Catalonia (historic Territory) - History of Catalonia

History of Catalonia

Like much of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, it was colonized by Ancient Greeks, which chose Roses to settle in. Both Greeks and Carthaginians interacted with the main Iberian population. After the Carthaginian defeat, it became, along with the rest of Hispania, a part of the Roman Empire, Tarraco being one of the main Roman posts in the Iberian Peninsula.

The Visigoths ruled briefly after the Roman Empire's collapse, but Moorish Al-Andalus gained control in the 8th century. After the defeat of Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqiwas's troops at Tours in 732, the Franks conquered the former Visigoth states which had been captured by the Muslims or had become allied with them, in what today is the northernmost part of Catalonia. In 795, Charlemagne created what came to be known as the Marca Hispanica, a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania made up of locally administered separate petty kingdoms which served as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad Moors of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom.

Distinctive Catalan culture started to develop in the Middle Ages stemming from a number of these petty kingdoms organized as small counties throughout the northernmost part of Catalonia. The counts of Barcelona were Frankish vassals nominated by the emperor then the king of France, to whom they were feudatories (801-987).

In 987 the count of Barcelona did not recognise French king Hugh Capet and his new dynasty which put it effectively out of the Frankish rule. Then, in 1137 Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona married Petronilla of Aragon establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom of Aragon which was to create the Crown of Aragon.

It was not until 1258, by the Treaty of Corbeil, that the king of France did formally relinquish his feudal overlordship over the counties of the Principality of Catalonia to the king of Aragon James I, descendant of Ramon Berenguer IV. This Treaty turned the de facto independence into a full de jure recognition of the Catalan counties as constituent members of the Crown of Aragon, whereas the king of Aragon and count of Barcelona also relinquished any claim over territories in southern France (except Roussillon). The treaty solved a historical incongruence, as the counties had been ruled independently for more than two centuries. As a coastal territory within the Crown of Aragon and the increasing importance of the port of Barcelona, Catalonia became the centre of the Crown's maritime power, helping to expand its influence and power by conquest and trade into Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Sicily.