Catalonia in the process of constructing the modern Spanish state (16th-18th centuries): An interpretative approach

Abstract

This article offers an interpretative overview of Catalonia’s difficult and ultimately forcible fit into the Spanish state that emerged in modern times. More specifically, it is concerned with the approximately 150-year period ranging from the mid-16th century to the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century. This article’s interpretation of the Spanish state’s process of political union is an interpretative counterpoint to the deterministic vision that is so prevalent in Spanish nationalistic historiography.