The Kings of Aragón ruled territories that consisted of not only the present administrative region of Aragon but also Catalonia, and later the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Sicily, Naples and Sardinia ( see Crown of Aragon ).

At the same time, Catalan and Galician became the standard languages in their respective territories, developing important literary traditions and being the normal languages in which public and private documents were issued: Galician from the 13th to the 16th century in Galicia and nearby regions of Asturias and Leon, and Catalan from the 12th to the 18th century in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia, where it was known as Valencian.

It comprises 17 autonomous communities ( Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile and León, Castile – La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Community of Madrid, Region of Murcia, Basque Country, Valencian Community, Navarre ) and 2 autonomous cities ( Ceuta and Melilla ).

Spanish law recognises the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Catalonia, Valencia, Galicia and the Basque Country as " nationalities " ( nacionalidades ), while in Italy, the German speakers of South Tyrol are considered to be Austrian nationals.

These correspond with some parts of the medieval Crown of Aragon ( concretely Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Valencia and La Franja in Spain, Northern Catalonia in France, the city of Alghero in Italy, and Andorra ).

Some of political parties from Catalonia, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands that follow this idea are the Republican Left of Catalonia, Catalan Solidarity for Independence ( SI ), Rally for Independence and Republican Left of the Valencian Country, Estat Català, Partit Republicà Català, Popular Unity Candidates, Valencian Nationalist Bloc, Bloc per Mallorca, etc.

In fact, the territory of the Castilian Crown actually comprised all other autonomous communities within Spain with the exception of Aragon, Balearic Islands, Valencia and Catalonia, which all belonged to the late Crown of Aragon, and Navarre, heir of the older Kingdom of the same name.

Castilian identity is thus excluded from the historical nationalities of Spain such as Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, but also other autonomous communities of Spain which due to historical reasons have their own strong identities, such as Andalusia, Asturias, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and the Valencian Community.

Besides Andalusia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, which identified themselves as nationalities, other communities have also taken that denomination in accordance to their historical regional identity, such as the Valencian Community, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, and Aragon.

Officially the IEC provides standards for the language as a whole: the Philological Section has members from Catalonia proper, Northern Catalonia ( located in France ), the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Alghero in Sardinia and the Principality of Andorra ( the only country where Catalan is the sole official language ).

Allioli (, also spelled alioli ), from all i oli, Catalan for " garlic and oil ", is a typical paste-like cold sauce of Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia.

Some contemporary Catalan authors, such as Josep Pla, Jaume Fàbrega or Eliana Thibaut i Comalada, and others like Colman Andrews, have suggested that, besides Catalonia proper, this cuisine takes in the Balearic and Valencian cuisines, but this opinion is challenged as politicised, and is not widespread, nor is supported by either the Catalan, Balearic or Valencian government.

Before long, the only remaining allies of the Habsburg pretender, Archduke Charles, were his supporters in Catalonia and Balearic Islands.

In addition to Castilian Spanish being the primary official language of Spain, the kingdom also has several co-official regional languages which enjoy equal and unbiased constitutional protection and promotion: Catalan / Valencian ( in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands ), Galician ( in Galicia ), Basque ( in the Basque Country and Navarre ) and Aranese ( in Val d ' Aran, Catalonia ).

Later it developed a following in other regions of Catalonia and, since 1981, when the first castell of 9 levels of the 20th century was built, it has become very popular in most of Catalonia and even the Balearic Islands.

It is an official public holiday in Austria, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Poland.

The amended Autonomy Statute of Catalonia has also been legally contested by the surrounding Autonomous Communities of Aragon, Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community Despite these changes having been proposed and approved by fellow members of the PSOE, former Finance Minister Pedro Solbes disagreed with this new trend of assigning state investment quotas to territories based on any given autonomous community custom requirement and has subsequently compared the task of planning the Spanish national budget to a sudoku.

