Spain & Catalonia: Informative Thread.
A lot of people here don’t know the deep history of the catalonian conflict, so I will thoroughly share what I studied about the history of Spain. You be the judge of the current situation at the end of the thread.
Enjoy, Rts appreciated

There is a lot of misinformation, ignorance, & fake propagnda circulating around. I thought it would be best to start at the beginning & walk you through Catalonia’s recent history before discussing the riots & violent protests, in addition to the context behind them.

Catalonia was an autonomous kingdom under the crown of Aragon. It went back & forth between French & Spanish occupation until 1714 when King Philip V, the first king of Spain, unified all the territories under the rule of Castile in a centralized Spain via Nueva Planta decrees

During the early 1800s, Catalonia suffered yet again from French occupation, while they had no local resistance, it was the Spanish army, loyalists to the Bourbons, who freed them and their cities (mainly Barcelona & Girona) from the invaders & retained their provincial autonomy

Catalonia prospered economically during the late 1800’s, as an influx of government funding & local Spanish workers contributed to its industrialization, making it the financial powerhouse of Spain, peaking at textile production & having the country’s first stram engine...

All of Catalonia’s success came from the Protectionist policies that the Spanisb government implemented, which protected Catalonia’s interests by reducing foreign competition & increasing budget expansions towards their factories & mills.

After all the support by the Spanish government, Catalan leaders, such as Cadafalch, saw an opportunity in the early 1900’s to establish a fully autonomous state of Catalonia, regressing Spanish symbols & language for outdated Catalonian lingo & icons...

...the Catalonian commonwealth project failed miserably, for the Catalans could not sustain their own economy, could not defend themselves against potential invaders, & their institution was built on socialism & anarchism, which ignited chaos in their cities...

In 1909, Premier Maura of the Spanish army called for reserves to join the troops during the 2nd Rif War. Catalonian public refused the call, declaring themselves antimilitists, taking it to the streets with violent riots & destruction of government property..

...they were even instructed by Catalan leaders to prevent reserves from joining the army. This lead to a bloodbath clash between the troops & Barcelona citizens, leading to 100s of deaths in what is known as Tragic Week of Spain...

....the entire project was suppressed in 1925 by Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera. Catalonia would later gain autonomy via Statutes offered by the 2nd Spanish Republic under Fransesc Macia. Again, it failed due to severe economic crisis & failure to consolidate funds...

The failure of Catalonia’s Generalitat autonomy gave them 2 options: remain vulnerable to yet Another French invasion, or submit to the new Francoist Spanish dictatorship under the new leader Francisco Franco. Catalan historians make it seem like they were forced into the latter

After the end of a violent Spanish civil war, the Francoist government reduced Catalonian language & culture to trivialism & home use, prioritizing Castilian Spanish language & culture to promote unification once again after the country has been split apart too many times before

While Franco’s rule might have been oppressive, not just to Catalans but to the majority of Spain, his governments free trade laws allowed Catalonia to prosper once again by the grace of commonwealth funds & shared economic growth to obtain self-sustaining growth

In 1975, Franco died, paving the way for his successor Juan Carlos to transition the country into a democratic state rather than a dictatorship whilst maintaining structures from the Francoist government to protect the country’s stability. This movement gained widespread support

The 1980’s saw the Spanish government reform the Catalan Generalitat, allowed them to restore usage of their Catalan language symbols, & increased financial support to compensate for their losses during the dictatorship. This launched Barcelona into global economic success

In 2006, the Spanish government implemented a new Statute of Autonomy, giving Catalonia even more freedom with a unique Justice system, ability to use Catalan language as an official national language, & more importantly, it gave them fiscal & financial priorities

For 4 years, the Statute was criticized by every other region in Spain for its legal implications with the 1978 democratic constitution. It was unfair to every other region because it destroyed their chances at equal economic competition, instating Barcelona as a trades monopoly

In 2010, the Statute was reverses in favour of a more equal distribution of funds across the country. This ignited the demand for complete independence from the Spanish government, which is a destructive idea to both Catalonia & Spain as a nation.

Even a minority of Catalans recognize how dangerous an independence could be as Catalonia could still not sustain a self-sustaining economy with their $323 billion GDP, not to forget that Catalonia holds part of Spain’s biggest public debts at $86.9 billion.

Unfortunately not many people realize that Catalan independence is not only unfair to the Spanish democratic government that poured billions of its commonwealth into the Catalan’s Generalitat, but it would also mean a literal economic crisis that would level Spain’s markets

The ignorants took it to the streets to protest, but soon those protests became violent riots, where pro-independent Catalans were attacking their own people who disagree with them, fighting their own Generalitat’s police to create chaos. History repeating itself from 1920’s.

In the end, the Spanish court decided to punish those who incited violent riots & misused public funds to influence protestors. The Catalan public saw this as an act of vengeance by the Spaniards to prevent more Catalan autonomy, thus started the recent protests.

Until Catalonia can pay off its billions of public debts, economically separate itself from the Spanish commonwealth, independence is completely out of question. Financially speaking, it is as much of a death sentence to them as it is to Spain.
Thank you for reading