History of Catalonia - War of The Spanish Succession

War of The Spanish Succession

In the last decades of the 17th century during the reign of Spain's last Habsburg king, Charles II, despite intermittent conflict between Spain and France, the Catalan economy recovered, not only in Barcelona, but also along the Catalan coast and even in some inland areas. However, at the end of the century, after the death of the childless Charles II (1700), the Crown of Spain went to his chosen successor, Philip V of the House of Bourbon. The Grand Alliance of Austria, England and the United Provinces gave military support to a Habsburg claimant of the crown, Archduke Charles. Catalonia initially accepted Philip V following prolonged negotiations between Philip V and the Catalan Cortes between 12.10.1701 and 14.1.1702, which resulted in an agreement where Catalonia retained all its previous privileges and gained a the status of free port (Puerto Franco) for Barcelona as well as the right to commerce with America, but this did not last. In 1705 the Archduke entered Barcelona, which recognized him as King in 1706; thus breaking an oath of loyalty to the Bourbon claiment, which had negative repercussions for Catalonia when Philip V eventually won the war.

The resulting Spanish War of Succession (1705–14) may have benefitted Charles's foreign allies but was a disaster for the Catalans, Valencians and Aragonese. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713–14) ended the possibility of Barcelona's resistance to Bourbon rule. The Bourbon king, determined to punish what he saw as sedition from Catalonia and Valencia established the Nueva Planta decree (1716), abolishing the Catalan constitutions and with it the Catalan and Valencian parliaments and rights and established a new territorial structure. He suppressed the Catalan universities (Barcelona University moved to Cervera) and abolished the administrative use of the Catalan language; half a century later, the Catalan language would also be banned from primary and secondary schools.