* Catalan, official language in Andorra and co-official in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencian Community ( where it is known as Valencian ), and the Italian city of Alghero.

sa ), rather than the standard Catalan " el " and " la ", common to other Romance languages ( e. g. Spanish el, la, Italian il, la ), corresponding to a form which was historically used along the Costa Brava of Catalonia, from where it is supposed that the islands were repopulated after being conquered from the Moors.

On 7 January 1492 the King ordered the expulsion of all the Jews from Spain-from the kingdoms of Castile, Catalonia, Aragon, Galicia, Majorca, Minorca, the Basque provinces, the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and the kingdom of Valencia.

European contact commenced with Christopher Columbus ' second voyage, and many of the islands ' names originate from this period, e. g., Montserrat was named in honour of Santa Maria de Montserrat ( Our Lady of Montserrat ), after the Blessed Virgin of the Monastery of Montserrat, which is located on the Mountain of Montserrat, the national shrine of Catalonia.

The carob tree is typical in the southern Portuguese region of the Algarve, where it has the name alfarrobeira ( for the tree ), and alfarroba ( for the fruit ), as well as in southern Spain (), Catalonia and Valencia (), Malta (), on the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia (), and in Southern Greece, Cyprus as well as many Greek islands such as Crete and Samos.

In 1985, TV3 expanded its coverage to Andorra, Northern Catalonia, the Balearic islands and the Valencian Community, also Catalan-speaking lands.

The explanation for this ( see " El Vocabulari de Cadaqués ", Ernesta Sala i Bruses ) is that when the Catalan ruler Jaume I conquered the Balearic Islands in the Middle Ages he re-colonized the islands with people from the Empordà region of Catalonia.

Ensaïmades produced far from Balearic Islands of Spain usually taste very different, mainly because the same kind of reduced pork lard is not used outside these islands or the nearby areas with similar culinary traditions, like Valencia or Catalonia.

2 .- In Catalonia, due to cultural links with the Balearic islands, sobrassada and other native pork products can be found.

In addition to Valencia and Catalonia, this dish is popular in Cuba and Puerto Rico where on both islands it is known as arroz con calamares ( rice with squid in Spanish ).

Its traditional geographic zone extends from the south of Catalonia to the Roussillon area of France, and from the Eastern strip of Aragon to the Balearic islands, where it is used as solo instrument with its own melodies.

A castell () is a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia.

Some traditional dishes are callos ( cow tripe, very traditional in Madrid and Asturias ), liver ( often prepared with onion or with garlic and parsley, and also as breaded steaks ), kidneys ( often prepared with sherry or grilled ), sheep's brains, criadillas ( bull testicles ), braised cow's tongue, pig's head and feet ( in Catalonia ; pig's feet are also traditionally eaten with snails ), pork brains ( part of the traditional ' tortilla sacromonte ' in Granada ), and pig's ears ( mostly in Galicia ).

Outside of Galicia and Asturias, bagpipes are also traditionally played in other parts of Spain, including Aragon, Asturias, Catalonia, León, Majorca, Zamora and in Portugal in Minho, Trás-os-Montes and Estremadura.

Indeed, the routes that crossed the Pyrenees through Catalonia ( crossing the valley of Llívia ) are traditionally the easiest, though a Basque attack taking place so far from their heartland is seen as dubious.

The Cantonal Revolution spread throughout South-Eastern Spain, but it was not echoed in the traditionally nationalistic regions of Catalonia, Madrid, the Basque Country ( which were involved in the ongoing Third Carlist War ) and GaliciaThe federalist sentiment did not give rise to autonomous States, bursting into a constellation of independent cantons instead.

* Castells, human towers traditionally built during festivals in many places in Catalonia

Estelades ; full name Senyera estelada, " starred flag " or " lone star flag ", from estel, " star ") is a non-official flag typically waved by Catalan independentists to express their support for an either independent Catalonia or independent Països Catalans ( Catalan Countries, i. e. the territories where Catalan is traditionally spoken ).

The Guardia was also used to interdict smuggling efforts and repress revolutionary elements in the traditionally independent provinces of the Basque country and Catalonia, a duty which earned it the undying enmity of both Catalan and Basque separatists.

