The history of Barcelona
After the Romans arrived in 218 BC they constructed a settlement on what now the Barri Gòtic, but it is unclear who occupied the area around Barcelona before then.
Following the departure of the Roman's in the 5th century the city came under various rulers until by the end of the 10th century it was the capital of a principality covering most of modern Catalunya plus Roussillon in France.
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The Crown of Aragón was created in in 1137 through the marriage of Comte Ramon Berenguer IV to Petronella of Aragón, leading to Catalunya's golden age. As well as expansion throughout the Mediterranean, the period that followed saw the introduction of legislation based on Roman law and the introduction of a local government, the Generalitat.
Spain's two most powerful monarchies united in 1479 with the marriage of Fernando to Isabel of Castilla. The years that followed saw Barcelona and Madrid increasingly in conflict with subsequent rulers banning Barcelona from dealing with the new American colonies and finally in the 17th century Catalunya went to war with Spain, declaring independence under French protection. The war ended in the siege of Barcelona and cost Spain the Roussillon and other districts of Catalunya.
1702 saw the start of the War of the Spanish Succession, which finished in 1713, with Catalunya backing the losing side. In March of the same year Madrid besieged Barcelona, lasting until 11th September 1714, now commemorated as Catalunya Day. The Generalitat was abolished, the Ciutadella fort built to watch over Barcelona, and the Catalan language banned.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the ban on trade with America had been lifted and when a war with France, that had ended in 1813 with the expulsion of Napoleon, the industrial revolution got underway. The industrial revolution led to the development of wine, cork and iron industries and Spain's first railway between Barcelona and Mataró. The resultant increase in the city's population led to a radical expansion plan in 1869, with the design of l'Eixample (the enlargement). Designed as a grid of streets, l'Eixample starts at Plaça Catalunya and features many examples of modernista design.
By the beginning of the 20th century, various factions were competing in Barcelona, including anarchist and Republican groups. A Catalan state within Spain was demanded and post WW1 Catalunya saw the unions gaining great support, led by the anarchist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), which was eventually banned by the dictator Rivera, who also closed Barcelona football club.
Spain's Second Republic was formed in 1931 after Rivera's fall. Within days, the Catalan nationalists proclaimed Catalunya a republic, although Spanish statehood was quickly accepted under pressure from Madrid. The following year Catalunya got a regional government with the old title of Generalitat that lasted until 1934, when Lluís Companys tried to achieve semi-independence from Madrid; the result was the jailing of Generalitat members after bombarding the Generalitat and City Hall. The Generalitat was restored and Catalunya gained autonomy when the socialist Popular Front won the Spanish general election in 1936. However, the Spanish Civil War broke out in July in Morocco, and although Barcelona's army garrison tried to take the city for Franco, anarchists and government-loyal police defeated them. Franco's forces quickly took most of the south of Spain, while the East and Industrialised North sided with Madrid and the Republic. Franco gained help from Hitler and Mussolini in the form of arms, troops and air force, while Soviet advisors and hardware helped the Republicans. The Republican's biggest weakness was its ideological fragmentation and in Barcelona, as elsewhere, suffered infighting between supposed allies. In 1937 the Spanish Government fled to Barcelona and in the following year saw the first aerial bombing of the city, leading to its fall in January 1939. Franco again banned the Generalitat, changed all town and street names to Castilian and forbid the public use and teaching of Catalan.
In 1977, two years after Franco's death, the head of Catalunya's government-in-exile arrived in Madrid from Mexico to negotiate the details of Catalunya's autonomy. At the end of September of the same year King Juan Carlos I decreed the re-establishment of the Generalitat and the Spanish constitution of 1978 included autonomy for all the regions in Spain.
The big international event to put Barcelona on the map since autonomy was the 1992 Olympics, which saw huge investment in the city and its conversion to modern European city.
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