of Aragon, a Mediterranean confederation that lasted until the eighteenth century. I