After the failure of the co-emperor Michael IX to stem the Turkish advance in Asia Minor in 1302 and the disastrous Battle of Bapheus, the Byzantine government hired the Catalan Company of Almogavars ( adventurers from Aragon and Catalonia ) led by Roger de Flor to clear Byzantine Asia Minor of the enemy.

* Trinxat, from the Empordà region of Catalonia, northeast Spain, and Andorra

A number of other European languages have cognate words that were borrowed from the Germanic languages during the Middle Ages, including brog in Irish, bwr or bwrc, meaning " wall, rampart " in Welsh, bourg in French, burg in Catalan ( in Catalonia there is a town named Burg ), borgo in Italian, and burgo in Spanish ( hence the place-name Burgos ).

They were joined by 4 MEPs from the left-wing Danish Eurosceptic People's Movement against the EU, while the other regionalist MEPs, including those of the SDLP, the SVP, Batasuna and the Convergence and Union of Catalonia ( CiU ) refused to join.

A Ball de bastons stick dance from Catalonia

" Having witnessed the success of the anarcho-syndicalist communities, for example in Anarchist Catalonia, and the subsequent brutal suppression of the anarcho-syndicalists, anti-Stalin communist parties and revolutionaries by the Soviet Union-backed Communists, Orwell returned from Catalonia a staunch anti-Stalinist and joined the Independent Labour Party, his card being issued on 13 June 1938.

There were calls for socialist revolution from the International Workingmen's Association, revolts and unrest in the autonomous regions of Navarre and Catalonia, and pressure from the Catholic Church against the fledgling republic.

France was only controlling Catalonia and Navarre and could have been definitely expelled from the Iberian peninsula had the Spanish armies attacked again, but the Spanish did not.

Through the efforts and influence of the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Revolution within the Spanish Civil War, starting in 1936 anarchist communism existed in most of Aragon, parts of the Levante and Andalusia, as well as in the stronghold of Anarchist Catalonia before being crushed by the combined forces of the regime that won the war, Hitler, Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression ( backed by the USSR ) as well as economic and armaments blockades from the capitalist countries and the Second Spanish Republic itself.

Through the efforts and influence of the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Revolution within the Spanish Civil War, starting in 1936 anarchist communism existed in most of Aragon, parts of the Levante and Andalusia, as well as in the stronghold of Anarchist Catalonia before being brutally crushed by the combined forces of Francoism, Hitler, Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression ( backed by the USSR ) as well as economic and armaments blockades from the capitalist countries and the Spanish Republic itself.

Through the efforts and influence of the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Revolution within the Spanish Civil War, starting in 1936 anarchist communism existed in most of Aragon, parts of the Levante and Andalusia, and in the stronghold of Anarchist Catalonia before being crushed by the combined forces of Francoism, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression ( backed by the USSR ) as well as economic and armaments blockades from the capitalist countries and the Spanish Republic itself.

The Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west: Girona, Barcelona, Lleida ( the latter three Catalonia ), Huesca ( Aragon ), Navarra and Guipúzcoa ( the latter part of the Basque Country ).

The French Pyrenees are also part of the following départements, from east to west: Pyrénées-Orientales ( North Catalonia and Fenolheda ), Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques ( the latter two of which include Pyrenees National Park ).

Charlemagne established across them the vassal regions of Pamplona, Aragon and Catalonia ( which was itself formed from a number of small counties, Pallars, Gerona, and Urgell being the most prominent ) respectively.

Catalonia came under intense pressure from the taifas of Zaragoza and Lérida, and also from internal disputes, as Barcelona suffered a dynastic crisis which led to open war among the smaller counties ; but by the 1080s, the situation calmed, and the dominion of Barcelona over the smaller counties was restored.

Regional parties, mainly the Basque Nationalist Party ( EAJ-PNV ) from the Basque Country, and Convergence and Union ( CiU ) and the Socialists ' Party of Catalonia ( PSC ) from Catalonia, have also played key roles in Spanish politics.